Well, just started work on the .223 mid range rifle, got the action, reamer and pilots, and barrel together.
Stiller Predator single shot action - This has to be the best bang for the buck out there. It exactly met dimensional specs, it's square, it's true, it's tight. My guys had just blueprinted a couple of 700s and greatly appreciated checking for quality control issues and finding NONE. They were more impressed when they saw the price on the invoice. VERY reasonable. I don't personally recommend anything that I haven't purchased myself, I personally recommend Stiller, good people to deal with.
PTG - Reamer and pilot set. Custom spec. I checked about a dozen or so reamer designs and didn't find one suitable. So I spec'd one myself. Neck diameter .003" over loaded round, freebore diameter .0004" over bullet diameter, freebore length to suit seating the bullet as long as possible, leade angle to match the bullet.
Someone asked why I didn't just run a throating reamer down the bore. My reply was why do something with potential shortcomings whan I didn't have to. Plus since I have the reamer, I can duplicate the chamber in another barrel. Besides, my smithing team appreciates it when I show up with my own fresh sharp tooling.
PTG makes good stuff, Dave Kiff was very helpful with information and recommendations and a pleasure to deal with.
L-W match program barrel - Not many people use them, and even fewer seem to have much success with them. What I have found is that the barrel to barrel uniformity is exceptional, an important consideration in a 6.5 X 284 for instance. I've only had a dud once, and that was primarily due to a poor chambering job from a smith I no longer use. That barrel was set back, shot very well but would not generate the target velocity missing a couple of inches to cut a clean chamber.
Woody at L-W USA is a bit of a curmudgeon (I'll pay for that one ;D) but he'll go out of his way for little details and hook a brother up.
I will admit that the L-W 50 steel does no cut like 416R or 4140. Speed, feed and lubricant matter a lot. That means a through the headstock lathe with a pressure cutting fluid feed through the bore when cutting the chamber. Which brings up....
Smithing - I do not have permission to mention my guys by name, but one of them is very well known in certain circles. The other is a master machinist by trade and is if anything, better at precision machine work. Their work is essentially perfect. The barrel was indexed to under .0001" on both ends before cutting the chamber, through the headstock, remember? The chambers finish was good enough polishing wasn't deemed needed. The leade to the lands is uniform and doesn't show any burrs at all. The fit to the action is very tight without being too tight.
In the last forty years of having custom work done, I haven't seen anything better and very little to equal. I'm a repeat customer.
I've had smiths flatly refuse to chuck up a Lothar-Walther barrel. IMO this is simply because they are not good enough machinists to change their technique to suit the material and have run into problems. You can't just run a reamer up like it was 416R or 4140 in a dry hole. Won't work. Run the reamer in too hard, too low an rpm, no pressurized cutting fluid feed down the bore and you get a string and the reamer will grab and chatter, catch a chip and score the chamber. Or snap the reamer.
Not to say they won't do a good job in their comfort zone, 4140 is easier, 416R is easier. But then I had one smith tell me that there is no need for a piloted reamer either, a solid pilot would do everything as well... Didn't use his services.
The lessons in all of that are: quality work is worth the asking price, and the asking price is always reasonable; less than quality work isn't worth anything; it doesn't matter how high the quality of the individual components are if they aren't machined and assembled properly.
Well, hopefully the stock will show up in the near future. I'd use a stock from one of my other rifles but the barrel profile doesn't match any of the existing channels and I'm NOT hacking up a McMillan for a temporary install.
Stiller Predator single shot action - This has to be the best bang for the buck out there. It exactly met dimensional specs, it's square, it's true, it's tight. My guys had just blueprinted a couple of 700s and greatly appreciated checking for quality control issues and finding NONE. They were more impressed when they saw the price on the invoice. VERY reasonable. I don't personally recommend anything that I haven't purchased myself, I personally recommend Stiller, good people to deal with.
PTG - Reamer and pilot set. Custom spec. I checked about a dozen or so reamer designs and didn't find one suitable. So I spec'd one myself. Neck diameter .003" over loaded round, freebore diameter .0004" over bullet diameter, freebore length to suit seating the bullet as long as possible, leade angle to match the bullet.
Someone asked why I didn't just run a throating reamer down the bore. My reply was why do something with potential shortcomings whan I didn't have to. Plus since I have the reamer, I can duplicate the chamber in another barrel. Besides, my smithing team appreciates it when I show up with my own fresh sharp tooling.
PTG makes good stuff, Dave Kiff was very helpful with information and recommendations and a pleasure to deal with.
L-W match program barrel - Not many people use them, and even fewer seem to have much success with them. What I have found is that the barrel to barrel uniformity is exceptional, an important consideration in a 6.5 X 284 for instance. I've only had a dud once, and that was primarily due to a poor chambering job from a smith I no longer use. That barrel was set back, shot very well but would not generate the target velocity missing a couple of inches to cut a clean chamber.
Woody at L-W USA is a bit of a curmudgeon (I'll pay for that one ;D) but he'll go out of his way for little details and hook a brother up.
I will admit that the L-W 50 steel does no cut like 416R or 4140. Speed, feed and lubricant matter a lot. That means a through the headstock lathe with a pressure cutting fluid feed through the bore when cutting the chamber. Which brings up....
Smithing - I do not have permission to mention my guys by name, but one of them is very well known in certain circles. The other is a master machinist by trade and is if anything, better at precision machine work. Their work is essentially perfect. The barrel was indexed to under .0001" on both ends before cutting the chamber, through the headstock, remember? The chambers finish was good enough polishing wasn't deemed needed. The leade to the lands is uniform and doesn't show any burrs at all. The fit to the action is very tight without being too tight.
In the last forty years of having custom work done, I haven't seen anything better and very little to equal. I'm a repeat customer.
I've had smiths flatly refuse to chuck up a Lothar-Walther barrel. IMO this is simply because they are not good enough machinists to change their technique to suit the material and have run into problems. You can't just run a reamer up like it was 416R or 4140 in a dry hole. Won't work. Run the reamer in too hard, too low an rpm, no pressurized cutting fluid feed down the bore and you get a string and the reamer will grab and chatter, catch a chip and score the chamber. Or snap the reamer.
Not to say they won't do a good job in their comfort zone, 4140 is easier, 416R is easier. But then I had one smith tell me that there is no need for a piloted reamer either, a solid pilot would do everything as well... Didn't use his services.
The lessons in all of that are: quality work is worth the asking price, and the asking price is always reasonable; less than quality work isn't worth anything; it doesn't matter how high the quality of the individual components are if they aren't machined and assembled properly.
Well, hopefully the stock will show up in the near future. I'd use a stock from one of my other rifles but the barrel profile doesn't match any of the existing channels and I'm NOT hacking up a McMillan for a temporary install.
