I've Been Bad Again!

[Muir]

It's not really my fault.
You see, recently I bought 2000, 7mm 150 grain Sierra Game Kings from an estate sale. My plan was to give 500 of them to my brother to use in his 7x57. When I offered, he said, "No Thanks. I only shoot Speer 145's in my 7mm and besides, I'm using my new 30-06 this year." Well, I had the legs kicked right out from under me when I heard that. So I have these 2K bullets sitting on my bench. A friend relieved me of 500 of them but that still leaves 15 boxes of GK's. Now I have a 7x57 as well but I have settled on the Speer 145 grain and the PPU 140 grain in that gun so I can't use them there, either.

I had only one chance to use these bullets. When I saw that the Ranch Store had a sale on Tikka's I drove to town and bought a Tikka T-3 in 7mm-08. Knowing that I'd broken my New Year's Resolution wager with my friend, Dennis, I brought him along as well so I could pay him where he could spend the money. As luck would have it, he took a look at the $500 price tags on these rifles and decided he needed one in 30-06 so I saved the $100 wager pay off.

When you reason it out, that made the actual price of the new 7-08 four hundred dollars because I didn't have to pay out the extra $100 to Dennis, Right?? Right???? And he got the same deal!!!

I'm feeling a little light headed....~Muir

 

[Hornet 6]

Well you lasted longer than I thought you would
Just think how much fun you could have had if you broke it on Jan 2nd

Neil.

 

[TGEvans]

It was sign!You had to buy it!!!!I'm about to start a thread over in the reloading section on 7mm ammo.Your knowledge would be greatly appreciated!Enjoy your new gun!Tim

 

[6pt-sika]

I am fine with the 7-08 !

But a TIKKA

 

[finnbear270]

It's definately an illness!.

 

[JAYB]

I think you are suffering from some form of altitude sickness that you contracted on your recent trip. No, that reads even more like BS than when I was thinking it, your just a lost cause, smart move taking Dennis with you, you knew he would not be able to resist buying one .

Now go shoot it

John

 

[flytie]

Outstanding You are a constant source of pleasure to others on here with bargain centred buying problems. Mine was a Heym 7x57, but I had no one else to blame

​Simon

 

[Brithunter]

Your logic is impeccable at least to my way of thinking.

 

[Muir]

I think you are suffering from some form of altitude sickness that you contracted on your recent trip. No, that reads even more like BS than when I was thinking it, your just a lost cause, smart move taking Dennis with you, you knew he would not be able to resist buying one .

Now go shoot it

John

(Shhhhh! Not so loud, Cuz.~M)

Flytie,Thanks.
Brit, Logic honed to a razor edge by 27 years, 10 months, three days, 11 hours and 43 minutes of marriage. Thank goodness she's someone else s problem now. Her limited intellect couldn't grasp even this plain, crystal clear form of logic. The constant need to explain was really tiring me out.

 

[Muir]

PS: The Trading post had brass and RCBS dies. I found a Zeiss Conquest 3-9X loitering on the shelf. The trigger is remarkably good right from the box. Brass was run through a FL sizer. I'm off to trim and load in a bit. I'll post the results later on today.~Muir

(I forgot to buy a Factory Crimp Die, dammit)

 

[Muir]

I am fine with the 7-08 !

But a TIKKA

Yeah, I know, but I have a couple already. I looked at a Weatherby Vanguard "MOA" in 7-08 but even at the Trading Post it was going to cost me $650 and it was heavy. I wanted something light, cheap and highly abuseable. I don't know how much hunting I'll do with this rifle on a day to day basis. I bought it mostly for some rugged back-country slogging I do in the canyons. You know how it is: You carry the darned thing for 12 hours and fire it for a nano second. This rifle will work well in that capacity.~Muir

 

[Yorkie]

£330 for a brand new T3? Makes me want to weep.

Is that basic Blue and Wood Muir?

Yorkie.

 

[Muir]

£330 for a brand new T3? Makes me want to weep.

Is that basic Blue and Wood Muir?


Yorkie.

No. I wish! It was a Lite. The wood bring another $125 and they have dammed few of them in any chambering. I think they had one 30-06 "Hunter", as they call it here, and it was around $700 retail.~Muir

 

[Yorkie]

Just looked at Sportsmen and a Blue/synthetic is £639 plus tax so about $950 over here! To be fair you would have been silly not to have bought it.
Enjoy it.

Yorkie.

 

[Muir]

Even here, $500 is a good price. Normally $570 and up for the T-3 Lite.

I did shoot it.
I took my Jeep to the range after I loaded my new Ransom Shooting Master forend rest into the back. Unfortunately, the range box I have was in the back of my Toyota so I was forced to shoot at rain wrinkled targets that other shooters had left. I got a quick zero on a small rock at 50M and moved to 100. I only loaded two loads -both of which were accurate in my old 7-08: 45.5 of H4350 and 46.5 of H-4350. It's hard to say how the gun liked the 45.5 loads because I used these for the zeroing and I was learning how to hold the rifle as i went. Still, the last 100M three shot groups I fired were an unremarkable -but pleasing- 1.1 inches. (I only had 15 of each, btw.) The 46.5 grain load put the first two rounds into a bug hole so i refined the zero and I fired the two, five shot groups seen below.

(The groups, which aren't there anymore, were just at or under 1" for five shots.) (sorry)

Considering I had no rear bag I think all of this shooting was very good. I'm pleased.~Muir

PS: The bullet was the aforementioned Sierra GK 150's.

 

[6pt-sika]

Yeah, I know, but I have a couple already. I looked at a Weatherby Vanguard "MOA" in 7-08 but even at the Trading Post it was going to cost me $650 and it was heavy. I wanted something light, cheap and highly abuseable. I don't know how much hunting I'll do with this rifle on a day to day basis. I bought it mostly for some rugged back-country slogging I do in the canyons. You know how it is: You carry the darned thing for 12 hours and fire it for a nano second. This rifle will work well in that capacity.~Muir

Hey it's your dime so you should buy what you like !

The Tikka has never been on my want list and on the other hand you've told me before you never really cared for the Remington 700 or the WSSM cartridges . So we agree to disagree LOL's !

Incidently we rebarreled a Tikka long action for a customer the other day , he made a 6.5-06 out of it and to be honest thats the first one I've seen that intrested me . But that was more the cartridge then anything else .

 

[jimbo1984]

Muir I can't see you go through this alone so I've bought a tikka laminate stainless in 7mm08 from a member here , purely as support for you !

 

[Muir]

Muir I can't see you go through this alone so I've bought a tikka laminate stainless in 7mm08 from a member here , purely as support for you !

The love on this site makes my eyes well up. Thanks Amigo! (sniff)~Muir

 

[Muir]

Hey it's your dime so you should buy what you like !

The Tikka has never been on my want list and on the other hand you've told me before you never really cared for the Remington 700 or the WSSM cartridges . So we agree to disagree LOL's !

Incidently we rebarreled a Tikka long action for a customer the other day , he made a 6.5-06 out of it and to be honest thats the first one I've seen that intrested me . But that was more the cartridge then anything else .

In truth, there are things about the Tikka's I don't care for but their accuracy is pretty much guaranteed. As a bullet delivery platform they are hard to beat at that price.~Muir

 

[Muir]

Shot this Tikka 7-08 again tonight with 47.0 H-4350 and 150 grain Sierra Game Kings. While a snappy load, there was no indication of any sort of pressure issue and accuracy was in the .5 MOA range. I emailed my results to a buddy and checked the Hodgdon site to see what kind of speed I was getting. Low and behold, the Hodgdon site lists maximum load at 45.4 grains. What both of my Lee books recommend as starting load. It was 90F out tonight and as i said, there was nothing to indicate high pressures so i am going to run with it for a bit. At least until I get it over a chronograph this weekend.~Muir