Predator_Rookie
New member
That's one sweet rig. I have been looking for something similar. Now you have helped me get closer to what im looking for. Off to gun broker I go!
Update: New long range predator rifle.
- Thread starter Fitch
- Start date
Fitch
New member
Took it to the range. Got it on paper at 100 yards then fired 6 three shot groups of 160g Accubond pushed by RL25 in new Win brass lit by a Fed215. Powder charges ranged from 67g to 70g. There was a variable 5 to 15 mph wind blowing across the range from about 10:30. I tried to shoot in equal conditions but with it gusting like it was I wasn't always successful.
Best group was this one though none of them were bigger than 1-1/4" (mostly horizontal).
I had a number of them that had two shots toudhing and the third one just a bit away from them. That looks like a bedding issue to me. I think it was a good first outing. Frankly it shoots pretty good but not good enough for the comtemplated long range predator hunting I bought it for. That said, I think it will tune up nicely.
In any event I've ordered one of the Sharp Shooters Supply competition recoil lugs, go and no-go gages. I'll take the barrel off, stick it through the headstock, line it up and fix the little burr on the crown. While the barrel is seperated from the receiver I'll true the reciever face and the barrel nut face, then reassemble it, make some new pillars and epoxy/pillar bed it with some Devcon 10110. This could all be done as early as next week depending on when the lug and gages get here and other demands on my time.
The rifle is "very" plesant to shoot. At 13.0 lbs with the scope mounted recoil is not an issue - I'm not going to see impacts on things in close but no muzzle break will be required as I'd hoped. I bought a sling with a nice wide non-slip shoulder pad on it and have hiked it around on a couple of 3 mile hikes with the rest of my hunting gear with no problem. So while it is a bit to lug around, this little old man will be able to pack it for the longest hike likely where I hunt by a factor of two or more. These are good things.
Also worth noting, my MV predictions with QuickLoad for this set of test ammunition were within 29 fps of measured MV worst case, and within 23 fps best case. That gives me a lot of confidence for proceeding with this powder in this rifle.
More when I know more.
Fitch
Best group was this one though none of them were bigger than 1-1/4" (mostly horizontal).
I had a number of them that had two shots toudhing and the third one just a bit away from them. That looks like a bedding issue to me. I think it was a good first outing. Frankly it shoots pretty good but not good enough for the comtemplated long range predator hunting I bought it for. That said, I think it will tune up nicely.
In any event I've ordered one of the Sharp Shooters Supply competition recoil lugs, go and no-go gages. I'll take the barrel off, stick it through the headstock, line it up and fix the little burr on the crown. While the barrel is seperated from the receiver I'll true the reciever face and the barrel nut face, then reassemble it, make some new pillars and epoxy/pillar bed it with some Devcon 10110. This could all be done as early as next week depending on when the lug and gages get here and other demands on my time.
The rifle is "very" plesant to shoot. At 13.0 lbs with the scope mounted recoil is not an issue - I'm not going to see impacts on things in close but no muzzle break will be required as I'd hoped. I bought a sling with a nice wide non-slip shoulder pad on it and have hiked it around on a couple of 3 mile hikes with the rest of my hunting gear with no problem. So while it is a bit to lug around, this little old man will be able to pack it for the longest hike likely where I hunt by a factor of two or more. These are good things.
Also worth noting, my MV predictions with QuickLoad for this set of test ammunition were within 29 fps of measured MV worst case, and within 23 fps best case. That gives me a lot of confidence for proceeding with this powder in this rifle.
More when I know more.
Fitch
Powerfisher
New member
Wow....you guys are way out of my league......nice everything. Very jealous. Again, nice rifle and nice bedding job.
Forgot just how long-rangish those big Savages looked like. Man that's a nice find sir!
Still got some of the old Butch Keen videos watching those guys snipe from one ridge to another in PA. Looks like that'd be a good way to set up on coyotes some out there once the leaves have dropped. Looks like they were doing well on the LR whitetails too in that hilly PA country.
Still got some of the old Butch Keen videos watching those guys snipe from one ridge to another in PA. Looks like that'd be a good way to set up on coyotes some out there once the leaves have dropped. Looks like they were doing well on the LR whitetails too in that hilly PA country.
Fitch
New member
Made some progress. I disasembled the rifle, took the barrel off the receiver and went to work.
Trued the action yesterday. It was the best Savage action I've had in the lathe so far. From the factory the receiver face was only .002" out of true and cleaned up with one light cut. I've had them be as much as .011" out of true.
I indicated in and polished the chamber. While the breech end was trued in the headstock I threaded the barrel nut on it, checked it and found it to be dead nuts so I left it alone.
I also recut the crown. Typical "before" picture of crown:
Typical "after" picture of crown:
This was cut using a home ground and freshly honed HSS bit with thread cutting oil at about 250 rpm. The first try was dry at much higher speed with a carbide bit but it didn't make as crisp an edge as I wanted. My dad taught me to grind my own bits when I was 10 years old so that wasn't a problem.
The throat in this rifle looks pretty good. Typical picture of throat after 30 rounds:
It's completely symmetrical around the throat - which is less common than one might think in factory rifles. All the reamer scratches which would be horizontal in this picture are gone which indicates to me the throat is completely broken in for practical purposes. So far it has had what ever the factory shot through it, completely cleaned, 4 rounds with complete cleaning between each, 2 rounds with complete cleaning, plus those from the recent range session for a total of 30+what ever the factory shot through it. It was obviously cleaned after the range session.
I will keep the stock front pillar but I'll rough up the hole and glue it in place with epoxy. I need to make a new rear pillar. I'll do that today.
Then I'm on hold till the recoil lug and go/no-go gages get here.
FWIW: This is the home made rig I used with the Hawkeye bore scope to take the pictures:
The Camera Adaptor:
And the sled for the camera and rack to hold the barrel. The camera is so heavy I didn't want to take a chance on having it slip and destroy the very fragile borescope.
Am I having fun? Oh my yes.
Fitch
Trued the action yesterday. It was the best Savage action I've had in the lathe so far. From the factory the receiver face was only .002" out of true and cleaned up with one light cut. I've had them be as much as .011" out of true.
I indicated in and polished the chamber. While the breech end was trued in the headstock I threaded the barrel nut on it, checked it and found it to be dead nuts so I left it alone.
I also recut the crown. Typical "before" picture of crown:
Typical "after" picture of crown:
This was cut using a home ground and freshly honed HSS bit with thread cutting oil at about 250 rpm. The first try was dry at much higher speed with a carbide bit but it didn't make as crisp an edge as I wanted. My dad taught me to grind my own bits when I was 10 years old so that wasn't a problem.
The throat in this rifle looks pretty good. Typical picture of throat after 30 rounds:
It's completely symmetrical around the throat - which is less common than one might think in factory rifles. All the reamer scratches which would be horizontal in this picture are gone which indicates to me the throat is completely broken in for practical purposes. So far it has had what ever the factory shot through it, completely cleaned, 4 rounds with complete cleaning between each, 2 rounds with complete cleaning, plus those from the recent range session for a total of 30+what ever the factory shot through it. It was obviously cleaned after the range session.
I will keep the stock front pillar but I'll rough up the hole and glue it in place with epoxy. I need to make a new rear pillar. I'll do that today.
Then I'm on hold till the recoil lug and go/no-go gages get here.
FWIW: This is the home made rig I used with the Hawkeye bore scope to take the pictures:
The Camera Adaptor:
And the sled for the camera and rack to hold the barrel. The camera is so heavy I didn't want to take a chance on having it slip and destroy the very fragile borescope.
Am I having fun? Oh my yes.
Fitch
SuperSeal110
New member
Awesome pictures and write up, very impressive. I'd love to get into gun smithing myself/building my own.
Fitch
New member
Since my last post about this rifle I finished all the planned improvements. The earlier thread covered truing the receiver and crowning the barrel. Since then I've installed the Sharp Shooter Supply competition recoil lug, epoxy pillar bedded it, and taken it to the range for a load development session.
The bedding job looks like this:
I made a new rear pillar out of steel that is a slightly taller copy of the original pillar. It had to be taller because the magazine box retention tang went over the top of the original pillar. I shortened the mag-box tang as you can see in the picture. It basically "snaps" into place with the receiver over, but not touching the portion of the tang that used to go over the rear pillar. Works great. Rifle cycles very smoothly, feeds flawlessly.
I used 60 grit paper on a split dowel to clean out both pillar holes, degreased/cleaned the pillars with brake cleaner and epoxied them in place with Devcon 10110 (I really like that epoxy for bedding).
The tang area was sanded to get additional clearance and restained with some dainish walnut stain/sealer.
The rest of the bedding job was pretty straight forward.
I put together some test loads using the 150g Barnes TTSX and RL25. After further testing this bullet seated in Win brass to 3.311" COL, pushed by 67.5g of RL25 lit by a WLRM primer shoots pretty much like this at 100 yards:
That will work.
I've loaded up another 20 of them to take out for zeroing the hunting scope at 200 yards - that will have to wait for the new scope to be purchased (the plan is to get a silver finish 4.5-14 Leupold VX 3 with the varmint hunter's reticle). With that done I'll get drop data to 500 yards, put it away and wish Deer Season was here.
I'll work up a load for the 168g Berger if they ever make any more of them - right now near as I can tell there are exactly none of them for sale anyplace on the planet..
Meanwhile, this TTSX will get it done on any deer I'll see here in So. Central PA at any range I'll see them at. I don't want to waste barrel life shooting a smorgasboard of bullets through paper. This is supposed to be a 0 - 500 yard meat in the freezer rifle with this bullet and I've no doubt it is.
This is turning out to be one of the nicest rifles I own. It is remarkably accurate with just a little accurizing work (true receiver face, competition recoil lug, recrown, epoxy/pillar bed), has the best factory bore I've ever seen, by far the best in my gunsafe for sure, is very comfortable to shoot with out a muzzle brake, has a very nice 2 lb hunting trigger right out of the box, and an action that cycles smooth as butter.
I can't believe I stumbled on it for sale on (for $600.00 NIB) Gunbroker while looking for a donor rifle to build one essentially exactly like it that I'd budgeted $1,300 to build (doing the work myself).
Serendipitous for sure, but I'll take it!
Fitch
The bedding job looks like this:
I made a new rear pillar out of steel that is a slightly taller copy of the original pillar. It had to be taller because the magazine box retention tang went over the top of the original pillar. I shortened the mag-box tang as you can see in the picture. It basically "snaps" into place with the receiver over, but not touching the portion of the tang that used to go over the rear pillar. Works great. Rifle cycles very smoothly, feeds flawlessly.
I used 60 grit paper on a split dowel to clean out both pillar holes, degreased/cleaned the pillars with brake cleaner and epoxied them in place with Devcon 10110 (I really like that epoxy for bedding).
The tang area was sanded to get additional clearance and restained with some dainish walnut stain/sealer.
The rest of the bedding job was pretty straight forward.
I put together some test loads using the 150g Barnes TTSX and RL25. After further testing this bullet seated in Win brass to 3.311" COL, pushed by 67.5g of RL25 lit by a WLRM primer shoots pretty much like this at 100 yards:
That will work.
I've loaded up another 20 of them to take out for zeroing the hunting scope at 200 yards - that will have to wait for the new scope to be purchased (the plan is to get a silver finish 4.5-14 Leupold VX 3 with the varmint hunter's reticle). With that done I'll get drop data to 500 yards, put it away and wish Deer Season was here.
I'll work up a load for the 168g Berger if they ever make any more of them - right now near as I can tell there are exactly none of them for sale anyplace on the planet..
Meanwhile, this TTSX will get it done on any deer I'll see here in So. Central PA at any range I'll see them at. I don't want to waste barrel life shooting a smorgasboard of bullets through paper. This is supposed to be a 0 - 500 yard meat in the freezer rifle with this bullet and I've no doubt it is.
This is turning out to be one of the nicest rifles I own. It is remarkably accurate with just a little accurizing work (true receiver face, competition recoil lug, recrown, epoxy/pillar bed), has the best factory bore I've ever seen, by far the best in my gunsafe for sure, is very comfortable to shoot with out a muzzle brake, has a very nice 2 lb hunting trigger right out of the box, and an action that cycles smooth as butter.
I can't believe I stumbled on it for sale on (for $600.00 NIB) Gunbroker while looking for a donor rifle to build one essentially exactly like it that I'd budgeted $1,300 to build (doing the work myself).
Serendipitous for sure, but I'll take it!
Fitch
Martyn4802
New member
Excellent work.
Thanks for the share; it's a great narrative, one we can all use for our futurte bedding jobs.
You are getting outstanding accuracy too.
Thanks for the share; it's a great narrative, one we can all use for our futurte bedding jobs.
You are getting outstanding accuracy too.