Hawkeye Joe

[IKE]

Have not seen any postings from Hawkeye Joe for a long time. I always enjoyed his posts as I though he was very knowledgeable and knew what he was talking about. Anyone know where he is or what happened to him?

IKE

[Rick in Oregon]

We were just talking about him and Skipper a few days ago...nope, not a word and he's not answering any PM's either. We did a couple of rifle deals together, and you're correct, he knew his stuff and was an asset to the forum.

Hawkeye.....Mike, you around?

[Hawkeye Joe]

I'm still here.. Been busy at work and working on my home. Buddy and I are doing fine. Luckily I had a giant can of recession repellent. Didn't work very well on my stocks though!! Haven't killed anything but targets lately because we kept the off-hand match going all winter long to get our fix. The past year and a half has been mostly off-hand and prone with sling shooting. Bench shooting just wasn't doing it for me anymore. Last year my Savage .204 Predator was either first or second in the 300 yard prone and 3 position matches all year. Some nice rifles fell victim to the Predator. Even on windy days!! A certain Marine sniper/gunsmith kept me in second place most of the time by X'ing me out. My Predator barrel just couldn't hold it's accuracy for 40 rounds under match conditions. I did however take the forums advice and picked up a rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor. I had a model 22 Cooper Montana Varminter made with a 24 inch barrel for our prone matches. I had to send the bolt back because they didn't chamfer the extractor enough. I'm not sure how they shot it without noticing the bolt needed to be slammed VERY HARD to force the extractor to engage. You could NOT engage it moving the bolt slowly at all. I got it back in a few weeks and it looks like they hit it on a belt sander. I could have done that. I guess I shouldn't complain because a few days ago the first 6 shot group after break-in produced 6 holes touching with Hornady 120gr Factory ammo. This was shot on my belly with sling and Creedmoor hardback jacket. My buddy was spotting for me and told me he only sees the first shot, and is not sure where the others went. I then decided to stop after the 6th shot and get a closer look at the target.We kidded around on our way down to the 300 yard line and what do ya know, It was true. He DID only see one large hole. That's one target for the fridge and a personal best at 300 yards! So far the 6.5 Creedmoor has been living up to the hype for the non reloader to have a competitive round. Recoil is considerably less than a .308 Winchester. I plan on reloading it but for those who don't, the factory stuff can get it done for $23 a box. If you can find it!!! I also put a McGowen 24" .223 8 twist Wylde chamber barrel on my thumbhole Savage for the same 300 prone matches. I fiddled with the accu-trigger and bedded it with Acraglas gel. I also got one of them fancy competition recoil lugs. The thing is also a tack driver producing a 2 inch 10 shot group from the 300 line without a rest. The first 3 "shoot and clean" shots produced a .123 at 100 yards. Then that barrel had to go back because of galling in the shoulder area of the chamber. Looks like the reamer loaded up. With the 77gr Sierra's and N140 It's an excellent setup for my intended purpose. Can't wait for the first Belly match this month. That's my opening day of rat season. I do still love the look on guys faces when I tell them I'm using a 20 cal 35gr bullet. So a match quality light weight 204 build on a Savage action and McMillan Hunters Edge graphite stock has been eating at my brain. That is about all that's new on my end.

[Ray P]

Hawkeye Joe...........Glade to hear your doing well. Thanks for the update on your matches. My Marine/ gunsmith does the same thing in competion, but he does with customers guns that he builds! Hands the gun back to the customer and saying nothing wrong it shoots fine.
Question on the 6.5 Creedmoor is it all factory to be shooting that well. A friend asked me about that caliber and how good it was.
I guess you just answer that for me with a bug hole at 300 yards.
Keep us posed on what your reloading for 6.5 CM, powder, bullets!
Thanks and later
Ray P

[jo191145]

Hey Mike. Good to hear all is well. Sounds like your a busy guy these days. Thats a good thing, keeps us out of trouble.
Now if you ever want to try your hand at shooting little dots we've finally got some IBS score matches running over here in Ct.
Always welcome. Take care and have fun!!!

http://www.bellcity.org/

[Hawkeye Joe]

Joe, That looks like a nice range. Is that where they hold the egg shoots? Any matches the first few weeks in July?

[jo191145]

Mike

June 19th and July 24th. Nothing early July.
Dang, just googled Pendleton. darn big state compared to New England Thats a long way to drive to shoot. You must be pretty close to Camillus.
No eggs at Bell City. Eggs would be another 2hrs east from there.
Gotta admit I would'nt cruise those distances unless I were attending a Nat Championship or something. Not much chance of that I'm just not that committed. Take Care-Joe

[Hawkeye Joe]

I took the top spot at two club matches last weekend. I won both the NRA 3 position and 300 yard prone with a deadly pair of Savages. The Predator is a .204 and Thumbhole a .223 with 8 twist Wylde chamber. It was a great time and surprisingly a full line of shooters including a certain Marine sniper and a few bipods. I'm still smiling about it while typing. Been doing a lot of reading on top shooters(H.M.Pope,Dr.Hudson) of days gone by and it definitely improved my scores.The only thing wrong with my rifles is they shoot where I point them.

[Rick in Oregon]

Hawkeye: All I can say is nice shootin' there, buddy!

Looks like your time away was well spent for certain. I can almost see that grin from way over here on the left coast! Seriously, Mike, congratulations on some fine shooting.

On reading the old authors, I sure can relate there too. After reading everything I could find on Jack O'Connor and Elmer Keith (they never agreed on anything) in my early days, I went on both a .270 Win and .44 Mag/Spl quest that continues to this day.

Good to have you back.

[Clover_Shooter]

Hawkeye Joe,
Is the rifle on top the 6.5 creedmoor. Either way I'm interested in full details on your 6.5 creedmoor build. Mainly barrel manufacture and length. Is it a target action! Are you using all factory loads. Have you shot it at 400-600 yards.
I was thinking of buying or building a Savage (my first) or this Thompson/Center ICON Precision Hunter. 22" heavy barrel weight about 8lbs.
http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/icon_pre ... hunter.php

Thanks

[jo191145]

Very good show Mike. You've never had much problem gettin em shootin straight. Seems you haven't lost the knack
I have two matches this weekend too. IBS score shoot Saturday and eggs on Sunday. I'll see how it goes. Confidence level isn't all that high.
Been fiddling with the new 8208 XBR in a 6ppc and 6BR. Not yet convinced this stuff is all that great. Seems very inconsistent in the accuracy department. Shoots an awesome group and then a dud

Like Rick said. Good to have you back!!!

[Hawkeye Joe]

Clover shooter
My 6.5 Creedmoor Creedmore is a Cooper Montana Varminter with a special order 24" barrel. Standard length is 26". I'm getting 2850 fps with Hornady Factory 120 grain Amax ammo. They're by far the most accurate factory ammo I ever shot. Never did get hold of the 140's. I picked up 2 boxes of the 120's around Christmas time and haven't seen any brass or ammo available anywhere since. I ordered 100 pieces of brass from my local shop, but for now I'm limited to 40 pieces to reload


If I was building a 6.5 CM on a savage action I would go with the right bolt left port target action for a "bench only" rifle. On the other hand, if I wanted a bench/field rifle, I would go with the standard short action and pop in a nice trigger. I notice no difference in accuracy with the 3 screw target action over the standard 2 screw. If some do see a difference, there's probably some other issue effecting it like poor bedding. Another plus is just about everybody makes stocks for the 2 screw type. My Savage .223 thumbhole has a standard 2 screw action and a McGowen barrel with competition recoil lug. The comp lug is ground flat within .0002 I think. Don't quote me on that. The lug was $29. Money well spent!!!! There's a boat load of barrel makers to choose from. The question is, do ya feel lucky enough to get a shooter. Lots of lemons out there. Just about everything I buy lately has to go back. I took a chance on a McGowen barrel because Jim Briggs had a 24" 8 twist in stock. Glad I did, It sure is a shooter and cleans up easily with little to no copper. No more blue goo mess like the factory tube. Carbon is also minimal with N140. Point of impact holds steady from cold bore to hot also. I couldn't ask for more!


Thanks Rick. If I do a sweep next month I'll be restricted to shooting my M1 Garand.

[Hawkeye Joe]

You've never had much problem gettin em shootin straight. Seems you haven't lost the knack
!!!

Thanks Joe. You guys only see the baby. Not the labor pains

[jo191145]

Yeah?!!! You should see my stretch marks