New lithgow la101 in 17hmr

[Stutter]

Hi everyone. New to shooting, new to the forum.

I just picked up my first rifle. As the title suggests its a lithgow la101 chambered in 17hmr. Scope is a vortex diamonback tactical 6 x 24 x 50 ffp.



Took her out to the range for the first time yesterday and did pretty well considering i havnt fired a rifle since i was a kid on the farm about 20 years ago.

Got a few groups like this



But i got a lot of groups like this. 3 shots pretty much in the same hole with 2 fliers. Now bear in mind the shooter is pretty average and it was quite windy so there was a lot of room for error.



That said im a tinkerer by nature so now that i had a bit of an idea how i could expect to see it shoot i took it home and glass bedded the stock.



That was the 2 main places i decided i wanted to bed it down. Unfortunately i took a snapchat and sent it to my mate but forgot to take an actual picture of the bedding once the action came out so i dont have a photo here.

It went very well though. I used the bedrock bedding kit. It was actually really simple and after watching a few youtube videos and seeing what the good guys were doing and where the shitty guys went wrong it went down without a hitch. Perfect amount of resin so i had no spill over on to the stock. Got a perfect smooth bed with the rear lug seated tight to act like a recoil lug. Everything popped straight out with one good tap of the barrel on my front bag.

Shes all cleaned up and back together now and you cant even tell i had her apart. Barrel is still perfectly floated and it feels very rigid and tight now. Hopefully it reigns in a few of those fliers

All back together



Cant wait to get it back to the range to see if it makes any difference

 

[dolek]

Welcome to the forum . That is a fine looking rifle ,I have never seen one .

Keep us posted on the bedding job , I bet it helps.

 

[Stutter]

I will keep you posted and im going to see if i can get my mate to save that pic on snapchat if he hasnt already lost it.

Unfortunately it may be a week or 2 before i can get back to the range and i dont have anywhere else i can go to shoot.

All in all im very happy with the rifle. Lithgow seem to have put together a very high quality gun here from what i can gather with my limited knowledge anyway.

The action was actually very well seated in the stock already when i pulled it apart. I could actually see marks on the action where it was contacting the stock and it was making pretty good contact. I definitely think its a better fit now though. Especially around the rear lug which i think will be absorbing the majority of the recoil. What little recoil there is anyway.

 

[Stutter]

Thats the bedding after i pulled the action out. It might not look like much but there is a lot more contact now especially around that rear lug.

 

[ebb]

That is not bedding. Just so you know what bedding is, look at the pictures of what member Cigarcop does on a bedding job.

 

[Stutter]

That is not bedding. Just so you know what bedding is, look at the pictures of what member Cigarcop does on a bedding job.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. Admittedly im only a rookie and maybe a full bedding job might be better but after my research and looking at my stock and action i decided there was no point doing any more than what i did.

You cant really see it in the pic because its super thin but the resin has actually migrated all along the edges right up to the very top lip of the stock. its a very smooth very tight fit. Im really happy with how it turned out.

Im sorry if it doesnt look like cigarcop's bedding jobs but my stock is also quite a bit different to the stocks he works with from what i have seen from his pics.

 

[dolek]

There is more than one way to skin a cat. Admittedly im only a rookie and maybe a full bedding job might be better but after my research and looking at my stock and action i decided there was no point doing any more than what i did.

You cant really see it in the pic because its super thin but the resin has actually migrated all along the edges right up to the very top lip of the stock. its a very smooth very tight fit. Im really happy with how it turned out.

Im sorry if it doesnt look like cigarcop's bedding jobs but my stock is also quite a bit different to the stocks he works with from what i have seen from his pics.

Looks like it works,its not pretty but it does the job . Cigarcop's bedding jobs are a work of art , but even a man of his talents can not get bedding to stick to thin air...you did fine with the little bit of surface area you have to work with.

 

[Stutter]

Looks like it works,its not pretty but it does the job . Cigarcop's bedding jobs are a work of art , but even a man of his talents can not get bedding to stick to thin air...you did fine with the little bit of surface area you have to work with.

Thank you. To be honest i was kind of expecting it to turn out much worse for a first attempt. I am happy with how it turned out.

I did consider getting a gun smith to do it but i like to play around with this sort of stuff and learn from the experience.

 

[ebb]

OK

 

[Stutter]

Made a temporary cheek riser because i wasnt happy with my cheek weld.

Couldnt find a strap on one to suit my needs. I plan on swapping this scope to a larger rifle in the future and dropping one on this that has a 40mm objective lens so i shouldnt need the riser at all.

This ones just attached with double sided tape that should not mark the stock when it comes off.

 

[dolek]

Looks good,small and simple . It does not hurt the looks ,still a fine looking rifle.

 

[Stutter]

I have made a few changes. That cheek rest had a little movement in it so i decided to go with a wrap over some foam. Its much better now.

I also added a trigger shoe which makes the trigger feel much lighter. Im actually pretty happy with the trigger now. I do have a spring kit for it but i dont think i will bother.



Finally got to take her out and test the modifications today. I have to say i am very happy.

Overall average i am getting just over half MOA with a lot of really good groups coming in under. This was only my second time out shooting any rifle (if you dont count shooting when i was a kid) so im pretty happy to be getting these results. I think it speaks volumes for the accuracy of the rifle.



^^^^^ 5 shot group within 8mm (0.3inch)@50m with hornady v-max (thats centre to centre, i think thats how they are supposed to be measured?)



^^^^^ this one is @100m 4 shots within 8mm (0.3inch) and 1 flier that pulls the group out to 2.3cm (0.9 inch)

Cant wait to get some more practice in with this rifle

Put up a couple of practice bunnies at 100m as well.
Pretty confident in my ability to take headshots so im going to go see if i can get a couple to cook up soon.

 

[Phil]

Nice looking rifle, good luck with it, looks fun from here...

 

[DirtySteve]

T
Im sorry if it doesnt look like cigarcop's bedding jobs but my stock is also quite a bit different to the stocks he works with from what i have seen from his pics.

Well at least you did not glue the rifle into the stock. I did that recently trying to polish a turd(Savage Bmag). Actually it is a mechanical lock up and not really glued in. Not everyone has the same skills and experience. You can not get better if you don't try. "The longest journey begins with a single step." That's where I usually trip.. lol..

Edit: Oh yours groups improved so you did it right.. Not pretty, but results count.

 

[Gabe22BR]

Don’t here much out of these rifles anymore- guess the embargo stopped it all..

 

[Gabe22BR]

Gonna add some more to this thread.. for info purposes-

The OP did great job on bedding his rifle..
I recently working on my brothers..
He decided he wanted it pillar bedded:
Pillar made
Stock milled
Clay dams installed
Epoxied the front pillar in-

 

[Gabe22BR]

After curing & cleaned up…front of the action was bedded also..the bottom side was relief cut for the trigger guard to set on to..
and the back action pillar hole was milled out for the pillar…

 

[Gabe22BR]

A clay dam was made for the back pillarhere you can see the trigger guard w/ it’s protruding bosses to set in the stock..

 

[Gabe22BR]

The aluminum rear pillar to the right-
The steel inserts are going to be inserted to the trigger gaurd-
Release agent ( Johnson paste was applied), to the recoil lug, as this will also be bedded down in the stock
Here in the green arrows

 

[Gabe22BR]

It’s been epoxied in & cleaned up…
You can see the steel inserts on top of the pillars-just waiting to cure now…

Little clean up, get inserts in the trigger guard, it’ll be ready to go !!!

Will see if it makes any difference…