Thread: 24" Tikka 7mm PRC Terminator

A big thank you to Greg at Terminator Brakes, Ian Hughes at Hardy and Stu at Greystone Guns for helping put this tack driver together in a short space of time.

Build:
Stock - Hardy/Kroseg/Hi-Tec Carbon Fibre Tikka
Action - Tikka donor action
Barrel - 24" Bartlien 1:8 Rem Varmint
Trigger - Timney #430 2 stage
Suppressor - Greystone 5K
Current ammunition - factory 175gr ELD-X. MV measured at 38 round count was 2952fps. Suspect it is currently a few fps higher.

Purpose of this build was to provide me with a system capable of taking large bull tahr and red stags out to 1000m. As a result of previous injuries, I am bit sensitive to recoil, therefore I made this build a bit heavier than what others may have gone for. Greg was patient throughout and provided sound advice in regards to what would work best based on my personal situation and desired intent.



Initial observations:
- the balance wasn't quite right and the recoil profile was variable. This is was as a result of me selecting a heavy barrel and long suppressor, knowing full well it may be front heavy. However, once I inserted some lead sinkers in resin into the rear of the stock, it balanced out, recoil become more predictable and groups significantly improved.
- due to limited supply of ammunition, I kept my group sizes to only three rounds in order to get an idea of the rifle's precision potential. See images below.







Field results:

First hunt resulted in 3 x nanny tahr taken for meat from 450-540m. Two were front shoulder shots as I built up confidence in the system and the last shot was a neck shot at 540m. Sorry, no photos of this hunt.

Next was a mission with two close friends who have been after a 13"+ bull for a number of decades. First bull taken by friend No.1 was at approx. 990-1000m. First round hit behind the front shoulder and a follow up shot to make sure it stayed in place. This bull went 13 3/4".



Second bull taken by friend No.2 was at approx. 1000-1010m. First round hit bang on front shoulder and the animal dropped on the spot. This bull went 14 1/4".





What would I change or do different?
- I would consider putting a lower scope mount on the rifle in order to lower the scope height as I have already gone with the lowest scope rings I could find for a 34mm tube. I am nit picking here and probably won't change it.
- If I were looking to push past 1000m on game I would look to do hand loads as the MV spread was high (need to double check exact figure before posting). I will look to recapture MV spread and baseline around 150-200rds.
- Whilst the suppressor works really well, I am going to put a shroud on the suppressor as there is considerable mirage when doing more than 3 shots - eg. long range pest control.

In summary, whilst I have only put a three boxes of ammunition through this rifle it is by far exceeding my expectations. Many thanks to Greg, Ian and Stu for helping put this together!

Great stuff I've been playing with a PRC and just starting hand loading 180 ELDM at 2800 from a 20".
Looking good so far.

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by 25/08 IMP

Great stuff I've been playing with a PRC and just starting hand loading 180 ELDM at 2800 from a 20".
Looking good so far.

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

I'll be really interested to hear/see what those 180 ELD-M's do on game. I suspect they could be good to go. It will be hard to move away from the 175gr ELD-X's after seeing what they do at 1000m.

Very nice set up & very tight groups. You must be wrapped in the performance.
What powder are you running with the 175ELDX ?
That Tahr is a stonker, well done.

Originally Posted by JT_NZ

I'll be really interested to hear/see what those 180 ELD-M's do on game. I suspect they could be good to go. It will be hard to move away from the 175gr ELD-X's after seeing what they do at 1000m.

Not much of a test at 40M
Exit wound

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Nice rifle and couple nice bulls too!

Originally Posted by chainsaw

Very nice set up & very tight groups. You must be wrapped in the performance.
What powder are you running with the 175ELDX ?
That Tahr is a stonker, well done.

Just Hornady factory loads at the moment. Not sure what powder I would use for reloads TBH.

Got me fizzed on Thar hunting in a couple of weeks.
Good caliber choice mate. Gotta love the Tikkas

Update to above - with a bit of help from Mark from MacKenzie Helicopters, we managed to recover my bull that spent a couple of cold nights in the snow. Bit of a old battle axe. 13.5" on one side with a fractured tip and 13" on the other side where the tip is completely gone. Nice character head.

Of note though is the recovered 175gr ELD-X. This shot was just over 700m and the projectile retained 77% of it's mass. Doing a deeper dive into the Kestrel, it appears that the 175gr ELD-X is still doing 1800fps at 1000m with this rifle. Happy days.

Iv just got back from chasing tahr shooting 180eldm out of my 7saum and they flat out work

so...just like the TVpresenter does at end of reality house build shows
whats the ballpark figure of how much this cost????

and just in case some newbie with little experience shooting thinks buying/building one will allow them to walk out and shoot animals at 1km after only shooting 60 shots......Im guessing you have been shooting for years,spend lots of time at range,have all your drops and drifts worked out to withing gnats nuts and have used those 60 rounds to prove them.....own a good reliable rangefinder and do the hard yards to make sure all ducks are in a row before thinking about shooting.
thats not critisisym...its there to let newbies KNOW whats needed.... your into formula ONE motor racing here and a learners licence having driven mums eskudo for practise isnt going to cut it.

I forgot an autopsy photo but you can see either side of the skin the trauma the eldm caused

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

and just in case some newbie with little experience shooting thinks buying/building one will allow them to walk out and shoot animals at 1km after only shooting 60 shots......Im guessing you have been shooting for years,spend lots of time at range,have all your drops and drifts worked out to withing gnats nuts and have used those 60 rounds to prove them.....own a good reliable rangefinder and do the hard yards to make sure all ducks are in a row before thinking about shooting.
thats not criticism...its there to let newbies KNOW whats needed.... your into formula ONE motor racing here and a learners licence having driven mums eskudo for practise isnt going to cut it.

You're bang on MD. It definitely takes a fair bit of investment in training, equipment and humility to be truly confident in taking an animal out to 1000m in the Southern Alps. I've been fortunate enough to have been exposed to fantastic mentors and instructors over the years that when the conditions are favourable (nil wind), that I may feel confident enough to attempt a clean kill on an animal out to 1000m. However, I must emphasise for those reading this that my aim when I hunt is not to take animals at 1000m, but to be able to use all the tools at my disposal as nature can be an unpredictable beast. I still love the thrill of the stalk and getting in nice and close.

For those interested in getting into long range shooting, I recommend watching all the Todd & Colby Hodnett / Accuracy 1st videos you can find on YouTube. The best piece of advice I ever got was from a Accuracy 1st video where they stated words to the effect of: the most important aspect of long range shooting is knowing what matters and when it matters. Eg. 100fps MV extreme spread probably isn't going to make much difference at 100m but you sure are going to run into problems at 1500m. Furthermore, I would enquire with local training providers such as Nick Fisher @ Sparrowhawk and/or Stu Tylee @ Target Dynamics for quality training.

Ref cost for the above build, I recommend touching base with Greg @ Terminator as I supplied a couple parts myself. What I can say though with confidence is that my 5-25 NF ATACR is the most expensive part of the setup and the rifle Greg built was significantly cheaper than what I was quoted from GA Precision in the USA for a similar build.

Hope that info helps some readers.

JT

Looks like a good size animal as well!