I brought a box of parts to the guys at Accurate Ordnance and they built me one helluva boomstick.
The rifle is a Surgeon Action with a 24" Bartlein barrel(1/7.7 #4 Bull contour) chambered in .243 Winchester and bolted in an Accuracy International AX chassis system. I think Mark has the seeds to grow those things. I saw more AX chassis within 10 feet of one another than I've seen on the whole internet. They have some cool one off stuff down there that they are working on. No lack of uber cool projects down there for sure.
The guys at Accurate Ordnance modified the action to feed from the doublestack AX AW magazines. They inlet the chassis for proper clearance of the Jewell trigger, inlet the stock for the bolt handle clearance and shortened and modified the bolt knob to my liking, modified the cocking piece for a super smooth bolt lift. Coated the action in OD Green Cerakote. Dave also throated the barrel to shoot the longer VLD bullets as that is what I intend to shoot out of it. Currently it is shooting the 105gr. Hornady AMAX in to little 1/2" groups at 200 yards. I am in the process of developing a 115gr. load for it with either Bergers or DTACS. I'm also going to try the new 105gr. Berger Hybrid
The suppressor you see is actually the first suppressor I ever purchased back in 2003. It is a Johns Guns .223 can that has an aperture that allows me to shoot the slightly larger 6mm projectile through it without issue. The can is a little heavy for its size at 22 ounces but it is full inconel and will handle the pressure of the 243 without issue. And.....it suppressed the .243 very well actually. Much better than it did the .223. As a .223 can, it sucks! But it works rather well for the 6mm on a bolt gun. I've literally had this can sitting in the safe since I bought it since I was so unsatisfied with its performance. I'm glad to finally get some decent use from it. I think it only ever had 120 rounds of .223 put through it before being tossed in the back of the safe.
Optic is the Nightforce 3.5-15x50F1(front focal plane) with NP-RF1(moa) reticle mounted in 1.265" tall NF UltraLite rings with the addition of the rear level cap and ADI mount.
So far it has only been rung out to 200. Next weekend it pokes out to 1200 yards.
So a quick update. I've been able to run some ladder tests in the past few weeks and the results are astounding.
This group was shot at 350 yards and that is a 3" dot. Shot #1 was me. My Jewell trigger is a little lighter than I am used to at 16 ounces. So sometimes when I go to touch and prep, its sometimes like....OOPS.....just sent it.
This nxt group is a ladder test with a powder that my boss recommended and gave to me. It was basically this same combination that he used to set a 10 shot 1000 yard world record back in 2004.
I can see why it worked so well for him. I'm rather pleased to see a ladder test with .5 grain increments return such a stellar group. Shot at 300 yards last week at a 2" dot.
Ok, so it just keeps getting better. Last week, a colleague of mine were at the USASOC Sniper Competition up at Fort Bragg. We had a vendor booth set up right across from David Tubb who was there promoting his new DTACv2 reticle. So we had a good bit of time to chat about all kinds of good stuff and David just happens to be one of the kings of 6mm. So I was curious as to what he would recommend for a load in my 243. He told me "hands down H1000, its the best powder for heavies in a 243". Of course, its the one powder I don't have, so I go grab a pound and last week when I was out working on loads for this rifle I shot a baseline ladder to see where I needed to focus. Based on the excellent data from last week I settled on 48.5 grains. But there was still velocity left and no signs of pressure at all. Ultimately I want a load that is accurate and fast. So I loaded up a few loads above to test out.
Below is a group I shot at 400 yards today. 3 of the rounds were 48.5 grains of H1000 and the two others were .3 grain increment increases and I shot them with this to see how they stacked up. Still no signs of pressure and enough room in the case for 50 grains. So I will be working up just a little more to see what it produces and if I can hit my velocity goal while maintaining accuracy. If nothing else, I have a load that is superb although about 100 fps less than my target velocity. But I can deal with it.
This rifle just amazes me. I've still got some other load work I wanna do, but this will be the load I use most likely as it is hard to argue with.
The guys at Accurate Ordnance really hooked me up with this.
To say I'm pleased is an understatement.
The rifle is a Surgeon Action with a 24" Bartlein barrel(1/7.7 #4 Bull contour) chambered in .243 Winchester and bolted in an Accuracy International AX chassis system. I think Mark has the seeds to grow those things. I saw more AX chassis within 10 feet of one another than I've seen on the whole internet. They have some cool one off stuff down there that they are working on. No lack of uber cool projects down there for sure.
The guys at Accurate Ordnance modified the action to feed from the doublestack AX AW magazines. They inlet the chassis for proper clearance of the Jewell trigger, inlet the stock for the bolt handle clearance and shortened and modified the bolt knob to my liking, modified the cocking piece for a super smooth bolt lift. Coated the action in OD Green Cerakote. Dave also throated the barrel to shoot the longer VLD bullets as that is what I intend to shoot out of it. Currently it is shooting the 105gr. Hornady AMAX in to little 1/2" groups at 200 yards. I am in the process of developing a 115gr. load for it with either Bergers or DTACS. I'm also going to try the new 105gr. Berger Hybrid
The suppressor you see is actually the first suppressor I ever purchased back in 2003. It is a Johns Guns .223 can that has an aperture that allows me to shoot the slightly larger 6mm projectile through it without issue. The can is a little heavy for its size at 22 ounces but it is full inconel and will handle the pressure of the 243 without issue. And.....it suppressed the .243 very well actually. Much better than it did the .223. As a .223 can, it sucks! But it works rather well for the 6mm on a bolt gun. I've literally had this can sitting in the safe since I bought it since I was so unsatisfied with its performance. I'm glad to finally get some decent use from it. I think it only ever had 120 rounds of .223 put through it before being tossed in the back of the safe.
Optic is the Nightforce 3.5-15x50F1(front focal plane) with NP-RF1(moa) reticle mounted in 1.265" tall NF UltraLite rings with the addition of the rear level cap and ADI mount.
So far it has only been rung out to 200. Next weekend it pokes out to 1200 yards.
So a quick update. I've been able to run some ladder tests in the past few weeks and the results are astounding.
This group was shot at 350 yards and that is a 3" dot. Shot #1 was me. My Jewell trigger is a little lighter than I am used to at 16 ounces. So sometimes when I go to touch and prep, its sometimes like....OOPS.....just sent it.
This nxt group is a ladder test with a powder that my boss recommended and gave to me. It was basically this same combination that he used to set a 10 shot 1000 yard world record back in 2004.
I can see why it worked so well for him. I'm rather pleased to see a ladder test with .5 grain increments return such a stellar group. Shot at 300 yards last week at a 2" dot.
Ok, so it just keeps getting better. Last week, a colleague of mine were at the USASOC Sniper Competition up at Fort Bragg. We had a vendor booth set up right across from David Tubb who was there promoting his new DTACv2 reticle. So we had a good bit of time to chat about all kinds of good stuff and David just happens to be one of the kings of 6mm. So I was curious as to what he would recommend for a load in my 243. He told me "hands down H1000, its the best powder for heavies in a 243". Of course, its the one powder I don't have, so I go grab a pound and last week when I was out working on loads for this rifle I shot a baseline ladder to see where I needed to focus. Based on the excellent data from last week I settled on 48.5 grains. But there was still velocity left and no signs of pressure at all. Ultimately I want a load that is accurate and fast. So I loaded up a few loads above to test out.
Below is a group I shot at 400 yards today. 3 of the rounds were 48.5 grains of H1000 and the two others were .3 grain increment increases and I shot them with this to see how they stacked up. Still no signs of pressure and enough room in the case for 50 grains. So I will be working up just a little more to see what it produces and if I can hit my velocity goal while maintaining accuracy. If nothing else, I have a load that is superb although about 100 fps less than my target velocity. But I can deal with it.
This rifle just amazes me. I've still got some other load work I wanna do, but this will be the load I use most likely as it is hard to argue with.
The guys at Accurate Ordnance really hooked me up with this.
To say I'm pleased is an understatement.
