7mm ultra mag

We finally got a leupold 4x14.5 to mount on this thing this past weekend and took it to the range on Sunday. Guys, when this thing goes off it is amazing!!! Thankfully, it doesn't have a muzzle brake. If it did, you'd have to stand 10-20 feet behind it. The muzzle blast will blow leaves around out to about 12 feet in front. The recoil is just about at the peak of my tolerance. I fired 3 shoots and was developing a head ache within 15 min. I must tell ya that we were shooting from a bench and using a standard rest. The accuracy was 2-4 inches at 100 yards. We fired a total of 20 rounds and finally gave up out of frustration.
On Monday,I had to return a recoil absorber to my local dealer.He had asked for some real world experience on this thing.He knew we were going to try this new gun and wanted to see if this absorber worked as advertised(45% reduction). It fell apart after the 3rd shot and I just returned the peices! So much for it!! As he listened to me tell of the recoil on this gun,he started smiling and asked if I wanted to test something else for him. Seeings as how it would require pulling the trigger on this thing AGAIN, I was a little hesitant to agree.

After a short prayer i agreed. He reached down behind the counter and handed over a BULLBAG. If you guys have access to one of these and want to tame a hard kicker,USE IT! These things work wonders. Not only was recoil much more managable but it was also very steady. When you put the gun down between the top 2 bags,it'll wrap itself around the stock. You've just added up to around 30 lbs to your rifle! Our groups dropped down to 1-2 inches! This was more in line with what I expected. The good thing is,I now have some brass to start reloading. Maybe I can tailor a load for this thing that'll be a little tamer and more accurate. I'll be sure to keep ya'll informed on the progress.

Oh I almost forgot... Ya'll oughta see this thing go off at dusk. There's about 2ft of flame coming out of it! We started shooting at a gong that was hanging up at 200 yds and you should have seen the sparks. It looked like someone striking an arc with a welder. My little ole 243 only made a small golw when it hit.

Ya'll shoot safe and play purdy
HWD

HWD I turned down a good deal on a remington BDL in 338 ultra mag because of the things you mentioned.I ended up with a 338 win mag.I made such good deals at the last gun show that I bought a new leupold scope and an older remington742 woods master BDL with the basket weave front and rear stock.I took it apart and it don't appear to have been shot alot.The rotery bolt wasn't worn out and lock up is tight.I cleaned the barrel today,and after I cleaned the barrel I lapped it,boy is it shinny now,I can see the lands and grooves easily now.I'll put a scope(leupold) on it and see if it shoots well.My last one like this one when loaded down a little the 180 gr shot 1 1/2 inch groups.Thats not bench rest accuracy but for a semi-remmi thats good,and I will try some 165 gr to see if I can tighten the groups.On the winchester model 70 the scope base hole at the rear of the gun is stripped,I ordered a kit from Brownells to tap over size and a special screw.I can go even larger but I have to drill the leupold base and I only want to do that if the next size won't work.The gunsmith wants 180.00 to 220.00 to do this,I don't think so,this is something I can do on the bench.I cleaned the reciever with impro cleaner with a tooth brush,it's clean,then I scrubbed the barrel with Buch's Bore Shine and then I used 1 squrite of impo cleaner and more junk came out.That impro cleaner has no oder and cleans like crazy,the gun oil also has no smell.I then lapped that barrel also.I spent 8 hours cleaning and lapping the barrells on only 2 guns.Arms are sore but the barrells are like mirrors,and thats what I like.I started lapping the barrells on all my guns before I shoot them,except for 1 rifle and I can't tell if it makes guns more accurate because I lapp them all first,but cleaning is where It shines,I can clean all my guns,pistols included with just 2 to 4 patches,not like they used to be like.Drop-Shot

Dropshot,

I don't understand what you mean when you said that you lapped the barrels. Is this something like breaking in the barrel without shooting it?
I took this Ultra Mag back to the range this past Sunday.I've tried to be good with the breaking in process on this one and it seems to have worked out. I could not beleive what I was seeing! We had a group(3 shots) under 1 inch with factory ammo!! I had told my kid that if it would shoot under 2 inches consistently that I'd kiss his a$$. I might as well pucker up cause this boy's got a shooter. Next time I'll keep my big mouth shut. It took three and a half boxes to get here but it's been worth it. After shooting at those gongs the other nite,I did have one bit of advice for him. DO NOT shoot a deer in the shoulder with this gun.THere might not be much left. I told him to try neck or head shots if he's expecting to eat anything other than the hams off of a deer.

HWD I explained this process but I don't remmember under what topic,but it's easy.You need a good rifle vise like the tipton or some one to hold the rifle still.I use a tipton cleaning rod,I clean the rifle real good,this is the only time I use a bronse bore brush,after this I only use nylon bristle brushes.If you could use a boroscope to look down the barrell you would see why cleaning can be difficult.My remingtons and rugers looked like crators in the grooves of the barrel,and thats why cleaning them is so time consuming.I use valve grinding compound,since I was a mechanic for 33 years I have course,med,fine.I also bought a lapping kit from midwayusa.com you can get a good bore lapping kit from brownells.com also.After a good cleaning I use a nylon brush under size and wrap a cleaning pad around,I've also used a metal slotted tip and cleaning pad and I put course valve lapping compound all over the end that goes into the barrel,you want a tight fit but not so tight that the rod binds up and has to be removed,on a bolt action I use a bolt cleaning guide and it centers the compound,push down and back 75 times,during that time I remove the rod several times to put new lapping compound on,down and back is 1 stroke,I repeat this with med,fine,I use the midway lapping compounds next,I start with course and work my way to fine,I clean between each compound and when finished I put flitz(polishing compound) on my rod and stroke 25 times.Clean the gun well remove all grit.Then the test comes,push a cotten ball down the bore and look down the barrell with a bore light and see if you have any rough spots,the cotton will stick to rough spots,if no cotten is seen lube the barrel and you are done.Every weatherby,sako and many others as well as custom guns have this done before it leaves the factory.It in theory creates accuracy,and the only guns I've shot and then lapped the barrels,the accuracy was a little better,but the reason I do this is to cut down on cleaning time.There is no rough spots to hold copper or carbon fouling.I even lapp my pistols.I own 1 weatherby but its nice to know I have as slick a barrell as any custom gun out there.Drop-Shot

HWD I forgot to say if you lapp the barrell you don't need to break in a barrel,and cleaning with a nylon bristle is all that is recommended to remove fouling,avoid ammonia based cleaners cause I found out the hard way that it etches the barrel.I have the stuff but I only use it to clean a barrel before lapping,If you don't get all copper and corbon fouling out you may end up doing this again.I just lapped the barrell on a used BLR in 358 win,I tried the cotton ball and I had cotton caught in several places.John Baker on this site as gun doc says you cant remove enough metal to hurt a barrell,so I spent about 2-3 hours doing it again,but on do-overs I skip the valve lapping compound and just use the midway lapping kit.You can fire lapp barrells but on all the recovered bulletts there was little or no abrasive left on the bullet.You don't get as even as hand lapping but fire lapping is better than nothing.You end up lapping the throat,and very little lapping the rest of the barrell.Drop-Shot

Gwp & dropshot,

I realize that this isn't the most powerful thing out there and for shooting the deer around here it is over kill. Heck, a big deer around here weights 150 lbs but average around 100-120.I've seen deer shot with 7 rem mags that were tore up pretty bad. I tore up 2-3 with my 300 win mag. I agree that the behind the shoulder shot is the best one to take.
Gwp,
If you read the starting post here,then you should know that this gun was bought against my advice,but when do our kids listen these days. It was bought because he thinks when the gun goes off the deer will hit the ground immediately. Also because he was trying to play ONEUPMANSHIP with one of his buddies.You know the old game of who's is bigger and better? I,ve killed deer with the same 243 for 20 years now and have shot only one more than once. None of these have traveled more than 50 yards. I do agree that this isn't the gun to hunt deer with and tried to advise otherwise,but evidently I don't know what I'm talking about. Oh to be young and dumb again!!