The Savage 11/111 Long Range Rifle was sighted in for Max Point Blank Range MPBR for 292 yards with Nosler 140 grain solid gilding copper E-Tips for this 7 mm Remington Magnum.

The rifle performs best when it has a long range scope such as the VX-6 3 x18 with a 44mm objective lens. I just love this scope for the zoom capability that can count points on a buck at very long ranges and in very low light. Further, that if I needed to light up the cross hairs I had infinite adjustments.

Hunting rifles are at their best when tested at the range with bullets and powders. The Savage 11/111 Long range hunter has a synthetic stock, with a free floating, button rifled barrel with an accu-trigger set at around 2.5 pounds. I find that the muzzle brake, for my skill level is not necessary but nice to know if another shooter needs it. The recoil pad that is on the rifle is excellent.

In the field from my tree stand the rifle looked like this as rain fell. I used a little camo on the rifle barrel and forward bell of the scope but as it turned out was not necessary.

Wind was blowing toward me so that wind drift was not an issue. The spike buck was crossing a field that was 320 yards long, measured by my laser rangefinder. It was raining lightly but I was satisfied that I installed a monopod rest that I could shoot steady from. The buck was literally running and bounding and would stop occasionally for 10 seconds or so to be sure it was safe to do so. Based on my early laser rangefinder estimates the buck was out at approximately 310 yards and on the second foray of bounding the buck stopped again. The VX-6 main post rested on the deer’s vitals like they were tattoo’d in place.

I held the crosshair high on the withers expecting the bullet to drop 6 inches and squeezed the shot off crisply with the Savage AccuTrigger. The rifle bucked and the mighty Nosler bullet struck exactly where I was aiming. A large puff of  water mist occurred at the withers and the buck fell over. The buck disappeared at the shot. I spined him, or so I thought. The buck appeared standing again in just seconds but did not move.  I cranked another round in the chamber and lowered the crosshairs just behind the front shoulder and squeezed again. The bullet struck with such force that a hollow “thwock” echoed back. Amazingly, it looked as if the bullet knocked him over like a silhouette target hit by a cannon. The buck was knocked over so forcefully as to flip him on his back ready to be dressed out. Now that is what I call power. The Nosler Copper Bullets exited the muzzle at 2945 fps and arrived at 300 yards at a speed of 2384 fps and delivered 1767 foot-pounds; an elks worth of punch. The Nosler fully penetrated and exited as I have already demonstrated in other articles by expanding to twice their size and maintaining virtually all of its weight.

The first bullet struck non-vital tissue above the spine.  The second bullet exited forward of the shoulder, seen in the image below.

Rifles are best when coupled with a scope and bullet that is up to the rifles capability. The Leupold VX-6 certainly fills that bill perfectly. The Nosler E-Tip will make a believer out of you too. Nosler’s AccuBond would have been another great choice but today we tested the E-Tip.

This test is a wrap as a great rifle, scope and bullet combination and easily proved itself at 300 yards. Now I have some tasty venison for my family and a rifle and scope and bullet that are proven performers.

Good Hunting! © 2015