++Bighorn TL3 Builds++

[ICU22250]

Congrats Josh, I'm sure this is gonna make for a lot of happy customers... I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say best of luck with the new full time job and look forward to seeing a lot more pics of your rifles here on the hide!

 

[craigos]

4 weeks lead time in July timeframe --- oh my wife is gonna hate Josh, he is enabling impulse buying

 

[Sheldon N]

4 weeks lead time in July timeframe --- oh my wife is gonna hate Josh, he is enabling impulse buying

Oh heck yeah. I've got a 280 Ackley rebarreling job, another match barrel or two, maybe a trainer.... Josh's name is going to be a curse word in our house once my wife sees the bank statement.

 

[earthquake]

Spotted another PVA build at a match last weekend. 6-Dasher, TL3, MPA, PMII 5-25x, slick!

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

 

[craigos]

you love tormenting us

 

[4RingShooter]

NO! They're not allowed to ship any until I get my TL-3!

Ordered one year ago this week.... waiting is so hard.

I'm in the same boat...

 

[CajunAR]

Just got my MPA built TL3 in on Friday, haven't gotten any rounds down range yet, but I will soon. Ordered mine back in November.

 

[CajunAR]

I got my TL3 6x47L a couple of weeks ago. I also put it in a MPA chassis.
I'm waiting on the 223 Wylde barrel that will share that TL3 action.
What are the specs on your build?

It's a 6.5CM, 26inch MPA barrel, TriggerTech Special Flat Shoe Trigger set at 1lb 3.9oz, MPA comp chassis, MPA brake, mounted my trusty Badger unimount with my HDMR in it (will upgrade to the XRSII when they are released though)

 

[ICU22250]

Ok, yall just gotta stop with all this TL3 porn, I don't know how much more me and Sheldon can take!

 

[Sheldon N]

Ok, yall just gotta stop with all this TL3 porn, I don't know how much more me and Sheldon can take!

LOL...

I'm consoling myself by shooting a couple hundred rounds of 308 this weekend at the Karstetter match. Should be a fun (and muddy) time!

 

[Awesymoto]

Waiting on mine...

 

[ICU22250]

LOL...

I'm consoling myself by shooting a couple hundred rounds of 308 this weekend at the Karstetter match. Should be a fun (and muddy) time!

Have fun man, I wish I were doing the same....

 

[FALex]

All, couple of questions regarding the TL3.

1) Those running the MPA chassis. I don't see any of the Bighorn actions as an available inlet on MPA's website. Which footprint are you going with, and is your smith finishing them?

2) Several months ago, I remember reading how various triggers were causing the TL3's bolt to stiffen upon closing. Some of the folks in that post ended up having to send their actions and triggers to either Bighorn or PVA to have the trigger timed to the action. Is this still an issue as far as any of you know?

Looking at the TL3 as I like the ability to swap bolt heads. Just interested in these issues listed above. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[craigos]

MPA doesnt show them on their website but they do cut them, they are a few thou difference in the ejection port area. Havent heard anything on the trigger ...

 

[ICU22250]

Not sure if this will post the pic right, here goes...

Built by Josh at PVA,

Bighorn TL3
Manners T-2A with new mini chassis
Badger EFR
Bartlein marksman cut to 26"
Patriot brown cerakote with black accents
Mad scientist brake
6.5x47 Lapua
Timney CE single stage

Now gotta break the piggy bank and send the man some cash so it can make it's way home... Thanks Josh!! More pics to follow when she's wearing the gen 2 Razor!

 

[ICU22250]

Sorry guys, didn't post pic correctly, I'll give it another shot.

 

[ICU22250]

This is a little bit better, I've never posted pics on the old hide before so bare with me guys...

 

[ICU22250]

Anyway, you can see it on patriot valley arms Facebook page.. pics are slot better there..

 

[Sheldon N]

Here, I'll help with pics...

Hoping mine is right behind it, should be soon!

 

[ICU22250]

Thanks Sheldon! I need a tutorial for posting pics here....

 

[earthquake]

I saw that on their page, badass looking rifle! I'm considering Cerakote now on my next one.

 

[atefft22]

ICU, that's yours! Saw it too on the interwebs. So sexy, now gotta mop up my floor from all the drool.

 

[ICU22250]

Thanks guys, Josh done an excellent job from what I've seen so far.. Can't wait to get my mitts on it...

 

[rspeer]

Hoping mine is right behind it, should be soon!

Same here Sheldon. Fingers crossed for the next week or so.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ArmyJerry]

tagging in on this. seems you guys are happr.

 

[ICU22250]

Having a TL3 barreled by a local smith who does really good work. Thought I would wait to post until I have the gun complete but it will be a while; waiting on a Dasher reamer from JGS(for 3 months!).

Decided to post up some info now in response to a couple of folks talking/ asking about switch-barrel systems. My build will be a switch barrel in an XLR Evolution chassis with a .223 Wylde, 6 Dasher, 308 Palma, and short 300 BO barrel. What is different is the way my smith is going to machine the barrels and amount of torque I use when installing the barrel. He just finished the .223W barrel yesterday and we tested it. Worked great.

He machined a set of "flats" on the muzzle end just behind the TB CBA so I can use a torque wrench and crowsfoot on the barrel while the BA is still in the chassis. This way I can swap barrels without having to disassemble the rifle or be constrained to the barrel vise and action wrench in my garage. I initially thought about barrel nuts but the lengthy(comparitively) process of headspacing everytime means that I wouldn't be switching barrels as often and with repeatability as I would like. I could use the shouldered barrel with a vise and wrench but that means I would have to dissemble the rifle and again would discourage me from swapping as often and require more rezeroing from barrel to barrel.

I was inspired by a CSR(Compact Sniper Rifle) that I tested a couple of years ago. It was meant for primarily subsonic and concealability. It was built by a very well known company and is available to the public now. It had a chassis that was adapted so the fore-end could be removed with 4 screws and reveal a set of machined flats on the neck of the barrel. It used a torque wrench at 30ft/lbs to torque and remove the barrel. After the shooter broke the torque he could unscrew the barrel by hand and vice versa. The stock folded and the 14" barrel with suppressor was removed to fit in a small case. The beauty of it was that it repeated zero everytime when reassembled. And why shouldn't it? A shouldered barreled screwed on and torqued the same way everytime. I could shoot a group, disassemble and reassemble and fire another 5 rds into the same group in less than 5 minutes.

I socialized this with my smith and we decided to try it out as a perfect compliment to the advanced design of the TL3 and it's tooless dissasmbley and bolt head swap. We torqued the barrel on at 20ft/lbs to start, zeroed and shot a little bughole with 77gr SMK, broke torque and retorqued, and sent 3 more into the same 1/4" group. Pretty excited, we unscrewed the barrel completely this time, reinstalled and torqued to 20ft/bs, and fired another 3 shots. This time the first round impacted outside the group about 1/2 moa high and slightly right. The subsequent two grouped into each other .1mrad high and left of the original POI. A little discouraged we shot two more into the group just to confirm accuracy. We performed the same removal and reinstallation, torque setting and fired a 5 Rd GRP. Again the first Rd impacted about.1mrad high and then the remaining 4 grouped into the previous GRP. We called it a day after that and came away with a couple of conclusions.

1. The gun was extremely accurate with that ammo.

2. 20ft/lbs is easy to remove, install and torque by hand with the Action in the chassis. We are prepared to go up to 40 but it looks like 20 will do the job.

3. The system and process does produce a repeatable zero. So far it does seem like the first round will impact high but then the remaining rounds will group repeatable. Perhaps 30 or 40 ft/lbs will eliminate this. Although as a little perspective, the group to include the first round measures .5 moa and that is a good group for most of us!

Hopefully this will repeat with subsequent shooting and larger cartridges, although the Dasher isn't a huge step up. Thought you all might appreciate the slightly different and ambitious twist of switch barrel setups. I will post in the BA rifles section when the Dasher barrel is complete and the gun is painted. I need two barrels to prove that I can go from one barrel to another in a range session and effectivly run offset zeros or record zero settings and adjust on my locking turrets and simply holdover on Trmr reticles.

Interesting read, I'll be looking for your thread with pics I hope when she's done... I can't wait to start playing with my TL3 when she's finally home, supposed to be shipping to me this week.. I'm looking forward to hearing your results about the different calibers and how it all turns out.

 

[Westex6.5]

I need to quit being lazy. I've had my TL3 since August with a 16" 6.5x47 barrel. Josh currently has my MTU blank for a 26" 6x47L barrel.

NOTE: I just learned the hard way that bighorn changed the ejection port on the Tl3 from 2.8" to 2.9". Not a huge deal but disappointing that my ejection port on my new eh1a is off. My T2a is perfect though.

 

[5RWill]

My SR3 is on the way!

 

[B-P-UU]

My contribution... 6 Dasher (Lapua)

Rifle built by Travis and the fine folks at TS Customs (http://www.tscustom.com/)
Bighorn TL3
JAE-700 Chassis
Bart Marksman Contour, 1:7.5 twist @ 26"
Hawkins 2-port seamless brake
Hawkins Rings
Timney 510
Vortex AMG

[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"Pictures-20170409_151841.jpg","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"Pictures-20170409_151841.jpg","src":"http:\/\/www.longrangehunting.com\/forums\/attachments\/f72\/74313d1492719575t-pictures-20170409_151841.jpg"}[/IMG2]
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link to larger pics:
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/attachments/f72/74313d1492719575-pictures-20170409_151841.jpg

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/attachments/f72/74314d1492719575-pictures-20170409_151807.jpg

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/attachments/f72/74315d1492719575-pictures-20170409_151826.jpg

 

[craigos]

My SR3 is on the way!

Wait - what!!!!!

 

[craigos]

My contribution... 6 Dasher (Lapua)

Rifle built by Travis and the fine folks at TS Customs (http://www.tscustom.com/)
Bighorn TL3
JAE-700 Chassis
Bart Marksman Contour, 1:7.5 twist @ 26"
Hawkins 2-port seamless brake
Hawkins Rings
Timney 510
Vortex AMG

[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"Pictures-20170409_151841.jpg","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"Pictures-20170409_151841.jpg","src":"http:\/\/www.longrangehunting.com\/forums\/attachments\/f72\/74313d1492719575t-pictures-20170409_151841.jpg"}[/IMG2]
[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"Pictures-20170409_151807.jpg","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"Pictures-20170409_151807.jpg","src":"http:\/\/www.longrangehunting.com\/forums\/attachments\/f72\/74314d1492719575t-pictures-20170409_151807.jpg"}[/IMG2]
[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"Pictures-20170409_151826.jpg","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"Pictures-20170409_151826.jpg","src":"http:\/\/www.longrangehunting.com\/forums\/attachments\/f72\/74315d1492719575t-pictures-20170409_151826.jpg"}[/IMG2]


link to larger pics:
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/attachments/f72/74313d1492719575-pictures-20170409_151841.jpg

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/attachments/f72/74314d1492719575-pictures-20170409_151807.jpg

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/attachments/f72/74315d1492719575-pictures-20170409_151826.jpg

Cerakoted action?

 

[5RWill]

Wait - what!!!!!

Yup just the action though, shipped out yesterday.

 

[B-P-UU]

Yes, cerekoted barreled action. The action has been masked off in critical areas so it's metal on metal where needed. Runs really smooth and feeds BR rounds flawlessly fast or slow.

the most notable difference between my TL2 and 3 is the ease of the bolt lift when re-cocking.

 

[Sheldon N]

the most notable difference between my TL2 and 3 is the ease of the bolt lift when re-cocking.

TL-3 being easier bolt lift? Does the same hold true for ease of closing the bolt on an empty chamber?

 

[B-P-UU]

Yes, TL3 is much easier to manipulate than TL2 when re-cocking the fire control. I haven't noticed a difference on closing the bolt, but both actions have been appropriately timed with respect to "cock on close"

 

[Sheldon N]

Sweet, thanks. I don't have a TL-2 but should be getting my TL-3 this weekend.

 

[craigos]

Yup just the action though, shipped out yesterday.

lucky dog!!!

 

[craigos]

Sweet, thanks. I don't have a TL-2 but should be getting my TL-3 this weekend.

congrats man

 

[Westex6.5]

Sweet, thanks. I don't have a TL-2 but should be getting my TL-3 this weekend.

My jewell was timed by Aaron. It was stiff at first but now I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my AJ built TL2 with 2000 rounds on it if I was blindfolded.

 

[blackblue]

Received my TL3 this week, will be awhile before funds are available for the rest of my build.

 

[Sheldon N]

Got my TL-3 in 6 Dasher from PVA this weekend and put it all together. Manners stock took a bit of sanding to get the barrel contour to fit and to lengthen the ejection port cutout to match the TL-3, but not too difficult.

Really happy with how it all went together. DLC action is nice and slick, easy to cycle fast. It's not as glassy and broken in as my well worn Defiance but I can tell with some use its going to be phenomenal. Action timing is spot on, there's a tiny bit of cock on close but not really much more than my Defiance action. Really stoked on the Manners RRS plate interface with my tripod, first time getting a chance to use it with an optic mounted. It's stupid stable. All I need to do now is get off to the range and do some fireforming and load development.

Here's specs and pics.

Patriot Valley Arms 6 Dasher
Bighorn TL-3 DLC coated action, stock NP3 bolt.
26" Hawk HIll barrel Rem Sendero/Varmint contour (cerakote black)
PVA Mad Scientist Brake (cerakote)
Timney Calvin Elite
Manners T2A competition DBM barricade stop mini-chassis in Elite Swamp carbon fiber
RRS mount for Manners mini-chassis barricade stop
Kahles 624i SKMR2
ARC M10 Rings (low)
MK Machining bubble level/throw lever

 

[lennyo3034]

That looks really nice. I'm hoping mine will be ready shortly. I choose to not bother with cerakote on my barrel since it'll be a bit of a barrel burner anyways. These pictures are making me second guess.

 

[5RWill]

Very nice Sheldon.

 

[Cdixon1]

Looks great sheldon. What did you use to lengthen the port on the manners? Any tips? I have a t6a elite I am going to have to do the same thing to. Got any close ups of the action port showing the mod? Did you coat it with anything after sanding? Hoping my tl3 from Josh will be ready in the next upcoming weeks.

Got my TL-3 in 6 Dasher from PVA this weekend and put it all together. Manners stock took a bit of sanding to get the barrel contour to fit and to lengthen the ejection port cutout to match the TL-3, but not too difficult.

Really happy with how it all went together. DLC action is nice and slick, easy to cycle fast. It's not as glassy and broken in as my well worn Defiance but I can tell with some use its going to be phenomenal. Action timing is spot on, there's a tiny bit of cock on close but not really much more than my Defiance action. Really stoked on the Manners RRS plate interface with my tripod, first time getting a chance to use it with an optic mounted. It's stupid stable. All I need to do now is get off to the range and do some fireforming and load development.

Here's specs and pics.

Patriot Valley Arms 6 Dasher
Bighorn TL-3 DLC coated action, stock NP3 bolt.
26" Hawk HIll barrel Rem Sendero/Varmint contour (cerakote black)
PVA Mad Scientist Brake (cerakote)
Timney Calvin Elite
Manners T2A competition DBM barricade stop mini-chassis in Elite Swamp carbon fiber
RRS mount for Manners mini-chassis barricade stop
Kahles 624i SKMR2

 

[Sheldon N]

Looks great sheldon. What did you use to lengthen the port on the manners? Any tips? I have a t6a elite I am going to have to do the same thing to. Got any close ups of the action port showing the mod? Did you coat it with anything after sanding? Hoping my tl3 from Josh will be ready in the next upcoming weeks.

No extra pics handy but it wasn't super hard. I used a round file that was about the same radius as the transition and used a piece of tape to mark how far I wanted to go. I taped up the horizontal flat to protect it as well then just went slowly. Finished up the radius first then made the flat portion level with a flat file. The stock is actually really easy to file, goes very fast so work carefully. You'll expose a bit of the white inner fill material that you can either paint with some flat black paint, or be cheap like me and just hit it with a black sharpie. Looks fine, no one would know unless you pointed it out.

 

[dirthead1]

Awesome rifle and equally awesome photography skills. I'm sure the glass you took the pictures with is in the same price range as the rifle, if not more.

 

[rspeer]

Great looking rifle Sheldon!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[idahoorion]

she looks great, I assume you left the bolt coated as it came and what is the finish on the action/bolt knob? looks like aics mag? did you consider the aw? bet it shoots great!
congrats
idahoorion

 

[Bullet Pusher]

Sheldon3 what bubble level is that?

 

[ICU22250]

Sheldon, fantastic looking build! Looks great... Those pics are damn good as well...