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A " Mechanics" rifle

I thought I'd throw this out here.

Now that my 1903 clone is done I want to "assemble" another rifle.
The donor will be an older Savage 110 in 7mm mag I picked up for very short money.

I want to assemble something that anyone with a basic understanding of tools and the hand / eye connection could build. I want to use all pre-fit, threaded, chambered parts with the exception of perhaps a little stock inletting. No lathe or milling machine operations.

I'm thinking a 28 heavy varmint or bull barrel chambered in 300 Win mag. I'd like to use a 30 in. tube but don't feel like the 110 action is stiff enough to support it.
I'm going to use standard chamber dimensions and I'm on the fence about twists. I know 1/10 is standard but I'm leaning towards a 1/12 to use 155 Palma's up to 175SMK's.
It'll be strictly for recreational target shooting and informal competition out to at least 500yds.

I also want to have the whole project come in under $1000.00 sans optics and sweat equity :-)

I have my thoughts but would like to hear yours.

-4 here this morning but very sunny

45BPCR
 
A 30" barrel should be okay, according to what I've seen and heard. I'm getting ready to put a 30" heavy palma on a 110 (as soon as the reamer appears). I'm not certain what benefit there would be with a win mag and light bullets. The best prices I've seen on pre-fits is with Northlander (the savage shooter's web site). 110's are small-shank - ;)

I wouldn't recommend a slower twist. Far too many people are getting excellent results with a 10 twist in 308 and shooting 155's to boot! The extra twist will allow you to shoot heavier pills for long range if the mood strikes you later. By all means, put a high-quality recoil lug on it. There is no substitute for a real headspace gauge - don't change barrels without one! Brass is not good enough!

Stocks aren't that hard to come by. Look for a new take-off that you like (ask the barrel guy, he has some stocks). Do the bedding yourself - it's easy, but do spring for the Devcon 1011 (steelbed).

Spring for a Farrell one-piece scope base and GLUE IT to the top of the receiver (use the screws too!). That will stiffen the snot out of your action.

I built mine with a Benchmark barrel a little over a year ago and it has been a shooter (embarrassingly better than I am). I spent just over $1000 but the benchmark is a little more expensive than some, and I bought a new stock from Stockade.

Your project should be easily doable.
 
I'm kinda wondering why the 300WM for 155's and 175 for target. ??? That's a lot of powder burn and a quicker barrel burn out. I would say go for it if you were wanting to shoot the 190-215 grain bullets. But... if that's what you want. Another good comprimise for those bullet weights would be the 30-06. More powder, higher velocity, less barrel destruction with each shot compared to the 300WM. I would look at the Rifle Basix trigger. It can be adjusted form 4oz.-3#. I was told it's the best trigger for Savage rifles. A good stock option would be Stockade Stocks. He offers a money saver option that gives you a raw stock so that have to do a skim coat of putty, primer, and paint. Good luck with the project. Want to see pictures.

Here's my parts gun:
Buddy of mine shooting my .308 Started as a Mod12 VLP, uses a B&C Medalist A2, but next go round is going to be a Stockade. Has a Stockade bolt handle, lift kit, SSS recoil lug, Lothar Walther 28" varmint contour, with a homemade break and Karsten Cheek Rest I installed.
Riflepics1-15-12003.jpg


Riflepics1-15-12001.jpg


Tank
 
I already have a Savage 12 F/TR in 308 with a Sightron SIII 10-50X and a DPMS LR308T with a Weaver 4-20X that I'm happy with.

I have more than a few 30-06 rifles in various configurations

So a 300 mag is the next logical choice no? ;D

The idea of glueing and screwing on a scope base is a great one!

45BPCR
 
You could have one of these:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=267682806

I loved the 112BT's, still have 2, although the .308 Win now sports a .30-06 barrel..........
 
I'd spoken with Jim Briggs about a barrel and will probably go that route this week.

I'm not sure what I'll use for a stock.

I've looked at Richards Micro-fits and like the look of their traditional Marksman stock and I have some basic in-letting tools along with the patience to us them.

I have the original Savage stock but it's not a target configuration.

The MacMillan's are pricey but I like the A3-5 It would put me outside of my price goal though.

And then there's Choate. Their new tactical custom with the adjustable cheek piece could be in the budget.

I'm kinda leaning towards the traditional wood stock though.

Discuss?

45Bpcr
 
I like wood stocks, but an affordable alternative to the McMillian may be a Stockade Stock. Check out the web site. He has a three different versions of completion you can chose from. There is the money saver which requires skim coating, priming, and paint. There is the primed version, and a finished painted version.

Here's the website:
http://www.stockadegunstocks.com/stocks.html
 
I figured I’d bring this thread back as I never posted pics of the finished product.
I ended up using a 28 inch 1-10 twist Criterion barrel I purchased from Jim Briggs with a Bull taper
I used a price conscious Choate tactical stock with the adjustable butt plate and cheek piece.
Scope is a Sightron Siii 10-50X60, Weaver Tactical rings and a 20 minute base.
I didn’t shoot it much last year as I spent most of the summer hurling 540grain chunks of lead at steel silhouette’s in Ridgway PA. ( that’s the other target rifle in the pics )
And, here is the reason for the post.
When I ordered the barrel, Mr. Briggs and I discussed chamber options.
He told me about an alternative to the SAAMI standard chamber that had a longer throat. I can’t, for the life of me remember what it was called.
A 155 Nosler match will seat to an oal. of 3.530 lightly touching the lands.
Looking at load data a max load in a standard chamber is 76.5 grains of IMR 4831 with a COAL of 3.340.
There’s a section on Load Data.com for “long throated” rifles that ups that charge to 86 grains. I don’t know how they fit that much powder into a case as my Remington brass will only hold about 84 grains to the case mouth, using a drop tube to settle the powder.
For now I’ve decided to run up to a max load of IMR 4831 with the 155 Noslers seated .010 off the lands. Hopefully this week I’ll be able to get to the range and run them over a chronograph and see what they’ll do.
45bpcr
 

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Interested in seeing how it works out for ya. Thanks for bringing back the thread. How do you like the new choate style stock? They look pretty slick. What is the total weight of your rifle? Looks good.
 
I really like your other rifle,sweeeeeeet. The choate's are pretty heavy at around 5.5 lbs.
 
300 win mag at 1000 yds......
bib 187 gr bullet......11 and 12 twist bbls......
my 1000 yd rifle is 1/11 30.3" plus a brake...16.9 lbs in a 17 lb class...
i started with inexpensive hrdy 208 amax and best is right at 2950 fps.....shooting hbn coating...0.31"/0.32" at 200 yds...
no real reason to go with the 10 twist..
i have some of the bib 187's to shoot and then some berger vld 210's..

just my 2 cents worth
 
The "other" rifle is the one I compete with. It's a Browning 1885 creedmoor chambered in 45-90. I shoot a 535 grain Postell bullet from a Buffalo Arms mould seated over 73 grains of swiss 3f.

I got to the range on sat and put 50 rounds over my Chrony. charge weights were 75.8, 76.2, 76.5,76.8 and 77.5 of IMR4831.
Velocities were as follows
75.8 76.2 76.5 76.8 77.5
3313 3302 3337 3345 3414
3276 3315 3343 3339 3407
3306 3320 3319 3344 3405
3282 3316 3353 3374 3398
3326 3338 3347 3360 3412

Accuracy was ehhhh as I was only shooting at 100yds. Didn't want to drive throught the mud field to get to the longer range stands. The target stands at 100 are new and we didn't have time to finish them before snow last year and thier not very sturdy. I could watch the wind blowing the target back and forth through about 3 inches of vertical travel in the scope.
I was able to hit many broken peices of skeets at 200 and 300 yards as they weren't flopping around in the wind :-)

After that string, and pot shots at skeet peices I cleaned the rifle well. Last year I did the 50 round break in and put the rifle away.

I still had 10 rounds left so I went back to the 100yd flappy target and the Chrony.
Velocities were higher !!

76.8 76.5
3411 3405
3422 3420
3430 3395
3423 3413
3443 3418

All charges were weighed on a Lyman 1200 DPS3 and double checked on a Dillon Determinator.
I wonder why the increase in speed? Barrell settling in mabey?
At least my budget rifle shows some promise.

45Bpcr

Oh, and that Browning? One weekend at Ridgway last year I painted "homer" a steel 3/4 size buffalo set up at 900 yards or so, so he looked fresh and clean.
After the match was over that evening I shot a 12 round group that measured about 8 inches horizontal and 14 inches vertical off cross sticks using iron sights and black powder :-)
 
very clean brass necks and nice shinny bullets have been known to weld while sitting.....just a possibility.
how long did they sit ?
temp at first session and at this last session ??

checking your charge weights on two scales which are both plus or minus 0.1..is not much of a check.......

a scale that is plus or minus 0.1..means that at any time you can have a .2 spread......and on a bad day 0.3.

some powders are insensitive to small errors.....the famous vv n133 is one.
 

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