Thread: My venture into unknown territory

So as most of you guys know, I have always been a 270 man, rifles have come and gone from my safe but all along there has always been a 270 or two (or three, or four... I think there may have been 5 at one stage....)
I have somehow recently ended up with only two centrefire rifles... one is a 308, and the other is a 7.62x39 that was an impulse buy, I took it home and have tidied it up a fair bit, re done the blue on it, had it cut down and suppressed, and stripped the varnished stock and re finished it with an oil finish, threw away the plastic butt plate and added a pachmayr pad.
I have always enjoyed shooting long range, and taken quite a few, In fact most of the animals I have shot at 300+ yards over the past few years, so I'm venturing into new territory with the new rifles, and especially with the little 7.62x39.
I have been thinking about it and I have decided, to keep it interesting, maybe some goals need to be set for my hunting over the next wee while and I reckon to start with I want to take a Fallow buck that's better than the last one I shot, A Red, and a chamois buck with the wee rifle.
I'm not quite venturing into bow hunting territory but I think the change to the smaller cartridge and its limitations as far as range goes will definitely present a new set of challenges.
The fallow shouldn't be too hard, I have already shot a couple at pretty close quarters here on the farm, I dont think they are any easier to hunt on the farm than on public land (possibly more difficult as we have less natural cover) but the opportunities are more plentiful. It's going to be a matter of waiting on a good buck to present himself and then being able to make everything come together to be successful.
We also have a few reds here from time to time but I wont ever count on shooting one of the farm as I have only ever seen them on the move. Theres plenty of public land down near us that holds good numbers of reds, a lot of this is open tussock country though, so without the luxury of being able to dial and shoot front afar I think putting one down will be a challenging prospect.
I think the same with the chamois, often they will be in scrubby country and easy enough to find, but an approach can be pretty demanding without being snapped.
The barrel on my wee gun is right at 14 inches and its wearing a DPT only running 3 baffles to keep overall length and weight down. It weighs in at 2.8kg ready to go and feels really nice to carry. It's currently wearing my old school Burris mini, fixed 4x, I did contemplate just using a red dot but this scope comes up really nice, sight picture is easy to find even at really close range, and I think it looks nice on the rifle.
I bought some brass cased ammunition so I could sight it in etc and collect the brass.
I would be interested in hearing opinions on a good all round load that is going to take up to Red sized game at reasonably close range, I would like to think that 100yds will be a long shot for this rifle and the type of hunting I hope to do with it. I'm not really interested in building the fastest, most pointy tipped, shoot 9 deer with the same bullet, round, I just want something that's going to work well. I have the 308 to shoot some steel etc if the itch arises but for now I'm pretty keen to put this wee rifle to work.

Come on boy you know a 30-30 would be way more cool, and go so much better with that saddle.

Going by your fallow photos why don't you go old school get a long bow

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nice looking rifle. It will be a big change from the 270

Looks good Ryan.
I use 125gn Seirra Prohunters in my shortish 308. They aren’t a fancy pill but work really well and reckon they would be the go for what you’re trying to do. Haven’t got any spares at the moment or I would have sent you some.

Make sure that you try the right diameter pills if you are having accuracy issues. Got to remember that they are .310 diameter not .308. Mate of mine converted a sako 461 from 222 to 7.62x39.
We tried to talk him out of it - but it shot very well at 100. But from memory it was 1 inches high at 100 and 14 inches low at 200!!
Should be an awesome wee gun tho!!

Farm fallow are piss easy compared to bush fallow, well the ones up here are anyway

I'm using factory Highland 127gr PSP (now packaged as PU). Shot plenty of goats and probably a dozen deer, including a double, that could have been a triple if I had pulled the trigger on the third but decided to let it go. Biggest animal probably made 30m down hill, all others dropped on the spot. Biggest difference you will find between the 7.62x39 and the .270 is the huge increase in recoverable meat (less hydrodynamic shock). Great calibre for filling the freezer and minimising waste.

Foe expendable ammo, don't overlook the Hornady steel cased SST's.

factory...just go hornady 50 pack ssts...they are good....reloading TRY some 125grn nosler balistic tips...they worked fine in my norinco bisley and deer were bang flop kills with chest shots. you can sometimes find he ZMAX projectiles for sale...they are the same as whats in hornady loading. oh and nothing wrong with dirty old barnaul.

Originally Posted by muzr257

Make sure that you try the right diameter pills if you are having accuracy issues. Got to remember that they are .310 diameter not .308. Mate of mine converted a sako 461 from 222 to 7.62x39.
We tried to talk him out of it - but it shot very well at 100. But from memory it was 1 inches high at 100 and 14 inches low at 200!!
Should be an awesome wee gun tho!!

Each individual rifle is different and some 310(and ++) bores will shoot 308 projectiles just fine, I can't tell the difference with my Howa 7.62x39. As has been mentioned if you don't go looking for ridiculous accuracy (cause it'll be used at modest ranges) then it give one the opportunity to use a projectile that performs best on game animals. My 300 BLK shot 125 Gn Hornady SST's nicely, but at 2100 fps they blew up badly at 50 yards on the one red I shot with it (twice).

With the 7.62x39 I've gone to 308 125 Gn Nosler ballistic tips (2500 fps from my 18" Howa) but I've yet to shoot an animal with it. For some reason I've never been able to like the Howa Mini (I'm a slow learner, this is the second one I've had) and so its going to be sold and replaced with this:



Mine will be scoped without the AR style sights . . . in 303 with a 125 at the same 2500 fps or so.

.270's rule.

Originally Posted by Frodo

.270's rule.

but .30 is just better

Originally Posted by Tentman

.. to be sold and replaced with this:

Attachment 119590

Mine will be scoped without the AR style sights . . . in 303 with a 125 at the same 2500 fps or so.

Words fail me.

That should be in the bubba what have you done thread.
That which the eye has seen cannot be unseen though excessive drinking may blur the image

Originally Posted by Tentman

Each individual rifle is different and some 310(and ++) bores will shoot 308 projectiles just fine, I can't tell the difference with my Howa 7.62x39.

With the 7.62x39 I've gone to 308 125 Gn Nosler ballistic tips (2500 fps from my 18" Howa) but I've yet to shoot an animal with it. For some reason I've never been able to like the Howa Mini (I'm a slow learner, this is the second one I've had) and so its going to be sold and replaced with this:

One reason to stay away from the .308 projectiles in the 7.62x39 is that the .310 projectiles are actually constructed for 7.62x39 terminal velocities. 308 projectiles are constructed for higher velocities and performance can be marginal at the lower impact speeds. I guess you could go for some of the new 300 black sub sonic projectiles, but what pay the price premium?