Does anyone shoot ELR with a 284?

[Dud]

My replacement parts from Glades seem to be in USPS purgatory, no updates since October 4.

I bought some shims to take slop out of the trigger. I got a package with the wrong shims today.

My aluminum extrusion is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, I hope it's not wrong or delayed.

I hope these are the only bumps in the road because I have a lot to do between now and that November shoot.

 

[Dud]

On a better note, my stock folds and to minimize bulk, I want to fold it toward the bolt side of the chassis.

The issue is that the folded stock hits the bolt knob before it folds flat. The solution is I bought a fluted Delrin bolt knob. Without the bolt knob, the Glades bolt handle just barely clears the folded stock. The Delrin knob is shorter than the knob that Glades supplies, it fits the threads and the shoulder matches up pretty nice but mostly, being Delrin, I can carve away a divot that the stock will fold in to perfectly but leave enough so the threads aren't exposed and the stock will make a soft landing on the Delrin knob.

That knob arrived on time.

 

[Dud]

I saved the 30-06 barrel. It's amazing how much crap Savage put in those threads.

It's cleaned out now and the nut screws on easy except in one or two slightly tight spots that might have a tiny bit of grit or something hanging it up a little bit. Fingers are enough to get past the tight spots so very minor.

 

[Dud]

I got my extrusion and some shims for the trigger.

The Glades package tracking still hasn't been updated. Not Glades fault, USPS but it still sucks.

My bag rider extrusion is about 4' long, more than enough to make two forends for MDT LSS chassis. The end that bolts on to the chassis needs some machining so I'll do both ends but leave them connected in the middle until I determine what length I need.

Hopefully I'll get my barrel and figure out some shop time in the next couple weeks.

 

[Dud]

My barrel seems to have shipped.

I'm still relatively on schedule.

 

[Dud]

My trigger is shimmed. I bought 25 0.187x0.250x0.008" washers and used five of them. Three between the trigger and hanger and two between the trigger and safety blade. The trigger has much less wiggle now but the safety blade is still kind of floppy. I may add a sixth shim to try and fix that but I kind of think I should just leave it.

The pull is pretty heavy. I was thinking about buying a Varmint Accu-trigger spring but the shipping cost is silly. I will probably just trim the spring until I can get under 2 lbs.

The way it is, it looks like the trigger spring is almost at coil bind. I should have no trouble taking off a coil or two or stretching it out if I accidentally get the pull too low.

Now for the forend, the Gen 1 MDT LSS is a cut down octagon. From side to side it is 1.500" wide, the bottom flat is 0.640" wide and bottom to top it is 0.745".

I am using an 80/20 extrusion for my 3" bag rider. It is #25-8526 25 Series double flange bearing profile.

It almost fits. It is shaped like "_|_|_" but the "|" part is too tall and the gap between them is too narrow. I will have to cut down the tops and then use a 45° chamfer bit to widen the top of the gap so the MDT chassis can drop in.

Four flathead screws in countersunk holes will hold it on to the chassis. I may bed it while I am mixing up Devcon steel epoxy for the scope rail and recoil lug.

 

[Dud]

My barrel has arrived. I'll inspect it closely tonight.

Now I need to practice necking up brass and then neck up my Hornady 6.5-284 modified case so I can figure out where my seating depth needs to be.

 

[gman47564]

Peterson has some really nice 284 brass..top shelf stuff..

 

[Dud]

So far the barrel looks pretty nice.

There are a few nits to pick. The barrel threads had some grime in them. No big deal, 30 seconds with a small wire brush cleaned that out. The muzzle threads and thread protector threads also had some grime. This is a little bit worse. If a big enough grit had gotten in there, the threads could have bound up. Also on the muzzle end of the thread protector, the last thread was not chamfered, it's rough and sharp. Finally the thread protector stands proud of the crown by maybe 0.020" or so.

I think I'm going to have to chuck up the thread protector in a lathe, shorten it up and add a chamfer.

With that said, the thread protector didn't get bound up and X-Caliber doesn't offer an invisible style thread protector so I shouldn't expect it to fit like one.

I can't judge the bore and chamber quality yet. I'm going to order one of those Teslong bore scopes to do that. I don't see anything obviously wrong by eye. I hope a bore scope won't change that.

My friend who is letting me borrow his shop has straightness gauges for 7mm that he says will fail on a bore that's 0.0003" out of straight over the measurement length.

We will slug it and if everything looks good, diamond lap it as well.

I have told him my plan for a receiver jig and threaded mandrel to face the action square to the threads and also my plan to machine an extended forend to fit the chassis.

I was thinking about getting a set of Burris XTR Signature rings to add slope but since I'm going to bed the rail on an angle, I decided to cheap out and buy a $28.50 set of Vortex six screw rings. I will ream them after I figure out my scope position.

I'm going over my last minute shopping list, hopefully I will remember everything I need to buy and order it tomorrow.

One last thing about the barrel, if my free bore is too short for the 184 Berger's, I will have to throat the chamber. Hopefully I will figure that out soon because if it's a problem and my friend doesn't have a 7mm throated, I'll have to order one and that might kill my schedule.

 

[Dud]

Since I'm making a 3" bag rider forend, I was looking for a 3" bag and also started looking at front rests.

Several Bald Eagle rests seem to be on closeout.

To me the most attractive is the Big 50 windage model. Adding the extra long leveling screws, big feet for soft ground and a 3" bag, it seems like a $250 total.

There are a few cheaper options but not much cheaper and I shoot with a friend that has a .50 so the bigger rest might help him out too.

For me, at the URSA event I want to attend I will probably be shooting prone from dirt and might need a fair amount of up angle which is why I added the accessory feet and screws to the price. I'm thinking my next rifle will be a 338 RUM (+P?) or 338 Edge +P so a larger rest might make a lot of sense for that.

I know there are cheap Caldwell rests from China and expensive USA made rests. Is the Taiwanese Bald Eagle a good value at about twice the price of a Caldwell and half the price of a joystick rest?

 

[Dud]

I haven't faced the action yet but I thought I would mock it up to show how short the forend of the LSS looks with a 31" barrel:


I think I'm going to make the forend about 18" long which will leave about 12" of barrel hanging out past it.

 

[Dud]

With the 22" barrel for comparison.

 

[Dud]

I went ahead and ordered the Bald Eagle rest and a Uni-throater.

I think the reamer X-Caliber used to cut the chamber has a very short freebore so I'm going to be able to set my seating depth with the boat tail just ahead of the shoulder and a short jump.

My replacement parts from Glades are still showing its last tracking update on October 4. Hopefully they will send replacements for those replacements soon.

 

[Dud]

I was reading about Accu-trigger pull weight reduction. I was thinking about just trimming the factory spring but I read about a no trim method.

You take out the trigger spring, take the trigger blade spring and put it where the trigger spring was and make a new trigger blade spring from a ball point pen spring.

I did exactly that and my 3 lb pull went to about 1 lb.

I also used shims in the trigger so it has less play but the way the trigger hanger pins to the receiver it has some play anyway.

I need to make sure it is safe but I slammed the bolt home as fast as I could (no barrel installed) and the trigger stayed cocked so it looks good but I'll test it more.

I have more shims so if I need to add weight to the pull, I can add a few under the spring.

 

[Dud]

After a few more pulls, it looks like it's a 14 oz pull if my analog scale is accurate.

It is not screwdriver adjustable like the standard spring but my chassis has no screwdriver hole so either way it needs partial disassembly to adjust (or shim) the trigger.

Beside facing the receiver, I think the only thing I have to check is my primary extraction timing.

One thing I have noticed is that the bolt lift over cocks the firing pin by more than 1/8".

That is clearly adding to the bolt lift but not doing anything for the primer strike because the firing pin falls back down in to the cocked position before firing.

I think that is probably bolt sleeve geometry doing that. If I can figure out the cause with 100% confidence and think of a good way to reduce the over cocking, I may try to fix it eventually.

 

[Dud]

I was going to use a set of 34mm ARC rings with a Meopta Optika 6 5-30x56 scope but Meopta decided not to deliver the Dichroic reticle I ordered so I'm using a different 30mm scope I have on hand.

I just got a set of Chinese Vortex tactical 6 bolt medium rings. On first impression they seem pretty nice for a $28.50 set (on sale at Midway USA). The caps have a decent amount of meat under the capscrew countersinks and having six screws instead of four will help distribute the load across more threads.

I may install helical thread inserts at a later date.

I will ream them to 30mm so I get full contact from rings to scope tube and no bending stress on the scope tube (unless it isn't straight).

I would ream it on the Leupold Backcountry one piece mount but it is a bit thin in the middle of the mount so I'm going to use a fairly beefy section of Picatinny rail I have to hold the rings straight as I ream them out. Once I get my rail bolted on and bedded (with added slope in the bedding), I will ream again to ensure full contact.

For bedding, I am going to bed the forend to the chassis, the recoil lug area and the scope rail.

A traditional bedding would try to support the entire bottom surface of the receiver but a chassis is supposed to be machined to not require any bedding. Since I'm not using exactly the recoil lug the chassis is intended for, I'm going to bed to support it in recoil but I'll let the chassis geometry deal with the underside of the action.

I was reading about a bedding job that supported the rear of the tang as a secondary recoil lug. There is no way to do that with an Axis in the MDT LSS chassis.

I also received a package from Glades. Not the one with the replacement bolt sleeve, just a replacement handle. Hopefully I'll get it to work with their bolt sleeve.

I got some spare parts for the bolt also. I'm almost to the point of having an entire spare bolt which is much better than having a few random left over parts. I'm probably going to buy an extractor kit with the oversized ball bearing to build up the spare, then a wave washer, a firing pin, the button, springs and the retaining bolt. It's mostly little stuff but if Savage goes belly up for some reason, it's better to get stuff now.

 

[bman940]

Dud, What do you think of your Optika6 scope? Like you said, lots of Up with internals and some great features. I do agree that a 20 MOA base will be a nice addition.

 

[Dud]

I think Meopta's failure to deliver the scope that I ordered sucks.

I wanted to be an early adopter, now I'm waiting and I guarantee I'm not going to pay MSRP if I order again.

 

[bman940]

Dud, I get it, I have heard that story from so many folks who loved what they say at SHOT Show and the early reviews. I suggest making a phone call to whoever you are going to order from and tell them your situation. I suspect that they will help you out. If you are LE/Mil Meopta has a discount program as a thank you. I was out sighting in my 3-18x50 FFP MRAD yesterday. The zero stop took all of 20 seconds to set. Man is it nice. Locked down with Seekins Precision rings and the Bergara .308 is a tack driver.

 

[Dud]

I ordered what I wanted, a 5-30x56 Dichro MRAD.

Evidently Meopta cancelled that model so I cancelled my order.

If they want my money, just deliver what they announced and what I ordered.

Until then, I'm not happy and I'm not going to pretend to be. Meopta dropped the ball big time.