Thread: Mountain rifle

OK so I've not long moved to the South Island from North Queensland. I want to put a hunting rifle together obviously different hunting compared to what I'm used to. I'm thinking light weight with great glass. I need advice maybe a 7mm rm Sako Carbon with ??? Scope or something in 300wsm please give me your thoughts

Cheers Antz

Sako Finnlight 7mm Rem Mag
162 ELD-X projectiles
Fed 215 primers
72g ADI2217 powder
Norma brass

200yrd zero

leupold VX-6. 3-18-44

No brake/suppressor

Sounds good what about Leica glass?

Originally Posted by Antz

Sounds good what about Leica glass?

Leica make stunningly good scopes and excellent binos

Looks like your combo is working for you


Antz

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Sako Finnlight 7mm Rem Mag
162 ELD-X projectiles
Fed 215 primers
72g ADI2217 powder
Norma brass

200yrd zero

leupold VX-6. 3-18-44

No brake/suppressor

That looks like the rem mags baby brother

Yep 7mm rem mag, if not reloading id use the hornady 154sst factory ammo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Leupold VX-6 3-18-44 comes with a Variety of reticles, the fine one suits me for ultra long range, the other thicker reticles cover a lot of real estate at distances past 1000yrds, and often cover a 1/4 inch dot at 200yrds.

Thin Reticle

G'day Antz,
I'm guessing you are thinking of hunting the alps for red deer, chamois and tahr.
SAUM's setup makes a lot of sense but not everyone has extra testicles like him and Richie McCaw.
My personal theory is that the bullet and powder weight should be proportional to the rifle weight to keep recoil and mechanical stress within reasonable limits.
We think of the NZ mountains as wide and open but there's also a lot of scrub and bush hunting specially on the west coast so try and limit yourself to 18 - 20" barrel.
Light weight is a big advantage due to long distances walked, high climbs and a lot of carrying for a small amount of shooting (but its good shooting).
Look at a 120 - 140gr projectile in say 270, 260, 6.5x55 or also popular in those parts is the 280. If you go full magnum then carry a big gun and use 24". Just my opinion.
For scopes, Leupold seem to have the best lighter weight models and good reputation for NZ conditions so use the VX6 as a benchmark to compare others. Swaro 3.5 - 18 is a lighter build and OK if you don't want to dial. However, if you don't dial you need a bigger flatter shooting cartridge like the 7mmRM... Leica make the best rangefinders and binoculars but aren't a specialist scope maker and are yet to be proven in NZ conditions (wet & hard knocks). Nightforce are said to be excellent but are heavier and reticle design is aimed at target/tactical use; March and Sightron are focussed on target work with hard out hunting as a spinoff, also not a long history in NZ. -12x or -18x is as much as you can use for NZ mountains and you need a low end of 4x or 3x in the bush.
Sako 85 is also the benchmark for NZ rifles - easy to use, reliable, rugged out of the box. However, if your budget is less, Tikka are perfectly good, well thought of here and some models are very light. Aftermarket carbon stocks are available in NZ.
My pick would be a Tikka T3x lite in 260rem x 140gr (load it hard) with optilock mounts and a VX6 3-18x44 (no illumination) a skinny sling and no bipod, brake or suppressor.

Good common sense Bagheera. However, Swarovski EL and Zeiss Victory bino users would probably disagree that Leica make the best binoculars. There is not much between those three brands and it comes down to personal preference.

How far do you want to shoot animals and how much long range shooting have you done Antz?
For 500m and under, you can pretty much take your pick from 260, 6.5x55, 270, 7-08, 308, 270wsm, 300wsm, 7RM and a heap of others...all will kill animals out to +500m if you put the correct bullet into their heart/lungs, some of them will just do it with more noise and recoil at your end.
If you want to stretch out past 500m then think about choosing one of the last 3 as they are generally more suitable for longer ranges, but you will notice the added recoil in a light weight rifle.
Personally I would put a good light weight silencer on whatever rifle you choose, it will save your ears and reduce recoil to a generally comfortable level...especially on some of the bigger cartridges.
If you want to shoot accurately past 300m then you are going to need a rangefinder and preferably a dial-able scope, personally I'm running a Leica 1600b rangefinder and VX6's on 2 of my hunting rifles, they dial accurately out to well over 1000m and are a great scope.
Be a bit more specific in what you want to achieve with the rifle and people will chime in with further advice, there are a lot of knowledgable people on here.

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Sako Finnlight 7mm Rem Mag
162 ELD-X projectiles
Fed 215 primers
72g ADI2217 powder
Norma brass

200yrd zero

leupold VX-6. 3-18-44

No brake/suppressor

This, but 270wsm