I just got my M70 470 Capstick yesterday. It was a 416 Rem Mag in a previous life. This is the same rifle John Ricks posted pictures of last week. It looks even better in person.

It will make it first trip to the range today.

Good luck with your new rifle, David. Can we see the pictures again, here?

Found it:


[ 11-22-2003, 22:04: Message edited by: Nickudu ]

David,

I have a .470 Capstick (built on a LH M-70) and love it!

Let us know how it shoots.

George

The rifle shoots great. I like it a lot. The recoil is stiff, but not bad. Seems to be not too much more than my 416 Rem.

I spent my time at the range today shooting over my chronograph. My initial goal is to get a good load worked up for this beast. I shot 9 strings of 5 shots each. I used three powders (IMR4064, H4895, and Varget) and three charge weights for each powder. I added Varget to the list because is shoots so well in my 416.

I used Woodleigh 500gr softs, Bell brass, and Fed 215M primers for all the shots. The rifle has a 24" barrel. The heaviest charge weights and some data:

Powder weight velocity extreme spread standard dev

IMR4064 85gr 2190fps 31fps 13fps

Varget 84gr 2190fps 7fps 2fps

H4895 84gr 2250fps 41fps 15fps

I have more work to do here. There is still room in the case and there were not signs of high pressure on any of the loads. For all the powders tested, it looks like a 1gr increase in powder is good for about 20 to 30fps in the range I'm working. I don't expect to get much over 2300fps based on my tests so far. The results are a full 120fps slower than the data in the A-Square manual. Varget was the most consistant across the charge range, lowest extreme spread and standard deviation, also the smallest and most consistant group size. In fact, the Varget loads all shot to the same point of impact regardless of the charge. All the other varied vertically. The H4895 had quite a bit of horizontal stringing during each of the groups.

[ 11-23-2003, 05:47: Message edited by: David ]

500g at 2300 sounds good to me.
I can't wait till someone with a Capstick gets a hold of Bridger's 550g solids and works up some loads. I'd love to see 2200 fps.
My Lapua wildcat will probably have just a bit more powder than the Capstick. I's sort of a yardstick for me.
Looks like a fine rifle you have, and some fun shooting ahead! Congrats.

A good choice of caliber on your part...They do work on anything, normally a heart shot elephant will just cave in, then strighten up and run a short run and drop, but you can visably see the effect of a 500 gr. bullet at 2300 FPS..

Last time I checked Bridger Bullets web site, they still aren't selling to the public. I do plan on giving them a try when I can get them.

The main reason I chose this caliber is that it can easily duplicate the 470NE. Since there is no way I will ever be able to afford a nice double rifle in 470 and still be able to afford at least one trip to Africa, this was the next best thing.

[ 11-23-2003, 10:37: Message edited by: David ]