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I've been looking for a stainless Varmint in .223 for quite awhile and I finally found one. The seller said he hadn't fired it and the guy he bought it from claimed that it was only proof fired at the factory. Sure, whatever, the price was right.

The seller looks to be correct! I picker her up yesterday and either someone went to a lot of trouble to clean her up or she's NOS (new old stock).

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Bolt face looks untouched.

I installed a Limbsaver pad, only because all of my Tikkas wear them, and a Yo Dave trigger spring to lighten the pull. Warne rings and a Leupold FX3 12x40mm AO Target scope and I'm ready for load development. She's a 1-8" so I hope my current 75 grain ELDM load (Carlos) shoots as well as it does in my blued T3x Varmint.

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Merry Christmas to me!



P
 
Circumstances tell me you have seen the Limelight through The Trees without spending the Big Money. One little Victory!


Dont Leave That Thing Alone and use it to whack some critters

Seriously, nice rifle. If you get bored get the stock hydro dipped. Mine turned out great!
 
Circumstances tell me you have seen the Limelight through The Trees without spending the Big Money. One little Victory!


Dont Leave That Thing Alone and use it to whack some critters

Seriously, nice rifle. If you get bored get the stock hydro dipped. Mine turned out great!
Nice signal.

Circumstances required an aftermarket bolt shroud, too.
 
Who did the work? Looks beautiful. My T3x 204 Ruger stock is butt ugly.
The 270 WSM ( black and white) was done at West Coast Hydrographics in Clackamas. The .243 "Badlands" dip was done by Advanced Coatings in Redmond. Both did great work. You could never tell it wasn't factory finish. Hunted with them several times and it has held up perfectly.
 
All of our (mine and my brother's) Tikkas will chamber the same brass, so all I have to do is neck size. I just ran a bunch of loaded rounds into the new Varmint and they chamber without issue. I hope the fired cases will chamber in the other Tikkas.

Looking at tomorrow for a range day.



P
 
Well, she's a shooter. I started off with Pest Control, my 50 grain Ballistic Tip Varmint load.

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Three shots on the left are the first three at 100 yards after getting on paper. Two clicks right are the two holes (three shots) just left of the red dot.
One more click right and the bull was gone.

Disappointed, though, that she didn't like the 75 grain ELDM load. The good news is, I get to work up a load. That's always fun.

Next up is to chrono Pest Control. I'm expecting 3400 fps.




P
 
Chronoed Pest Control today. Only four shots. 50 grain BT Varmint, 26.5 grains Benchmark (safe in my rifle, work up to it), average 3421. High 3450, ES 46. Kinda surprised by the ES being that high but this load chronoes 3400 in three other rifles. Pretty pleased so far.



P
 
Next stop, finding a replacement 75 grain ELDM load. I measured distance to the lands at 1.940". I started there, then moved in to 1.900", then in one more time to 1.875". I already know that 25.0 grains at 1.915" is a no-go.

Two charge weights of Varget, 25.0 grains and 25.5 grains. Five rounds each at each charge weight and seating depth for 30 total rounds.

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I might get to the range this week. I have TAC to try if Varget doesn't pan out.

The BT Varmint load (Pest Control) is a great fallback but goes subsonic around 750. The ELDM stays supersonic past 1200 with way less wind drift. And I have a bunch of them.




P
 
Might be a bit heavy for some varmints but I have fount 60gr Bt's shoot better than the lighter offerings out of my 1-8 twist barrels and ar comp is king with them.
 
Might be a bit heavy for some varmints but I have fount 60gr Bt's shoot better than the lighter offerings out of my 1-8 twist barrels and ar comp is king with them.
Bullets are tough to find these days, and I have a thousand or so of both ELD-M and BT.

If I can find some 60 gr I might give them a whirl.
 
And more good news, I have full reciprocity in brass between my 1-10" and the Varmint, so neck sizing only!

As an added bonus I did a bullet inventory and determined I have plenty of 50 and 75 grain bullets, at least for now.
 
Bullets are tough to find these days, and I have a thousand or so of both ELD-M and BT.

If I can find some 60 gr I might give them a whirl.
I hear you. I got lucky and bought a bunch of 60gr bt blems from Midway cheap before all the craziness. I probably will have to get on a notification list and pay full bore when I run out in a couple years.
 

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