Being a constant tinkerer, and hard to satisfy when it comes to my gear, I felt as if I "needed" a rifle upgrade. I sold and traded some gear, and was able to scrape together enough money to buy something that wouldn't necessarily be considered an "average joe/working class man" type purchase, but I splurged and bought a Christensen Arms Ridgeline in 7mm Rem Mag. I debated for a while whether or not to go the 300wm route, but chose to stick with a cartridge I'm familiar with and that have a few hundred $$$ worth of components for. That said, I might pick up a 300rum after Berger releases the 245 and everyone else has worked out the kinks.
I have a few bullets I'll be trying. I plan on working them one at a time, then moving to a different one if I'm not be satisfied with the results. Starting with the 180 hunting vld, then 175eldx, 162eldm, and if those don't work I know the 168CH will work. (There isn't a rifle I've loaded for that wasn't able to shoot the classic hunters well). Powders I have are RL26, 7828, 7977, and 8133.
This weekend I loaded up a ladder test of the 180vlds and RL26 covering a 6gr range, as well as 4 middle range rounds to see if the 1:9 twist would stabilize or not.
Last night had perfect conditions to do a test, so I headed out to the desert and was greeted by a double rainbow. "WHAT DOES IT MEAN?"
After a long and boring break-in, I shot a few fouling rounds then the ladder test. My velocities were right where I expected them to be, so I shot the 4 mid-charge rounds w/out the magnetospeed attached, and voila...
Should be a good shooter. Now I just need to fine tune and figure out the load I'm most happy with, but I think I have a pretty good starting point.
