Heath and I drove to 29 Palms today to pick up my rifle. Yes, I played hookey from work today, oh well, LOL.
All I can say is WOW! This rifle is way more than I expected. The fit led me to believe that Scott took some kind of mold of my hand when I wasn't looking and had carved it to fit me and only me. I am very impressed with how this rifle fit so nice in my hand.
Now, when first discussing the build Scott and I went round for round on how long my barrel should be. I wanted 18" and Scott really recommended that I go at least 23". I took his advice, but with full intention of cutting it back an inch at a time until I lost too much velocity. I wanted a short, almost 10/22 looking, rifle. I went with a heavier contour barrel than Heaths and figured at 18" I could save some weight. Well, I am VERY glad I listened to Scott and kept it at 23" or so. The rifle is the perfect length and has the exact look I was going for.
When the two of us arrived at Scotts, I had fully planned on simply getting to the range, shooting a few targets to make sure everything worked, and then going home to begin the long process of load development. Well, that's not exactly how it went as Scott kept us at the range all day helping the two if us figure out what powders, bullets, etc. would work best with each individual rifle. The entire day was set aside and Scott even brought a ton of different ammo for us to shoot and to try along with what I had loaded.
Here's a pic of Heath exploding a few 100 yard water bottles with his 6x47. We had 2 built at the same time.
It's going to take a while to find a good load and to break the barrel in. So until then I'll have to live with 3/4 10 shot groups. Not too shabby for a virgin rifle. It'll be a shooter for sure as soon as I know what it wants to eat.
And yes, I know I should have been wearing eye protection. I wasn't shooting here, I was looking at something.
Anyhow, thanks for looking.
