The "Junk" rifle in the safe

[Mhinagoya]

Way back when I decided to build a 22-250 Ackley and a Swift Ackley, I knew I needed a 'switch barrel' rifle to do the fire forming of the brass, as I didn't want to put that wear on my custom barrels. After looking around, I spied the Remington 783 at Cabelas for the princely sum of $285. This rifle came with an injection molded poly stock and a 'free scope' (I gave it away). The most important features of the rifle were 1. It was in 30-06 so the bolt face was correct for my new Ackley cartridges. 2. It had a barrel nut setup like a Savage so I could swap barrels. I bought it, brought it home, ordered action and nut wrenches, and started searching for a couple of worn out savage barrels, which were easy to source and very cheap. I had the junk barrels chambered for the two ackley cartridges and ordered an entry level stock from Boyd's along with a ground recoil lug from PT&G.
The stock was about $100 and an additional hundred sourced a Bushnell 3-9 scope (just because).
This gun was purchased to fire form cases. That's it. Yes, I had a little money in it but far less than the $1,000 that each of my Ackley barrels cost.
Switching barrels, I fire formed my brass. It took many trips to the range over the span of a year or so, but I got it done.
With the mission complete, I restored the rifle to it's original caliber, bedded it to the new stock, and mounted the scope. This is a $285 rifle in a hundred dollar stock with a hundred dollar scope. Frankly, I didn't expect much.

I really disliked the original bolt knob so with great care, I ground and filed the bolt handle to a semblence of round and threaded it for something nicer.

That was four or five years ago and this morning, I finally got around to shooting it. At the range, I peered down the bore to get it on the paper, adjusted the scope and fired. The sighting shot is the lower left. I adjusted the scope and fired the next three. The group is just under an inch.

I am stunned. A one inch group from a cheap rifle in a cheap stock with a cheap scope and factory ammo.

Well, it goes back in the safe. Until now, the only center fire rifle I had larger than a varmint rifle that had been put on paper was my 375 H&H and it's a bit much for things larger than a coyote.

I still have the fire forming barrels so the rifle isn't going anywhere. If I could convince myself that I actually had some use for it, I would source a top drawer aftermarket barrel in 30-06 for it. I just can't see pouring more money in to a rifle for which I have no use.

Now, back to my regular programming.

Bill.

 

[helicopter]

In my experience, the barrel nut design of these along with the savage and ruger ones, results in high accuracy and very low price. I am not surprised. I don't have a Remington, but my savages and Ruger Americans have been great.

 

[Mhinagoya]

In my experience, the barrel nut design of these along with the savage and ruger ones, results in high accuracy and very low price. I am not surprised. I don't have a Remington, but my savages and Ruger Americans have been great.

I will defer to your experience, as my data fully supports it. I just wish I actually had some use for this gun other than making brass for varmint rifles. I may start looking for one in .223 so I can re barrel it to 20 Vartarg.

 

[dojpros]

I used too run around with a bunch of guys that had way too much tied up in firearms.

All of them had been to multiple pistol/rifle classes.

All of them recommended the Savage Model 10 with its screwed on barrel as a 1st rifle.
Ugly, crappy stocked in its basic form. ALL of the them stated that they had never seen one that was not MOA out to 500 with Federal Gold Metal Match presuming at least a decent bushnell scope and modest warne rings.

Step up to a quality scope ie. Leupold/Steiner/Zeiss/ etc. and MOA was in play well beyond that in most calibers.

I had a 1st gen Model 10, 308 heavy barrel with a Leupold VX2. I am not a rifleman. it would go sub MOA at 200 with mil surplus and was sub MOA to 400 with GMM and close with both Port and SA surplus.

If I was doing it over, I would likely go 6.5 creedmore. 500 ish for the rifle and the same for a scope and For 1K ish, you could hit anything you can see.

https://savagearms.com/firearms/model/axis-2-pro

 

[Mhinagoya]

I used too run around with a bunch of guys that had way too much tied up in firearms.

All of them had been to multiple pistol/rifle classes.

All of them recommended the Savage Model 10 with its screwed on barrel as a 1st rifle.
Ugly, crappy stocked in its basic form. ALL of the them stated that they had never seen one that was not MOA out to 500 with Federal Gold Metal Match presuming at least a decent bushnell scope and modest warne rings.

Step up to a quality scope ie. Leupold/Steiner/Zeiss/ etc. and MOA was in play well beyond that in most calibers.

I had a 1st gen Model 10, 308 heavy barrel with a Leupold VX2. I am not a rifleman. it would go sub MOA at 200 with mil surplus and was sub MOA to 400 with GMM and close with both Port and SA surplus.

If I was doing it over, I would likely go 6.5 creedmore. 500 ish for the rifle and the same for a scope and For 1K ish, you could hit anything you can see.

https://savagearms.com/firearms/model/axis-2-pro

That sounds like a pretty good plan. I doubt I will ever mess with a 6.5 Creedmoor, as I already own a 6.5X284.
I have several custom rifles and I have a lot of money in most of them. While they are VERY nice and spooky accurate, if I had it to do all over again, I would go a different path. Shilen will sell you a barreled action for just south of two grand. That's a Borden custom action with a hand lapped match grade barrel. No trigger, bottom metal, stock, scope mounts, nada. Just a barreled action, but a very good barreled action. I have run the numbers several times and it would have saved me between $500 and $1,000 to build a rifle that way over how I did it with mine.
When I found out that Meopta was making scope lenses for Zeiss, I started buying Meopta scopes and absolutely love them.

Live and learn I guess. I'm retired now and won't be building any more rifles, but then again, I still have a few I haven't shot yet. Next range trip, 220 Swift Ackley and 204 Ruger.

Bill.

 

[David57]

6.5x284 sounds like the perfect cal. Can you tell me about it?
I have 6.5x55 and 264 win and both are better than I could wish for.

 

[Ad Astra]

A lot nicer than my "junk rifle," a Yugo 24/47 mounting a Cooper-style scout scope. uh, market had lots of .05 8mm at the time .... thought I could shoot the rifling smooth hitting bowling pins with it.

AA

 

[Mhinagoya]

6.5x284 sounds like the perfect cal. Can you tell me about it?
I have 6.5x55 and 264 win and both are better than I could wish for.

It is a 284 Winchester necked down from 7 to 6.5mm and quite popular in F class competition. The case has a rebated head so the cartridge will fit a 30-06 size bolt face while having a greater capacity due to the larger case diameter. It can be crammed in to a short action, but it would be a mistake as folks who shoot this variant usually want the very high BC bullets that are available in this caliber. Mine is in a long action which allows me to seat those 'pencil like' bullets way out there to touch the rifling.
It was officially a wildcat when I had mine built, as there was no SAAMI spec on it and if you wanted ammunition, you had to make it. My gun has an 8 twist barrel, so 140 grain bullets run quite nicely. Think 264 Winchester magnum going a little slower with a lot less powder, less recoil, longer barrel life, and the ability to seat Berger VLD bullets out to touch the rifling. It also has considerably less recoil than the 264.
There is also a 6X284 wildcat that has garnered considerable popularity. I understand it is quite rough on barrels though. I have seriously looked at this cartridge but as I already have a barrel burner in the safe (22-6mm), saw no good reason to build another one.
I use Lapua brass which is headstamped 6.5X284. It's good stuff. It's also $1.50 EACH. Yep, $150 for 100 cases.

Grown men's toys can be expensive to run.

Left to right 30-06, 6.5X284, 22-6mm. For my 'hot shot' cartridges, I coat the bullets with tungsten disulphide, also known as WS2 or Danzac. That is why the two on the right are silvery black.

 

[David57]

That is fantastic

 

[nortac]

I have a Savage 110 (pre-model 10, pre-Accutrigger) in .308 that has served me well as an entry level F class rifle. It will shoot sub 0.5 MOA if the stars are aligned and I do my part. Below is a five shot group at 100 yds. Note that the calipers are measuring "outside to outside" rather than C-T-C, so the group is actually about 0.30 MOA.