I have shot this rifle enough now to provide a little feedback to anyone that may be looking in this direction.
The mission for this rifle is simple, I wanted a light maneuverable gun where the average shot is under 100 yards but could be as much as 300 on a very rare occasion. The candidates were Remington's Model 7, Tikka T3 lite, and the Browning X-bolt Micro Hunter. All were qualified with a slight minus going to the Remington whose action just didn't appear to be in the same league. The Browning won out with it's fit to my frame and overall feel. It has a 20" barrel and weighs in right at 6 lbs. The trigger is adjusted via a setscrew and on it's lightest setting breaks at 3 lbs with zero creep and almost nonexistent overtravel.
For the scope I was considering the Zeiss Conquest and Leupold VX-R, both in 3-9X40. The Leupold also brought a 30mm tube and lighted dot in the center of the reticle. Both appeared to be very bright and crisp with a slight edge in clarity going the Conquest, and a slight edge in brightness going to the VX-R. The VX-R reticle is thicker than I would prefer, but it won out considering the mission of shooting whitetail deer at ranges under 300 yards and often in low light. It is mounted in Leupold low mounts in Leupold bases.
With 7 different flavors of 7mm-08 ammo, I headed to the range to try it out. They were Federal Fusion 120 and 140, Remington Core-lokt 140, Hornady Superformance SST 139, Hornady Cutom Lite 120, Prvi 140, and Nosler Accubond 140. After 20 rounds of break-in shoot/clean cycles I begin the test. All performed under 1.5" except the Prvi which were closer to 2.5". The Superformance exit at 2950 fps and I wanted them to work the best, but it didn't turn out that way. I shot several 3 round groups with them with the same result of 2 shots almost touching and the third shot opening up the group. The stars of the bunch were the Nosler Accubonds shooting under .5", Fusion 140 .75", Core-Lokt 140 and Hornady Custom Lite 120 at 1".
I ended up with a very accurate 7 lb. hunting package that looks and feels great. I will hopefully have more to report on the performance of the Nosler Accubonds as soon as an opportunity presents itself.
