skiutah02
Silver $$ Contributor
Posted this on Facebook, but thought it might be worth adding here for those who don't frequent FB.
Taking a different approach than others here and will hopefully answer a few questions that come up occasionally like "can the 223Rem 90vld combo be competitive," “can I modify a Savage factory rifle and get it to shoot well?”, "do I need the best equipment to get started/be competitive", and my favorite “can an ugly rifle still shoot well". Here I present my Ugly Stick. Found it in a local gun store as a used Savage LRPV in 22-250. After watching it collect dust for several months, I talked the price down to $550 out the door (deal of the year right there). I agreed so fast I did not even know the caliber until after he was writing up the bill. Sold the barrel for $100. A friend was haranguing me enough to try the 223/90vld combo that he sweetened the deal by offering to chamber a barrel for free if I agreed to try to get the 90s to shoot. I couldn’t turn down that deal and I’m very glad he kept at me. This was in the mid-summer of 2014. He chambered up a Bartlein 4-groove 1:7 Heavy Palma barrel with the ISSF reamer and it finished at 30 in. Stock was milled out a bit to accept the new barrel, an adapter was added to convert the sling swivel to a picatinny rail for a JoyPod and my extra plastic cheek piece that came with my Sav 12 FTR was duct taped to the stock. Price for rifle was $550-100+360(barrel)+25(pic rail)+$35(scope pic rail)= $870. Topped it off with a Sightron III 15-50x in Burris Sig rings which added $850 (scope + rings). About as cheap as you can get all things considering. But can it shoot?
I started shooting it in Aug 2014. Made HM at Midrange in FClass with it quite quickly as my scores improved dramatically. I attribute this mostly to the barrel, as I was shooting very small groups right away during testing, but I was becoming a better shooter as well (I had never shot a centerfire rifle until May 2013). I won my state’s MidRange Championship that year (and the next) using this rifle. Last year was the first full year shooting it, and among other things, it set/beat all five ND State Midrange records over the year.
Another friend gave up on his 90vld Bartlein barrel and I took it off of his hands. With some minor “gunsmithing” (finding the correct action/boltface and recoil lug combo that gave the right headspacing) I put it on this rifle for this year. This is my third 223/90vld barrel and they all have shot (and continue to shoot) very well (all Bartlein HP, 4-groove, 1:7 and 30”).
During load testing last winter, I shot this group at 300m. Of all of my multitude of groups the past few years, I am actually most proud of this one. The winds were very tricky and I was mostly interested in vertical for my testing, but after a few shots, I really started working hard at holding for the wind and produced this nice 10-shot group.
I was fireforming brass the first time I took it out this year and was doing so at a Palma match. One of my friends and competitors in FTR took to making fun of it. It proceeded to shoot a 150-8x at 800yds and had the high score in the 800 yd match (in FTR). I found out that the rifle shoots best after people make fun of it. I used this rifle/barrel for a few midrange F-Class matches this year. It has done quite well, this year.
2016 US F-Class Midrange Nationals, Individual – 11th place (FTR)
2016 Minnesota Midrange Regional Championship – Silver Medal (FTR)
2016 Minnesota Midrange State Championship – 3rd Place (FTR)
2016 North Dakota Midrange Regional Championship – 1st place (FTR)
2016 Nebraska Midrange State Championship – 2nd place (FTR)
To be fair, in only the Nebraska match did I use the rifle exclusively, as it was only a 60 shot affair. The other matches I used it for as little as 33% of the matches (US Nationals) to 66% (ND MR Regionals).
Some notable highlights. It shot a 200-14x at 600 yds in the first 20-shot match in the MN State Championships. Once again people were making fun of the rifle…
I used it for the first day of USFCN Midrange where it did well at 300 and 500 (but I got beat by the wind at 600). I shot my other 223/90vld rifle for days 2 and 3 (Barrel #2).
I brought the ugly stick back out for the USFCN Midrange Team Match and I was very happy with its performance in that event, as it put up the 4th highest Aggregate score that day. Once again, I had my teammate make fun of her before we got to shooting….
Keeping it fun, Drew
Taking a different approach than others here and will hopefully answer a few questions that come up occasionally like "can the 223Rem 90vld combo be competitive," “can I modify a Savage factory rifle and get it to shoot well?”, "do I need the best equipment to get started/be competitive", and my favorite “can an ugly rifle still shoot well". Here I present my Ugly Stick. Found it in a local gun store as a used Savage LRPV in 22-250. After watching it collect dust for several months, I talked the price down to $550 out the door (deal of the year right there). I agreed so fast I did not even know the caliber until after he was writing up the bill. Sold the barrel for $100. A friend was haranguing me enough to try the 223/90vld combo that he sweetened the deal by offering to chamber a barrel for free if I agreed to try to get the 90s to shoot. I couldn’t turn down that deal and I’m very glad he kept at me. This was in the mid-summer of 2014. He chambered up a Bartlein 4-groove 1:7 Heavy Palma barrel with the ISSF reamer and it finished at 30 in. Stock was milled out a bit to accept the new barrel, an adapter was added to convert the sling swivel to a picatinny rail for a JoyPod and my extra plastic cheek piece that came with my Sav 12 FTR was duct taped to the stock. Price for rifle was $550-100+360(barrel)+25(pic rail)+$35(scope pic rail)= $870. Topped it off with a Sightron III 15-50x in Burris Sig rings which added $850 (scope + rings). About as cheap as you can get all things considering. But can it shoot?
I started shooting it in Aug 2014. Made HM at Midrange in FClass with it quite quickly as my scores improved dramatically. I attribute this mostly to the barrel, as I was shooting very small groups right away during testing, but I was becoming a better shooter as well (I had never shot a centerfire rifle until May 2013). I won my state’s MidRange Championship that year (and the next) using this rifle. Last year was the first full year shooting it, and among other things, it set/beat all five ND State Midrange records over the year.
Another friend gave up on his 90vld Bartlein barrel and I took it off of his hands. With some minor “gunsmithing” (finding the correct action/boltface and recoil lug combo that gave the right headspacing) I put it on this rifle for this year. This is my third 223/90vld barrel and they all have shot (and continue to shoot) very well (all Bartlein HP, 4-groove, 1:7 and 30”).
During load testing last winter, I shot this group at 300m. Of all of my multitude of groups the past few years, I am actually most proud of this one. The winds were very tricky and I was mostly interested in vertical for my testing, but after a few shots, I really started working hard at holding for the wind and produced this nice 10-shot group.
I was fireforming brass the first time I took it out this year and was doing so at a Palma match. One of my friends and competitors in FTR took to making fun of it. It proceeded to shoot a 150-8x at 800yds and had the high score in the 800 yd match (in FTR). I found out that the rifle shoots best after people make fun of it. I used this rifle/barrel for a few midrange F-Class matches this year. It has done quite well, this year.
2016 US F-Class Midrange Nationals, Individual – 11th place (FTR)
2016 Minnesota Midrange Regional Championship – Silver Medal (FTR)
2016 Minnesota Midrange State Championship – 3rd Place (FTR)
2016 North Dakota Midrange Regional Championship – 1st place (FTR)
2016 Nebraska Midrange State Championship – 2nd place (FTR)
To be fair, in only the Nebraska match did I use the rifle exclusively, as it was only a 60 shot affair. The other matches I used it for as little as 33% of the matches (US Nationals) to 66% (ND MR Regionals).
Some notable highlights. It shot a 200-14x at 600 yds in the first 20-shot match in the MN State Championships. Once again people were making fun of the rifle…
I used it for the first day of USFCN Midrange where it did well at 300 and 500 (but I got beat by the wind at 600). I shot my other 223/90vld rifle for days 2 and 3 (Barrel #2).
I brought the ugly stick back out for the USFCN Midrange Team Match and I was very happy with its performance in that event, as it put up the 4th highest Aggregate score that day. Once again, I had my teammate make fun of her before we got to shooting….
Keeping it fun, Drew
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How's the weather in NM Keith?
