Joe C
Student of the 1911.
Hello Everyone.
Years ago I was at a local range in GA when a guy walked up with this HUGE rifle and scope. I was there plinking or something. He broke out this boom stick and proceeded to start shooting at 600 yards. When I asked him about it he said it was called F-Class and it was the new thing in LR shooting. Later in the day he moved back to 1000 and as I watched my mind decided that someday, when I was rich and famous, I would have one of these rifles and have some fun shooting this game called F-Class.
Fast forward to 2011 and I made a friend who has been shooting HP for about 35 years. He is pretty darn good and has some friends, a few of which are here, that are awesome. He turned me on to a smith up in WI that some of you know named Randy Gregory. He also turned me on to a wildcat called the .240NMC. Now, while I've loaded for years now, never has a wildcat been loaded by me. But it sounded interesting. The more I learned about the little .22-250 case blown out to 6mm the more I liked it.
So, I bought a Win M70 action, because I like them for a number of reasons, and sent it off to Randy.
In the mean time a stock had to be found. I really liked one companies front half that is low and sleek. And I really liked the back end, from the wrist back, of Carl Bernosky's stocks. So I called Carl and asked him if he could make something that melded the two. He said he had been wanting to for some time but just really didn't have anyone that seemed interested. I'm a sucker...so I said make it for me Carl! This stock is the first ever of it's kind from Carl and I can say just from laying prone with it, I like it already. The camo laminate was my desire as was a rail under the fore end. He did the three way adjustable butt stock and the thumb wheel cheek piece.
Randy trued and barreled the action with a 32" Rock Creek barrel, did an incredible trigger job, pillar bedded the stock and several other things that are on a long list of stuff that I had questions about because I simply didn't know anything about building a rifle like this. Thankfully, he was a very patient man with this rookie. I think it is going to be a real shooter if what his other clients say is correct.
When I got the rifle in two weeks ago I started putting the finish on it. I've used Permalyn sealer and oil on the stock...and man was it a job. In total there are about 24 coats of finish on it...I honestly lost count. I'm pretty happy with it but will probably do it a couple more times during the off season just because I'm picky.
The scope is a Sightron SIII 6-24x50 LRMOA sitting in Burris Signature Zee Rings on top of an aluminum EGW 20MOA base.
Now I'm in the process of annealing, sizing and getting brass ready to fire form. And I'm looking forward to doing something I've been dreaming about for years now...shooting F-Class!
Finally, thank you to all of the guys on here that have helped me along the way on my journey. You guys welcomed this young pistolsmith with open arms and have given me a lot of insight on how to and not to do many things! Even though I'm not rich and famous yet I found a way to make this happen and I'm looking forward to having fun, learning to read the wind better and spending time shooting my rifle. And who knows, I might even shoot it half way decent with some practice!
Warmest regards to you all,
Joe Chambers
Years ago I was at a local range in GA when a guy walked up with this HUGE rifle and scope. I was there plinking or something. He broke out this boom stick and proceeded to start shooting at 600 yards. When I asked him about it he said it was called F-Class and it was the new thing in LR shooting. Later in the day he moved back to 1000 and as I watched my mind decided that someday, when I was rich and famous, I would have one of these rifles and have some fun shooting this game called F-Class.
Fast forward to 2011 and I made a friend who has been shooting HP for about 35 years. He is pretty darn good and has some friends, a few of which are here, that are awesome. He turned me on to a smith up in WI that some of you know named Randy Gregory. He also turned me on to a wildcat called the .240NMC. Now, while I've loaded for years now, never has a wildcat been loaded by me. But it sounded interesting. The more I learned about the little .22-250 case blown out to 6mm the more I liked it.
So, I bought a Win M70 action, because I like them for a number of reasons, and sent it off to Randy.
In the mean time a stock had to be found. I really liked one companies front half that is low and sleek. And I really liked the back end, from the wrist back, of Carl Bernosky's stocks. So I called Carl and asked him if he could make something that melded the two. He said he had been wanting to for some time but just really didn't have anyone that seemed interested. I'm a sucker...so I said make it for me Carl! This stock is the first ever of it's kind from Carl and I can say just from laying prone with it, I like it already. The camo laminate was my desire as was a rail under the fore end. He did the three way adjustable butt stock and the thumb wheel cheek piece.
Randy trued and barreled the action with a 32" Rock Creek barrel, did an incredible trigger job, pillar bedded the stock and several other things that are on a long list of stuff that I had questions about because I simply didn't know anything about building a rifle like this. Thankfully, he was a very patient man with this rookie. I think it is going to be a real shooter if what his other clients say is correct.
When I got the rifle in two weeks ago I started putting the finish on it. I've used Permalyn sealer and oil on the stock...and man was it a job. In total there are about 24 coats of finish on it...I honestly lost count. I'm pretty happy with it but will probably do it a couple more times during the off season just because I'm picky.
The scope is a Sightron SIII 6-24x50 LRMOA sitting in Burris Signature Zee Rings on top of an aluminum EGW 20MOA base.
Now I'm in the process of annealing, sizing and getting brass ready to fire form. And I'm looking forward to doing something I've been dreaming about for years now...shooting F-Class!
Finally, thank you to all of the guys on here that have helped me along the way on my journey. You guys welcomed this young pistolsmith with open arms and have given me a lot of insight on how to and not to do many things! Even though I'm not rich and famous yet I found a way to make this happen and I'm looking forward to having fun, learning to read the wind better and spending time shooting my rifle. And who knows, I might even shoot it half way decent with some practice!
Warmest regards to you all,
Joe Chambers
Good choice, I have two myself. Nice job on the marriage of the two stock designs, I really like how it turned out.
