I’m getting out of the Marines soon and looking to build my first custom rifle. For the last several years I’ve been making due with a Rem 700 SPS-Varmint 26” barrel in 308 Win in a 700P take off stock and one of the old SWFA 10x mil/MOA scopes. It was all I could afford at the time and has been great for the past 7ish years but being limited to 168 class bullets due to the factory twist rate leaves a lot to be desired. The original plan was to shoot the barrel out and re-barrel but after crunching some $ numbers I’ve scrapped that idea in favor of putting something much more refined and more capable together. I’m still weighing my options right now which is why I’m posting this, but would appreciate if I could get some feedback from you all on my plan thus far to avoid making costly mistakes. Anyways my current build list is as follows:
Optic:
Short term – Vortex PST Gen II 3-15x44 FFP MRAD (Bought this with the intention of putting it on my AR15, but think it will live on this build until I can afford the Razor below)
Long Term – Vortex Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27x56 FFP MRAD in some type of 1-piece mount.
Action:
Lone Peak Fuzion S/A. - Also still considering Impact 737r and Bighorn TL3. I haven’t put hands on any of these, nor any other custom action in general unfortunately. I chose these simply because of the number of pre-fit barrels that pop up in the PX. Whatever I go with will be a one-and-only for a very long time and because of that, the ability to change barrels/calibers myself is very important to me. I understand bolt heads are cheaper with the TL3 but I think I would prefer to have the entire bolt to swap when changing bolt face sizes so that is somewhat of a moot point. Is there somewhere in SoCal or AZ that I can get a feel for any of these actions or others I may not be taking into consideration?
Barrel:
26” M24 contour shouldered pre-fit in 6.5x47L to start, 26” M24 contour 223 Rem and 28” M24 contour 7mm SAUM to follow, in that order, from either Altus, Straightjacket, PVA or wherever else has a solid reputation and the shortest lead time at time of purchase. Or if I get lucky and find what I’m looking for in the PX then that would work as well. Barrel length for the 6.5 and 223 would be dependent on the stock selection below as both of these will be used for local competition at some point, even if only just to dabble in it to see if I enjoy it or not, and I want the weapon to balance well if I do something other than the PRS-TCS.
Trigger:
Seems like TriggerTech is the preferred unit right now, hopefully their two stage will be available but if not I could deal with a single stage, it’s just not my preference. Not super picky here, it just needs to be fuss free and reliable in dry dusty climates which they seem to be from what I’ve read.
Stock:
Manners T2A-GAP, T4A-Team or the new PRS-TCS with elite tactical shell because it’s sexy. Years ago I handled the first two options (older T2A/T4A) and loved both, but really like the idea of the new product Manners has pushed out with regards to being able to fine tune the balance of the rifle. My question here is if the Fuzion’s multi-faceted surface will have any issues mating up with the Manners mini-chassis’ sort of \_/ shape? When I was looking at their online stock builder I didn’t see an option for the Fuzion, and on Lone Peak’s website product description says it fits Rem 700 inlets so I would assume they fit together properly but again, I’m not in the business of making expensive mistakes and I’m sure someone here has actually put metal to metal and op checked it before so I figured I’d ask this here before asking the manufacturer(s) independently.
I know intended use is important with things like this so I will cover them all here real quick. Most of the time I will be out in the southern AZ desert at around 1400’ ASL, shooting mostly paper and steel. It is hot, dry and dusty where I shoot almost all year long. I’m not at all abusive with my stuff, but I’m not the guy that babies his stuff either. The expected distances are where the multiple barrels come into play. 223 will get used for inexpensive positional practice and plinking to around 600ish yards with some small game and varmints in the mix. 6.5x47L will be used out to about 1200ish yards at my primary shooting spot before I run out of real-estate, and used for hunting coyote through elk a few times a year. The 7mm SAUM will be strictly for shooting past 1200 yards at my alternate shooting spot with hopes of reaching out to a mile someday and I expect to have to single load it, which is fine, but mag fed is a requirement for the other two. Local PRS matches are something I’ll dabble in at some point but not a main factor at this time. Overall weight isn’t a huge issue as I’m in pretty good shape but I will say I love a well-balanced rifle. Recoil isn’t much of an issue either. My un-braked 308 isn’t too hard to spot my hits with so I assume a heavier rifle, braked with less recoil to start with is going to be pretty pleasant. I’m the type of weirdo that enjoys reloading so factory ammo isn’t a concern and adding extra calibers to the routine isn’t difficult. I’ll also be doing a metric butt load of dry firing in between the weekly range trips, but that’s probably not much of a factor in component choice. I don’t have a set budget to adhere to as I will be selling a dirt bike to fund it later in the year along with the aforementioned Rem 700 this will replace. That said, money not spent on the weapon system will likely be spent on reloading components.
Is there anything else I should be considering with this build?
Optic:
Short term – Vortex PST Gen II 3-15x44 FFP MRAD (Bought this with the intention of putting it on my AR15, but think it will live on this build until I can afford the Razor below)
Long Term – Vortex Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27x56 FFP MRAD in some type of 1-piece mount.
Action:
Lone Peak Fuzion S/A. - Also still considering Impact 737r and Bighorn TL3. I haven’t put hands on any of these, nor any other custom action in general unfortunately. I chose these simply because of the number of pre-fit barrels that pop up in the PX. Whatever I go with will be a one-and-only for a very long time and because of that, the ability to change barrels/calibers myself is very important to me. I understand bolt heads are cheaper with the TL3 but I think I would prefer to have the entire bolt to swap when changing bolt face sizes so that is somewhat of a moot point. Is there somewhere in SoCal or AZ that I can get a feel for any of these actions or others I may not be taking into consideration?
Barrel:
26” M24 contour shouldered pre-fit in 6.5x47L to start, 26” M24 contour 223 Rem and 28” M24 contour 7mm SAUM to follow, in that order, from either Altus, Straightjacket, PVA or wherever else has a solid reputation and the shortest lead time at time of purchase. Or if I get lucky and find what I’m looking for in the PX then that would work as well. Barrel length for the 6.5 and 223 would be dependent on the stock selection below as both of these will be used for local competition at some point, even if only just to dabble in it to see if I enjoy it or not, and I want the weapon to balance well if I do something other than the PRS-TCS.
Trigger:
Seems like TriggerTech is the preferred unit right now, hopefully their two stage will be available but if not I could deal with a single stage, it’s just not my preference. Not super picky here, it just needs to be fuss free and reliable in dry dusty climates which they seem to be from what I’ve read.
Stock:
Manners T2A-GAP, T4A-Team or the new PRS-TCS with elite tactical shell because it’s sexy. Years ago I handled the first two options (older T2A/T4A) and loved both, but really like the idea of the new product Manners has pushed out with regards to being able to fine tune the balance of the rifle. My question here is if the Fuzion’s multi-faceted surface will have any issues mating up with the Manners mini-chassis’ sort of \_/ shape? When I was looking at their online stock builder I didn’t see an option for the Fuzion, and on Lone Peak’s website product description says it fits Rem 700 inlets so I would assume they fit together properly but again, I’m not in the business of making expensive mistakes and I’m sure someone here has actually put metal to metal and op checked it before so I figured I’d ask this here before asking the manufacturer(s) independently.
I know intended use is important with things like this so I will cover them all here real quick. Most of the time I will be out in the southern AZ desert at around 1400’ ASL, shooting mostly paper and steel. It is hot, dry and dusty where I shoot almost all year long. I’m not at all abusive with my stuff, but I’m not the guy that babies his stuff either. The expected distances are where the multiple barrels come into play. 223 will get used for inexpensive positional practice and plinking to around 600ish yards with some small game and varmints in the mix. 6.5x47L will be used out to about 1200ish yards at my primary shooting spot before I run out of real-estate, and used for hunting coyote through elk a few times a year. The 7mm SAUM will be strictly for shooting past 1200 yards at my alternate shooting spot with hopes of reaching out to a mile someday and I expect to have to single load it, which is fine, but mag fed is a requirement for the other two. Local PRS matches are something I’ll dabble in at some point but not a main factor at this time. Overall weight isn’t a huge issue as I’m in pretty good shape but I will say I love a well-balanced rifle. Recoil isn’t much of an issue either. My un-braked 308 isn’t too hard to spot my hits with so I assume a heavier rifle, braked with less recoil to start with is going to be pretty pleasant. I’m the type of weirdo that enjoys reloading so factory ammo isn’t a concern and adding extra calibers to the routine isn’t difficult. I’ll also be doing a metric butt load of dry firing in between the weekly range trips, but that’s probably not much of a factor in component choice. I don’t have a set budget to adhere to as I will be selling a dirt bike to fund it later in the year along with the aforementioned Rem 700 this will replace. That said, money not spent on the weapon system will likely be spent on reloading components.
Is there anything else I should be considering with this build?
