I thoght some people might like to hear about my first carbon barreled rifle. I had John Whidden make a rifle using a Rock Creek 5r rifled 24 inch blank overwrapped with ABS carbon on a Stiller tac30 action with a Jewell trigger and Whidden v-block stock and a March 2.5-25 scope and Atlas bipod.
First the rifle is extremely accurate. The carbon barrel dissipates heat and has never gotten so hot I couldn't hold it. It is very accurate and light but the lightness prompts some comments. I find the light-barreled rifle relatively unforgiving. If you do not manage to get the same recoil pulse each time it shoots differently and it recoils more than my 20 inch Remington bull barrel. It is a great teaching tool in that you have to get square behind it with the same spot weld and hold tension etc to get the same results. I never realized how important the fundamentals of marksmanship are until I got this rifle. If you do manage to do everything right it shoots off a bipod into less and a quarter inch at 100 and 1/2 at two hundred off a bipod. I think it shoots better than that, but I am not consistent enough. If you get a hop left, it shoots left etc.
In retrospect, I would probably be a better shooter if I spent the money on this rifle on ammo and practiced more- duh.
But then, I wouldn't know what I have learned and wouldn't have this nice rifle. I would post a pic but cannot figure out how to do it. Incidentally, my accuracy load is using Berger 175 VLD's with Lapua neck-turned and trimed brass to 15 and 2.05 thousandths respectively. It has two accuracy nodes at around 42 and 44.5 grains of Varget. The heavier load gets about 2760 fps. If anyone is thinking of a Rock Creek barrel or ABS carbon wrapping or John Whidden gun, I highly recommend all three. John also makes CNC machined turrets for Dillon reloaders that screw into the press with floating dies for the bullet seating and resizing stations. I get less than 1000 runout with this set up putting to rest, in my mind, any concern about using a progressive reloader for accurate ammo. John uses a Dillon progressive also and he just won at Camp Perry and took third in the individual at the Palma. Hope this info is helpful or at least interesting to anyone considering carbon http://s1101.photobucket.com/albums/g438/ltrshooter/
First the rifle is extremely accurate. The carbon barrel dissipates heat and has never gotten so hot I couldn't hold it. It is very accurate and light but the lightness prompts some comments. I find the light-barreled rifle relatively unforgiving. If you do not manage to get the same recoil pulse each time it shoots differently and it recoils more than my 20 inch Remington bull barrel. It is a great teaching tool in that you have to get square behind it with the same spot weld and hold tension etc to get the same results. I never realized how important the fundamentals of marksmanship are until I got this rifle. If you do manage to do everything right it shoots off a bipod into less and a quarter inch at 100 and 1/2 at two hundred off a bipod. I think it shoots better than that, but I am not consistent enough. If you get a hop left, it shoots left etc.
In retrospect, I would probably be a better shooter if I spent the money on this rifle on ammo and practiced more- duh.
But then, I wouldn't know what I have learned and wouldn't have this nice rifle. I would post a pic but cannot figure out how to do it. Incidentally, my accuracy load is using Berger 175 VLD's with Lapua neck-turned and trimed brass to 15 and 2.05 thousandths respectively. It has two accuracy nodes at around 42 and 44.5 grains of Varget. The heavier load gets about 2760 fps. If anyone is thinking of a Rock Creek barrel or ABS carbon wrapping or John Whidden gun, I highly recommend all three. John also makes CNC machined turrets for Dillon reloaders that screw into the press with floating dies for the bullet seating and resizing stations. I get less than 1000 runout with this set up putting to rest, in my mind, any concern about using a progressive reloader for accurate ammo. John uses a Dillon progressive also and he just won at Camp Perry and took third in the individual at the Palma. Hope this info is helpful or at least interesting to anyone considering carbon http://s1101.photobucket.com/albums/g438/ltrshooter/
