The methods discussed here are not the only methods available but are suitable. A process which evolved in testing hundreds of rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition over the past several years.

First of all, this discussion is about hunting rifles - not bench rest rifles, varmint rifles or long range sniping or target rifles - but rather about a rifle suitable for carrying afield and accuracy levels of ¾ to 1 ½ minute of angle with hunting ammunition in magnum caliber’s. Most of our hunting rifles fall in this accuracy category - rarely one will do better and less rarely one will do worse.

After acquiring a hunting rifle in your favorite caliber the next items to purchase are good quality cleaning kit and 100 rounds of brass. The cleaning kit should include a coated cleaning rod, and bore guide, some bore brushes, lots of patches, and some bore solvent.

Load up the 100 rounds of brass with which ever bullets you want to get rid of. At this point we are fire forming the brass, breaking in the barrel, familiarizing ourselves with the rifle and working out any bugs and adjustments that need to be made. Clean the barrel before shooting and after each round for the first ten rounds, then clean after each three-shot group for the next thirty rounds. At this point, if the barrel cleans easily we clean only after each 10 shot group. If the barrel shows some tendency to foul or is difficult to clean, we will continue to clean after each 5 shots. Most barrels will be broken in after shooting the 100 rounds and we have a good idea of the accuracy potential of the particular rifle involved. All needed adjustments have been made, the scope and mounting system have been validated, the brass has been fireformed to the chamber, and the rifle has been sighted in. Now we begin to work up loads for our upcoming hunting trip.

The process we use is virtually identical to the procedures outlined in the Nosler Reloading manual by Layne Simpson entitled Accuracy made simple. This is an excellent and well written article on developing loads for hunting rifles and I will simply reiterate a few points in this newsletter. Also the new Barnes Reloading Manuel #2 contains loading data for the 7mm, 300 and 330 Dakota cartridge with a big variety of bullet weights and a wealth of other information. We carry this manual in stock and can ship it immediately if needed.

Now that you have 100 fireformed cases it is an excellent time to start the case preparation process. Set up the sizing die to resize the case and neck just enough to allow the case to easily enter the chamber and not push the shoulder back. Resize and deprime the cases inspecting for cracks, loose primer pockets etc. Next step is to trim and chamber the necks. Pick the shortest case of the lot and trim all the cases to this length. At this time. Clean & chamber the inside of the flash hole.

Now is the time to sort the cases for capacity. The common method of doing this is weighing each case. A word of caution, it is quite possible for cases to vary in weight by 10 or12 grains and have the same capacity. This weight variation is due to the coin or cup composition from which the case is formed and has no effect on capacity. It is just as easy and more reliable to measure the capacity of each case using a small grained ball-powder. Fill each case to the top, scrap the powder level and pour the contents onto your powder scale. Usually in the lot of 100 cases, there will be two or three which show significant variation - set these cases aside. If you wish to segregate the rest of the cases into groups depending on capacity - have fun! We have never been able to determine that it has a major impact on hunting rifle accuracy but it certainly can’t hurt.

Next prime the cases. Primers of different manufacture have almost no effect on accuracy however the process of seating primers can have a major effect. Primer s are best seated in a press that allows you to feel the primer seat on the bottom of the primer pocket. Magnum primers work best in large capacity cases and are preferable when using ball powders.

Powder selection is another ingredient which has little effect on accuracy as long as we start with a suitable powder. As a rule, the powder which provides the desired velocity and results in a case full or nearly full with the bullet seated is good. Highly compressed loads should be avoided as burning rates can be affected when powders are crushed.

When we get to bullet selection, the plot thickens. Never in the history of sporting firearms have we enjoyed a better selection of premium bullets than is currently available. A June 98 article in Handloader magazine by Gary Sciuhettio is a report of extensive testing of a variety of bullets shot into mediums at various velocities. It is quite interesting. Basically we select a bullet weight we want to use, and buy a variety of bullets to try in this particular weight/caliber combination.

In a hunting rifle, we never seat the bullets closer than .030" to the lands. Remember the cases that were previously set aside. Make a dummy of this case and bullet combination by seating the bullet until the bolt can just close on the loaded round. Measure the overall length of the round and seat the bullet another .030" into the case. Keep this round to serve as a gauge for future reference. Do the same exercise for each bullet/case combination you intend to use. We do find that variations in bullet seating depth can affect accuracy - come rifles shoot best with bullets seated off the lands by as much as.125".

Just a couple of additional notes. Most brass is considerably undersized when compared to SAAMI minimum chamber dimensions. In the non-belted cases we commonly find brass that is .006-008 under minimum chamber dimensions and belted cases can vary from .010-.012. Manufacturers obviously want their cartridges to be capable of chambering in all types of rifles and aren't’t overly concerned with case life and reloading. When we developed our line of proprietary cartridges we were able to start with a clean slate and provide chambers and cartridges that were more compatible. Case life and accuracy are both improved as well as the ability of the gun to feed cartridges from the magazine.

One more statement which is certain to bring comments: We find the ideal muzzle velocity of a hunting rifle/bullet combination to be in the 2800-2900 FPS range. Bullet manufacturers refer to the "Wall" of 3000 FPS and with good reason. It is virtually impossible to construct a bullet which will perform well in the ultra range of 3400-3500 FPS and at the same time do a credible job when slowed to 1900 FPS (400-500 yard shot) many of these super high velocity loads will shoot well at 100 yards and horribly at longer distances - what is the proper twist rate to stabilize a bullet over this range of velocities?

Dakota Arms of Sturgis, South Dakota, celebrated their 10^th anniversary in 1997. While not an old company by any means - particularly when compared to Winchester, Remington or even Ruger - it has been a very innovative one.

The early years of the company were devoted to but one model, the Dakota 76 rifle. The heart of the rifle, the action, is functionally an amalgamation of the best features of the 98 Mauser and the pre-64 Model 70 Winchester. Cosmetically though, it is a dead ringer for the Model 70.

While Dakota Arms has been very successful with the Model 76, company president Don Allen felt the need for a lower cost Dakota model to compete in another segment of the market. The Dakota 76, a wonderful rifle in every respect, is very expensive to produce, largely due to the amount of machining necessary to turn out the action and the handwork involved in the semi-custom nature of its construction.

Allen took on the project of developing an action that would contain all the desirable features of the 76 action-controlled round feed, three position safety, velvet smooth functioning and match grade triggers-yet at a considerably lower production cost.

Allen followed the lead of other manufactures by developing an action that could be machined from round stock instead of a rectangular block of steel. Using round stock reduces the number of machining operations considerably.

The major problem in using round stock instead of a block of steel as the raw material is the recoil lug. Using a block of steel provides ample material to mill an integral recoil lug into the action. With round stock though, there is no excess material from which to mill the lug.

Several solutions to this problem are in use. One is to simply weld on a recoil lug. Another, and the one that Allen chose to use, is to add the separate recoil lug between the barrel shank and action ring. When the barrel is screwed into the action, it firmly locks the recoil lug into place.

Economy Of Shooting

The new action was dubbed the model 97 and instead of providing a walnut stock for the rifle (which would of course, run the price up), Dakota choose to work with HS Precision and use their synthetic stock for the rifle. With the action bedded into a block of aluminum in the stock, the finished rifle turned out to be very accurate.

Dakota has added the model, called the Hunter, to their line and is selling it for $1,695. While still no bargain basement special, it is considerably less costly than the other Dakota models. Dakota also reduced their cost by leaving off the machined steel magazine box and trigger guard sans floorplate.

For quite some time I had been looking for a rifle to use in long range shooting. When I heard about the new Dakota action, I decided to use it. That gave me an opportunity to evaluate the action and, at the same time, do my technology experimentation with the resulting rifle.

After a quick call to discuss the project with Paulette Kok, Dakota’s sales manager, I ordered a rifle from Dakota. I asked them to finish the barrel at 26". I had specified the rifle to be chambered for the .300 Dakota cartridge and the extra couple inches of barrel length would provide me with better performance.

I worked with Dakota’s production engineer, Ward Dobler, on the details of the rifle. Dobler fired the gun with a variety of loads. Once the baseline groups were available, I then removed the barrel from the rifle and sent it out to be cryogenically treated.

Cryogenically treating steel is a process that has been around for quite some time. Simply stated, it involves slowly freezing the steel to about -300 degrees or thereabouts, then bringing temperature back to ambient. The process realigns the molecular structure of the steel which, among other things, toughens the steel considerably.

I am told that machinists have used the process for years on their cutters to increase their useful life span. Apparently, the application of this technology on rifle barrels is relatively new. An added benefit is that sometimes the process will result in increased accuracy potential from the treated barrel.

When my barrel came back, Dobler reinstalled it on the rifle and took it back to the range with the same assortment of loads that he used before. On my rifle, the accuracy was not materially affected, one way or the other. Still, the process is very worthwhile simply due to increased longevity.

This gun is a bit different from my normal taste in rifles. First, the barrel is 26" long - at least 3" longer than any other rifle in my battery. It is also the only rifle I own with a laminated stock. Even so, it is stocked in the classic style and the lines are exactly as they should be. Although different from my norm, it is a beautiful and highly functional rifle.

The test groups were very good, averaging a little more than 1 MOA. However, for long range work, I hoped to better that considerably by tailoring a variety of handloads specifically for my rifle. I also wanted to work up loads using moly coated bullets, another technological improvement of recent origin.

Molybdenum disulfide powder has been around for a long time and is well known as a superb lubricant. It has only been recently, however, that it has been applied to bullets.

The coating is applied to the jacket of the bullets to provide several advantages over otherwise identical, noncoated bullets. For example, when using non-coated bullets, rifle accuracy will begin to deteriorate due to fouling after several shots. When using moly coated bullets, however, many more shots can be fired before fouling affects accuracy.

Another benefit to using coated bullets is that they tend to be a bit more accurate. The reason for this seems to be related to the depth of the engraving of the rifling into the bullet jacket. When a bullet is driven into the bore, it first engages the rifling. The rifling is mirror-image engraved into the bullet as it passes through the barrel.

The jacket material displaced in the process tends to flow to the rear of the bullet, resulting in some deformation and burring at the tail of the projectile. This affects the flight of the bullet. Moly coated bullets are not engraved by the rifling as deeply as non-coated bullets are, resulting in less deformation. For this reason, particularly at long range, moly coated bullets are usually a bit more accurate than non coated bullets.

One Hot Gun

Now that I have the rifle, the components for reloading, and factory fired targets for comparison, my task is mostly to spend a lot of time a both the reloading and shooting benches. So far, I have managed to get groups around .690" for three shots.

I believe this degree of accuracy, while very good, can still be bettered considerably. Over the next few months, as time permits, I intend to find out just how accurate the rifle is.

I think this gun in certainly capable of ½" or better groups. I am only .190" from that now with very little experimentation invested. So far, my shooting has been limited to 100 yards. Once I get the rifle to the best at that range, I would start shooting groups out to at least 500 yards,

Based on the experience I have had with the new Dakota to date, I have found no negatives. It has functioned flawlessly, very smooth and very positive. It is a very worthwhile addition to the Dakota line.

What other use Dakota plans to make of the action, I don’t know. Presently, only the Hunter Model rifle is available although a light weight model will probably be on the market soon. There are also plans to introduce a shorter length version of the action.