Getting the new rig dialed in…

[WhitewaterDuck]

Ok…not really dialing anything in yet, but I’ll post updates here as I go. Some info and insights might be useful to folks that, like me, have never really set up a rifle for doing more than killing deer at relatively close ranges in the wooded eastern world.

Got my Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT in 7mm rem mag and my dead air 8” titanium can from my FFL recently. He put the Leuopold backcountry aluminum rings on and mounted my VX6 HD 3-18-44 and leveled it.

I took it out to my bud’s range; he is a long range and competition nut. He asked if James (FFL dood) had bored the rings. Me…”did he do what to what?!” So, apparently one needs to bore and true the scope rings to truly end up with a precision, rock-solid and true scope mount. I had no idea. Since that has not happened yet, we began the barrel break-in process recommended by CA.

I’ve read much debate over the necessity of barrel break in, so let me address this topic. CA’s new guidelines say to shoot eight 3 shot sessions or five 5 shot sessions, cleaning the bore every three shots or five shots respectively until the patch is emerging clean. The first cleaning took ~ 15 patches with each patch used on both sides (~30 pulls). The last cleaning after the last 5 shots took ~5 patches or 10 pulls. The amount of burred metal and imperfections left from the rifling process that is being cleared during the break-in is obviously significant. While it may not make much of a difference (never has with my guns) at 100-250 yards, I can see where following the manufacture’s break in recommendations is likely much more important than most folks think when getting a gun dialed in for tight groups at long distances.

Anyhoo…I was a little worried about shooting the gun 20-40 times, as its <7lbs with scope had me thinking it would beat me silly. This leads to another point I’ve seen debated. Some say a can does not reduce recoil; some say it reduces recoil some, but not as much as a brake. I can only attest to subjective “felt-recoil,” but I can guarantee that the 8” can on this rifle absolutely reduces the %^#* out of felt recoil…so much so that the argument about brake vs can is irrelevant.

We shot the gun 20 times yesterday without any hearing protection. I was using Hornady 162 gr superperformance (hot) loads for the break in. The report was mild…as mild or milder than an unsuppressed .22 LR. A very pleasant, non damaging “crack” was all you heard.

I flinched horribly on shot one, but was squeezing off shots with minimal anticipation of the report for the rest of the session, because the recoil was far, far better than my .270s, and it was on par with a light bullet .243 recoil.

We shot the last 5 shots thru the chrono with a ~3050 fps average.

Jeremy is building a DOPE chart based on that data, and I will be going over this weekend to watch him and learn to do this ring-boring procedure. Once that is done, we will start to dial the gun in as we complete the barrel break-in process (50 total rounds with frequent interval cleanings).

I’ll try to remember to take some pics and video as the process continues.