Comments for Tech, Guns, and Food Blog

Comment on Remington 700 VTR Review by greg

greg — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:16:37 +0000

Just to update on my VTR. I shot well with it with factory ammo, reloading has taken it to a new level. Since beginning of October, I have shot the following. 1 146 axis doe, 1 140 pound whitetail doe, 1 195 pound whitetail buck and 4 hogs ranging from 289 pounds up to 457 pounds. The deer were all shot threw the shoulder. The Hogs were all headshots, all shots were out of the same stand at 200 yards approximately. Not one animal took a step but fell dead in it’s tracks. If you have not shot the 165 grain sierra gameking spitzer boattail, you need to. It is a fantastic bullet. Other guys I hunt with all shoot .300 win mag, 30-06, and .270, Every hog they have shot travelled a minimum 75 yards through some of the thickest, prickliest, thorniest brush you will ever see. Needless to say, my VTR .308 outperformed every rifle and bullet used so far this year. Factory ammo will only take you so far, and these guys are shooting Nosler, ballistic silvertips, federal big game, so they are shooting good quality factory, did not compare to sierra game king. Good luck with your plinking or hunting.

Comment on Remington 700 VTR Review by Lyle

Lyle — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:34:17 +0000

This is my first post ever but love to read all of the other posts. I had a Savage 204 with accu trigger and got along great in the pd towns until the barrel got hot. While checking around in the local gun shop a couple years ago I saw a Remmington VTR for the first time.It had great ballance and shouldered a lot better than my Savage. It was a 204 with a Weaver 4×16 scope with target dot. In thirty minites it was mine and the Savage was not. You understand I don’t perferate much paper but I like to see the bullet hit and see all the pink mist in the scope.The VTR seems to shoot at least as well as the Savage but without the heating problem.It seems to bark a little louder. Probably a combination of a shorter barrel and the muzzle brake. My thoughts are that the VTR is great on a bench rest but also is not too heavy or long for a carry rifle for coyotes.

Comment on Remington 700 VTR Review by Ross

Ross — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:33:13 +0000

Nice post. I have been considering a .308 VTR as a new silhouette rifle and it looks pretty much like what I want.
I read somewhere that the triangular barrel was an optimal design for stiffness and that the fluted design was not as stiff for the material put into it. That article was written by an engineer. I think that makes the barrel light enough for offhand shooting, for me anyway. The rifles I have handeld in the gun shop seem light enough to hold up and heavy enough to hold still, and that’s pretty much what you want. I was wondering if the barrel not being floated is offset by the increased heat dissipation. The triangle design bleeds off more heat because the walls around the bore are thinner than the round or fluted barrels, and that’s actually what cools it. You can actually make barrels very thin because the metal used is very strong, but they aren’t as stiff as they need to be when they are really thin. Savage used to make very thin barreled rifle barrels and make them stiff by attaching them to a shotgun barrel. The Savage model 24 had a rifle barrel on top and shotgun on the bottom, and the rifle barrels on top were much smaller than you thought they should be. The triangle is a good solution for that.
Thank you for your impressions.

Comment on Bolt action AR by ryochiji

ryochiji — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:59:38 +0000

I got the upper receiver and bolt carrier from Fulton Armory. The bolt carrier already has a threaded hole where the bolt “handle” screws into it. You can see a picture on their website: http://www.fulton-armory.com/M6Parts3.htm#UpperParts

Comment on Bolt action AR by Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:27:20 +0000

I have been looking at building up a 0% cast AR15 lower and upper reciever and just want to make a single shot varmit gun. This upper is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. I’ll be making my own barrel so no problem with gas. I’d love a better picture of the bolt so I can copy it. Thanks!

Comment on Decisions behind my next rifle by Rob

Rob — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:14:59 +0000

I’ve got a 6.5 and I’m VERY interested on how you got a detachable box mag on it. My son is on about how my dad’s Browning BAR 30-06 should be his now, and to leave me with a deer rifle, I’d like to put a detachable box mag on my swede.

Thanks in advance..

Comment on About by chas moffett

chas moffett — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:26:12 +0000

Whut uP^ code monkey. That’s whacked. Never heard that kind of description for a code writer but then, what the eff do I know about pseudocode.

So Ryo: do you have any idea as to how the legislation affects those who are involved with re-loading? I’ve been wondering about trying to go there because I shoot .35 remington rounds which are hella hard to find. And check this…Marlin is like pumping out their Model 336 like crazy and what’s a rifle worth without the ammo.

I haven’t bounced anything to Arnie Cigary yet, but I have emailed the local Police Chief here in Truckee and he’s so busy he hasn’t any info about AB 962. There are only two places in this ’ski-town’ that sell ammo and they don’t even have a clue.

Good intentions screw things up. Keeping ammo from reaching bangers is ethically and morally okay, but as to the remainder of those who aren’t bangers…we should not have to suffer.

Thanks for the information. Peace out dude!

Comment on Remington 700 VTR Review by Peter French

Peter French — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:07:21 +0000

Gidday, Interesting blog. I have been hunting for over 20 years now, i grew up with a SMLE .303 used it to shoot everything from paper targets to rabbits, pigs, goats and red deer…ammo was cheap then, i have used many different calibres along the way, some i liked, some i didn’t. I have found that every rifle can be good or bad depending on the person behind it. I wanted something lighter more compact with no recoil, so a year ago i bought VTR .223 and have fitted it with a 6×42 NC STAR scope. So far i havn’t had any problems with it, i think it’s great although the noise seems to be louder than my .303,but i don’t think anyone has built the perfect rifle yet, or we’d all have one i’m sure. I think i would have been better off with one in 22.250 cal as they shoot further and flatter and i like long shots. Here in NZ most of the game i have shot have been well under 100 yards so the .223 is fine. Some would say this calibre is too small for deer, but i think if you know your weapon and it’s limitations you can put down any animal. I would love one of these in stainless, they don’t seem to suffer the effects of corrosive cheap ammo (wolf) as much. My friends and i are hunters, we don’t get too far into the technical side of things, our weapons are our tools that put the food on our tables so we use rifles that can do that with one shot because mostly thats the only shot you get, they have to be lite,not only do you have to carry it around all day in thick bush, you still have to carry it when you have a large pig or deer on your back, they also have to be cheap to run, so all round the VTR fits the bill perfectly.

Comment on Remington 700 VTR Review by Robert F

Robert F — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:10:47 +0000

Don’t be discouraged by a holes like that. You keep doing what you are doing man. Sometimes I like to hear what the average Joe like myself has to say about a gun. I don’t always like to read only what the self proclaimed experts have to say. They always say the same old boring things. Its like all these “professional” gun writters cut and paste their reviews from some sort of database sponsored by the gun manufacturers. In fact, I don’t recall ever reading a bad review. They always say something nice. I guess it is kinda hard to get free things out of the manufacturers when you are brutally honest. An unbiased opinion is always welcomed in my ears. Your experience with this rifle is probably closer to that of which will be mine. Or at least much closer than to that of a “professional” gun writter. So, like I said keep doing what you are doing, some of us do appreciate it.

Comment on Right handed, Left handed, Wrong handed? by Chris

Chris — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:00:12 +0000

It seems very unlikely that gun manufacturers would start making more left handed rifles, even if every left handed person in the world desired to shoot. Everything is made for right handed people, not just guns, and since there are FAR more righties than lefties, the demand from lefties will never be enough. Your only hope is for every right handed person to suddenly quit shooting.

I have the opposite problem. I am a righty who feels far more comfortable shooting lefty (which also means with my weaker eye). That said, I am in the process of converting to righty for two reasons: I wanted to shoot with both eyes open, and I simply can’t with my left eye, and I wanted access to more guns without having to go on epic searches to find one for a lefty (and pay a lot more for them). I got tired of the gas from the AR 15 (and other guns) going up my nose (it burns badly on occasion).

Now the one advantage I have is that I shoot just as competently right handed, it just feels more natural shooting left handed. When I pick up a new rifle I immediately shoulder in on my left shoulder as a natural reflex, then “remember” that I have to switch it over.

My trick (which may work as well for a person switching to lefty because of the scarcity of left handed guns) was to buy a thumbhole stock Savage 17 HMR – http://savagearms.com/93r17BTVS.htm – which is available in a left handed model – http://savagearms.com/93r17BTVS_LH.htm). There is nothing even remotely ambidextrous with a thumbhole stock and forces you to shoot righty (in your case lefty). It has worked well, but as I said I am as competent with either hand.

Either way, I would recommend that 17 HMR. Most fun gun I have ever shot. Small caliber (you’re shooting a glorified pellet), but straight as a laser – unlike a .22 LR it actually feels like a rifle with a serious bang with no kick). You should be able to get 5 shots in a dime at 100 yards, and if you have varmint (racoons, ground hogs, squirrels – all of which are problem animals where I live) they are toast (anything smaller than a fox is a goner at 100 yards).