Had this rifle out in the field for the past two weekends. Last week was the youth only rifle hunt and I had my son in the blind Sunday afternoon in search of his first deer. My goal for the day was for him to have success ... the plan was to give him the go ahead on the first legal deer that showed up. We saw a small doe that was moving around too much for him to shoot at and scampered off without giving him enough time to get things lined up and pull the trigger. A little later a couple smaller bucks came out giving us something watch and break the monotony of the deer blind on a hot day. Since we have an antler restriction of at least a 13" inside spread (antlers outside the ears) these two weren't legal shooters. Then this 8-point came in and stopped broadside to us at 50 yards just at last legal shooting light. My son put the 110 gr AccuBond through the heart and he ran about 30 yards before expiring in plain sight of us.



I took the rifle out on the stand on Saturday morning for the general season opener and got to watch a number of bucks chasing a dozen doe around the grain field I've got a tripod overlooking. I picked out the biggest one and put a round through his ribcage at about 100 yards. He ran about 20 yards toward me and flipped over by the fence-line between the pasture and the grain field ... then he got up and started walking slowly - broadside to me - toward the deep puckerbrush. I put a second round in him just to make sure I didn't have a long tracking job (though it was probably not necessary). He expired at the edge of the brush about 30 yards from where I put the second round in him.



All in all this is a great rifle, the 6.8 is great deer medicine and the Rifle Basix trigger fixes the main shortcoming of the Axis very nicely! The ARP 6.8 SPC barrel is an awesome host for the Silencerco Harvester which makes this a hearing safe hunting rifle. Harrison at ARP wasn't happy with these barrels as the manufacturer used the wrong button when making them so he is blowing them out as a 2 for 1 special. Everyone who has reported back on these barrels has been happy with their performance, making these a great deal. At least one of the barrels has shown up on the EE at 68forums ... since ARP is shipping 2 barrels for every purchase there will probably be more coming up on the resale market as folks decide they don't really need a second barrel sitting in their safe. I may get there myself ... but I'm kind of a packrat.