Ok, I finally broke 200 rounds with my M.H.. I thought I would give my impressions so far. As some of you may have seen a few weeks back, I posted some target pics of my initial results. Those have since been removed. There is so much back & forth going on (and down right arguing), that I took it upon myself to remove my target pictures. I won't be posting any here or in the future. This is my impressions of the rifle after a few weeks and 225 rounds fired.
I have used factory match grade ammo up until today. I was having so much fun (and success), that I chose to also give the Hirtenberger surplus a try. I'll tell you the results later on.
Today, I was at CHAS's new long range and stretched the rifle out to 800 metres. There was no wind this morning and the temperature was +8c. I have shot out to 300 yards and those results were very encouraging. So my focus today was further out. And data entry for 5 different loads.
This rifle, mine at least, is a heavy example. I have the 22" stainless heavy contour (Bob Jury) barrel with an ATRS brake. I added an SHV scope and an LRA light tactical bipod. So this rifle is easy on the shoulder to shoot with recoil being very tame for the .308 round. (I was bench shooting since I am recovering from knee surgery and getting into the prone position is not possible right now.)
So, I started with 168gr and checked my zero at 200 and 300m. Great so far...dead bulls-eye with one round each on the six inch gong. Then to 500m. One miss, then bulls-eye on a 6" gong. Next six rounds were also moa on that small gong. So, off I went to 800m. I did not have success with my first 10 rounds with the 168gr pills. So I decided to try out some 178gr A-Max Hornady. It took three rounds and I was on steel at 800m. Some adjusting followed and then I moved sequentially with the next 40 rounds from the man-silhouette down to the six inch gong. I also tried 2 more brands of match ammo (175 & 178gr). After I entered all the data in my log, I decided to try some surplus ammo. What the heck! I brought some 147gr Hirtinberger and I tried it out. For the first ten rounds, I was only loading 1 round in the magazine. This stuff is supposed to be pretty hot, so I didn't want any issues. And if there were, at least the bolt would hold back because of only loading the single round. (I did have issues with Nosler match ammo blowing off primer caps and sometimes jamming the next round so I don't recommend that ammo.) It took 10 rounds to figure out the dope to get on steel. But I finally got it on! The last ten rounds was plinking away with the surplus stuff with 7 out of 10 hits. Fun times!!
So my experience out to 800m was pretty good. In all, when I zeroed, I was on target approximately 80 to 85 percent of the time. Not as good as my Coyote, but pretty damn good, IMHO. The action is pretty violent compared to my bolt guns. This is something that I am getting used to. I can tell when I'm making mistakes and because this is a semi, it's not very forgiving the further out you go.
The fit & finish is impeccable. Cleaning is very easy with the one pin take down. I have not cleaned the barrel yet, but have religiously cleaned the action and bolt and carrier with every use. Also, very judicious lubing is necessary on the carrier. And G96 is my choice here.
I hope this helps some of you still on the fence. If you don't have one, I can arrange for you to shoot mine to try it out. If you do have one, I hope you're having as much fun as I am!
Thanks Rick!