- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,341
Several years ago I acquired a spare stainless Model 70 CRF Winchester action and decided to build a rifle for my youngest daughter. After mulling over the caliber choices which would give me excellent performance on critters up to and including elk and which had the easiest recoil possible, I decided that my best bet was going to be something in the 6.5 MM arena.
After much study and long conversations with my friend and gunsmith we decided on the same caliber that he cut his teeth on, the 6.5-06. We built it with a teenage girl in mind. It should be slightly heavy for caliber for recoil purposes but not so heavy that it is a burden to carry all day. The stock must fit her and it should be equipped with a nice soft recoil pad. We barreled it in a medium tapper 26" Pac-Nor with an 8.5" twist. The stock we decided on is an Echols Legend. If you can get a hold of one of these they are the most well built, ergonomic stocks produced today IMO. They have built in cast off and are a pleasure to shoot.
The rifle was barreled and stocked in the course of a month when it arrived it fit her perfectly. It is weighs in at about 7,5lbs before we mounted a Zeiss HD-5 2x10 scope with a rapid z 600 reticle on it. I decided on a 140gr Nosler Accubond/Ballistic Tip and was easily able to achieve 2870FPS with this bullet. The Ziess ballistics program showed me that for our velocity/BC we needed to set the scope to 9 power to match the range markings on the reticle. That was perfect dope BTW.
The rifle is a dream to shoot with almost zero felt recoil, it gives 1/2 MOA accuracy with boring regularity. Her first trip to the range she shot a 5 shot group into a slightly larger than caliber ragged hole at 100 yards then proceeded to swat steel at 300, 400, and 600 yards.
She killed her antelope buck with her new 6.5-06 two years ago with a single bullet at 328 yards. Last year she killed her buck at a pedestrian 90 yards. After hunting season last year she put the rifle away and hasn't shot it until last week. After school we headed out to the range and she warmed up with a nice 1/2" 3 shot group at 100 yards then placed two shots within about 2" of each other at 500 yards on a steel plate.
I'm sold on the 6.5-06. It has low recoil, it offers excellent ballistics with a fantastic bullet selection and it punches way above it's weight class on game. It is the perfect caliber for the recoil sensitive shooter when big game hunting is the goal. My daughter has total confidence in this rifle and has zero apprehension about shooting it. She just picks it up and swats stuff without ever thinking about recoil, and where she puts the cross hair the bullet goes, no two ways about it. Confidence is the key for a new shooter and this combination hit that mark with flying colors.
After much study and long conversations with my friend and gunsmith we decided on the same caliber that he cut his teeth on, the 6.5-06. We built it with a teenage girl in mind. It should be slightly heavy for caliber for recoil purposes but not so heavy that it is a burden to carry all day. The stock must fit her and it should be equipped with a nice soft recoil pad. We barreled it in a medium tapper 26" Pac-Nor with an 8.5" twist. The stock we decided on is an Echols Legend. If you can get a hold of one of these they are the most well built, ergonomic stocks produced today IMO. They have built in cast off and are a pleasure to shoot.
The rifle was barreled and stocked in the course of a month when it arrived it fit her perfectly. It is weighs in at about 7,5lbs before we mounted a Zeiss HD-5 2x10 scope with a rapid z 600 reticle on it. I decided on a 140gr Nosler Accubond/Ballistic Tip and was easily able to achieve 2870FPS with this bullet. The Ziess ballistics program showed me that for our velocity/BC we needed to set the scope to 9 power to match the range markings on the reticle. That was perfect dope BTW.
The rifle is a dream to shoot with almost zero felt recoil, it gives 1/2 MOA accuracy with boring regularity. Her first trip to the range she shot a 5 shot group into a slightly larger than caliber ragged hole at 100 yards then proceeded to swat steel at 300, 400, and 600 yards.
She killed her antelope buck with her new 6.5-06 two years ago with a single bullet at 328 yards. Last year she killed her buck at a pedestrian 90 yards. After hunting season last year she put the rifle away and hasn't shot it until last week. After school we headed out to the range and she warmed up with a nice 1/2" 3 shot group at 100 yards then placed two shots within about 2" of each other at 500 yards on a steel plate.
I'm sold on the 6.5-06. It has low recoil, it offers excellent ballistics with a fantastic bullet selection and it punches way above it's weight class on game. It is the perfect caliber for the recoil sensitive shooter when big game hunting is the goal. My daughter has total confidence in this rifle and has zero apprehension about shooting it. She just picks it up and swats stuff without ever thinking about recoil, and where she puts the cross hair the bullet goes, no two ways about it. Confidence is the key for a new shooter and this combination hit that mark with flying colors.
