New rifle, new caliber for me. Reminton 783 Varmint, .243 Winchester.
Had to make a serious decision about this one. It's another ".308-based, .308-Parent-Cartridge" round. There's six, total, including .308 Winchester. .243 Win, .260 Rem, 7mm-08, .308 Win, .338 Fed, and .358 Win. I'm alright with the .308, .260 Rem, and .338 Fed. That's half, if I just stop there. I know, though, that if I bought this bolt gun - why stop at 4 out of 6 in the .308 Family?! This bolt gun will end up (also) costing me a 7mm-08 AR, and a .358 Win AR. Eventually...
Beautiful laminated wood stock, 26" free-floated heavy barrel - this is the same exact barrel profile as my Rem 700 Long Range, the .300 Win Mag. But the bore is alot smaller... That means this barrrel is heavy as HELL!!! 4-round detachable magazine for feeding, plus 1 in the pipe. Mmmmm, okay. At least it's mag fed. Like all bolt guns should be. Comes with the 0-MOA rail already mounted on it. Detachable (threaded) oversized bolt knob. Adjustable "Crossfire" trigger system - and it WORKS! It came set at 3.5lbs pull weight, and I've already adjusted it down to a tick over 2lbs. The adjustment system really works. Remington should put this trigger in all it's 700s, too - because that X-Mark Pro "adjustable" trigger sucks so bad. This Crossfire trigger system really works. But thumbs up on that. It won't over-ride my complete disdain for the X-Mark Pro, but it's a step in the right direction, and something that you don't need to shell out your own "extra money" to fix.
I'll have alot of work to do with it to get it ready for the Spring Shoot. Glass, something from Athlon will go on it. Either a 4~14 mildot or a 6~24 mildot. Warne Maxima steel rings, as low as I can go. Extra mags. Scope bubble level. V-TAC Mk1 FDE sling. MagPul bipod. Gonna be tough to make it, just 2 months out, but I'll work on it.
Ran up the numbers on the oldest ammo I can find for it, that you can find almost everywhere - 100gr Remington Core-Lokt PSP. There won't be any time for dies, Lee crimp die, powder experiments and all that - prior to Spring Shoot. Gonna have to run shelf ammo. Kinda surprised at how the numbers worked out for that ammo - 2.8 mils drop at 500, 7.4 mils drop at 850, 10.3 mils drop at 1,000. It drops below 1,000 lb/ft of energy around 375 yards, so for deer hunting, it'll be limited to about 350 yards - but that's 1.5 mils of drop. Here's the initial chart on the 100gr Core-Lokt:
I'll REALLY be itching to try out the Hornady 90gr ELD-X and 103gr ELD-X, once I do get to reloading for this thing...