Finished my first gunsmithing project

[Browningguy]

Ok, it was just rebarrelling a Savage 12FV which is not really gunsmithing, but for someone as mechanically inept as me it's an accomplishment. I installed a Lothar Walther 28", 8 twist .243 Winchester barrel along with a 20 MOA scope base. The stock is a LVT from SSS which they pillar bedded, trigger is the standard accutrigger.

I ran some factory rounds through it last weekend for the breakin which shot decent, then loaded a bunch of 95 gr. Berger VLD's to try yesterday. I had tried to shoot these in my factory barrel and never got a group less than about 2" at 100. The final load I shot yesterday was 41.5 grains of H4350, it gave me .135" vertical (at 100 yards), and I wasn't too worried about the horizontal since the wind was blowing prety good right to left.

The next trip I will use 5 shot groups with .2 grain increments and go from 41.4-42.4 grains (Bergers max load).

 

[Terry]

Congratulations!

Enjoy it!


Terry

 

[ourway77]

Beautiful rifle and a Very good group. I going to try my hand at barrel swapping as soon as I get the nerve. LOL. My main concern is the head spacing of the new barrel. I would be terrified with the first pull of the trigger. Lou

 

[fullersson]

Very nice rifle. 46gr of H1000 using 105's or 107's is a nice accuracy load also. If you look on the home page under .243win info they have some good loads posted in fact that is where I got the H1000 load from. Good luck and have fun. Brian Brown.

Lou,

That job isn't hard to do but you will want both the go and no-go gage for the job. Some will tell you don't need both or that you can use brass and they are correct but it can also lead to false readings which cause excessive headspace or not enough head space. The gages are worth the $50 IMO. Brian Brown

 

[archerross]

My main concern is the head spacing of the new barrel. I would be terrified with the first pull of the trigger.

Shoot the first one from the hip.

 

[Browningguy]

Believe me Ourway, I was nervous doing this the first time, I probably rechecked the head space 7-8 times before screwing the nut down tight, then I checked it a couple of more times. I only used a go gauge, I turned the barrel in until it hit the go gauge, then barely backed it off. I then put a single layer of tape on the back of the go gauge and the bolt would not close, in fact it barely would start to move down at all. After repeating a bunch of times I screwed the barrel nut down and tried the same routine again. Factory rounds chamber easily as well as new Lapua brass and some resized Lapua so I felt ok with it.

If I can do it even a caveman can do it.

 

[jscandale]

Nice job! Feels good doesn't it? I remember my first build, I was nervous too. The reason that I started to build my own guns was spwaned from frustration I dealing with a smith, never looked back.

JS