A couple of months ago I wanted to build a big sister to my Savage mkII BTVS in 22LR. I chose to go with building it around a right bolt, left eject Savage target action. I put a Shilen select match 28" barrel in the heavy bull contour. Since the target action is a single shot anyway, I will only be shooting this thing off of a bipod, so weight was not an issue. Which is good, because this thing is heavy.
Once I got all of the components in, I realized that I really didn't like the stupid "Warning Precision Target Trigger..." they etch on the side of the receiver and it had to go. So I took some 400 and 600 grit sandpaper and polished the receiver. Since the bolt handle, recoil lug, and barrel nut all had different surface finishes I polished them as well. After polishing everything up, I bead blasted everything including the barrel for a real nice satin finish.
As previously stated I wanted to build a bigger version of my Savage mkII BTVS so it could fulfill the "trainer" type of role. I picked up the boyds thumb hole stock with the 4.4" spacing.
Since this stock had 2 holes at 4.4" spacing I had to fill in the magazine well and drill out a middle hole for the 3 action screws. I chose to buy some stainless steel pillars so I could pillar bed the stock when I bed the action. Since I was going to pillar bed the stock I just cut up a piece of 2x4 to fill in magazine well. I taped everything up and went to town with my dremmel to bed the stock and action. Here is a pic of the pillars and stock before bedding:
Once the stock and action were ready, I mixed up some devcon and went to town.
This is only the third rifle I've ever bedded. I'm still learning the tricks of the trade. But over all I was happy with how the bedding turned out.
Here are some pic of the finished product.
Obviously I've still got to do load development, but here is a nice group I got while sighting her in. This is a 139 grain Lapua Scenar in front of 37.5 gr of Varget, CCI BR-4 primer and lapua brass. The average velocity was 2798 ft/sec.
I've got to work out some of the details with the optics, but I think she will be a fun gun to play with in the future.
Once I got all of the components in, I realized that I really didn't like the stupid "Warning Precision Target Trigger..." they etch on the side of the receiver and it had to go. So I took some 400 and 600 grit sandpaper and polished the receiver. Since the bolt handle, recoil lug, and barrel nut all had different surface finishes I polished them as well. After polishing everything up, I bead blasted everything including the barrel for a real nice satin finish.
As previously stated I wanted to build a bigger version of my Savage mkII BTVS so it could fulfill the "trainer" type of role. I picked up the boyds thumb hole stock with the 4.4" spacing.
Since this stock had 2 holes at 4.4" spacing I had to fill in the magazine well and drill out a middle hole for the 3 action screws. I chose to buy some stainless steel pillars so I could pillar bed the stock when I bed the action. Since I was going to pillar bed the stock I just cut up a piece of 2x4 to fill in magazine well. I taped everything up and went to town with my dremmel to bed the stock and action. Here is a pic of the pillars and stock before bedding:
Once the stock and action were ready, I mixed up some devcon and went to town.
This is only the third rifle I've ever bedded. I'm still learning the tricks of the trade. But over all I was happy with how the bedding turned out.
Here are some pic of the finished product.
Obviously I've still got to do load development, but here is a nice group I got while sighting her in. This is a 139 grain Lapua Scenar in front of 37.5 gr of Varget, CCI BR-4 primer and lapua brass. The average velocity was 2798 ft/sec.
I've got to work out some of the details with the optics, but I think she will be a fun gun to play with in the future.
