.243 remington model seven build up

[jtschweizer]

I've had a .243win Remington Model Seven since I was young and decided I want to upgrade it. I wanna make it a budget do all rifle (be able to shoot whitetail amongst other game as well as shoot over 600 yards for fun). The only real criteria I want is it needs to be moderateley light. I'm new to the rifle building game and am looking to all of yall for some help. Can you give me some buildup package ideas including things like barrels, stocks, rings, scopes, etc..... Thanks.

 

[BoydAllen]

You can spend as much as you want but here is where I would go. Have the action blueprinted and rebarreled with a tighter twist than factory cut rifled barrel. Look at match results for manufacturers and guns of the week for twist. Pay attention to chamber design, and buy your own reamer if needed. Have the stock pillar bedded. Plain old Weaver rings and bases will save a little. Bed the bases and lap the rings. If you want to save some money on a trigger, as spring change can get you as low as 1# economically. Put the best scope on it you can afford. For the longer range work, a variable with an adjustable objective is almost mandatory. If you do your own stock, trigger, and scope mounting work, that will help keep the price down.

 

[357Mag]

JT -

Howdy !

Off my meds.....

IMHO, keep the M7 just the way it was/is, and skip $$$ for all the action truing.

Use a Savage bolt rifle action as the basis for your custom rifle. You then have switch-barrel capability, and don't really need to do " action trueing" as compares to what needs done w/ a Rem product. You also have valid trigger option(s) w/ the Savage, albeit perhaps not as many as are offered for Rem trigger pattern accepting guns.

With a Savage you can also change the bolt face, and use the barrel locking nut and headspace gages to set your headspace.

For barrels, those from just about any/all the custom vendors would be a good choice. Hart, Kreiger, Broughton, Bartlein, K & P; et al.
Decide first which options you want your barrel to feature ( excess barrel length, a non-standard twist, progressive twist, " sqeeze-bore ", 3 groove; etc. ) Not every body offers the same barrel configuration options.

Also watch simple things; like barrel diameter. For example: on a recent build, I wanted a 1.375" diam barrel @ the chamber section.
Not every one offered it, and those that did usually wanted extra $$$ because I wasn't asking for something like a 1.200" diam.

With regards,
357Mag