I'll play. Haven't decided if it's my "pride and joy" yet, but I am partial to it because I am not a gunsmith and it is my first self-assembled rifle. I wanted to see what I could do on a "budget" build. Cartridge is .260 AI. Here is the part list:
Trued Remington 700 short action and stripped bolt purchased on Sniper's Hide.
BDL bottom metal (came with the action).
PTG firing pin assembly and recoil lug.
Trigger pins, bolt stop, and bolt stop spring from Numrich.
26-inch 1:8.5 varmint contour barrel and barrel nut on sale from McGowan.
Timney 510 trigger bought second hand but unused on AR15.com.
Grayboe Terrain on sale from Red Hawk Rifles.
Leupold Mark IV 20 MOA base on sale from Midway (had the Mark IV rings in my stash).
Vortex PST 4-16x50 MOA LNIB on LongRangeHunting.com.
PTG Go/No-Go gauges.
All went together quite nicely ...
First range outing for barrel break-in and sight-in. No fire-formed brass yet, so I took a box of 20 Federal 120 Fusion along to get on paper and start the barrel break in, and two boxes of Federal Gold Medal Match ammo, which is loaded with 142 grain Sierra Match Kings. I broke the barrel in with the shoot-one-and-clean drill for the first five rounds, then shoot-two-and-clean for the next six, then shoot-three-and-clean for the next nine. I saw no evidence of copper fouling during this process.
After I finished the Fusion ammo I switched to the GMM. I shot the first box shoot-four-then-clean. Each first shot from the clean barrel was shot as a fouler, followed by a three-shot group. I cleaned thoroughly after completing the box. The second box of GMM was shot as a series of three-shot groups. I did not clean the barrel at all during the second box. I did take a few minutes between three-shot groups, but I shot each group fairly quickly. All targets shot at 100 yards after I got on paper at 50. ALL groups were sub MOA and here's what it looked like as the barrel settled in ...
Here is "Norma"
