A week ago I bought a 7mm Weatherby Magnum Mk V Lazermark. The new pride of the fleet was a true steal from an estate sale; about 5 shots to sight in this beauty, then the poor fellow who bought it new kicked the bucket. His son sold the gun (retail at about $2,500) to a gunsmith friend of mine for 900 bucks, I got it for a thousand. Steal.
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| The 7mm Mag packs a lot of power |
If there's one thing above all else I love in a gun it's accuracy, occasionally to my own detriment. I regularly eschew the knockdown power of my .30-.30 for a Sako .270 during deer season- even though the conifer-scrub bordering the BWCA where I hunt rarely offers shots beyond 50 yards- because the .270 can make any shot I need it too, even if that shot never appears.*
My love of ridiculously accurate rifles has made me a long time admirer of 7mm and .308's, and acquiring one for bear and (someday) elk has been a long time coming. There are some strong opinions about Weatherby, to be certain, but there are few gunmakers with a sub-MOA guarantee on such large calibers. For that reason I am a big fan of Weatherby Magnums, as long as you plan to actually hunt with it anyways- - Thompson's line of ICON Precision Hunters is certainly better for target/varmint, but I've only seen them up to .243 Win, can't say how their .308 Win groups.
Today was the first chance I had to take the new 7mm out to a shooting range beyond 100 yards, and I was overly excited to get out there, as a result I made a silly error that cost me half a box of bullets. I should have had the beast bore-sighted properly before I sighted it in, but instead I went straight to the range, I didn't want to have to wait until tomorrow to shoot.
I shelled out the extra cash to shoot at the Caribou Gun Club (Le Seuer, MN) because they have a very nice range. Other than a 10 mph wind from the West (range runs North-South) it was perfect weather for shooting. I started on the 100 yard berm, and was shocked to see dirt kicking up about a foot above where I aimed on my first shot. After two more shots it was clear it was not my nerves, but the scope, which was sending these shots so high.
Assuming the old croaker had sighted this baby at 200 yards, I moved over a berm. Three shots at the target and there was no chartreuse to be seen on the target. The dirt kick up certainly seemed better though, so I went down to the target and checked it out. On one hand I was very pleased with the results, the grouping was fantastic, all sub-MOA. However, the shots were still 5-6 inches above the bullseye.
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| The three shots on the wood are from the 7mm |
When sighting in at one hundred yards you want a grouping about 3 inches above the bullseye, unless you'll be shooting from an elevated position (i.e. a treestand) in which case you want it about 1 inch above the bullseye. Assuming this was sighted for a non-elevated shot that meant we were still needing to go back quite aways to sight this thing in. A shot at the 500 yard berm confirmed two things; firstly, that if this gun was sighted properly, it was sighted for one hell of a shot; and secondly, with a Nikon 2-7x32 scope on it, the previous owner was either a crack shot, or never finished sighting it in.
More than likely, it was mis-sighted and the guy was not planning on a 500-yard shot with such a scope. However, the gun was perfectly sighted along the x-axis. Really, I got reminded of some of the basics of sighting.
1. Just because the guy who sells you the gun says it's sighted doesn't make it true.
2. Always get your new acquisition bore-sighted, it will save a lot of time and rounds in the field.
Well, I should have known better, but I'm still so thrilled about this guns accuracy and grouping that I don't mind the rounds I wasted today. Then again, tomorrow when I wake up with a shoulder and neck suffering from rigor mortis I might save shooting mistakes for a smaller caliber.
*- Last year using my .270 finally paid off when I took a deer at 215 yards. But that is for a different post.
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