First, I like my new Browning X-Bolt rifle, but some of you know I had difficulty cleaning the red sealant out of the adjustment screw Allen wrench hole a few weeks back. Thinking my 2mm wrench stripped the hole. But I revisited the adjustment with a tool that I can put pressure on to get deeper in the Allen socket hole.
And it worked. The screw turned.
Thinking, now I can adjust it down to 3 pounds, but the adjustment screw did not lower the trigger to 3 pounds in fact just an ounce below 4 pounds, no matter what I did. And I am pretty good with tools!
Accordingly, frustrated I reassembled the trigger base and shot some snap caps for how the trigger felt. Nope, not much change. They say you can buy an adjustment spring and replace the existing trigger spring but it is not an easy job.
For me, I will test a Timney trigger when it arrives. It will adjust 1.5 to 4 lbs. Mine will be set at the factory to 3 pounds.
The only downside is that it costs around $200.00 and you have to take the stock off, remove and replace the trigger and proof the safety latch works. The Timney will no longer lock the bolt however. Many shooters see this as a minor loss.
Shooting a semi-auto .308 or 6.5 Creedmoor AR for hunting can be done and done well. An AR example below. I prefer a bolt action but hey…this works. A great wild boar rifle too, where southern and western farmers are overrun with them.
The semi-auto AR 10 platform for hunting is a do-it-all rifle for protection, hunting game, and predators.
I personally prefer a bolt action rifle but in the right hands, this rifle works. In brown bear country, this reliable rifle gives comfort to folks living off-grid as does a 44 mag pistol as a side arm.
Ranchers use this tool like they use a hammer. If you have a nail, then the hammer is the right tool. If you have a brown bear sniffing in your direction, having a large clip of .308 cartridges at the ready can be comforting. Or live in Texas or Florida where they are overrun with pigs.
I am no expert on AR Rifles for hunting big game but I did find a great article on the web by Outdoor Life.
As you may know, I have been working up hand-loads for my moose hunt and finding the Nosler 168g ABLR reaching over 3000 fps with IMR 4831. But the question is, with what accuracy or groups?
Well, I shot this group below and it looks like a tight 3/4″ except for the flyer. I shot the third shot in the upper right target and extrapolated its position on the string below. Why I shot that upper right target? Because I wanted a smaller target as a focal aim point.
But it needed to be repeated in the second target below for me to validate it. The trigger is a heavy 4 lbs. but I was able to get used to where it breaks. The thin mountain barrel does heat fast and after 3 shots to warm it, it begins to string.
I repeated the same shots a week later with all the same components at 100 yards. The first 3 shots group 3/4 ” from a cold barrel and the 4th shot drops an inch. I know that a lighter trigger may also help. But overall, I was very pleased with the cold shots for hunting purposes.
Tests continue Using my Labradar
I loaded some 168g ABLR’s with hot H1000 Powder to compete with the IMR 4831. See below low left and right 100 yd 3 shot cold barrel groups with extreme spread of 78 fps an 2 inch groups. The IMR 4831 wins!
I did shoot 168 ABLR today for a third bench rest group for the IMR 4831 and Statistics. Below this group was 1 1/4 inches. Shown below with associated Labradar Stats with Extreme Spread of 14.34 fps and a Std Deviation of 8.17. Very nice indeed!
Labradar Report for IMR 4831
Device ID
LBR-0028541
Series No
4
Total number of shots
3
Units velocity
fps
Units distances
yd
Units kinetic energy
ft-lbf
Units weight
grain (gr)
Stats – Average
2937.25
fps
Stats – Highest
2946.69
fps
Stats – Lowest
2932.35
fps
Stats – Ext. Spread
14.34
fps
Stats – Std. Dev
8.17
fps
Shot ID
V0
V25
V25
V50
V75
V101
Ke0
Ke25
Ke25
Ke50
Ke75
Ke101
Proj. Weight
Date
Time
1
2933
2893
2893
2852
2814
0
3207
3120
3120
3034
2953
168
2/2/2023
13:01:22
2
2932
2882
2882
2841
2801
0
3207
3098
3098
3011
2925
168
2/2/2023
13:02:44
3
2947
2907
2907
2868
2829
2788
3238
3151
3151
3067
2984
168
2/2/2023
13:04:08
Interestingly, I did note that a drop in outside temperature affects ignition and velocity. Last week I shot at 37degrees F and MV avg was 3003. Today at 26 degrees F, MV avg was 2937 a drop of 70 fps. At 600 yards that equates to a drop of 4 inches on a moose. I’ll keep that in mind!
Most all rifles shoot far more accurate than the hunter, but out in the field, things can happen fast. The hunter must be accurate and ready.
The honest truth is, shooting off a bench at a bullseye is not hunting…it is target shooting.
In reality, accuracy is, for the most part, in the hands of the hunter, not necessarily in the rifle. It is common to see hunters shoot MOA or even sub-MOA bench rest groups with todays rifles and be happy, ready to hunt. Right? Not really!
We must practice how we are going to hunt. Hunters that do not prepare physically out in the field, including me, or shoot their rifle enough to know it well, are kidding themselves.
For me, it is a self talk to get my butt to the range regularly, shoot standing off a tripod rest or offhand burning powder and sending bullets downrange. Thus having an intimate relationship with your rifle, its recoil and trigger time.
Once your rifle is sighted-in, it is time to get you “the hunter” sighted-in away from the bench.
It is best to shoot at a target that does not have a bullseye, after all deer and bear do not have a bullseye on them.
A paper plate target can help give you some focus to keep bullets on it. I often purchase near life size paper animal targets to put my crosshairs on. It helps greatly or create a cardboard left or right facing shoulder/chest to aim at. What if the game is facing you, and that is your only shot opportunity. Are you ready?
If you read my first articles on my Browning X-Bolt Speed, I was eager to shoot some Nosler 175g ABLR’s in my new rifle. I had hoped they would group well for long range moose hunting even with 9.5 twist rate.
This week I shot several rounds. Initial groups were just over 1 inch. The X-Bolt Trigger set by the factory at 4 lbs. is a bit too stiff for me, and a pain to try to adjust. I will shoot more this next week. I did shoot a single “cold bore” at 100 yards and then moved the target to 150 yards and shot “cold bore” again with the 100 yard zero. I expected the bullet to drop a bit. It fell only one inch, as expected. Nice! This initial testing with 175g was very encouraging.
I hand loaded the bullet with Reloader 22 at 62 grains, (COL 3.24), giving a published estimate of over 2900 fps with a 24 inch barrel. The X-Bolt has a 26 inch barrel. I estimate a 50 fps improvement but will chrono some next week for real data.
Below is the JBM ballistic chart for this bullet if it’s muzzle velocity was 2950 fps. Energy at 600 yards is over 1800 ft-lb and velocity is over 2100 fps. Recoil is 24 ft-lbs. Felt recoil is much less, maybe half, with the great recoil pad on this rifle.
I can shoot my heavy recoiling 375 Ruger very well, so why choose a 7mm Remington Magnum instead? First and foremost the 7mm RM, in my new Browning X-Bolt, is lighter, even with a 26 inch barrel, and has almost 50% less recoil than the 375 (40 ft-lb for 375 Ruger). And the 7mm RM has less recoil than the 300 Win Mag or 300 PRC.
The 7mm RM can maintain superior moose killing energy at long ranges out to 500 and even 600 yards. Shooting Nosler’s 168g AccuBond Long Range, it has almost 1900 ft-lbs and over 2200 fps at 600 yards. Bullet speed allows mushrooming, and the energy translates to penetration. Below is Nosler image of an AccuBond mushroom at 1350 fps. Most bullets require 1800 to 2000 fps to open like this.
Lesser potent cartridges have killed many moose but have energy limitations at long range. And most local sporting retailers carry 7mm Rem Mag ammo.
Cost of a moose hunt in Newfoundland isn’t cheap so I got a rifle caliber that can reach further for maximum opportunity.
My 375 Ruger’s energy quickly poops out around 400 yards or so. Shot distances in Newfoundland tundra and bogs can easily exceed 400 yards.
Rifle and shooter accuracy is of vital importance, perhaps more-so than delivered energy. That said, less felt recoil translates to improved accuracy. I use a very sturdy Bog Death Grip tripod for those long range shots.
Practice out to 600 yards becomes essential, and I have a local range that can do that. I just loaded up some 175g Nosler ABLR’s and soon will load some Nosler 168g ABLR. I will shoot some in my next article.
I purchased a Browning X-Bolt for Christmas. Hurray! But bullets are a bit harder to find. I did find a 175grain Nosler ABLR bullet that I liked and purchased it but later calculated the bullets stability to be 1.37, just below the 1.5 military stability criteria in my 1 in 9.5 twist rate barrel. Bullet length included the polymer tip in overall length. Without the polymer tip as part of the bullet length, the formula now says the bullet is very stable.
Experts argue about including polymer tips or not. I will load some in a week or so.
Lets take a look at this imperfect science…
It is known that barrel twist rate and a given bullets size, length, BC and velocity effects bullet stability. As a general rule bullets that are exiting the barrel have some yaw or as some say “yaw spiral” or gyroscopic effect.
It is the bullets “yaw” that can affect the grouping of a bullet, but yaw diminishes as it travels down range making groups tighter..
Calculators
You will need the length of the bullet below to enter this in the stability formula. Some folks subtract the polymer tip from bullet length. The JBM formula below takes the polymer tip into account. Measure the bullets overall length and measure the polymer tip length.
At typical 100 yard ranges your bullet may exhibit some yaw thus grouping may be somewhat larger than expected. I ran into this with the .243 Winchester and my former 338 Win Mag where yaw was pronounced with heavy, longer bullets.
The good news is, this minor yaw will disappear at longer distances and stability and grouping improves,
The only way to know how stable your bullet is, is to shoot some at temperatures and distances your going to hunt in.
Accordingly, I would fire them at 100 and 150 yards and then shoot out to my max hunting distance of say 500 to 600 yards for group.
UPDATE
I had some Nosler 140g E-Tips and 7mm brass in my cupboard and eagerly loaded and shot them at 100 yards with 62g IMR 4831 powder clocking an estimated 2900 ± fps at the muzzle. Yes, that is a bit slow, but Nosler recommends working up loads with gilding copper E-Tips.
Below is the very first 100 yard 3 shot bench rest group. It measured 3/4 inch. Sub-MOA! Luckily there was no measurable wind and I used a COL of 3.24 inches where my bullets had at least 0.05 inches off the lands.
My readers are aware that I am hunting moose in Newfoundland again. My last moose fell to a single shot from my .375 Ruger, but because of recoil, I took precious seconds to chamber a second round. By the time I had a round in the chamber, the moose fell.
I did not practice this chambering of a second round. I suppose if I were hunting Cape Buffalo, my practice would have been quite different …as if my life depended on it.
As many have said, “Moose often do not fall quickly to a single shot.” And they can move quickly into cover making a second shot more difficult.
The shooter must be prepared to quickly, eject the spent case, rechambering a new round and follow-up with a second or even third shot. There is plenty of video evidence of this follow-up on the internet.
With larger traditional heavy recoiling rifle calibers like. a 300 Win Mag or heavier, the shooter takes more time due to recoil. He lifts the Mauser like bolt high at 90 degrees, pulls back hard to empty the chamber and closes the bolt with a second round.
The Browning X-Bolt “Speed” in 7mm Remington Magnum above has one of the fastest bolt throws on the market today. The “speed” refers to the short bolt throw 60 degrees to eject and smoothly chamber a second round.
Bolt throw Speed was key to my purchase and I tested many bolts first hand as I shopped.
I purchased this rifle with a 26 inch fluted barrel in 7mm Remington Magnum with a removable muzzle brake. I installed my Leupold VX-6 3-18 just like in the image above. Love that scope!!
Since I reload, I found some new reloading dies for it.
Trigger pull is adjustable down to 3 pound but came set to 4 pounds. The caliber choice 7mm Remington Magnum works for both short or long range shots out to 500 yards with Nosler’s 175g ABLR. On paper, ballistic data says the ABLR leaves the muzzle at around 3000 fps with max load RL 22 powder. We will see what I get for accuracy as some rifle barrel twist rates have stability issues for the bullet.
My ballistics chart says, at 500 yds at sea level and 40ºF the 175g ABLR will clock 2332 fps and have 2113 ft-lbs of delivered energy.
My wife Susan and I have been vacuum freezing game meat for years. In October 2019 we put 300 pounds of Moose and 150 pounds of wild boar in the freezer. In 2021 we learned the hot-canning method used by many hunting families for stews and such in glass Ball Jars.
If you enjoy eating the game you hunt and like to preserve and tenderize your meat, read on.
We processed and vacuum sealed all the meat at home.
In 2019, we expected large summer 2020 BBQ gatherings, so we made burger patties and put large numbers of patties in vac bags.
And as we all know, COVID changes our lives forever. We still had lots of frozen moose burger and stew meat. What to do?
Part of my reason to continue to hot can was that my stew meat came out-of-the-jar so tender that I could cut it with a fork. And it cuts down mealtime prep. to minutes. Wow!
For stews, I then cooked/steamed or quickly pressure cooked fresh carrots, potato, onion, celery etc., then added the hot canned stew meat. I used the juices to make a flour gravy adding herbs, salt and pepper. Sooo Delicious! Yes you can “can” your veggies too.
This month, October 2022, I booked another Newfoundland Moose hunt as part of my bucket list. What to do with another 300 pounds of moose meat? I still had 20 or so pounds of that frozen moose burger I wrote about at the beginning of this article?
I decided to hot-can the frozen game burger too, like all those patties we froze plus all the burger intended for pasta sauces. The frozen burger would have be ok for longer freezer storage but the meat became so buried in the freezer making it very hard to find.
Accordingly, I gathered all the frozen moose burger, about 20 pounds and hot canned it for use in my delicious pasta sauces, “shepherds pie”, chili recipes, biscuits and gravy, meat pies, meat tacos, mince meat pie, and so much more. Hungry yet? I sure am!
I used a T-fal Pressure Canner below with Pressure Control, 22 Quart volume. But you can use any large canner. You will need Ball jars and lids.
There are other brands and styles, but I like this one because it is so easy to use.
T-fal Pressure Canner
I thawed the moose in large pots meat of cold water. Here is a basic recipe video.
I highly recommend purchasing a canning book like this one below, to become educated for safety and have delicious recipes.
In the past year 2021, I successfully hot canned venison, wild boar, chicken breast, moose and now moose burger.
After canning, you can label like this above with Avery labels.