Without input, consensus, or even discussion – I ordered, and had delivered to family in California, food from the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in Round Rock, Texas; smoked brisket, a couple of rings of hill country sausage, a couple of racks of ribs, and turkey breasts. If you’ve ever eaten at the Salt Lick, you know that nothing says, “We love you and thank you for putting up with us for a month” than some of their fine smoked meat. No discounts or special treatment given for this mention.
That said, I’m not sure exactly when I lost all mental acuity and forgot how…spirited by lovely bride of forty two years could be when left out of our highly evolved family decision making process. In any event, a subsequent gift was sent – an edible, and quite healthy bouquet, fashioned from a colorful assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables, all excitingly arranged into a display of mouth watering goodness…or, as I like to call it, artichoke on a stick….but only very quietly, and only to myself. With the universe one again restored to its natural order, it seemed like a good day to get out of the house and office, and outdoors where the snow is blowing and temperatures are expressed in slightly positive single digit numbers.
Live fire at 5°F – Can it get any better than this!
With a SummitLite rifle from Wild West Guns on the project table and some Hornady, Federal factory ammo on hand, conservative handloads were assembled from data taken directly from both Hornady and Sierra reloading manuals.
Velocity: Federal Fusion 150 grain loads clocked 2,700 fps, 150 grain Hornady bullet based handloads came in within a few fps of the Federal Factory rounds and 165 grain Sierra based handloads produced over 2,600 fps of muzzle velocity. Handloads were assembled with conservative recipes taken directly from Hornady and Sierra’s current reloading manual. All very respectable numbers and well inside expected performance from a .308 Winchester cartridge. The very bright spot was when Hornady Superformance ammunition outperformed every other brand of premium ammunition, even when published velocity for those brands was based upon 24″ barrel test guns. At 2,882 fps clocked muzzle velocity, the little SummitLite rifle delivered long barrel gun performance.
Accuracy: I knew I was going to have a bit of a problem when I looked out the shop window and saw a couple of wild turkeys blow by, in horizontal orientation, with a look of horror on their faces…beaks, which is never a good sign.
When attempting to anchor the chronograph’s tripod, I slid off the crest of a drift and kept right on sliding, like a flailing human saucer sled, until I reached the bottom of a very steep tree and boulder punctuated hill. Eventually, I hiked outback to a snow filled, but wind sheltered, draw and got set up.
The first three shot group was a teeth chattering 1 3/4″ 100 yard group, shot with Federal Fusion ammo. The 150 grain Hornady handloads shot a little tighter, perhaps 1 1/2″. The 165 grain Sierra handloads shot 1 1/2″ and one group at just over 3/4″. The Hornady Superformance shot 1 1/4″ at the largest and just under an inch at the smallest. Under the weather conditions these groups were shot, and under the weather conditions the shot…er had to work, I think being able to beat what amounts to the accuracy guarantee of any number of very expensive rifles is excellent accuracy. Notable about the selected loads is that they represent a variety of bullet constructions from lightly jacketed single lead core bonded to monolith harder than copper construction – all delivering similar levels of accuracy.
Shooting personality: This means a lot to me as it is a summary of a gun’s aesthetics, it’s performance and the impression a person is left with when they pull the gun’s trigger. A good gun personality instills confidence in a shooter. A lack of personality puts a gun in the back of safe, never to see the light of day again. The SummitLite has a lot of bark for a little dog, in a good way. Even though this is a sub 6 pound rifle, recoil is present, but not…disturbing. I’d guess the lightweight Kevlar stock dampens much of the initial smack.
Muzzle blast from the fluted 20″ barrel is not any more than that of a longer barrel gun. My guess is the moderate capacity of the .308 Winchester cartridge means more complete in-bore powder burn and lower pressure levels at the muzzle. The Hornady ammo, as promoted by Hornady, did not exhibit an increase in muzzle blast over standard ammo, nor did it exhibit greater felt recoil.
Handling and functionality: It is a nice change of pace, walking around in the woods, and losing notice of the gun hanging a sling on your shoulder. The gun is balanced, comes up to shooting position quickly and is muzzle steady. If I was going to spend more time shooting I would have looked more mounts that would have brought the scope half an inch closer to my face, or perhaps selected a scope with a little more eye relief. Didn’t matter, the gun was fun to shoot, accurate and intuitive. I know, sometimes I may seem a little overly enthusiastic, but in my defense, I really like firearms and a good gun is something to get excited about. The SummitLite is an excellent firearm, exhibiting a high quality of workmanship, useful innovation in features and an all around excellent hunting rifle.
In contusion…yes, I wrote that on purpose
Excellent little hunting rifle, well finished with features offered by people who have obviously spent time hunting in a tough environment populated by a large variety of small, big and dangerous game. The materials employed and finishes applied should hold up well for a very long time. Not an inexpensive gun, but then few really nice things are. Next time you’re looking for an ultra light firearm, or just about any kind of custom firearm, you might want to check out Wild West Guns.
A Custom Rifle Built With Porpoise…Err Purpose – Part I
A Custom Rifle Built With Porpoise…Err Purpose – Part II
Hornady’s Superformance…Califragilisticexpialidocious
Email Notification