243 AI Project complete.

[Chuckhunter]

I had been toying with the idea of building a 243AI for a long time and after reading the article about Matt's screaming yellow 243AI in the guns of the week section of 6MM BR, I decided to take the plunge. Matt's goregeous rifle is modern and high tech. My rifle is still gorgeous,at least to me) but it's Old Tech. With the exception of the Barrel, scope and rings, everything on the rifle is at least 35 years old, some parts even older. I'm now waiting for the Ackley dies but in the meantime I have been fire forming Lapua Brass with some 30 year old 68Gr. Berger FB bullets. So far it looks to be a winner. The rifle specs are as follows. Witchata 1375 Action, Hart fluted, straight taper 9 twist barrel. The stock we believe to be an Old McMillen. It was originally holding a sleeved XP-100, 6PPC. The trigger is an old canjar three lever that had to have the safety lever extended in order to fit in the stock. Also had to have a new trigger shoe and butt plate made, in order to be able to remove the barreled action from the stock,it's piller bedded), and dress up the rifle a little. My smith did and outstanding job and here is the finished project. Hope Matt doesn't mind that I copied his choice of stock colors.

 

[mbianchini]

Chuckhunter

The rifle looks great.
Ill take it if you ever want to sell it. I would love to have that action. What paint did you use to finish the stock? It looks like the Sikkens Viper Race Yellow. That stock looks to be a Lee Six.
The Witchata 1375 action is that a 3 lug bolt. A friend that passed away had a Witchata action that he lent to me when I first start shooting benchrest years back. It was a 3 lug design. I wish I had purchased the action off of him. I'm not sure of the model but that action cycled like a dream. I was really impressed with the how easy the bolt lifted. It opened as good as my Farleys or better. It had a very large bolt diameter.
What bullets are you shooting and what kind of speed are you getting?


Good Shooting,
Matt

 

[Forum Boss]

MESSAGE for MATT BIANCHINI:

Matt,

Please contact Paul the Moderator ASAP. I've sent you a private message with my phone number. Or you can email mailbox@6mmBr.com

There is an important matter we have been trying to resolve for quite some time and needed to contact you.

Please respond.

 

[Chuckhunter]

Matt, thanks for the nice words, I liked your rifle so much that I wanted to have something very similar. The paint is just an Acrylic Enamel with the color as close as I could get it to the viper yellow. If it doesn't hold up real well, my smith said he would repaint it with Emron. So far it's holding up well and it is strictly shot from a bench so it shouldn't get a lot of abuse. The Wichita 1375 Action is still a very good action, I like the fact that it has a ton of barrel lock up and the 60" bolt lift is real nice. I have only shot a few groups with 87Gr. Hornady's and so far they are showing much promise. I'm shooting 44Gr's of N-160 and my avg. velocities are 3180fps. The Agg for 5-5shot groups is .334 Shooting Russian primers my ES and SD'd are very low. Haven't had the chance to stretch it out yet, I'm hoping within the next couple of weeks to shoot it at 450yds. Also have some 95 Bergers to try at that distance. Thanks for the incentive to get this project done.

 

[mbianchini]

Chuckhunter,

I have tried the N-165 and the 90gr bullets out of an 8 twist with ok results. I was getting around 3585 fps.
All of my 243 Ackley barrels are 8 twist I have never tried anything slower. I have a 9.5 twist Bartlein that in going to have chambered this winter. I plan to shoot the 87gr V-maxes. It will be used to shoot groundhogs.
My favorite load is 49.8gr of RL-25 ignited by Federal 210's cased by Lupua brass with 106gr Clinch Rivers piped out of a 29” Lilja 3 groove 8 twist at 3360 fps. I have tried other brass with bad results very high ES and no case life. I like to keep my ES to no higher than 15 fps. That load of RL-25 averages around 3 to 7 fps ES I have a Bartlein 8 twist that I have been shooting with old lot of 105gr JLK’s that Jimmy made with super results. He has now sold the bullet making business to http://www.swampworks.com/jlk/ I purchased 6000 a few years before he sold the business. I purchased 1000 from swampworks this year. They dont seem to shoot as well as the ones Jimmy made. Maybe they will shoot better out different barrels. I have only tried them out of a Bartlein.

Good shooting,
Matt