My wife gave me the go ahead on a new rifle!

[RDA 226sig]

Mickey, I hope he 300 WM works out for you. A very good choice IMO. Working together as a couple is the way to go. Balancing wants and needs and working together is what makes a family work. Good luck getting that bear!

 

[CZguy]

Do you bow down to your wife with all her commands? Who's money are you using?

As several others have already said, lets leave these kind of comments out of the discussion and concentrate on rifles.

I believe that anyone can think whatever they want........but sometimes they don't need to share all of their thoughts.

 

[mickeydim468]

This will be my last response to the wife comments.

I think my choice of words in the topic description may have mislead some of you into thinking I had to have her permission to make this purchase. Well, I didn't mean for that to be the impression. What I had tried to convey was that my wife is a very cool and easy going lady who does not give me issues when it comes to things like rifle purchases. If you were to look at my bank book you would see that most if not all large purchases this past year has been on gun related items. First I bought a .303 Enfield No. 4 MK2, then a M1917, then a Rossi Trifecta for my wife which I have since sold because it was not very accurate, then a H&R Single Action Revolver, a Ruger P95 9mm and now 2 Weatherby Vangards one in .243 Win and the newest 300 Win Mag. Sort of going overboard ain't it!?!

I also, bought reloading tools and supplies and a lot of ammo. Tons of accessories and even a Sports pack hunting license for this year. This amounts to thousands of dollars spent, all without even the bat of an eyelash from my wife. Yes I discussed each and every one of these purchases, except for the Rossi, because it was a gift to her, with my wife, but never once did I get the feeling like I had to have her permission. She has been supportive of my hobby since day one and she loves to go out with me scouting or to the range as my spotter. Now, How many of you can truthfully say that?

I do have to say that she has complained a few times about going out scouting and etc... But that is just because she was going through withdrawals. She needed to go fishing!!! Just yesterday she made me take her salmon fishing again! Damn I really have it hard with this Whip carrying wife of mine. She is even trying to swap vacation time at her job so she can go with me on my first Elk hunt. Wow!

I would say that I am a pretty lucky guy to have a wife who loves the same things I do and wants to do them with me. First and foremost she is my best friend, second she is my wife and mother of my kids. Third, she is my hunting buddy and fisherman extraordinaire!

I understand that the topic heading was misleading, but please stop the wife comments! It truly is not like that at all!

Mikey!

 

[taliv]

This will be my last response to the wife comments.

don't worry about it. you've already asked them 3 times to lay off the topic. i've deleted most of the offending posts and passed out infractions. any further comments about your wife will result in bans.

 

[CZguy]

If you were to look at my bank book you would see that most if not all large purchases this past year has been on gun related items.

You are my new hero.

 

[peyton]

Well, have fun with your new aquistion, spend good money on a scope and mounts. Also make sure you have enough eye relief between the scope and your eye brow. The 300WM has more recoil and you do not want the scope to "BITE YOU". The crescent half moon between the eyes have been seen on people that forget this tidbit of information.

 

[CZguy]

Except for the 52" HDTV (that my wife actually bought) my purchases have all been scopes or guns too CZ. Can I be a hero too? Well we did help our daughter buy a new car. You'd think I'd be her hero but you know how that goes.

Sure Walter, I have a long list of hero's and you are now on it.

Your wife gave you permission????? You need to pull up those trousers & take control, my friend. Woman need a firm hand, strong leadership, and a healthy respect for the man of the house. You see, .... Yes dear? Gotta go--I have to do the dishes & carry out the trash.

Stay focused.............the thread is about rifles. :banghead:

 

[mickeydim468]

Hey CZ,

Not hero caliber here, just starting out in a new hobby and want to acquire the necessary tools to do the job at hand. I have never had the opportunity to hunt before. Now it surrounds me, everywhere I look I can see possible game. I guess, I've had a desire to hunt and take up shooting for a very long time, and now that I have the chance to do it, I am jumping in with both feet.

I am getting more exercise that I have had since I hurt myself 5 years ago. I work part time from home as a computer tech. I log into my clients PCs remotely and repair them as necessary. This means I sit at a desk for 6 to 7 hours a day. Not much exercise there. I have gained over 100 lbs since my injury. Now, with the hunting and shooting, I look forward to going out and trying to move, even if it hurts, I am still moving, because I love it so much. I can get past the pain and push myself harder than I ever could without the new hobby. Even boating and fishing was not enough to motivate me any more.

My wife has told me "As long as it helps you get out and continue to get healthier, I don't care what you spend. We can skimp and scrape until you get your things you need to do this". She has even gotten very interested for herself and goes out with me. She is getting more exercise too. It is helping both of us and it is also bringing us closer to our kids. We have taken our kids out and tought them the safe way to handle firearms because of this.

As you can tell from my previous post, we have quite the assortment of firearms to use to teach the kids. One I forgot to mention above was a Daisey BB gun. That was for the kids to start their learning and gun handling.

They all know the Basics of Safety! They even help teach the other one if they see that they are forgetting something. It is even bringing them closer together in some ways.

I do have some things to take pics of and to give a range report, I will try to do that later today, as I am working right now and do not have the time.

My reloading dies should be arriving later today as well, so a more comprehensive range report will also follow. Stay Tuned!

 

[CZguy]

mickeydim468,

Great post, and it will be my pleasure to add you to my list of heroes.

 

[mickeydim468]

Well I am just an ordinary guy with some physical limitations trying to enjoy hunting with the passion I have never been able to muster before, until now. I can't explain what hunting and being in the woods makes me feel, but I can say that I am 100% addicted!

I am also addicted to the sport of making my firearms more accurate. I can't wait until I have some more once fired brass so I can reload them for better accuracy for this new rifle. I only have 40 once fired casings now, but that will get me started. I have 30 more new brass to go through, as well as 20 factory cartridges too. That gives me 90 cases to reload once I am all done. The dies I ordered won't be here today. I found out they will be here tomorrow instead!

I have only tried one load for this rifle so far and it was Speer 165Gr BTSP's pushed by 68Gr of H4350 with CCI lr mag primers. I do not know how they did for accuracy as I used them to break in the rifle and to get a rough alignment on the scope. I was shooting "Off hand" so that didn't give me much accuracy, like bench shooting would have, but it gave me some off hand practice that I greatly need. I was hitting the target at 50 yards right off the bat, so I was pleased. My scope from the 30-06 held together on top of the magnum, so that pleased me too. It's just a Center Pointe 4-16X40 Mil Dot scope but it is very clear for the price. Maybe down the road a ways I will get a better scope, but this works for now.

I will re-try this load at the range and see how it shoots. Since 68 Gr is middle of the road I should be able to tweak it for better results. I may take some out there with 1/2 gr increments, up and down, to see if it gets better or worse.

 

[doc2rn]

.338 nuff said

 

[mickeydim468]

Range Report

I know I promised these pics a while ago, but I have been having some pretty rough days at work and by the time I was done for the day, I was hurting too bad to do much of anything. I have been spending my afternoons in bed with my feet up. Well today wasn't so bad, so I got out the camera and my new rifle and took some pics. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.

The first pic is of my Weatherby Vangard .300 Win Mag synthetic with my reloading bench in the background.
The second is my sight in target, and the third is my 3 shot group that measured 1.4".

By the way... My reloading dies came in today, so I will be making up some new rounds for the range. Maybe Friday I will be able to go out and get some more results for ya!

Mikey!

 

[mickeydim468]

More pics!!!

I figured I would throw in a couple more pics. One more of the rifle and one of the whole reloading bench. I hope you like them.

 

[Tim the student]

Good looking rifle, good looing bench.

Nice walls too...

 

[mickeydim468]

Keeping the -06

Well, I had initially meant to sell the M1917 30-06 after buying the .300 Win Mag, but have decided to keep it. You guys have restored some of my confidence with my shortened barreled -06. In fact I am happier with it now than I ever have been. Last night, I put the original peep sights back on and re-installed the front sight as well. I altered the front sight somewhat, since it was nearly 1/16" thick, I used a honing stone and thinned it out quite a bit. Then played with it for a while. It turns out that the additional modifications I did to the rifle while I had the scope on it didn't seem to make a big difference until I took off the scope. Now the rifle is very light weight and very easy to shoulder. It is quick as heck when it comes to target acquisition. I may use this on an upcoming deer hunt. I am not sure. I do love this rifle though!

Thanks for all of your "convincing"! I seem to have 2 new rifles now!

Mikey!

 

[Dambugg]

+1 on 300 win mag. Ammo and brass is real common and there's load tables that go all from varmint rounds to rhino stoppers. Like so many have said a lot of elk and bear have been taken with the old .06 but if you have the new gun itch go crazy and indulge yourself. Good luck I hope you get the critters your gunnin for.

 

[ruger700]

Mikey,

Great decisions. As for the wife: my wife, 42 years and counting, and I are a team. Yes, we discuss any major purchase - greater than 100, before either one of us buy anything. We both worked for over 40 years, both are retired and we still have one bank account. If one of us sells one of our possessions and then spend that money on another personal item; then it is our own business. There is nothing better in life than having a wiife that is your best friend. partner and spouse (I almost forgot lover). Take care.

Mikey, be sure to hug the wife and tell how much you like your new rifle.

 

[stonecoldy]

Mikey, nicely set up man cave. Mine has shelves of canned goods and a cat litter box. Gotta work on that this winter.
Congrats on your new shooting purchase, and obviously a great spouse!
Great you are getting her involved with one of your favorite passions. You have to remember that YOUR guns won't shoot well enough for her, therefore you'll have to buy more for her!

 

[mickeydim468]

Hey Ruger, <<< The name of my favorite and only Pistol.

Thanks for jumping in there with your sentiments. From what you said, I know you understand the way things are with me and the wife. But I have to ask: How could you forget LOVER??? My wife and I also have only one bank account, and yes if one of us sells a personal item we can spend that money on whatever we want. However, when I sold my 2004 Yamaha V-Star 1100 motorcycle for $7000.00, I didn't spend it all on me. I used that money to move my family and I here to Oregon. Better schools, cheaper rent, no smog, fishing, hunting, fishing, hunting, fishing, hunting, guns, ammo. Well I guess I did spend it on me!

I will surely give my wife a hug and thank her for the new rifle. She will be home from work in a few minutes!

Mikey!

 

[mickeydim468]

Hey Stonecoldy,

Thanks! Glad you like it, I sure like it too. It only took me 1 year to get it the way it is. I am working on a sign that says, "Mikey's Man Cave... Do not enter!!!", to put on the door. I spend most of my at home time in that room. It's either there or the bedroom.

Off to the left of the yellow tool box is my work out station, and you could barely see my computer, opposite the workbench is a small couch and my chair that I sit at to work from the computer. Also, That was the Outdoor Channel on the TV. It's either that channel, Discovery, or the Science Channel, playing at any given time of day. LOL I need more variety!

Have a good one.

Mikey!

 

[imacauk]

The thing about the 300wsm is that you won't get advertised velocity. My dad bought one in an A-bolt. The factory rounds over the chrony are 200 fps slower than what the box says. With handloads we can't get it past 2850 fps with a 165 grain bullet. We've tried all sorts of combinations, and even bought another chrony to verify if the one we were using was working right. Just can't get the velocity that is 'SUPPOSED' to be capable of. The comparison of the 300wsm is always to the 300 win mag, but a more appropriate comparison would be to the 30-06. That what it is, just in a funny case.
Really, you'd be better off with an '06 than the 300 wsm. IF you want a 30 caliber magnum, then get a real magnum, the 300 win. Leave the 30-06 wsm er... 300wsm alone.

That said, I have a 7wsm and my brother has a .270 wsm, and we both love ours. I think the case loses it's efficiency when the caliber goes up or something. That's why we never saw the .338wsm. With that big of a diameter the platform is just slow.

 

[mickeydim468]

Range day!

I love the new dies. i ordered the Lee Factory crimp die in addition to the deluxe rifle dies set and boy, what a difference. I had never tried the Factory crimp die before last night. It sure makes the end resulting cartridge look and feel better and I have no doubt that it will make them shoot better too. You can control the pressure of the bullet crimp very easily. With my other hand loads, I always had a feeling that the bullets would slip, especially when only neck sizing. I don't have that worry any longer.

I made up 35 cartridges of powder weight from minimum recommended to max in 1% weight increments I made 4 of each. I will shoot them at 9 targets. I am going to shoot one of each weight per target and then go through and shoot the second round at all targets and then a third round. The reason i made 4 of each weight is just in case there is a flier that was my fault. I can call it and shoot another for that weight. This aught to give me a pretty good idea of which load weight shoots the best and then i can work on OAL to see how that affects the group size.

I will bring home the targets and post pics after I have them all finished.

Stay tuned!

Mikey!

 

[Visionz45]

model 70 classic stainless .30-06, leupold vx-III 2.5X8 medium rigns w/2 piece bases???

 

[bpl]

Visionz45,

Is that your dream rifle? Sounds like a nice setup, but not sure how it pertains to this thread.

 

[mickeydim468]

New Range report with pictures!

OK, I made up 8 loads from minimum to maximum with 4 shots each. I went to the range today and shot in order. I had the bullets labeled D through K. The shot sequence I used so the barrel would have time to cool is this. I shot D at the D target and waited 2 minutes. At 1 min 45 seconds I chambered another round and sighted in E's target. I then shot the E target and then waited 2 minutes. I did the same thing for F bullet and target and so on through K. Then I took a 10 minute break to let the rifle cool and give myself some stretching time. Then I started at K and worked my way down the same way as before, only backwards. When i was finished with that set, I took another 10 minute break. Then I started at D again and on up to K and another 10 minute break. then I started again at D and went to K for the last time. Every time looking at my watch and making sure each shot was 2 minutes apart. The results are in the following pics.

The first one on the left is D then E then F and finally G. I will post a second post for H through K.