- Joined
- Jul 28, 2020
- Messages
- 3,844
I posted a few months ago that my brother was building (with a well known gunsmith) a custom rifle for me. The caliber is .280 AI, and it's a little wild looking. It's built on a Ruger action, but everything else is custom, right down to the milled magazine housing and barrel.
I flew out to Texas and got it this past weekend. I could not be happier. It is shooting 131g Hammers at just a touch over 3,300 FPS. I also have some 150s that he loaded for longer range. The best group at 100 yards was .227 inches. It's essentially one ragged hole with 3 shots at that distance, but he says it can do a little better than that in better conditions.
We drove down to a ranch not too far from Mexico to put it through some testing. The scope tracked perfectly, and it scored 1 shot steel target hits at 500 yards and 1000 yards with no problems, even accounting for a 10mph crosswind.
Then once I got comfortable with it, we were able to push it to a mile.
At a mile, we were dealing with over 1100" of drop, and 15 feet of wind drift. My first shot missed 6 inches left, but after a small adjustment, the second shot found the steel ram target at a bit over 1700 yards.
This rifle means a lot to me, and I got to spend time with my brother celebrating his 50th birthday. It was a great weekend. I flew home late Sunday and got in bed at 2:30 AM on Monday morning. I have been running on short sleep since then, but it was totally worth it.
Beautiful country too!
I flew out to Texas and got it this past weekend. I could not be happier. It is shooting 131g Hammers at just a touch over 3,300 FPS. I also have some 150s that he loaded for longer range. The best group at 100 yards was .227 inches. It's essentially one ragged hole with 3 shots at that distance, but he says it can do a little better than that in better conditions.
We drove down to a ranch not too far from Mexico to put it through some testing. The scope tracked perfectly, and it scored 1 shot steel target hits at 500 yards and 1000 yards with no problems, even accounting for a 10mph crosswind.
Then once I got comfortable with it, we were able to push it to a mile.
At a mile, we were dealing with over 1100" of drop, and 15 feet of wind drift. My first shot missed 6 inches left, but after a small adjustment, the second shot found the steel ram target at a bit over 1700 yards.
This rifle means a lot to me, and I got to spend time with my brother celebrating his 50th birthday. It was a great weekend. I flew home late Sunday and got in bed at 2:30 AM on Monday morning. I have been running on short sleep since then, but it was totally worth it.
Beautiful country too!
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congrats!!!
