So, my recent hunt I learnt some lessons with regards to usability.
The bullets
Hornady Interlock 180gr. Loaded to 2540ft/s using 43.gr N140 from a Lapua Palma case ignited by a CCI 400 primer. The cartridges were loaded to magazine length. I tried to make the SBC 180gr bullets work, but unfortunately they did not group well enough. It might be that the jump from magazine length was too much, but I suspect that I could not drive them fast enough from an 11" twist .308.
The rifle
Tikka T3x Supervarmint. The varmint barrel is probably the reason it was so easy to to develop a load with the Hornady Interlock bullets. The downside is it made the rifle heavy, but with the broad sling, it didn't carry too badly.
The silencer
ASE Utra Jet-Z. It worked much better than I thought it would. With the 8 bulkets I fired with no ear protection, I did not have any indication of even a zinging noise in my ear afterwards. Only down side again is weight. It weighs half a kg at the end of a varmint barrel. This made the rifle barrel heavy and caused it to keep trying to slip barrel down when carried by the sling over my shoulder.
The scope
Element Optics Helix 4-16x44 FFP with the APR-2D reticle. The lenses are clear and the reticle is not too fine at 4x magnification. Also, not too busy for me at 16x magnification. During the hunt I cannot say that I found it difficult to aim or centre the target. The little dot worked like a charm. I would use this for target shooting any day of the week and have used it a 1000 yards before. The downside is the windage turret is not capped or locked. This cost me dearly.
Shooting sticks
Noviske 1st generation trigger stick. It adjusts for height very easily. Shooting off it was not that easy for me. I did eventually get the hang of it, but my groups will never be great. What irked me more was how noisy they were to carry. A good mod would be a thick rubber ring around each leg halfway. That should stop the legs from making noise by clicking against each other.
Binoculars
Steiner 8x30. They work fine until there is very little light like 1 hour after sunset. Apart from that I have no complaints. Cody tried them and asked me where the zoom is. What I did find was the neck strap is too long. When walking it tended to swing alot and then hit the shooting sticks I was carrying, making more noise.
Knife
Kershaw Dechutes. It worked as designed. Did not go blunt and no need to sharpen. It turned out to be sharp enough to gut the boar, cut off 3 heads and gut an impala.
Backpack was a R300 cheapy of wich the one strap detached on the Saturday morning. Would definitely be looking at a knapsack for next time. Half the weight of the backpack and 7kg of rifle on the one shoulder was getting uncomfortable by around 11AM.
My boots were Wolverine. They were comfortable for the whole day's walking. Unfortunately the soles are quite hard and the way that I walk caused a low frequency boom that Dave said warns animals long before we get there. I had to learn to put the outside of my foot down first to reduce the noise. That used different muscles and gave me sore legs for days after.
From my previous literary attempts, some of you know I had no clothes that fit Dave's criteria so had to do some shopping. Somehow ended up at Agrimark. There I found Jonson work wear. And I have to admit, the trousers reminded me of denims you could get 20+ years ago. Nice, thick-weave canvas cargo pants in tan and dark tan. Much better than the denims you can find these days. The were not cheap, but I don't mind paying extra for quality that will last years.
Of everything I used,the only thing that let me down was the scope. Even that could have been prevented if I paid enough attention.
