bore 2 (bôr, br)
tr.v. bored, bor·ing, bores
To make weary by being dull, repetitive, or tedious
I would like to focus on the "repetitive" part of that definition.
In preparation for next years elk hunt I took up as much of Mark Kuczka's time as I could to come up with what would be to me the perfect elk rifle. After going back and forth over caliber and all the other specs here is what we finally came up with.
I had a NF 3.5-15 SFP on hand and sent it to AO to mount up. A few months later I get this:
This is a hunting rifle so I intended to test only hunting ammo. After going through premium factory loads from Norma, Barnes, Remington, and a few Federals it turned out that the Federal Premium 180 Trophy Bonded Tips performed the most consistently. This was also the least expensive load tested. While the various test loads had a wide range of performance any of them would do well for hunting. All shooting was done from a mat, bipod, and sand sock.
Here is 7 consecutive 5 shot groups at 200 yards:
In columns from left to right the groups are:
0.845"
0.86"
0.965"
0.95"
0.8" (center group)
1.2"
1.27"
Average = 0.984"
MOA = 0.47 (0.984/(1.047*2)
I do not know why but I always shoot better at circles than I do at any other shape. Perhaps this is due to so many years of small bore and EIC competitions.
The Little Jimmy brake does a great job of taming recoil. My only complaint is that it kicks up a little more dust than I would like, but I do not expect to shoot elk from the prone. All my rifles now come with Timneys, and I have retrofit some old ones just the same. I really like the Stiller bolt knob. After having 2 Stillers now I do prefer the feel of it by just a little bit over the Badger. The Badger seems a little large and the knurling on the Stiller is quite nice. The rifle sports a Harris bipod right now. These are great pieces of equipment and I have used them for a very long time without a single problem, but I will be sending the stock back to AO to get a bipod rail put on it to switch to an Atlas. I first used an Atlas this last spring and didn't like them at first. It took a good bit of doing, but I have since learned how to load the Atlas and it has made all the difference. Without properly loading it you will experience jump that will kill your groups. The Atlas offers the ability to quickly throw the legs at various angels to better support the rifle against trees, fences, and the like.
AO guarantees their rifles to 3/8 MOA with Match ammo. Writing this I realized I forgot to ask if that was for 3 shot or 5 shot groups. Per the Hide and NRA standard I only measure with 5 shots. This rifle almost got the job done with hunting ammo. It will never be used in a match but I couldn't help myself in trying out some Black Hills 190 Match Hollow Points (moly and non-moly), FGMM 190s, and some 208 A-Max hand loads I had on the shelf. The Black Hills performed almost as well as the Trophy Tips. But we can't expect every load to do well in every rifle, even match versus hunting loads. The FGMM was outrageous (at least for me in a 300 Win Mag). I only fired 2 groups at 100 yards and decided I was wasting my time. They measured 0.25" and 0.31". And if that weren't enough the A-Max's churned out 0.24" and 0.29" groups. But what's the point other than to say I have one damn accurate rifle?
Here's the back of the spec card:
Back to the bored part. This rifle performs consistently. And that's just it. I know exactly what it's going to do every time. I will get the rifle out to 600 yards next month to see if I can become un-bored with it. Every load tested, whether it performed better or worse than the Fed Trophy Bonded, had a consistent grouping that I could count on. Although, I do have to say I do not get bored with how it looks. It is beautiful. And this has been a general theme from Accurate Ordnance, I know exactly what to expect. And that is why I am formulating my next build with them.
tr.v. bored, bor·ing, bores
To make weary by being dull, repetitive, or tedious
I would like to focus on the "repetitive" part of that definition.
In preparation for next years elk hunt I took up as much of Mark Kuczka's time as I could to come up with what would be to me the perfect elk rifle. After going back and forth over caliber and all the other specs here is what we finally came up with.
I had a NF 3.5-15 SFP on hand and sent it to AO to mount up. A few months later I get this:
This is a hunting rifle so I intended to test only hunting ammo. After going through premium factory loads from Norma, Barnes, Remington, and a few Federals it turned out that the Federal Premium 180 Trophy Bonded Tips performed the most consistently. This was also the least expensive load tested. While the various test loads had a wide range of performance any of them would do well for hunting. All shooting was done from a mat, bipod, and sand sock.
Here is 7 consecutive 5 shot groups at 200 yards:
In columns from left to right the groups are:
0.845"
0.86"
0.965"
0.95"
0.8" (center group)
1.2"
1.27"
Average = 0.984"
MOA = 0.47 (0.984/(1.047*2)
I do not know why but I always shoot better at circles than I do at any other shape. Perhaps this is due to so many years of small bore and EIC competitions.
The Little Jimmy brake does a great job of taming recoil. My only complaint is that it kicks up a little more dust than I would like, but I do not expect to shoot elk from the prone. All my rifles now come with Timneys, and I have retrofit some old ones just the same. I really like the Stiller bolt knob. After having 2 Stillers now I do prefer the feel of it by just a little bit over the Badger. The Badger seems a little large and the knurling on the Stiller is quite nice. The rifle sports a Harris bipod right now. These are great pieces of equipment and I have used them for a very long time without a single problem, but I will be sending the stock back to AO to get a bipod rail put on it to switch to an Atlas. I first used an Atlas this last spring and didn't like them at first. It took a good bit of doing, but I have since learned how to load the Atlas and it has made all the difference. Without properly loading it you will experience jump that will kill your groups. The Atlas offers the ability to quickly throw the legs at various angels to better support the rifle against trees, fences, and the like.
AO guarantees their rifles to 3/8 MOA with Match ammo. Writing this I realized I forgot to ask if that was for 3 shot or 5 shot groups. Per the Hide and NRA standard I only measure with 5 shots. This rifle almost got the job done with hunting ammo. It will never be used in a match but I couldn't help myself in trying out some Black Hills 190 Match Hollow Points (moly and non-moly), FGMM 190s, and some 208 A-Max hand loads I had on the shelf. The Black Hills performed almost as well as the Trophy Tips. But we can't expect every load to do well in every rifle, even match versus hunting loads. The FGMM was outrageous (at least for me in a 300 Win Mag). I only fired 2 groups at 100 yards and decided I was wasting my time. They measured 0.25" and 0.31". And if that weren't enough the A-Max's churned out 0.24" and 0.29" groups. But what's the point other than to say I have one damn accurate rifle?
Here's the back of the spec card:
Back to the bored part. This rifle performs consistently. And that's just it. I know exactly what it's going to do every time. I will get the rifle out to 600 yards next month to see if I can become un-bored with it. Every load tested, whether it performed better or worse than the Fed Trophy Bonded, had a consistent grouping that I could count on. Although, I do have to say I do not get bored with how it looks. It is beautiful. And this has been a general theme from Accurate Ordnance, I know exactly what to expect. And that is why I am formulating my next build with them.
