Have a "Poor Man's Target Rifle"

[Doug Bowser]

I just traded into a Bob Pease "poor Man's target Rifle". It is a Remington 700 Heavy Barreled rifle in .308 Winchester. It came with an outside neck turner and a neck thickness micrometer. The rifle is as new, only fired 100 times. I wonder if anyone on the forum has any information on this accuracy conversion. I know the cases, once turned and fired do not need to be neck sized to reload. I don't know if I should keep he rifle or sell it and buy something else.

Thanks for any info you might have.

It is a neck turning tool not a reamer)

 

[bheadboy]

you do not have to use the inside reamer, outside turn if necessary and shoot it. Pease was the first BR shooter i ran into who took xp-100 and built long range heavy bbl sil shooter out of them back in the 70's.

Bob

 

[BoydAllen]

If I remember correctly, the rifles started out as Remington Varmint specials in .222. The bolt faces were opened and a Sako extractor fitted, the barrels were set back and chambered to .22 PPC. A single shot adapter was fitted, the mag wells were blocked solid. The barrels were floated, and the actions were bedded as single shots. It has been quite a few years since I read of these, so I may have gotten a few details wrong. I would determine the chamber neck diameter, and turn case necks rather than ream them, for a minimum loaded neck clearance of .002 . A little more might be better. For reloading I would fire a case a fire formed case a few times, neck sizing only, with a stout load, and send it to Harrell Precision, with an order for a FL die, You can use either a Wilson arbor press die or one of the threaded ones. The Forster comes to mind. I would select a neck bushing that is .002 smaller than the neck diameter of a loaded round.

 

[JohnHenry]

Can't speak to the 308 version, but I had Bob Pease do a " Poor Man's Conversion" to a Rem. 700 varmint rifle in 222 probably 25-30 years ago when he was located in New Braunfels, Texas. I believe Howard Dietz may actually have done the smithing at that time. Action was "trued" and the lugs lapped. Recoil lug was surface ground. A single shot feed ramp was glued in the action and a block of wood was glued in the stock's magazine well to stiffen the stock. The stock was pillar bedded with Devcon. The factory barrel was set back and chambered in 222 with a .246 tight neck chamber that required neck turning. The muzzle was recrowned. If I remember correctly, the rifle averaged approx. 1/3 moa. Accuracy was probably limited by the factory barrel and the checkered factory stock that did not ride the front bag particularly well. As Bob posted, shoot it and see what you have.

 

[snert]

If you intend to sell, let me know..just a PM will suffice, and some photos

In the mean time, shoot it and find out if you like it.

Snert

 

[BoydAllen]

There I go, skimming again. Skipped right over the caliber, but the good part is that someone with a better memory than mine filled in the details. I believe that Walt Berger has a brother that is/was (?) a gunsmith, and is the one that did at least some of the work.

 

[BigDMT]

Doug,
You are putting the cart WAY in front of the horse. You don't even know how it shoots so why would you be contemplating selling it???

One of the most accurate rifles I've ever owned was a factory rifle that only cost me $440. I suppose all the stars were aligned just right when it went through the factory

Perhaps your rifle is the next record breaker... But you'll never know until you try it

 

[JohnHenry]

Actually found a copy of my 25 year old order for the Poorman conversion. It was done "under the auspices of Bob Pease" by Jim Hillin and Frank Jimenez(Shooters Supply Co., Seguin, Texas). I used to shoot occasionally with a gentleman that had his smithing done by Walt's brother Nelson Berger. Trying to jog that long term memory, but I believe Nelson was in Ohio. Information that I have on the Poorman conversions indicates that the 308s had a .335 neck diameter chamber.
Some of the work that I forgot to mention above was that they also honed the trigger, installed a heavy duty firing pin spring, and shortened the ejector spring.

 

[fkimble@charter.net]

Yes Nelson Berger was in Ohio, not too far from Camp Perry. Left the range at Perry after the last HiPower match and dropped off my across the course 308 for Nelson to true up and rebarrel. I believe he also built a 6PPC on a 40x for me a few years later. This was any years ago.