Just came across this thread...I did this almost ten yrs ago. Shortly after I built it I moved to the hills 'n hollers of n/e TN so I really never got a chance to stretch it's legs. Now it just sits in the safe. It's really the second of two...the first one didn't go so well. First one, I waited for months for a Bartlein gain twist stainless barrel in 7 rem mag. I had a "friend" who owned a custom gun company say he would do the "smithing" for me. Well, his "smith" turned out to not be so swift and ruined the barrel and action on the first go around. Put the wrong thread on the barrel, then tried to mickey mouse the receiver to fit. I warned him up front that the Sako was a metric thread, but he "forgot". So...they had to replace the barrel and buy a new rifle to replace the receiver and then, they still didn't get it quite right when it came to making the Tubbs heavy Remington style recoil lug fit. This was pretty much a year gone by waiting for all this to take place. Finally I was fed up enough with these guys that I went to Karl Kampfeld, who I wanted to do the precision work first but was just too busy, and talked h[m into finishing the project for me. He finished machining the receiver so the recoil lug looked like it belonged, had to take a little more off the barrel and had to re-chamber it as well. Then it was all sent out to get Melonited, then Karl did the final black Ceracote on everything to make it all match. I had ordered a Manners MCST4A stock and Tom did the inlet himself on the Bridgeport since there was no cnc program for that action. I fnally got the stock and barreled action in it's final configuration so I could do the pillar bedding and final stock filling and fitting. The bottom metal was from McMillan (by PTG) and took some fitting as well. Once the stock was finished, it went back to Manners and they put a paint job on it in their custom shop...courtesy of Manners since the stock took so long. I thought that was pretty nice...till I got it back. It looked horrible but because it was free, I wasn't going to complain. I had put some pics of it up on one of the shooting forums (might have been here on SH) and Tom Manners saw it. He sent me an email saying he was embarrassed and that he though it "looked like ass". He asked me to please take the pics down and please send him the stock so he could re-paint it. Of course, I did. I ended up having to make my own scope base since there wasn't one available when I built this. USO had made one at one time but it was no longer available.
Build details;
Sako TRG-S M995 in 7mm Rem Mag
Manners T4A stock painted in Manners custom shop
Bartlein #9 heavy varmint, 1:9.25 - 1:9 gain twist stainless, melonited
Tubb Remngton style heavy recoil lug
McMillan/PTG bottom metal
Custom 7mm Rem Mag match reamer from Dave Kiff
In-house custom 6061 T6 scope rail, hard annodized
In-house custom one piece stainless bolt knob
In-house custom fitting and pillar bedding
Final gunsmithing and metal finish by Campfeld Customs
Steiner Military M5Xi 5-25x56 with TPS 34mm scope rings
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