Sniper Central Blog

It might be old news for some of you, but PMC Ammo is out of business. This actually happened a while ago. I first noticed something was out of whack when their excellent silverline 308 Match ammo was no longer available, though I thought they were just changing things up. But it is worse than that. They are no longer in business at all, and all the PMC ammo that is still out there is simply left over production. Appearantly there was some embezzlement envolved and it appears to be a mess, but I do not have the “official” details. As it is, I have a line on a whole bunch (thousands upon thousands) of the 140gr .264 (6.5mm) bullets that they used in their 6.5×55 Match loads. If you are interested, let me know. I thought they were using 140gr SMK’s, but it was actually their own bullet.

I just noticed in a recent dealers catalog that Remington is now offering what they call a “Medium/Long Range Sniper Rifle” in .338 Lapua. I have very little information on this rifle, but I am sure they are using the experience they gained on the M24A3 in .338 Lapua and are bringing it to a more affordable law enforcement rifle. It is not listed under the 700P rifles, so I am not sure which stock or other options it has. The going retail price should be in the mid $900 range based off of the dealer pricing. This is probably the most affordable .338 Lapua tactical rifle available (The SAKO TRG-S is a hunting rifle chambered in .338 Lapua that is less money). I am assuming they are using the same “Sako style” extractor that they used on the M24A3. I will try to find out more information on the rifle and may even bring one in for evaluation.

UPDATE:It turns out that this is actually the 700P MLR and was officially introduced in 2005, but the interest was very low and hardly any, if any at all, were produced last year. But it looks like there may actually be a small quantity released finally. I’ll try to keep everyone updated.

UPDATE: The 700P MLR has a 26″ barrel and holds 3 in the mag. But still no word on whether there is a muzzlebrake or what type extractor. There is also to be a 40-XS Tactical MLR in .338 Lapua also. This is to be a seperate model than the 700P MLR

Some of you may recall that Kimber brought a prototype tactical rifle to the SHOT show this year to judge interest. I just found out from Kimber directly that the tactical rifle is now officially a go and it will be available soon. It will be available initially only in .308 and in two different models. The base model will retail for about $2000 and will have a McMillan A5 stock (using a black, grey and possibly green marble pattern) with a fixed cheekpiece and length of pull and three swivel studs. It will use the Kimber action and have a large bolt knob and their own heavy 24″ barrel. All the metal work will be finished in Kimbers own matte black finish. The action will be lapped and some other tuning things done to it.

The higher end model will have an A5 in desert camo with adjustable cheekpiece and spacer system. It will have one stud for a bipod and flush cups on the bottom and left hand side. The barreled action will be brown and the other bits will be black.

There are some other possible options that may be available including a possible .300 WSM, but those details will be announced later. There will also eventually be a packaged rifle including leupold optics, bipod, cleaning kit and other kit. It sounds like a very solid offering in the tactical rifle market.

I was over at Sierra bullets web site and noticed that they now have a new 123gr .264 (6.5mm) Match King bullet. They are showing a BC of .510 above 1635fps. This far exceeds their previous 120gr Match King in the same caliber which only had a BC of .409 between 2800 and 3100 fps. The only down side is the fact that Lapua’s 123gr has a BC of .547, but they only use the single velocity model. The easy availabilty of the Sierra bullets will be nice also, and if you can get that bullet up around 3000 fps at the muzzle, it’ll make a very nice 1000m load. This should be doable with the .260 (high pressure), 6.5×284, 6.5×47 Lapua and hot loads on the 6.5×55 (modern rifle only), of course, work up slowly, checking for signs of over pressure, etc. Anyway, good to see the 6.5 is getting even more attention.