My Rifle / Shooting Journey

[Formidilosus]

i'm pretty sure i asked if he wanted to buy it. "F**k no" was the answer i got . good to see the bolt knob is still attached at this point

Haha. I think that picture was right after a malfunction.


I just want to know how to get a custom R700 based rifle to make it through a week of shooting without it going down hard- apparently everyone have ones that work perfectly until they are shooting near me/us- then magically all the issues show up.

 

[Gstew1930]

Haha. I think that picture was right after a malfunction.


I just want to know how to get a custom R700 based rifle to make it through a week of shooting without it going down hard- apparently everyone have ones that work perfectly until they are shooting near me/us- then magically all the issues show up.

Well, that kind of furthers my point on what i mentioned earlier, i brought that rifle to prove yall wrong about that exact question. it didnt do so well

 

[Formidilosus]

Well, that kind of furthers my point on what i mentioned earlier, i brought that rifle to prove yall wrong about that exact question. it didnt do so well

It generally doesn’t work out the way people think it will.

 

[alexnelon]

It generally doesn’t work out the way people think it will.

Would a Sauer 100 work out better or do all roads really lead to Tikka?

 

[Formidilosus]

Would a Sauer 100 work out better or do all roads really lead to Tikka?

Oh yeah. That’s a good rifle. There are quite a few good systems- but no R700 based system is it.

Tikka- the base standard, not perfect but very consistent with very few problems (the 223 mags are the largest issue)
Sako
Sauer
Blaser (haven’t seen enough to say definitively yet)
MRC- exceptional


To date: no R700 factory or custom has made it through a full class without issues that I can recall- almost all don’t make it to the end of the second day. No Weatherby, no Howa and no Ruger American. Had a Savage Axis do ok, but IIRC it had mag issues. M70’s can do ok, but often have magazine feeding issues- AICS mags solve this and they do very well generally. Browning X-Bolt and X-Bolt II’s are ok- they don’t like sand and debris, and the triggers fail in ice and snow pretty quick.

 

[43.6N]

I've been thinking about sharing this for quite a while now. I read Huntful's custom rifle journey and it inspired me to do one of my own. Mine will be more of a big-picture overview of my complete rifle, optics, and shooting journey so far, Its long & my grammar is shit, i'm aware

I started hunting in East Texas when I was around 8 years old. Coming from a lower-income family, my dad only had one hunting rifle: an old Winchester 30-06 loaded with 180-grain Core-Lokt's. In the group he hunted with, his rifle was on the smaller end—most guys were running 7mm Mag or some flavor of .300. So naturally, I grew up slapping the piss out of the trigger. That rifle would rattle my teeth every time I shot it.Around 15, Dad bought me my first real rifle: a Remington 700 in .270 Win. I used that gun until about 7 years ago when I got into "western hunting". I didn't know anyone who hunted out West, so I figured I should join a forum to learn more. I found LRO first

Talking with a couple of guys on there, and leaning on my past experiences (where I always figured bigger is better), I ended up with a .300 Win Mag shooting 215-grain Bergers. Scoped up, the whole rifle came in right at about 7.5 lbs .I sold it pretty quickly, though—it didn't shoot to my standards at the time. (Looking back, I'm sure the rifle was fine... it was probably me.)Around the same time, I started poking around on LRH (Long Range Hunting forum). That's where my next rifle came from: my first true custom build. A 7mm SAUM, loaded with some variation of Hammer Bullets

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Fast-forward to about 2 years ago when I joined Rokslide. At first, my thoughts were the same as most new guys: 'These dudes are clowns.' I honestly thought the famous .223 thread was satire and didn't even read it for several months. By that point, I'd blown through so much money on gear and rifles that just didn't work out. I had two trigger failures back-to-back: a Timney Elite Hunter one year, then a TriggerTech Special two-stage the next. I'd tried what felt like every high-end optic brand—Tangent Theta, ZCO, Swarovski, Kahles, Nightforce, Revic PMR—and had some issue or another with all of them except Nightforce. Same story with stocks: Manners, McMillan, AG Composites, MDT HNT26, Gunwerks Magnus (this one is pretty damn good).. you name it, I've probably had it. What I learned through all the trial and error (and wallet pain): You can't buy skill, and you have to be need to careful who you take advice from

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I lost a lot of pictures when i switched to an Android. Here is what i could find.

Reloading was the same story. I've spent a fortune on anything and everything: SAC dies, SuperTrickler, AMP machine—literally every gadget and tool you can think of. Then I came across Richard Simmons' write-up on Painless Load Development. I didn't realize how much money and time I'd wasted until I switched to this method. It pisses me off looking back at all the wasted cash and hours chasing perfection with overcomplicated processes that led me chasing my tail...

Taking the Shoot2Hunt course completely changed things for me. Learning real details about terminal performance, smart ways to practice, and how to properly set up my rifles, lower recoiling rifles, made all those 'weird issues' I used to chase just disappeared. I'm still battling my flinch but its 100x better than it was 2 years ago. for me recoil matters a ton. Hopefully with enough ball & dummy combined with dry fire practice I'll over some it soon. It irritates me when I hear people on here say, 'I've drank the Rokslide kool-aid' like it's some cult thing. For me, Rokslide has been the exact opposite—a full detox from all the horse shit and noise I've dealt with over the years. Here are my rifles that i took to the course. My 223 did great, ran without a hickup, My custom 22 Creed imploded, bolt knob got lost, wouldn't feed, trigger shit the bed (Mod 22). anything that could happed went wrong. Its the top rifle in the McMillan Mountain Tracker LR.

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The Journey isnt over yet but i've slowed way down & put most of my money now into ammo. Here is where i ended up. Top to bottom
20" Tikka 308 with SWFA fixed 10x - Havent landed on a dedicated suppressor yet
16" Tikka 223 soon to be a 223 Ackey. It has a SWFA fixed 6x now, Maven in the picture
16" 6GT with OG 6.5 & SWFA 3-9 HD, currently my favorite scope
Not pictured is my 18" 6UM, i stole the stock from this one while waiting on my wood stock.

i left a ton of info out of this. Hopefully it helps some guys avoid the mistakes ive made. Im sure some people wont love this & call me a shill or whatever you like. I dont have gun/scope issues anymore. Let me know if you have any questions
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What a great post. Thank you

 

[BLJ]

no Ruger American.

What were the specific issues? And what caused them?

Genuine question. Thanks.

 

[Formidilosus]

What were the specific issues? And what caused them?

Genuine question. Thanks.

Feed and function. Failure to feed, failures to eject. Trigger failures from dust and debris, snow and ice.

 

[BLJ]

Was it AICS mags? AR mags?

The snow and ice wouldn’t be a great issue for me. But the dust and debris would be.
Assuming a factory trigger? Closed design trading things in there?

 

[Formidilosus]

Was it AICS mags? AR mags?

All three- AICS, AR, and older rotary.

The snow and ice wouldn’t be a great issue for me. But the dust and debris would be.
Assuming a factory trigger?

Yes.

Closed design trading things in there?

Can’t say. Objectively I can find nothing redeeming about the American now, so have not put effort into them.

 

[BLJ]

Fair enough.

Thanks.

 

[Formidilosus]

Fair enough.

Thanks.

Yes sir. I’m sure we’ll have more show up, I will try to pay closer attention to them.

 

[BLJ]

Yes sir. I’m sure we’ll have more show up, I will try to pay closer attention to them.

I would appreciate that.

I know that particular rifle isn’t really on your list of stuff to care about.
But I do have few and have had good service.
Anything I can watch out for or prevent will help.

 

[SDHNTR]

Just curious, what is it about your courses specifically and uniquely that makes 700 clones fail? Genuine question. I have no dog in the fight.

Other entities host classes (just got an email today from MOA Rilfes about their classes, and I’m sure you know their heritage) with their 700 platforms and we don’t hear endless stories of failure. I also know dozens of guys who’ve taken a multitude of different classes with all kinds of 700 variants and not one experienced failure. Is it just sheer volume of rounds? Do they fail right away or after certain taxing conditions? Is your class purposefully hosted in harsher conditions? Are you intentionally harder on rifles in your class? Drop testing or banging them around or something? What is it? No snark, no troll. I’m genuinely curious.

 

[Formidilosus]

Just curious, what is it about your courses specifically and uniquely that makes 700 clones fail? Genuine question. I have no dog in the fight.

Other entities host classes (just got an email today from MOA Rilfes about their classes, and I’m sure you know their heritage) with their 700 platforms and we don’t hear endless stories of failure. I also know dozens of guys who’ve taken a multitude of different classes with all kinds of 700 variants and not one experienced failure. Is it just sheer volume of rounds? Do they fail right away or after certain taxing conditions? Is your class purposefully hosted in harsher conditions? Are you intentionally harder on rifles in your class? Drop testing or banging them around or something? What is it? No snark, no troll. I’m genuinely curious.

It’s just that they get shot in real environments. Everyone else’s classes are sterile- most are on ranges and off benches or tripods. They do not stress the system at all: no rapid bolt manipulation- lots of them don’t even load the magazine, they load one round at a time. No constant manipulation of the safety. If wind or dust kicks up- they stop shooting and cover rifles. Then they will clean and flush rifles. Even still- you expect a company that sells R700 pattern guns to say there is a problem with them?
And it is seen by others. Trigger failures in PRS and NRL hunter matches are not uncommon. Malfunctions on the clock are common- it’s just that people don’t reflect on it and talk about it or address it- aka, unintentional blindness.


S2H is a field class- high winds, dust, dirt, rain, snow, and ice (sometimes all the same week) for a week straight. If guns malfunction, it’s talked about and shown. We catch a bunch of them on video. There is no “abuse” as you described; just actual use.
I believe we are 100% on R700 pattern custom actions/rifles having at least one malfunction in the pretest- sub 60 rounds.
Two guys last year made a point to tell us specifically that their custom rifles had NEVER malfunctioned and they were going to prove it to us. We videoed them- both had malfunctions that they had to clear in the first 20 rounds. One recognized it, and other one cleared it so fast and clean that it was obvious his did it all the time- yet he claimed right after it happened that it didn’t malfunction. When he watched the video, he was utterly dumbfounded.

I used an R700 last year for as many rounds in classes as a Tikka- approx 1,500. Mine was by far the most reliable R700 pattern, yet it averaged a malfunction about every 200-250 rounds. The Tikka had 0.

 

[Formidilosus]

To be fair, there is a certain condition where the current factory Tikka 223 mags go to hell- rain with dusty tiny gravel- like big sand grains. It cause the followers to lock up.

Mamba mags have solved that completely.

 

[Gstew1930]

Another thing I didnt mention is this rifle,WTO switch lug



This seems like a great idea on paper. I had 3 barrels for it. They all shot great. Its awesome unless you shoot your rifles. You spend way to much time re zeroring