THE BEASTY
Of all the custom actions I've owned I like the Surgeon XL the most. I just like the idea of the 30 moa integral rain, the integral recoil lug, the flat bottom and how robust it is, not to mention what a great repeater it is also. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a really cool stock too. This stock is a McMillan 22 rimfire prone stock which has been modified to fit the XL and the Surgeon DBM. It's very comfortable to get behind and very stable. The adjustable butt is a Tubb which is a nice addition enabling a good LOP fit. The trigger is a Jewel set at 19 ounces.
Being previously chambered in 30-375R I've used this rifle in a few long range matches but the recoil is a little too much for general use and kind of expensive to shoot with the Berger 230 hybrids and 78 grains of Retumbo. Though set up that way it makes a fantastic ELR rig. The 30-375R barrel still has some life left in it so since I have a barrel vice and action wrench I'll switch over as necessary.
Long story short, I got tired of the old Surgeon XL in 30-375R just sitting in the safe only to be shot 3-4 times a year so I figured I'd turn it into something more suitable for a local long range match that I often shoot called the AZPRC. In this match we don't do a lot of walking and we shoot each target twice. A heavier rifle with minimum muzzle rise and recoil helps us to see where our first shot goes. If we can see where we hit on the steel or where we missed we can correct for the 2cnd shot better. The rifle and scope weighs just shy of 24 lbs.
The 6.5 SAUM and the story...
After reading GAP's thread on their 6.5-4S I decided that a 6.5 SAUM would be a good candidate for the new cartridge in my Surgeon XL. My thinking was I could seat 140 grain bullets out longer in the long action and take advantage of a longer barrel to get higher velocity and acceptable barrel life like in the 2000 round range hopefully.
I started looking for barrels about two months ago and the first place I called was Bartlein. Of all the barrels for Bartlein to have in stock (YAHOO!) was a 8 twist blank with a 1.350" shank finishing at 1" thick at 29". What, the perfect barrel for me??? I was totally surprised and snagged it right then!
And of all things I found out a guy I know had just bought a 6.5-4S reamer. He was going to chamber it for me but declined until he got his FFL but offered to lend it to a gunsmith friend of his to use on my rifle. Thanks a lot for the use of your reamer Leland! Tim Puttman of Kelly Arms in Prescott Valley AZ ended up doing the work for me.
I discovered that RSAUM brass is a tad too wide for AI 300WM mags so I milled out the rear impression on the mag. It feeds absolutely perfectly! There is a ejection problem that I need to work on though. Most of the cases eject but one pops off the extractor and stays in the port occasionally.
Load and accuracy...
The brass I'm using is necked down 300 SAUM Nosler with necks turned to .0145 neck thickness and trimmed to 2.011".
My bullet of choice is the Berger 140 Hybrid. I have Hodgdon Retumbo so that's the powder I worked with and I have a lot of Fed 215 match primers so I used them.
I haven't measured the throat because I want to fire a couple hundred rounds first. Just guessing the lands are close to 2.180", edit-lands turned out to be at 2.175". I got lucky and SWAG-ed a seating depth of 3.012" OACL which gives 2.168" to the ogive. The rifle shot so well I haven't tried to adjust the seating depth.
I fireformed 50 brass with 60 grains/3030 fps and 61 grains/3100 Fps. Then did a ladder test at 400Y. It was hard to determine where the nodes were because all 14 shots in .2 grain increments (61-63.6 grains) landed into less than 3"s of vertical. The shots of 62.8, 63 and 63.2 grain were pretty close with 62.8 and 63 almost touching.
This morning I tried 5 shot groups of 61, 62, and 63 grains at 290Y. 63 shot just over .3 moa. 3202 fps was the average.
My rifle
Of all the custom actions I've owned I like the Surgeon XL the most. I just like the idea of the 30 moa integral rain, the integral recoil lug, the flat bottom and how robust it is, not to mention what a great repeater it is also. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a really cool stock too. This stock is a McMillan 22 rimfire prone stock which has been modified to fit the XL and the Surgeon DBM. It's very comfortable to get behind and very stable. The adjustable butt is a Tubb which is a nice addition enabling a good LOP fit. The trigger is a Jewel set at 19 ounces.
Being previously chambered in 30-375R I've used this rifle in a few long range matches but the recoil is a little too much for general use and kind of expensive to shoot with the Berger 230 hybrids and 78 grains of Retumbo. Though set up that way it makes a fantastic ELR rig. The 30-375R barrel still has some life left in it so since I have a barrel vice and action wrench I'll switch over as necessary.
Long story short, I got tired of the old Surgeon XL in 30-375R just sitting in the safe only to be shot 3-4 times a year so I figured I'd turn it into something more suitable for a local long range match that I often shoot called the AZPRC. In this match we don't do a lot of walking and we shoot each target twice. A heavier rifle with minimum muzzle rise and recoil helps us to see where our first shot goes. If we can see where we hit on the steel or where we missed we can correct for the 2cnd shot better. The rifle and scope weighs just shy of 24 lbs.
The 6.5 SAUM and the story...
After reading GAP's thread on their 6.5-4S I decided that a 6.5 SAUM would be a good candidate for the new cartridge in my Surgeon XL. My thinking was I could seat 140 grain bullets out longer in the long action and take advantage of a longer barrel to get higher velocity and acceptable barrel life like in the 2000 round range hopefully.
I started looking for barrels about two months ago and the first place I called was Bartlein. Of all the barrels for Bartlein to have in stock (YAHOO!) was a 8 twist blank with a 1.350" shank finishing at 1" thick at 29". What, the perfect barrel for me??? I was totally surprised and snagged it right then!
And of all things I found out a guy I know had just bought a 6.5-4S reamer. He was going to chamber it for me but declined until he got his FFL but offered to lend it to a gunsmith friend of his to use on my rifle. Thanks a lot for the use of your reamer Leland! Tim Puttman of Kelly Arms in Prescott Valley AZ ended up doing the work for me.
I discovered that RSAUM brass is a tad too wide for AI 300WM mags so I milled out the rear impression on the mag. It feeds absolutely perfectly! There is a ejection problem that I need to work on though. Most of the cases eject but one pops off the extractor and stays in the port occasionally.
Load and accuracy...
The brass I'm using is necked down 300 SAUM Nosler with necks turned to .0145 neck thickness and trimmed to 2.011".
My bullet of choice is the Berger 140 Hybrid. I have Hodgdon Retumbo so that's the powder I worked with and I have a lot of Fed 215 match primers so I used them.
I haven't measured the throat because I want to fire a couple hundred rounds first. Just guessing the lands are close to 2.180", edit-lands turned out to be at 2.175". I got lucky and SWAG-ed a seating depth of 3.012" OACL which gives 2.168" to the ogive. The rifle shot so well I haven't tried to adjust the seating depth.
I fireformed 50 brass with 60 grains/3030 fps and 61 grains/3100 Fps. Then did a ladder test at 400Y. It was hard to determine where the nodes were because all 14 shots in .2 grain increments (61-63.6 grains) landed into less than 3"s of vertical. The shots of 62.8, 63 and 63.2 grain were pretty close with 62.8 and 63 almost touching.
This morning I tried 5 shot groups of 61, 62, and 63 grains at 290Y. 63 shot just over .3 moa. 3202 fps was the average.
My rifle
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