Took the 40 out for a test drive this morning

[Al]

Took Betty out for a test drive this morning before the winds hit. If you recall, this was a X-mas special Montana Rifleman stainless barrel with a .402 bore, all for $70 contoured, slapped it on a 700ML action, set it in a VLS stock, painted in up with Brownells Alumahyde, and topped it off with a 4-14 Leupold.

Bullets need to be bumped up in size due to the bore, so made up a point former and a die to whip out some 180gr Serria hollowpoints, crude, but works.

Took all of 6 shots to get her dialed in, then shot the first group of 3 (no I didn't keep track of them) had to walk down to the target "to see" holy smokes, back to the bench and fired another 4, check target again, I'm getting excited now.

I had another gun to play with, so a half hour later, I stapled another target up, nesteled down in the bags and shot the last 7 bullets I had, all in a row, just load and go...............Richard........7 is where it's at!!!

Needless to say, I'm one happy camper with this budget gun so far. Need to refine my bullets a little and get some more time behind her and run some over the chrono.

[smokeeter]

Way to go Al, imagine how it'll shoot if you can get those bullets looking a little better.

[chuck41]

Fan freakin tastic!!! And this was the first try too!!! Looks like you got a real winner Al.

[spaniel]

That's a keeper for sure! I'd hate to see what happens when you "put some money" into a gun...

[dave d.]

:)way to go al betty sure has alot of potential.look forward to future reports.

[ET]

Al

That is the first time I have seen bullets holes touching outlining what appears to be Chinese Characters on target paper. ;D

All I can say those are sweet results and congrats on building a winner.


Ed

[tar12]

That is sweet for a first time run! Now we need hair reports with pics!

[jims]

A good shooting combination.

[Dave W]

Great shooting Al!!! Look forward to hearing more.

[Al]

in the bullet pic, it looks like the base to the ojive is a little crooked, must be the camera as I just measured it and some others and all are perfect.

I need to run some over the chrono, and have some 200gr XTP's ready to roll along with some resized 210gr 41cals.

We have a early doe season coming up in a couple of weeks, as a rule I skip it, but peeled one last week with the truck, so out for a vengence now!!

[craigf]

Al, god shooting and that is a very fine looking ML.

[zakjak221]

Oooo thats nice!! ;D
Gotta love the guns that dial in easy.
Definitely a shooter!

Mark

[edge]

Nice shootin'

I can see the advantage of "7" , and 5 just doesn't cut it ;D ;D

CAUTION: that was a joke!

edge.

[DBinNY]

Sweet. I can't be tempted by a .40 because we have to use .45 (actually I think the reg says .44) as the minimum in NY. I guess I could use one for woodchucks.

How did the truck perform on that deer? Did you get complete penetration? Blood trail?

[shivesy]

That is really some nice groups Al! I envy the way your ML looks and shoots. I take it your shooting sabotless? How is your loading pressure at the muzzle and does the bullet seem to become loose when it bottoms out on the powder like folks say they do with the Pac-nor barrels?

[Richard]

No doubt about it Al! Seven is better than five! Good shootin'! Maybe i'll have to fire a ten shotter tomorrow ;D
Shivesy............Not all Pac-Nors. I mentioned in another post that my new one has the same feel all the way down!
Richard

[ewc]

Al-

Very nice shooting. FWIW - I got 2,622 fps with 62 gr Benchmark and a 200 SST @ 85 degrees F.

[rangeball]

Sweet

What color alumahyde did you go with? Turned out real nice, and I need to order some.

[shivesy]

Sept 6, 2010 21:43:02 GMT -5 Richard said:

Shivesy............Not all Pac-Nors. I mentioned in another post that my new one has the same feel all the way down!
Richard

Richard,
You and I both know that a person cannot make an educated assumption with just your one barrel. Now if you had 5 barrels that felt tight all the way down that would be different. ;D

[Al]

Sept 6, 2010 21:21:53 GMT -5 shivesy said:

That is really some nice groups Al! I envy the way your ML looks and shoots. I take it your shooting sabotless? How is your loading pressure at the muzzle and does the bullet seem to become loose when it bottoms out on the powder like folks say they do with the Pac-nor barrels?

yep, sabotless, and I'd say 20# of pressure all the way down with no tight spots.

[Al]

Sept 6, 2010 20:41:18 GMT -5 DBinNY said:

Sweet. I can't be tempted by a .40 because we have to use .45 (actually I think the reg says .44) as the minimum in NY. I guess I could use one for woodchucks.

How did the truck perform on that deer? Did you get complete penetration? Blood trail?

was deer # 3 for this truck and about 200yds from where I hit the last one. Impact speed was close to 65mph, bang flop, never had a chance to lift on the throttle or touch the brakes, 2004 2500HD 4dr D-max, loaded with 65gal of diesel, dead center hit, limited penetration, mushroomed the entire front end, hood, and both fenders nicely.

I can't recommend this combo thou, extreme meat, tissue, and bone damage, let alone close to $3k a pop.

[chuck41]

Sounds like pretty heavy caliber for deer. Might perform better on bigger game. Got any elk around there?

[DBinNY]

That's the trouble with those premium bullets, they can get expensive. Thank God you didn't get hurt but be sure to avoid moose with that load.