Chris-NZ

Worth a read: http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2019/01/bed-it-right-bedding-compounds-compared-by-speedy/

Unless you're shooting sub 400yds and there's not much wind where you shoot, I'd stick with a 6mm. A mid size 6mm with 85+ gr projectiles will do pretty well and have a reasonable barrel life. If a hyper-vel .22 spins your wheels and you don't care about barrel life, fill your boots. A .22 CM driven at full throttle would have I'd guess at most an 800 round barrel life.

The scope- you don't mean ATAC-R rather than NXS?

What I think you are alluding to is transmission by bone conduction. I can tell you that is a complete red herring. All damaging noise from small arms is delivered to the cochlea (inner ear) via air conduction, ie, down the ear canal then through the middle ear system to the cochlea. You simply need to sufficiently block sound energy from getting to the middle ear and the cochlea will not be exposed to damaging levels. The two problems with plugs is that firstly, many users simply don't insert them properly/deeply enough. It amuses me to see shooters with 2/3 of a closed cell foam sticking out into their concha (ear bowl). You can stake your life on the plug giving very little protection if you see this. In the case of custom-moulded plugs, the quality of the ear impression and post-impression processing can easily be poor, and you'll end up with a leaky plug. I've seen many "instant plugs" made at shows/ events/ fairs that are just plain pathetic in execution. Some I saw were downright scary- spotted a pair curing where the impression material had skirted the too-small cotton dam and had actually been pressing on the drum. This is one small step from disaster. The other risk is people who don't know what they're doing injecting down canals where they haven't the knowledge or illumination gear to see what's down there. Some people have badly necked canals which increase markedly in diameter further down. End result is a trapped impression that can't be removed other than by a surgeon under GA, and believe me, the surgeon won't thank you for being called in for that. If you're in the market for custom plugs, either passive or electronic, please make sure you get someone with proper training and extensive experience to take the impressions. The end product is only as good as the impression, and you don't want your ear written off by an "accident" during impression taking. I can't really comment on actual brands of electronic plugs as the vast majority are what we in the audiology profession call house brands, ie, built from relabelled and/or fairly generic chipsets/transducers. The requisite design feature is that the circuitry is able to respond fast enough to control the transient, and we're talking here of less than 3-4 milliseconds. This is far quicker than the main processing (full dynamic range syllabic compression) hearing aids use for their routine volume adjustments . I have at least three different sets of custom electronic plugs but I had these made from expensive hearing aid amps, def not a commercial proposition..

?? Pray tell

Went out with a buddy last Sunday late afternoon ( it's spring here). This farm has a terraced edge that drops off into a river valley and it's Rabbit Central. Took my 700 VS .223 and my gunsmith mate his .204 T3 Varminter (Edi knows who that is). Started shooting about 4.45 and we gave up before 7.30, more than 90 bunnies later 😁 Closest over 120yds, most 180+ and at least ten over 300yds. Clipped one first shot at 400 and scared another crapless at 394. Was very pleased with two successive solid hits at 275yds holding 10-12" into the breeze. My std twist .223 is shooting 53gr VMaxs very well and his .204 39gr BKs extremely well. The kill rates were indistinguishable but the time of arrival was noticeably quicker with the .204 and the splat factor better under 250yds. I'd have a .204 like his any day. As for wind drift, you really need to go for a 6mm to make major inroads in that. The 400yd ones really needed my 6BR or 6x47L but I didn't have enough loaded ammo at hand to take either.

You're right about the ignorance aspect but some "detail" you're seeing is so microscopic, it's irrelevant, esp in barrel a good half way through their life. Some people will be tempted to take extreme measures like JBs every time to get a "perfect" clean.

T3 bashing is highly fashionable here. The vast majority is irrational and based on ignorance. I have only one T3 and a heap of other stuff including various Rems, a Sako , RPA, pre-64, ... so I can't be accused of ownership bias. The fact remains that despite the very simple design and use of non-traditional materials and techniques, Tikka produces a rifle that is both accurate and functional. The thousands of dead deer here annually are testament to that.

Well there's obviously a blemish in the shoulder region of the chamber but those necks look alight. While annoying, the barrel is still useable and it's highly likely accuracy won't be affected. I'm assuming the bore is OK.

You are 100% right Clover in those comments. Beyond the efficient design, Tikka holds tolerances such that barrels can be interchanged with a high likelihood that headspace will be correct. Try that with a Remmie..

I'll make a phonecall. I'd guess you'd be lucky..

and don't assume a fancy after-market bolt will always be better. My gunsmith got a PT&G in for a guy - that bolt had 1.5thou runout across the face. He suspects the bolt wasn't mounted correctly in a VMC for this to happen.

The lads round here who have got the following are raving over it: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32952202673.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.d2c533e4sknXVD&algo_pvid=92273cc5-bc44-4035-aafa-9f8f96eb24fa&algo_expid=92273cc5-bc44-4035-aafa-9f8f96eb24fa-0&btsid=b6be2bbe-5d1f-4160-a8f7-02c6b07865fa&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1,searchweb201603_53 Here's an indep review from a true LED torch expert

Lee- have you considered tracking down some of that dedicated Norma Dasher brass? The matching reamers are readily available and I'm sure it'd do the biz

Just leave it in a prominent place on the reloading bench to make things look more impressive

A 7-08 should be rebarrel and go. An excellent efficient deer chambering

Shame you're not closer or I'd buy it myself. Very good price

Doubt you can get these in the UK but they're good https://backcountrycuisine.co.nz/our-products Used by most of the serious hunters here

I'd be interested in comments from both Shehane and KMR users as to what vels they're running, the powders they're using and also the best ESs they can achieve. The reason I ask this is that two F-ers I know are having issues getting their ESs down to acceptable levels. They have no probs getting ME up to the NZ NRA limits but it seems that the pressures they're using as a bit low for optimal ESs. I've just started load devl't on my straight .284 and 51.7 of AR 2209 (H4350) is only getting me 2733 in a 30" bbl. There are no pressure signs there so I'm going to go a bit higher, as well as try 2213SC ( H4831SC). Interestingly, all four shots over a 1.2gr load range went into 3/8" so I'm wondering is this rifle is going to exhibit positive compensation.

My buddy was visiting and I had a look up his Creedmore barrel with my borescope. He'd been mainly shooting 140s with H4350 but had recently been giving the bunnies a thrash with 95 VMs/ RL17. He reckoned the round count was no greater than 600 but there was horrible snakeskin firecracking in the first inch. It was explosively impressive on bunnies but he's having a rethink on powder selection..

The context here is the NRA "law", not the law of the land

Must be a mongrel then Pete 😀 No idea sorry

Might have ya CCI numbers about face there Varm? 😉

That all sounds familiar having read many ancient "Woodworker" magazines

Ditto and stumbled on it with first Varget load! 2940fps.