Looking for a Louisiana gunsmith

[Nimbus73]

I'm looking for a reputable gunsmith in Louisiana or SE Texas to accurize an old Remington 600 in 243 win. I've had this gun for more than 40 years since my dad bought it when I was a kid. It has never been a precise rifle. 2 to 3 inch groups and seems to be picky with ammo. I've killed deer with it and my son has too, but I've never had true confidence in it especially past 100 yards. Does anyone have any recommendations that won't cost me thousands of dollars?

 

[jbell]

You have one of the best down there:

Contact KMW | kmwlrs

www.kmwlrs.com

If Terry can’t help you, I bet he can point you in the right direction…

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Bayou Tech Guns in Arnaudville, built an XP for us several years ago and the work was flawless. When I picked it up, he spent the morning truing my scope rings, to get them just right and did not charge penny more.

 

[kthomas]

@Terry Cross

 

[Terry Cross]

I'm looking for a reputable gunsmith in Louisiana or SE Texas to accurize an old Remington 600 in 243 win. I've had this gun for more than 40 years since my dad bought it when I was a kid. It has never been a precise rifle. 2 to 3 inch groups and seems to be picky with ammo. I've killed deer with it and my son has too, but I've never had true confidence in it especially past 100 yards. Does anyone have any recommendations that won't cost me thousands of dollars?

I would suggest starting with Mike as mentioned above.

Personally if I was you, I would not do any mods to that rifle.
Your dad bought it when you was a kid....
You've had it for 40+ years.
You've killed deer with it.
Your son killed deer with it.

This is the definition of a keepsake. Don't try to make it something that bears no resemblance to what it has always been. Spend your money on a new rifle.
Let your Grand children and Great Grand children get close enough to kill a deer just like you did.

If you do decide to have it looked at/worked on, start with Mike.

Best of luck either way.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

I would suggest starting with Mike as mentioned above.

Personally if I was you, I would not do any mods to that rifle.
Your dad bought it when you was a kid....
You've had it for 40+ years.
You've killed deer with it.
Your son killed deer with it.

This is the definition of a keepsake. Don't try to make it something that bears no resemblance to what it has always been. Spend your money on a new rifle.
Let your Grand children and Great Grand children get close enough to kill a deer just like you did.

If you do decide to have it looked at/worked on, start with Mike.

Best of luck either way.

There’s a lot of truth to what Terry has said. Good rifles that can shoot very accurately are quite inexpensive In these days and times. And this got me thinking.

I sure wish I had my 660 back. It is one of two rifles sold in years long gone by that I really liked but let go in a moment of weakness. (The other was a Savage 99 in .250-3000 . ). Ours was different, it was as accurate as a 1960’s, early 1970’s factory rifle was going to get.

Mike does great work, and I would go back to him. However, a Remington 600/660 as well as original XP-100’s are firearms from a truly different era that will never exist again.

 

[RTH1800]

When a man needs a gunsmith at 3:26 AM in south Louisiana, he need one bad!

 

[cas6969]

Agreed. I certainly wouldn't do much to it anyway. Have someone look at obvious bedding issues or bad crown.
Do anything past that and it won't be what it was and that'd be a shame.

Add to that, has it had the same scope/rings on it all that time? I've been through that with two cherished rifles with family ties / sentimental value that I didn't want to change from the way they were. One the old 60s scope finally quite, the other wasn't nearly as old, I just got tired of arguing with it and both rifles shot much better with the replacements.

 

[bbhank]

William Roscoe if you can find him. he used to lousianna precision rifles but he shut down his public exposure and ibe heard he is still building low volume. he built my first 308 and i was very impressed!!!!

 

[Nimbus73]

So I've read some old threads about William Roscoe, and a fellow name Geraci. But these threads are at least 10 years old and I don't know if these guys are still active. William Roscoe is not a far jaunt from where I hunt so it would be easy to go see him. I am not interested in radically altering the gun. I'm not interested in spending many hundreds or a few thousands to build something new around the action. I want it to shoot 1 inch or so groups and be a gun I can be confident in making ethical shots on anything up to 300 yards. I have other very accurate rifles, but something about this one eludes those performances.

 

[Nimbus73]

I would suggest starting with Mike as mentioned above.

Personally if I was you, I would not do any mods to that rifle.
Your dad bought it when you was a kid....
You've had it for 40+ years.
You've killed deer with it.
Your son killed deer with it.

This is the definition of a keepsake. Don't try to make it something that bears no resemblance to what it has always been. Spend your money on a new rifle.
Let your Grand children and Great Grand children get close enough to kill a deer just like you did.

If you do decide to have it looked at/worked on, start with Mike.

Best of luck either way.

 

[Nimbus73]

Yeah it is a keepsake to me. I'm 52 and he bought it second hand years before I was even old enough to hunt with anything other than a Red Rider. It sat in his closet until I was in high school and saved enough to put a Simmons scope on it. I've since upgrade to a good scope which only marginally helped. It hates core lokts, and only tolerated federal btsp and Hornady ammo. So far the ammo it likes best is the superformance ammo, but a good group is only just under 2" at 100yrds. I'm just getting into reloading so I will work up some loads for it later this year as I have kept just about every brass I've put through it. But at the moment my reloading focus is for my Stag 6.8spc.

 

[Nimbus73]

When a man needs a gunsmith at 3:26 AM in south Louisiana, he need one bad!

Lol. When you're working shift work why not. This gun has always been my nemesis as far as accuracy and precision is concerned but I love it because it is so easy to get it up and out of a deer stand window. I'm only throwing the question out there because the object of my obsession is learning about reloading. My first cartridge to load is my 6.8spc and in reading many forums I've been reading about accurizing and gunsmiths came into play. The 600 hunts just okay, but I think it can be greatly improved upon without taking away from its nostalgic status. It is my second favorite rifle to hunt with behind my 270 only because it isn't a tack driver and my confidence in it past about 150 yards is severely lacking.