E R Shaw costom rifle

[carl1575]

Has anyone had any experance with a shaw costom rifle. I am thinking about one in 260 ackley imp. As my brother likes to point out to me the only logic I use when buying another rifle is-I never owned one of those at least for a long time. I dont confuse Want and Need. If any one has a set of 260 ackley dies it would help me make up my mind carl f

 

[Hoier]

Is all those ER Shaw rifles are is a Savage with one of their barrels on it. You would be better off buying a Savage action and building one yourself.

 

[CaptainMal]

There's an article about them in the new Rifleshooter magazine.

Every time I have a rifle built things go wrong. Sourcing the action, trigger, stock, plates etc can be an issue and always seems to be. Then fitting that stock, doing the bedding and making things right gets messed up somehow.

Now lots of time and effort has gone by but you need a barrel. I am lucky to have a good gunsmith but again, more time, more issues, more travel and lately, a gun that does not shoot well.

Now you get to figure out why. Is it the action, bedding, stock, barrel, brake, crown or??? You fight it all, deal with many people and end up screwed, blued and tattooed. I say for every custom rifle YOU subcontract to build you should buy a large jar of vaseline.

My latest happens to be a 260 AI built on a Remington stainless, trued action, Krieger bbl, Holland and now another custom brake, modified Rem stock and what I have is another mess of lousy shooting and months of expensive testing with no end in sight. Fellow asked me about it at the range earlier this week. I told him there was yet one thing to figure out. How large a dog could be tied to it when I drive it deep into the ground?

You don't want to hear the nightmares from my Savage dual port Dasher with junk McGowen barrel. I could have bought two of the nicest Shaws' for what I lost on that mess.

Get the Shaw and have low blood pressure and time for a cold one.

 

[CJ6]

If I'm not mistaken, The Shaw Custom does NOT have the Savage BBL nut and has a Rem style recoil lug.

 

[carl1575]

Thanks a lot for your wisdom on a subject I know very little about, I have bought and sold and shot 150 to 200 guns in my 73 years, but only 8 or 9 true coustom rifles and all of them were done. all I had to do was reload and shoot. That sounds like a lot more fun, and I bought most of them for half of what the guy had in them. now all I need is a set of 260 ac dies to tip me over thanks again carl f

 

[CaptainMal]

CArl,

On dies I can tell you what NOT to do. Mine cost about $200 and were made from the reamer used to cut this latest 260AI camber. Forster did it, took months and the sizer does not size the neck. Now you have to order and experiment with different bushings based on the thickness of the neck brass. That varies wildly by brand with my .015" Lapua stuff being the thickest and then taking the largest bushing.

Dies are way cheaper from other people. Pick brass and turn the necks to fit the sizer supplied. Simple, fast and a whole lot cheaper than the mess I been wading through. Of course if you want to throw 2" groups...

 

[Minesweeper3433]

CaptainMal it seems like you have a really ruff time in this sport! I have only ever heard of a couple people having that many problems with shooting. You piss off a leprechaun or something? All joking aside hope you have better luck from here on out.

 

[carl1575]

Captian Mal thanks for your advice it will be remembered when I pick my dies. the two piece of advice I have received will save me way more money and grief my contribution to this site thanks carl f

 

[Larryh128]

I have never had a Shaw rifle but I've seen a bunch of their barrels including one a couple weeks ago. The machining was very good and I expect that it will shoot as good as it looked. I have one in 223 Ackley that I wouldn't consider selling. Good value for the $.

 

[mnshortdraw]

If you have bad luck with rifles, don't take your chances with a Shaw barrel. I have read horror stories and even got to look at one with a borescope. It wasn't pretty. If you want a shooter guaranteed, buy a used custom that's proven with logged rounds, load data, and already depreciated. Any rifle that I sell has a week return policy on it and many other people will work out a deal like that. Lots of very good shooting rifles on the classifieds here and elsewhere.

 

[fdshuster]

Larry: When you say "the machining was very good", are you basing that judgement on what you saw with a borescope?

E.R.Shaw barrels are not hand-lapped, the majority will have a lot of reamer & tool marks across the lands & grooves, sure to cause heavy copper fouling, and the chance of poor or mediocre accuracy. A few will be "accurate" to deer hunting standards.

You get what you pay for, just don't expect a barrel comparable to a $320 Krieger or Bartlein.

 

[dr549]

Carl1575,

I have been using the ER Shaw barrels for about 2 years now with very good luck. I have heavy barrel rifles in 222Mag, 260Rem, 22BR, and 6.5X06 that will shoot about 1/4 inch 3 shot groups at 100yds. I took delivery of 2 Shaw Heritage Custom rifles last month in 6.5X55 and 7X57, 26 inch tubes in polished stainless. Both rifles shoot well under 1/2 at 100yds with most any load I've tried. Some things to be aware of on the custom rifles is that the heaviest barrel is the #3 contour, which is fine for me. Its made on a Savage action with the accutrigger and can get with or without a barrel nut. Wait is about 12 months for a rifle, 3 months for just the barrel.

Shot my 7X57 today and it outshot a couple of those high end hunting rifles I had with me. They are nice custom rifles at a very good price. They are showing up more and more at the local Carolina ranges.