My low dollar "Precision rifle" build

[jimd46902]

That looks great! I do alot of gunsmithing myself (learned from my Dad) You cannot beat a nice rifle built by yourself.

 

[snapping turtle]

What I have had to do with optics is spread the little wealth I have around the rifles I own.

The Cheap (Well kind of) way to do this is Quick detachable rings. The warnes have been top notch for me. All rifles have been able to remove and got back on with great groups before and after. Bad thing is you have to readjust zero with different rifle types or calibers. On my contender rifle I can go from 22 lr to 35 rem with very little change in point of impact to 75 yards. Not all platforms are as uniform as they are.

SWFA Mounts, Rings and Bases Warne Mounts Warne Maxima Rings Warne Maxima Quick Detach 1" Rings

Find a good scope and use it on a couple of platforms. Works well if you have say a couple of model 700's, a few contender barrels, a few target 22's ext. Plus more rifle fit into the safe if not wearing scopes.

Look at the super sniper scopes at SWFA for a good dependable cheaper scope with FFP.

 

[philbert001]

Update and range report: After my last failed range trip with this rifle, I rescoped it with a proven reliable scope, and checked headspace.

I took it to the range yesterday, and fired 5 rounds of my old milsurp 7.62. As you can see from the pic, she's still all over the place with that stuff. I then Fired 5 rounds of Winchester White Box, and printed the group you see here next to the penny. The group is .478" center to center on the furthest 2 holes!

I must say I'm kinda bummed that I have 500 rounds of garbage ammo, But I'm ecstatic to see that I am shooting half a minute with Winchester White Box!

My M1 Garand has been converted to .308, And I think I'll just relegate this ammo for use in my M1. I can't print groups with open sights very well anyway.

Please disregard the 2 .223 holes in the target. I think my son lined up on the wrong target a couple times!
I'll throw in a little gun porn for ya too, as she sits right now! I'll be painting my stock soon, now that I've confirmed she's good to go!

 

[patricktjms]

Very sexy.

 

[kickbacked]

i wish people paid me in guns.......

 

[philbert001]

Painted the stock yesterday and got her reassembled this morning! I still want to duracoat the barrel and action matte black, and come up with a removable box mag and bottom metal, (Without spending $400!) I think I'll try to find a steel floorplate, hinged or not, and fabricate a magwell to accept some cheaper mags than the $85 badger mags and the like!

All in all, I have a few hundred bucks in traded labor, and about $200 spent on this rifle! (Not including the optic, rings, or bi-pod) Not bad for a half a minute rifle!

 

[Shibby575]

OH Boy, You very well may have ruined a very desirable mcmillan stock. If it was a smear camo pattern m40 return stock which it looks like it could have been. The build looks cool though

 

[philbert001]

OH Boy, You very well may have ruined a very desirable mcmillan stock. If it was a smear camo pattern m40 return stock which it looks like it could have been. The build looks cool though

Yeah, I initially thought it was just a Pachmayer stock, cause it's got the pachmayer logo on the buttpad, so I went ahead and modified it. Then I found out that the Mcmillan stocks have pachmayer buttpads on them! Too late to sweat it now! Did they make the M40 stock with a sporter contour barrel channel? Also, as I've never held an m40 stock by itself, Were they lightweight? This one was very lightweight, with no bedding block or pillars. I pillar bedded it, and glass bedded it, and I hope that is sufficient for maintained accuracy!

 

[philbert001]

Regardless of what the stock WAS, I didn't ruin it. I made it quite a bit better, stiffer, and more to my liking! I may have killed value, but that doesn't much matter to me, as I plan on keeping this one around!

 

[sgreen3]

Looks very nice!

 

[philbert001]

Looks very nice!

Thanks! I'm happy with it!

 

[Shibby575]

They aren't extremely heavy. They were inletted for a 2 piece winchester type of hinged bottom metal, and marinetex bedded, I do believe that it was a heavy barrel channel though, i haven't seen any pillars in them. If there was a number written in the barrel channel It more than likely was one. I know there are a few smear pattern stocks out there that weren't M40 returns just not many. Not many of either for that matter. The last return stock I owned I sold for $1200, with the certificate of authenticity.

 

[philbert001]

No bull channel, no bottom metal. Blind magazine. No numbers in barrel channel. I'm feelin a little better!

 

[Shibby575]

here's a thread with some pictures. THE OFFICIAL M40A1 PICTURE THREAD

 

[philbert001]

Yeah, looking at those confirms mine as a knockoff. Besides, a long action couldn't be a return stock, could it? The pattern, and the shape of the butt tell me it was a pretty faithful recreation!