Steyr Pro Hunter and Zeiss Diavari 2.5-10×52 review

Jan 062013

I was asked before why I bought rifles I own and what criteria used to select them, so I thought I might as well tell you about this one, which was my first Scottish rifle.

I shot and enjoyed older Mannlicher rifles and shot quite a few deer and wild boar using my father-in-law’s old M model rifles in .30-06 and 7×64. I wanted something similar, but decided against wooden stock because of Scottish weather… Also decided to limit myself to most popular cartridges so I could easily pick up factory ammo in any local gun shop. I excluded 7×64. It might be most popular cartridge on the continent, but not in the UK… I also wanted it to be “all deer legal” so it had to be at least .240″ caliber shooting 100gr bullets. I also did not want too spend to much money and was looking for a used rifle. Quick look on the GunTrader showed biggest choice of .243Win and .308Win. Because not all .243 rifles can shoot well 100gr bullets, for my first Scottish rifle I went for .308Win.

So I started looking for a used .308 rifle in synthetic stock, threaded for a sound moderator if possible. I am not a fan of American rifles so excluded all Remingtons, Rugers, etc and was left with a choice of European rifles with CZ at the bottom and Blaser being the most expensive. I limited myself to £500-700 range and my choice was mainly between CZ, Steyr, Tikka and Sako. I had nothing against any of these brands and simply went for something that was best value for money at the time. Soon I spotted a deal on one of the forums for a Steyr Mannlicher Pro Hunter stainless synthetic in my caliber of choice, with a T8 moderator and Leupold mounts all within my price range. I already had a spare scope ready to go on top of it.

Steyr Mannlicher Pro Hunter

So, why not a CZ, Sako or Tikka? All CZs I saw were with open sights so I needed to add the cost of threading. Sakos were usually above my price range and it was for older pre-75 models, hardly any 75s or 85s in .308 to be seen and they were too expensive to buy new… Same with Tikkas. New T3s were about £700 and with Optilock mounts and mod, it would have been £1000 at least…
So I drove to the guy who advertised the Pro Hunter rifle. It looked in good condition, the price was good so I bought it.

There were two models of the synthetic stock Steyrs available at the time: Pro Hunter and Pro Mountain. Pro Hunter had 24″ barrel and Pro Mountain with a shorter 20″ barrel. I personally prefer shorter barrels, but could not find a s/h one at the time. The rifle came factory screw cut 1/2″ UNF and this is a popular thread with plenty of moderators available. Mannlicher “candy twist” barrel is very nice blued and not too bad stainless and they are known to be good quality.

Before I decided to go for Steyr, I did my research and one of the comments I often came across was a mk1 stock’s flexibility issue. Many people claimed that with early Pro Hunter stocks the forehand was too flexible and when shooting off bipod with a heavy moderator such as T8, a barrel would made a contact with the stock and rifle would not shoot consistent tight groups. I handled a mk2 stock in one of the shops and did not see the stock any more flexible than Tikka T3 and other makes that were available at the time. Just when I got the rifle I tried testing this with bending the stock and trying different positions off bipod and never managed to see any fliers. The rifle shoots consistently all the time. One issue I have with this stock is… it is extremely ugly . It must have been the ugliest synthetic stock available at the time. Nowadays there are uglier stocks available from the US such as Ruger American or Savage Edge
In my opinion the stock is well made and could be used by right and left-handed shooters, it came with 3 spacers so length of pull could be adjusted to suit anyone.

Safe bolt system is one of the things you either love or hate. I think it is brilliant. Rifle can be loaded and unloaded with safety on, it can still be de-cocked as any other traditional bolt action rifle with the safety off. Third position when a wee button comes up the bolt can be pressed closer to the stock and the bolt is then locked. To unlock it the button has to be pressed and the safety wheel pushed forward.

Magazine holds 4 .308 rounds and feeds well, I never had any problems with it. It also has two positions: first when the bolt slides over the magazine, but is not picking a round and a standard position. I think it is quite handy feature and is easier to do than to press the round with your finger when locking the bolt or closing the bolt with a magazine in hand. I often hear people complain that the magazine is plastic not metal, I dislike metal magazines. Plastic magazines are lighter and more reliable in my opinion. I also think it was a good improvement over rotary magazines from previous models that cracked easily when dropped.

Zeiss Diavari 2.5-10×52 scope

This rifle has had three or four different scopes so far and at the moment it is Zeiss Diavari 2.5-10×52. Why Zeiss? I like them. I used all top three scopes. In my opinion there is not much between Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski and Zeiss. Swarovski seems to be most expensive both new and second hand. S&B is definitely solid built, but not the lightest of the three. Zeiss is good optically and some bargains can be found. The scope I have is typical older European hunting model with 30mm tube and #1 reticule in the first focal plane. It is not brand new latest model but does the just just fine and for the fraction of the new cost and cheaper than some new Burris, Leupold or the like.

Again, why #1 reticule? They are out of fashion at the moment so can be purchased for less. I don’t see anything wrong with this reticule for small targets and they are brilliant at night and low light.

The rifle I bought came with STD Leupold mounts and they are simple and well made mounts.

Summary

How does it shoot? Better than I do… It was shooting around 1-1.5″ with factory ammunition and I was convinced to try handloading. It was one of the best things to do and I soon developed a few consistent loads for the rifle and it started shooting below 0.5″ 5-round groups. I never knew I could shoot that well I developed Hornady SST 150gr load and Speer 180gr load and shot a few roe and red deer with it. I also have Nosler Accubond 165gr bullets to test. In theory this should be a good bullet for my needs, but still have to go through the whole process of load development.

Video

Please have a look at this short review showing main features of the rifle. If you have Google account, please subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive info on my videos and give me “thumbs up” if you like them.

Scottish red deer hunting setup

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Dec 192012

Good morning

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May 112012

I went out after roebucks again with a friend. Weather has been not great recently and we postponed it, but agreed to go out that Saturday morning. We met at 4:30 and it was quite light already as full moon was just setting and sun would be coming up around 6:00. After a short while we were driving a ride through young plantation. There was hard frost on grass and ice on puddles… It did not feel like May… We jumped off the car and I was glad I put a jacket on top of my usual fleece. After a short walk we were on top of a double high seat.

It was 5:00 and still early. I was not expecting anything moving before the sunrise it was that cold… Free standing high seat was very comfortable with wide rails and we had a good view on the ride both ways. There was mature thin woodland not far in front of us and plantation behind the seat. We agreed I would be shooting if anything comes to my right-hand side, and he would take any buck to our left. It was very quiet with almost no wind, so we had to be extra careful not to spook anything coming from the woodland in front of us. Not to be tempted, I kept my camcorder in my pocket.

We sat for about 30 minutes when two does (I think…) run across the ride from the woodland to my right to plantation. It was too fast to have a look through binoculars and they soon disappeared between the trees. Well, it was still early and my friend was quite positive something else should be moving that morning.

It was 6:00 and the sun started coming up. Great, as I was getting really cold… Suddenly, I spotted movement on my side of the seat. A young buck was coming to the ride out of the plantation. He was looking straight at the high seat, but soon moved on and I managed to shoulder my .308 Steyr Mannlicher rifle. The buck was standing on the middle of the ride, but was quartering towards me and I would have had to shoot him through the front shoulder and knew the bullet would have done a mess at that distance (to be honest it was close enough for a neck shot… but somehow I never thought of that… ). The buck moved again and a friend barked to stop him. Now I got him in a bit better position, put the cross hairs behind the shoulder and squeezed a shot.

I could see the bullet strike, the buck jumped and run for about 20m. It staggered for a few seconds and dropped dead. I could see the exit wound was a bit too far back… but he was down.

When the buck dropped we spotted another one on the ride. A friend was on him, but he moved off before he could pull the trigger. Another bark stopped the buck and a second later 6.5×55 dropped him on the spot.

We went down the seat to do the gralloch (well, I left my knife in the car… ). The bucks looked like twins with ear-long spikes still in velvet. Good cull bucks to take and in good condition. They soon would have been pushed off the area by territorial bucks anyway. Half hour later we were in the car driving home and I was home before 8:00. Very good morning.

Six pointer cull roebuck

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May 102012

6-pointer

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May 092012

Weather has been quite bad for the last two to three weeks. Very cold with easterly and northerly winds, temperature dropped below freezing at night and it did not feel like May. I went out stalking anyway just to have a look after any new signs of roebuck territorial activity. They started to move about, but it was still not in full swing. Usually in May there are fraying marks everywhere,every corner and every young tree near deer paths get scratched, but not yet this year. It would be good to have a few dry and warm weeks as all roe does I have seen were quite big and would be fawning any time now.

I went for a walk but the wind was too strong and it was cold. Only when the sun was coming up, it was not too bad. I decided to sit down in some sheltered place. I sat down under a tree at the bend of the ride as it was not too bad. I sat for about 30 minutes when I spotted a movement to my left. It was a young hind walking out the trees maybe 10 yards away from me. She saw me and the camera, but the wind was from her to me and she could not figure out what I was. I was trying to keep still and only to move the camera a bit to keep on her. She was no more than 10-15 yards away and was stretching her neck to see me and sniffing the air, but I was lucky for some time and she was not convinced what I was. Eventually, she caught my wind and run away barking… Nothing else showed up and I went further up to the road.

I bumped on a few does, but could not see any bucks. The wind was too strong and it was looking like the rain was coming as well… It was still not 8pm when I decided to finish early as the weather was getting worse. I went back to the forestry track and headed back to the car when I spotted a roe feeding.

I set up sticks, but one of the telescopic legs collapsed and I could not find comfortable position… My sticks are on last legs anyway and will need replaced soon… So I moved a bit forward trying to find firm higher ground to set up the sticks when the buck spotted me. I was not in his full view and he could not figure out what I was. The wind was also in my favor. He made a few steps forward stretching his neck, but it was not a nice broadside position.

I managed to make myself more or less comfortable on sticks and when I felt the wind on my back I decided to shoot when he was facing me slightly quartering. I squeezed the trigger and he disappeared. I thought he dropped on the spot but was not sure. I gave him a few minutes when it got really dark and big dark clouds came in and it started raining…

I went to the spot where he was and the buck was there. I checked for eye reaction, but he was dead dropped on the spot. The bullet entered as I wanted low neck/front and exit just behind the far shoulder. The buck was not great, just average six pointer. After a quick gralloch I packed him to my Harkilla roe sack and went to the car before the rain got worse.

He was 11kg larder weight, so not the best condition for this time of year.

Young button roebuck shot

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May 032012

Shop UA Hunt – They won’t hear you. They won’t see you. They won’t smell you.

First roebuck on deer syndicate ground

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May 022012

I have not had much luck on our syndicate’s ground this roebuck season. It is usually like that in April and as the forestry is on the hill it is much colder and all is delayed in comparison to lowland. Roe rut is later than anywhere else and also bucks really start moving in May. I have not seen any fraying marks since this past weekend.

Weather really was not promising with bitterly cold easterly wind I was not too optimistic. We have easterly wind very rarely, but when we have, usually hardly any deer are moving about… I was out very early, maybe 16:30 and soon bumped on the first clean buck this season. He gave me no chance of a shot, but it was good to see him anyway.

I went for a long walk as strong wind was making stalking easier. I bumped on a few roe, some red deer as well, but that was it. I was on my way back to the car when I spotted a roe just behind the bend of the track. I set the camera on a tripod, but it looked like a young doe, however as soon as I switched the camera on I noticed movement behind the deer. There was another one coming out of the woods, and another one that looked like a buck. I had to leave my camera as it was, dropped on the ground, and then moved a bit to the right to have a better view.

Just as I thought, there was a doe and a buck. They looked like 2 years old siblings, but they could see the camera on the tripod and possibly caught my movement, but because there was a roe feeding between them and me, the doe soon calmed down and the buck also started feeding. He never stood broadside clear off the doe, and to make things worse the roe that was close, got even closer and started catching my wind…

Only at that time I had a good look at it and to my surprise it was a button buck! I was too busy looking at the other deer, when I had this little yearling closer all the time…

I would not feel good taking a better buck of the two, so when the button buck stood broadside I squeezed the shot just behind the shoulder. He jumped high in the air and dashed to the trees. The other two also did not hang around… It could have been much better video, but unfortunately the camera was focused on the second buck, but the one that I shot actually got much closer than expected and went out off frame… well… this is one person hunting and filming…

Speer 180gr SPBT second sample

The buck ran only 10-20m. The bullet went straight through the ribs and made really little meat damage and bruising. I was quite please with that. Little buck was only 7kg larder weight and had quite a few ticks, but apart from that was healthy.

Video

Invited roe deer stalking and got my first buck this season!

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Apr 202012

With a good last season finished I was quite optimistic looking forward coming new buck season. Roebucks are in season starting 1st April here in Scotland and can be shot until 20th October when again does become in season until 31st March. This gives unique chance (at least I do not know of any other European country…) to hunt roe deer all year round. Shooting heavily pregnant does in March or bucks without antlers in October might not be to everone’s taste, but at least there is a good reason to go out with the rifle and enjoy countryside. Just no need to shoot them…

Roebucks

On the syndicate ground, there is no deer management in place and it is a forestry company that dictates the rules and they are only interested in cull plan numbers and they do not care about population age structure, sex ratio or anything like that… One also has no powers over what other members shoot, so it all comes down to shooting what one think is shootable…

Good deer management would require a Spring census so you know your deer numbers, get to know some of your mature bucks, bucks to does ratio and make some extrapolation to get overall deer numbers on the area and detailed cull plan, but it is just theory if you do not have your own lease…

So my policy generally is to take any young (yearling, two years old) bucks as early as possible before mature bucks push them off the ground. I would also take some mature bucks if they are clean and leave the ones in velvet for later.

April is not a good month here and bucks usually disappear before they start fraying and marking territories later in the month and in May. I was out a couple of times and saw several mature heavily pregnant does that feed intensely before giving birth soon. Bucks were very elusive and I only saw one buck still in velvet but never got a chance to age him and clearly see the antlers.

Invited again

A friend kindly invited me again stalking his ground. He left in the place where I got a buck kid last time and he went to the high seat where I scared off the deer opening scope covers… :roll:

He made very comfy doe box from where I took the shot last time. It was still early but I made myself comfortable and started scanning the clearing and the edge of the plantation in front of me. The policy for today was to take any buck as there are plenty of them and roebucks this year do make a lot of damage to young trees.

After half an hour a doe appeared no more than 20m away from the box I sat in. She was looking at me but could not clearly figure out what I was, but was clever enough to pass me and get down wind. She sniffed the air and soon was gone barking…

I got text message saying my friend was having three bucks in front of him, soon followed be another text saying he got one.

I was texting him back when I caught a movement behind me. An old beautiful buck was running away from me towards the plantation. He must have caught my wind as he was alert looking at my direction, but clearly could not see me. He paused for a moment in from of the trees just to give me a chance to look at his antlers, but I never had time to fetch my rifle nor the camera…

A few minutes passed when I spotted a movement, again behind me. It was a young 4-pointer still in velvet walking behind the doe box no more than 30-40m away. Wind was not in favour this morning and he soon was alert as the 6-pointer earlier, but being young he was not that quick to run away a paused a few times giving me a chance to take the shot.

He was slightly quartering at maybe 120m when I pulled the trigger. I saw the bullet strike and that he was running away towards me with one of the legs clearly dysfunctioned. By the time I texted my mate he already gralloched his buck and was with me in a few minutes.

Video

180gr Speer SPBT and meat damage

I was keen to try my new reloads on roe deer. I thought they could be a good choice on both roe and reds and despite the fact they made a bit of a mess to try them again. The fact is any bullet that goes through the shoulder would make a bit of a mess. Because the bullet went through both shoulders it left significant meat damage, but it was my fault in the first place, as the shot should have been a bit further back, but due to the position the buck was in, it would have clipped the other shoulder on exit anyway… I will give these Speer bullets another chance to see how they perform in more typical broadside through the ribs shots…

It was a nice buck weight 31lb clean (14kg) and missing one leg as it was nearly shot off… Very good weight for a yearling, and I would be happy our forestry roe at that age to fetch 10-11kg, but they often are not even that…

Aging roe deer

This is a good example showing aging live deer is not as straight forward as some may think. Shooting a buck kid last month and uploading it on YouTube prompted a few people to accuse me of shooting bucks out of season. (To clarify it is perfectly legal to shoot male kid when a doe has been or is about to be shot in Scotland. I was not sure how it was in England and Wales, but after many told me it was illegal, it prompted me to have a look for myself. The Regulatory Reform Order (Deer) 2007 (England and Wales) amended Deer Act 2001 and since 2007 some changes were introduced. Roe doe season was extended, muntjac and CWD could be shot with .223 and such, and… it allowed shooting male roe kids in doe season with very similar wording as in Scottish deer law…)

I knew it was a young buck before I pulled the trigger and had not much time to look at it properly, but would have said it was a 2-years old, not a yearling. On further inspection it looked like a 2-years old being heavier and in better condition than the obvious yearling my mate just shot. Side by side they looked like younger and older brothers, but when I looked at his teeth, it was a yearling after all!

When I shot the buck kid a month earlier we could see he was a part of the trio of a doe and two kids. A nice kid, but not a yearling. This is how he would have looked like in April…

First roebuck in 2012 season

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Apr 192012

Shop UA Hunt – They won’t hear you. They won’t see you. They won’t smell you.

.308 Win load development with Speer 180gr SPBT bullets over Vihtavuori N140 powder

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Mar 252012

When I bought my .308 Win rifle I got 2 boxes of Sako 150gr SP ammo with it and shot a few roe with it. I think majority of deer dropped on the spot with a few making 10-40 yards tops. I was quite happy with it but the bullet clipping shoulder usually resulted in excessive damage to the front or even worse burst rumen. When I got into reloading first bullet I tried was Hornady 150gr SST which was not too bad. I still have a few reloads and it was also very effective, much more accurate but very similar to Sako SP resulting in some meat damage on roe. Following my experience with .30-06 I also use that behave a bit better with heavier bullets I decided to try new bullets. I wanted either something heavier or not as quickly expanding as the SST. I got a few bullets in mind, but as always the bullet choice in local shops verified everything… For some reasons Scots do not like bigger calibers and heavier bullets and for .30 cal there is usually a choice of 150gr and 123gr , but little 180-220gr.

Speer 180gr SPBT

I had a choice of Hornady and Speer SPBT 180gr so I just got Speer to try something different… I decided to use the same powder I used for 150gr SSTs – Vihtavuori N140 and large rifle CCI 200 primers. This time I used once fired RWS brass I got cheap, but I had to full size it before using. So this time I could not use my Lee Classic Loader kit.

Lee Hand Press

As I have limited space at home when I came across second hand Lee hand press with a few extras I bought it. I also got used RCBS dies. I needed a full length sizing die as RWS brass was fired, but not in my rifle so it needed full sized. I used RCBS lube and small Hornady pad which comes with a convenient loading tray for 50 rounds. Lee hand press is another good Lee product I recommend. It takes very little space and even using full sizing dies it is not too tiring to use. You have to find comfortable position and rest one arm of the press on your leg (I know it looks like I am struggling on video, but only because it was not a comfortable position, just wanted to film it the best I could). I used Lee trimmer and chamfer together with Lee primer pocket cleaner to prepare sized cases.

Finding right load

I looked at loading manuals and found recommended starting load to be 38gr of Vihtavuori N140 and 44gr maximum load. I again wanted to use Lee dippers to speed up the process. Both min and max loads where quite close with volume to Lee dippers I could use. So I used 2.8-3.2cc in five 0.1cc steps.

Volume	2.8cc	2.9cc	3.0cc	3.1cc	3.2cc
Weight	38.2gr	39.6gr	40.9gr	42.3gr	43.7gr
Dippers	2.8cc	1.9cc+1cc	2.5cc+0.5cc	3.1cc	2×1.6cc

I made 20 rounds in total, 4 of each powder load with the same COAL and went to try them out. First one 38.2gr group was 1.4″, the same as the second load 39.6gr. The third group was slightly better at 1.2″ and I knew I a bit pulled one of the shots… The fourth group (42.3gr of N-140) grew again to 1.4″ and the last one was best at 1″.

Too Hot

Even though the last group was best, it was close to maximum load and a bit too hot with some rounds resulting in a “sticky” bolt difficult to open and some extractor marks on the brass. So, I decided to work around 40.9gr load as it was safe and most promising. You can see extractor impressions on the photo, these are small circles on the bottom of the brass.

Finding right COAL

COAL	2.790″	2.800″	2.810″	2.820″	2.830″
Group	0.4″	1.2″	1.4″	0.6″	1.1″

As my SST load was not grouping well close to lands I made up 5 different loads with COAL ranging from 2.790″ to 2.830″ where the longest one was about 0.015″ off the lands.

The first load I tried was around 2.790″. I say around as with Speer bullets being soft point they differ quite a bit and I do not have any fancy tool to measure to ogive. I simply measure the whole cartridge and know how long they are on average. The SSTs were much more consistent being plastic tip type. The first group was really good at 0.4″. The second group with COAL of 2.88″ was 1.2″ with the third one (2.810″) at 1.4″. The fourth group was a bit more than 0.6″, but a strange thing happened and one of the bullets was not on the target. I think I got one of the small branches that or grass and the bullet fragmented and hit low below the target… The last group (2.830″) was 1.1″.

I think I will settle on the 40.9gr of N140 and 2.790″ COAL as I do not think I can shoot any better that 0.4″ at 100m. I will make a few more rounds just to see if it is consistent and am planning to test this load on roe and roe deer this coming season.

When I was shooting a few round landed in wet grass and heather that is acting a bit like ballistic gel and I managed to recover some of the bullets. They are not bonded as jacket and lead separated so will see how they work on deer. I hope they are not too quickly expanding but time will tell.

Videos

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Part 1

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