an hour later and fired three more
bullets. They formed a 2.20-inch
group.
All this shooting indicates the
Mountain Rifle delivers more than
adequate hunting accuracy with
the first three bullets fired from a
cold barrel. The rifle always fired
its first bullet where it was aimed,
no matter if the barrel was clean
and lightly oiled, fouled, or left
fouled for a few days.
To practice with the Mountain
Rifle in preparation for a cow elk
hunt, I loaded a batch of .270 car-
tridges with Nosler 130-grain Bal-
listic Tip bullets and 58.0 grains
of H-4831 powder. The Reming-
ton’s magazine holds four .270
cartridges, so that’s how many I
fired before letting the barrel cool.
The Leupold VX-Freedom scope’s
Tri-MOA reticle incorporates one-
MOA hash marks on the lower wire
with the scope set on 9x. I held up
three hash marks and cracked
rocks on a hillside 350 yards away
while shooting prone with the rifle
over my backpack. From a sitting
position with the rifle supported
on shooting sticks, four bullets
landed in a 5-inch circle at 200
yards. When standing and lean-
ing against a post, the rifle came
up quickly with the full view visi-
ble through the scope, which can
be attributed to the stock’s wide
comb. The crosshairs wobbled
when I tried to hold them steady
on a target circle at 100 yards.
Four bullets hit in a 7-inch spread.
Four bullets landed in about a
4-inch circle when I started with
the crosshairs at the left edge of
the target paper and slowly moved
them to the right, pulling the trig-
ger when the crosshairs met the
target circle.
Handloaded .270 Winchester
cartridges didn’t kick all that
much. Still, recoil adds up when
shooting 40-some cartridges. The
wide surface area of the butt,
comb, cheekpiece and forearm of
the Mountain Rifle’s full-size stock
spread the recoil over much of my
body.
Before opening day of elk sea-July-August 2019 http://www.riflemagazine.com 31
The .270 Winchester test rifle paired
with handloaded Nosler 150-grain
Partition bullets and Reloder 26 powder
provided this group at 100 yards.
A Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad
helps reduce felt recoil.
The Bell & Carlson stock on the Mountain Rifle
has a straight and full comb with a cheekpiece.son, I adjusted the Leupold scope
for the rifle to fire Nosler 150-grain
Partition bullets with a muzzle ve-
locity of 3,064 fps 2 inches above
aim at 100 yards.
I carried the Mountain Rifle for
five days during a hunt for cow elk
but never did see one. The Moun-
tain Rifle was light on a sling over
my shoulder while hiking in the
rough country. The 22-inch barrel
made it easy to duck under over-
hanging branches, but I carried
the rifle in my hands when pushing
through doghair thickets. Dead
branches and rose thorns that
scratched my hands slid off the ri-
fle’s stock. I came to really like the
rifle after carrying it miles up and
down the mountains. It wasn’t par-
ticularly light nor heavy. Let’s say
it was just the right weight.
I sat on a rise and glassed the
country. Building dark clouds
blotted out the evening sun and
the temperature started to drop.
Tendrils of snow trailed across
the higher peaks at sundown. By
morning, snow would fall across
the mountains and the Remington
Mountain Rifle would be ready for
that fine elk-hunting weather. R