Merry Christmas to me!
I have been talking for about ten years (no exaggeration) with an older gentleman I know at church about buying this rifle from him. I finally went over and looked at it a few months ago and today brought it home. When we first started talking about it he thought it was a BDL, which would have been fine with me, but when I saw it I realized it was a Classic, which I was happier with anyway. 7mm Rem Mag was one of the initial chamberings for the Classic before the limited edition runs started in 1983. This rifle was purchased around 1980-81.
Never had the need for a magnum rifle hunting deer here in NC, but I'm at a place now where I can start planning/saving for some of my bucket list hunts. I figure this will be my "west of the Mississippi rifle." Plus it was a great deal on a nice rifle from someone I've known a long time and I think he wanted me to have it. He said he shot several mule deer and a cow elk on some trips out west in the 80s and it's basically been sitting in a closet since then.
I plan to clean it up and have the barrel free floated and action bedded. I have a Nikon 3-9x sitting around that I plan to put on it. I'm looking for whatever is an accurate hand load with ~160 gr. bullets in the 2900-3000ish fps range. I've seen manuals that push the speed well into the 3100s but that isn't a priority for me. Plus my friend said he got the best accuracy with sub-max loads. I especially am interested in hunting pronghorn and mule deer, and also a cow elk hunt, and I figure this will fit the bill nicely for that. I figure it will take a few years to plan and prepare for my first hunt out west so in the meantime I'll hunt whitetail with it when I have opportunities to hunt more open spaces here in the southeast.
Would love to hear comments or suggestions from you guys out west...
I have been talking for about ten years (no exaggeration) with an older gentleman I know at church about buying this rifle from him. I finally went over and looked at it a few months ago and today brought it home. When we first started talking about it he thought it was a BDL, which would have been fine with me, but when I saw it I realized it was a Classic, which I was happier with anyway. 7mm Rem Mag was one of the initial chamberings for the Classic before the limited edition runs started in 1983. This rifle was purchased around 1980-81.
Never had the need for a magnum rifle hunting deer here in NC, but I'm at a place now where I can start planning/saving for some of my bucket list hunts. I figure this will be my "west of the Mississippi rifle." Plus it was a great deal on a nice rifle from someone I've known a long time and I think he wanted me to have it. He said he shot several mule deer and a cow elk on some trips out west in the 80s and it's basically been sitting in a closet since then.
I plan to clean it up and have the barrel free floated and action bedded. I have a Nikon 3-9x sitting around that I plan to put on it. I'm looking for whatever is an accurate hand load with ~160 gr. bullets in the 2900-3000ish fps range. I've seen manuals that push the speed well into the 3100s but that isn't a priority for me. Plus my friend said he got the best accuracy with sub-max loads. I especially am interested in hunting pronghorn and mule deer, and also a cow elk hunt, and I figure this will fit the bill nicely for that. I figure it will take a few years to plan and prepare for my first hunt out west so in the meantime I'll hunt whitetail with it when I have opportunities to hunt more open spaces here in the southeast.
Would love to hear comments or suggestions from you guys out west...