My First Build: In details

[dbowhunter]

Gentlemen,

I decided to chronicle my first precision rifle build on a blog that I started just a couple weeks ago.

If anyone is interested, please check out 'Part 1' at the link below. I have my first two installments out with more to come as the build progresses.

Building My First Custom Bolt Action Precision Rifle (Part 1) | Liberty: There is No Greater Cause

Take Care,

Dave

 

[Boltfluter]

Dave,

Very nice write up. Well done. I look forward to the next installment.

Regards, Paul

 

[dbowhunter]

Thank You Sir, I appreciate the feedback.

Part 2 is out at the link below with the third piece coming in the next day or so.

Building My First Custom Bolt Action Precision Rifle (Part 2) | Liberty: There is No Greater Cause

Dave,

Very nice write up. Well done. I look forward to the next installment.

Regards, Paul

 

[dbowhunter]

Part 3 is Here

Custom Precision Rifle Build (Part 3) | Liberty: There is No Greater Cause

 

[abogue77]

Nice read...

 

[JIF]

Excellent read........KC has many hidden treasures besides the best BBQ in the world, the biggest BBQ competition in the world; the sactioning god of BBQ competions (KCBS); the folks you mentioned; GAP; Bushnell outlet; CZ North America........hell, in the 70's I was moved from Cocoa Beach to KC and lived across the street from the Bullet Hole and what I seem to remember as "Hodge" powder place.

I also have friends within an hour that have sections of land that allow me to shoot any distance I want.

"God I Love this Country"

Peace,
Jeff

 

[dbowhunter]

Thanks for the words of encouragement Jeff. I noticed that KC shows up a lot on the 'Contact Us' page in this circle, just as Bozeman, MT shows up a ton when looking at backpacking and hunting gear.

Excellent read........KC has many hidden treasures besides the best BBQ in the world, the biggest BBQ competition in the world; the sactioning god of BBQ competions (KCBS); the folks you mentioned; GAP; Bushnell outlet; CZ North America........hell, in the 70's I was moved from Cocoa Beach to KC and lived across the street from the Bullet Hole and what I seem to remember as "Hodge" powder place.

I also have friends within an hour that have sections of land that allow me to shoot any distance I want.

"God I Love this Country"

Peace,
Jeff

 

[sierracharlie338]

Hey bud for a newb to the sport, you are doing an excellent job on these write ups. Ill be following along just for fun!

 

[dbowhunter]

Hey bud for a newb to the sport, you are doing an excellent job on these write ups. Ill be following along just for fun!

Thank You SC. I'm new to LR shooting but I have a firearms and all things cool obsession, so it's fun to write about adventure like this. I'm glad it is entertaining to read as well!

 

[tabby]

Great read... lot of information for me to use maybe in the future!

 

[dbowhunter]

For those that are interested I have just posted Part 4 of this series.

Custom Bolt Action Precision Rifle Build (Part 4) | Liberty: There is No Greater Cause

It starts like this:

Thank you to everyone who has been following this series, your loyalty makes me smile

In this week’s post, I’ll cover a few of the ‘small’ (not necessarily cheap!) pieces of the puzzle that wrap up the component selection for the rifle itself: trigger, muzzle break, bipod, and some accessories. Then I’ll share a few photos of the build ‘mocked’ together so you can get a feel for the final product.

But first, a few links to the prior pieces for those that are joining us late.

Part 1: Rifle Purpose, Platform choice: Stiller Action

Part 2: Barrel Caliber and Reamer Selection: Brux Barrels, 6.5 Creedmoor, Reamer Specs

Part 3: Stock/Chassis Selection: Manners T4-A Stock with Mini-Chassis and Paint

Alrighty folks, I’m sure your getting antsy, as I am, so onward we go!

TRIGGER SELECTION

Along with your rifle stock/chassis and optics, your trigger selection and setup will be your direct line of interaction with the rifle. The trigger is the happy switch, the piece of the puzzle that makes the magic happen, and an integral part of your platform. There is no other piece of equipment that can so quickly ruin your accuracy potential than your trigger, so care must be taken in selecting it and tuning it for the role you need it to fit.

Continue reading at the link.

Custom Bolt Action Precision Rifle Build (Part 4) | Liberty: There is No Greater Cause

 

[dbowhunter]

And as promised, this series is rolling along, Part 5 is out this morning outlined my selection on a gunsmith.

It begins like this:

Custom Bolt Action Precision Rifle Build (Part 5) | Gunsmith Selection: LongRifles, Inc.

I received my phone call yesterday that this rifle's barreled action is complete at the gunsmith and headed back my way! I decided I needed to get this post together on my riflesmith selection before it arrives, or else I'll be too 'giggity' to write this post well, wanting to move on to other things like shooting instead of writing!

If you haven't been following the series, the first post in the series is here, and you can follow along from there. I have been chronicling just about every equipment decision in this build in details and you've started off near the end of the series if this your first glimpse of it, so go back and check them all out when you are done here. Every post in the series is linked at the end of this post.

GUNSMITH SELECTION

All these pieces that I've gathered do a man absolutely no good if they aren't properly assembled by a rifle artist, more commonly known as a gunsmith. You have taken up countless hours of your time making sure you wring out the exact performance standards you are looking for with each component selection of your build, but it is all for naught if you gunsmith isn't up to snuff. This is not the place to just haul your gear down to the nearest guy with a lather and bickering over price, though deals can be had.

There is really only one way to select a gunsmith, and that is on his reputation amongst discerning customers and shooters that have been around the sport long enough to have seen builders rise and fall and know what to look for. That isn't to say you need to pick the oldest, longest running rifle builder around, there are new people doing great things in all industries every day. But if you can garner the opinion of folks that shoot, see the results on paper of multiple builds from multiple gunsmiths, you'll start to get an idea of the lay of the land.

Continue Reading Here...

Thanks For Stopping By.

 

[dbowhunter]

Part 6 an Optics Selection is up and live. CHECK IT OUT!!!

It begins like this:

Custom Bolt Action Precision Rifle Build (Part 6) | Optics: Bushnell Elite Tactical ERS 3.5-21x50mm, Seekins Precision, Accuracy 1st

Well this is the last piece of the puzzle of a rifle I’ve been assembling since the start of this series. In this installment we will go over my selections regarding Optics; that includes the scope, rings, caps, and a bubble level. I left out the base, as I used the 20 MOA base included with the Stiler Tac-30 A/W action I used as the basis of the build

We’ll dive into these details in just second, but if you haven’t been following the series you can find the first installment here, and the links to every part are at the end of this post, so be sure to check them all out.

OPTICS SELECTION

Optics play an extremely important role in your system, and they need to perform in all situations as well as any piece of your system. The performance standards I was looking for in this rifle, were selected to fill it’s intended role. The same applies to optics. To start my process, I sat down and decided what I wanted out of this scope in each technical and performance metric, and the following short list is what I came up with:

Quality glass that would allow high-resolution out to 1000 yards
Mil Reticle with Mil Turrets
First Focal Plane Reticle
A lifetime warranty yet a reputation of not needing to use it
Reticle with ranging abilities to the 1/10th mil, and fast target acquisition
Ability to dope wind/elevation in the reticle preferred but not required
Magnification on the high-end of 16x and on the low-end 4x or lower
Zero-Stop preferred not required
‘High Speed’ 10 mil knobs preferred not required
Weight is not an issue
Illumination not needed

Continue Reading Here...

Thanks For Stopping By.

And I appreciate all the feedback I can get.

 

[dbowhunter]

The rifle build is finally complete, and I was greeted to a gun case on my doorstep Saturday with a return address of LongRifles, Inc.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTO GALLERY HERE.

To say that the care in packaging taken by the folks at LRI was superb and left nothing to chance, would still be an understatement. Every piece, down to each piece of the scope rings, was in a ziplock plastic bag, inside a sealed paper bag, and wrapped in at least twice as much bubble wrap as would get the job down. The case itself was sealed with duct tape and had a zip tie through each of the 6 hasps for locks. Needless to say, everything arrived to perfect condition. The 2-day shipping was a bonus too!

And thanks to everyone who has come across from The Hide and elsewhere to follow along, you guys have helped me with this build immensely. Thank You to Chad and company at LongRifles, Inc., Branden at Custom Gun Coatings, Tom at Manner’s Stocks, Scott at Liberty Optics, Greg at Southern Precision, Eric at EuroOptic, and everyone else that built or sold me a piece of this build, and to the anonymous forum members whose opinions and reviews helped shape this build.

Thanks for following along as well!

 

[dbowhunter]

At the range

Well I lied and took this one out to the range.

Below are some targets @ 100 yds with loads of 42.5-44.0 grains of H4350 loaded into the land apx .010 with BR4 primers in new brass puching 130gr Berger Hunting VLDs. Circles on the target are HALF INCH.

Like I said in my opening post, I am new to LR shooting but not to shooting. What this says to me is that when I do my part I don't think this rifle cares what I feed it!??! That is unless someone with a little more experience can say otherwise.

I shot round robin, 3 shot groups with the 5 charges. Tryied to give the barrel some rest time, but it probably got slowly warmer all day. The 5 shot group at 43 was actually with culled brass during weight sorting. It was all on the light end of my lot, but was all within a 1 grain window.

No pressure signs on brass, not even at 44.5grains.

I was happy with the results, especially given the situation and my experience at this. Shooting was on a bench on a bipod and rear bag, and I didn't like the wood bench, a concrete top would have been nicer. Wind was mostly <5mph maybe a gust to 10 but I probably didn't shoot during any of those. About 80-85 degrees at 70% humidity. I only fired 2 foulers on a clean barrel. I shot through the chorno but haven't looked at the string details yet; ballpark it shot 2750 to 2880fps over the range of loads with my Pro-Chrono. I changed the bipod height between the 1st and 2nd groups and was more comfortable on the first, but that is relative as I am always uncomfortable on a bench being 6'6" on benches/chairs built for more average humans.

Comments?

 

[dbowhunter]

Well the archery bow hunt was a success (see last pic below) so I am home and was able to take the LRI Creedmoor for another spin.

Shot a little better this time, was still doing "load development". The wind and my discomfort kicked up as time went on with the second target.

I was much happier with my own performance on this outing than the last. Those pics are in the previous post.

Since it appears this rifle will eat up and spit bugholes with whatever I put down it, I'm going to load the next 100 rounds (once fired now) with the 44.5g load. The other details are H4350, 130 gr Berger VLDs, BR4 primers, and apx to the lands at 2.087 at ogive with my comparator.

Any comments or ideas or something that should be learned from this that I haven't? I'm still 'new' to handloading and this precision game.

 

[rancilio]

Dave, Congrats on your rifle, shooting and the elk! Sweet! Can you share the elk hunt story? I was supposed to be going after elk with the bow this week but something worse came up and have to live this season season thru others like yourself. Thanks.

 

[dbowhunter]

Dave, Congrats on your rifle, shooting and the elk! Sweet! Can you share the elk hunt story? I was supposed to be going after elk with the bow this week but something worse came up and have to live this season season thru others like yourself. Thanks.

The short version is up in the hunting section. Working on s longer write up for possibly publication elsewhere. Thanks for your interest and kind words.

-D

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