My rebuilt .408 ELR Result

[VaRandy]

Enclosed it the total reconfiguration of what was a very heavy benchrest rifle, my .408 Wildcat. I needed to lighten it for two reasons. The first is I am old and lugging it from vehicle to bench was becoming too much for me. Secondarily, I might want to dabble with the ELR competition although I am not sure if I have the gas money to go way West from my home on the Atlantic. I will not be able to shoot it over 1k for another 3 weeks or so and must travel 250 miles and 850 miles to get to one of two private ranges set up for 1 mile.

I will continue carrying it around on my ground hog safaris to Pa and Ohio in case I find somewhere I can best my long range kill record to date. Tough on the East Coast for a big boomer because of noise and lack of proper backstops ( HILLS!)

It features the McMillian Beast 2 (thanks for the help from Kelly) , a Prarie Gun Works Action, a K&P 36 inch barrel, Jewell long trigger and my antique USO SN-9 scope with 240 MOA built in and is 10-42 power. I will likely be using what I already shot which is a 421.5 (labeled as 419) Lost River solid at 3070 for best repeatability. Life should be better now with availability of Peterson brass since I ran out of the original Hornesberger (from Cheytac). I have no idea how suitable the scope will be for ELR at over 1 mile but suspect it will do fine.

Smithed by Billy Dale Custom Rifles.

 

[steve123]

That's a nice rifle!

I have a suggestion, to get higher pic rails, or you'll run out of elevation at ELR like my friend did with his SN9. Objective stopping on the barrel.

 

[wildcats]

Very nice rebuilt indeed..including the Hubble telescope.

 

[wildcats]

That's a nice rifle!

I have a suggestion, to get higher pic rails, or you'll run out of elevation at ELR like my friend did with his SN9. Objective stopping on the barrel.

I agree,
Considering the length of the SN-9 and base attachment,he may need some type of custom made pic. rail with a 40-50min of elevation.
About 15 years ago i built a similar rifle with a Prarie Gun Works single shot action in the same caliber and had to have Near build me a custom picatiny base because it wasn't available at the time.

 

[VaRandy]

About the travel....I am looking into it now and looking for something I saw a year ago on one of many sites i follow to find a guy that built custom picatinney to picatinney bases in anywhere from 0 to 100 moa. My smith still has the rifle and I won't know till I get there if I can get the 1 mile out of it the way it sits. If so I will wait till the winter to go after all the scope travel and maybe more. I shouldn't need more than 35 moa or so to cover the 1 mile that I need NOW. I am actively looking for someone to make me one if it doesn't exist.

 

[chasedeer]

Nice suggestion @Wildcat .. I have read about someone who does work like that on here ..

 

[VaRandy]

Still have not found a solution for a riser to gain another 3/4 inch. I need either two risers with no MOA or two with 20 moa. So far all I have seen is made more like a throwaway since they are largely used for AR's. Was hoping to find a couple with strong x bars with actual nuts to tighten similar to NF scope rings.

 

[VaRandy]

I agree,
Considering the length of the SN-9 and base attachment,he may need some type of custom made pic. rail with a 40-50min of elevation.
About 15 years ago i built a similar rifle with a Prarie Gun Works single shot action in the same caliber and had to have Near build me a custom picatiny base because it wasn't available at the time.

talked to Near and others and no one wants to take it on.