Goal: To build a LR tactical/hunting rifle that could be easily carried in the Rocky Mountains
The fun specs:
• Bighorn TL2 SA RH action with magnum boltface and picatinny rail
• Timney 510 trigger set at 2lb
• Surgeon SA bottom metal (to be used with Alpha Type 3/4 WSM magazines)
• Manners MCS-EH1 stock with Elite GAP finish
• Chanlynn 26” custom light palma contour barrel with fluting – 7mm SAUM
• Thunderbeast 30BA brake
• Atlas Bipod
• Premier Reticles 3-15x50 LT Scope
• Seekins 30mm low 6/4 rings
• Flatline Ops Sniper 30mm AccuLevel
• Triad Multi-CAM Stock Pack
• Armageddon Multi-CAM suppressor cover
• Thunderbeast 30BA Suppressor (soon... hopefully)
Complete with magazine and scope - 10.5 pounds! Goal achieved!!!
More build pics later in posts
Some other interesting shots:
Piecing everything together
At AJ's shop in Brighton (top view)
The amazing Bighorn action (bottom view)
Parts and pieces
Wouldn't you know, Norma comes out with brand new brass for the 7mm RSAUM during my build!
Lots of lead to play with (what you don't see are 168 Bergers, 171 Barnes MatchBurners and 168 Accubond LR, but I'm really hoping this sings with the heavies)
The Story
This is my first, from the ground up, custom rifle. Since I discovered SH a few years ago it has cost me way too much money! Before then I was content with my Winchester Coyote Light 300WSM and Zeiss Conquest scope as my LR rifle (and to be quite honest it would probably still do me just fine) but then I caught the custom bug from seeing so many nice rifles on here and so forth (you know the drill if you have been around here long enough).
Long story short, at the end of 2012 I decided I would like a custom rifle and found a great Surgeon/Bartlein barreled action from Trevor300WSM here on the hide (great guy by the way), there was just one problem, it was chambered for 7mm WSM and since I’m a huge .30 cal fan it was difficult, but in the end my desire for this Surgeon combo won out. It had a 25” Sendero profile barrel on it with a nice muzzle brake and I ended up getting an AICS 2.0 stock to bolt it to, I then bought a Bushnell G2DMR 3.5-21x50 scope from LibertyOptics (Scott is another great SH contributor/dealer). I was all set except for a bipod so I bought the new Sierra 7 from Daniel Horner and took it out to shoot. I had dreams and visions of competing in LR competitions and was excited about being able to use this for hunting and all that… until... until I picked the anvil up – all decked out it weighed over 17lbs! And for any of you who’ve ever hunted the Rocky Mountains you’ll know real quick that you do not want to be lugging around 17lbs all day long!
Reality finally planted my feet back down and I realized that with 4 young kids at home, my competition traveling days were a bit limited (just think “barely any free time”) which means I couldn’t really use this rifle for what it was intended for. Now what, do I strip down the rifle and try and make it as light as possible or do I sell it and have exactly what I want built for me. Obviously you know the answer to this because this thread is about my new custom built rifle.
I decided I needed to start with the basics, what round to use, what action, what barrel , what stock and all that. Oddly enough, even though I didn’t "want" a 7mm WSM when I bought the barreled action, I ended up realizing I really like the way that round shoots, not only that, I really like the BC’s from the heavy 7mm bullets. After significant research (that’s part of the fun for me) I decided to go with the 7mm RSAUM; why the SAUM instead of the WSM, well because my research led me to realize that the WSM cartridge was a little too overbore for what I needed and the SAUM offered very close ballistics with less powder and a longer case neck to help seat the longer bullets. The fact that Norma came out with a 7mm SAUM case right after I made my decision just helped solidify this was the right way to go.
Okay, so now I have the cartridge, whose action am I going to use? I liked the Surgeon action but with so many options what do I do, Stiller, Defiance, Bighorn? Well I have to tell you that I am a bit biased because my old gunsmith from many years ago had once told me about a design for an action he had, and a few years ago I stumbled upon Bighorn actions out of Brighton, CO so I gave AJ Goddard (another stellar SH member/dealer) a call and had a great conversation with him (he’s one of those guys who you could talk to for hours) and come to find out, I was right, Bighorn actions were the ones that my old gunsmith had talked to me about. So when AJ introduced the new Bighorn TL2 action in 2013 I knew that was what I had to get because it had all the features (and then some) I wanted.
One of the biggest contributors to heavy rifles is the stock and late last year master stock builder Tom Manners (yet another fantastic SH member) came out with something I came to love, his new EH1 series of hybrid tactical/hunting stocks with an ultra-light weight carbon fiber shell.
I’ve got my round, I’ve got my action, I’ve got my stock, now what barrel to use and what gunsmith to use. I checked with local gunsmiths and with all the major barrel manufacturers and nothing was really clicking, so another conversation with AJ from Bighorn led me right back to my gunsmith of years ago, Mark Chanlynn. For those of you who do not know Mark or his work, when I first moved to Colorado in ’93 I was getting into benchrest competition and Mark was “the man” if you wanted a custom barrel for 22PPC and other super accurate rounds at the time. The fact that his shop was in Boulder, CO and only 20 minutes from where I lived, at the time, was icing on the cake. Mark is now working north of Boulder and I now live south of Denver so even though he is two hours away I decided it was worth it, so another call went out to me ol’ ‘smith Mr. Chanlynn and another great conversation ensued. I explained to Mark what I wanted and he was full of helpful advice on how to get there. When it came to which barrel, well that was easy as Mark is still making his own barrels and I have every bit of trust that he can make it sing. What better marriage can there be between the action that Mark originally designed (albeit AJ has provided some tweaks along the way) and one of his very own barrels.
My criteria was simple (or so you’d think) I wanted a lightweight tactical/hunter that could sling heavy 7mm projectiles out to at least 1000 yards with accuracy, it needed to be a rifle that I could carry all day hunting but also be something I could use to ring steel way, way out there (or at least the rifle had to be capable of doing that… whether or not I could is a different story
)
What I ended up with is what you see here and I must admit that I am pretty darn happy about it! Oh, by the way, along the way I caught the suppressor bug and “better” glass bug as well which led to me spending even more money. Ray Sanchez from Thunderbeast (TBAC) was a great source of information in making my suppressor decision, they are a great company and I will be thrilled once my suppressor clears (my neighbors will be too). I ended up putting the Premier Scope on this build that I purchased from Eurooptic.com who are also SH members and great people to work with; however, right before I picked up the Premier I bought a March F 3-24x42 from Kelbly's and actually spoke with Jim Kelbly himself who is another guy you could talk to for hours, what a great industry this is!
I look forward to seeing what this rig can really do once broken in and loads developed and all that. I have immediate access to a 100 yard range but getting out to long distances means I have to drive long distances so unfortunately I won’t be able to do that a lot, at least for right now.
All in all, the process took about 6 months from start to finish, and that included lead times of some of the items. Would I do it all over again, you betcha, it was fun picking everything out and then seeing it all come together. It was a blast visiting AJ Goddard's shop and seeing his impressive equipment and then visiting Mark's shop and seeing all the equipment there. The work these guys put out is absolutely top rate and I look forward to posting some targets with impressive groups as my skills continue to increase as well.
The fun specs:
• Bighorn TL2 SA RH action with magnum boltface and picatinny rail
• Timney 510 trigger set at 2lb
• Surgeon SA bottom metal (to be used with Alpha Type 3/4 WSM magazines)
• Manners MCS-EH1 stock with Elite GAP finish
• Chanlynn 26” custom light palma contour barrel with fluting – 7mm SAUM
• Thunderbeast 30BA brake
• Atlas Bipod
• Premier Reticles 3-15x50 LT Scope
• Seekins 30mm low 6/4 rings
• Flatline Ops Sniper 30mm AccuLevel
• Triad Multi-CAM Stock Pack
• Armageddon Multi-CAM suppressor cover
• Thunderbeast 30BA Suppressor (soon... hopefully)
Complete with magazine and scope - 10.5 pounds! Goal achieved!!!
More build pics later in posts
Some other interesting shots:
Piecing everything together
At AJ's shop in Brighton (top view)
The amazing Bighorn action (bottom view)
Parts and pieces
Wouldn't you know, Norma comes out with brand new brass for the 7mm RSAUM during my build!
Lots of lead to play with (what you don't see are 168 Bergers, 171 Barnes MatchBurners and 168 Accubond LR, but I'm really hoping this sings with the heavies)
The Story
This is my first, from the ground up, custom rifle. Since I discovered SH a few years ago it has cost me way too much money! Before then I was content with my Winchester Coyote Light 300WSM and Zeiss Conquest scope as my LR rifle (and to be quite honest it would probably still do me just fine) but then I caught the custom bug from seeing so many nice rifles on here and so forth (you know the drill if you have been around here long enough).
Long story short, at the end of 2012 I decided I would like a custom rifle and found a great Surgeon/Bartlein barreled action from Trevor300WSM here on the hide (great guy by the way), there was just one problem, it was chambered for 7mm WSM and since I’m a huge .30 cal fan it was difficult, but in the end my desire for this Surgeon combo won out. It had a 25” Sendero profile barrel on it with a nice muzzle brake and I ended up getting an AICS 2.0 stock to bolt it to, I then bought a Bushnell G2DMR 3.5-21x50 scope from LibertyOptics (Scott is another great SH contributor/dealer). I was all set except for a bipod so I bought the new Sierra 7 from Daniel Horner and took it out to shoot. I had dreams and visions of competing in LR competitions and was excited about being able to use this for hunting and all that… until... until I picked the anvil up – all decked out it weighed over 17lbs! And for any of you who’ve ever hunted the Rocky Mountains you’ll know real quick that you do not want to be lugging around 17lbs all day long!
Reality finally planted my feet back down and I realized that with 4 young kids at home, my competition traveling days were a bit limited (just think “barely any free time”) which means I couldn’t really use this rifle for what it was intended for. Now what, do I strip down the rifle and try and make it as light as possible or do I sell it and have exactly what I want built for me. Obviously you know the answer to this because this thread is about my new custom built rifle.
I decided I needed to start with the basics, what round to use, what action, what barrel , what stock and all that. Oddly enough, even though I didn’t "want" a 7mm WSM when I bought the barreled action, I ended up realizing I really like the way that round shoots, not only that, I really like the BC’s from the heavy 7mm bullets. After significant research (that’s part of the fun for me) I decided to go with the 7mm RSAUM; why the SAUM instead of the WSM, well because my research led me to realize that the WSM cartridge was a little too overbore for what I needed and the SAUM offered very close ballistics with less powder and a longer case neck to help seat the longer bullets. The fact that Norma came out with a 7mm SAUM case right after I made my decision just helped solidify this was the right way to go.
Okay, so now I have the cartridge, whose action am I going to use? I liked the Surgeon action but with so many options what do I do, Stiller, Defiance, Bighorn? Well I have to tell you that I am a bit biased because my old gunsmith from many years ago had once told me about a design for an action he had, and a few years ago I stumbled upon Bighorn actions out of Brighton, CO so I gave AJ Goddard (another stellar SH member/dealer) a call and had a great conversation with him (he’s one of those guys who you could talk to for hours) and come to find out, I was right, Bighorn actions were the ones that my old gunsmith had talked to me about. So when AJ introduced the new Bighorn TL2 action in 2013 I knew that was what I had to get because it had all the features (and then some) I wanted.
One of the biggest contributors to heavy rifles is the stock and late last year master stock builder Tom Manners (yet another fantastic SH member) came out with something I came to love, his new EH1 series of hybrid tactical/hunting stocks with an ultra-light weight carbon fiber shell.
I’ve got my round, I’ve got my action, I’ve got my stock, now what barrel to use and what gunsmith to use. I checked with local gunsmiths and with all the major barrel manufacturers and nothing was really clicking, so another conversation with AJ from Bighorn led me right back to my gunsmith of years ago, Mark Chanlynn. For those of you who do not know Mark or his work, when I first moved to Colorado in ’93 I was getting into benchrest competition and Mark was “the man” if you wanted a custom barrel for 22PPC and other super accurate rounds at the time. The fact that his shop was in Boulder, CO and only 20 minutes from where I lived, at the time, was icing on the cake. Mark is now working north of Boulder and I now live south of Denver so even though he is two hours away I decided it was worth it, so another call went out to me ol’ ‘smith Mr. Chanlynn and another great conversation ensued. I explained to Mark what I wanted and he was full of helpful advice on how to get there. When it came to which barrel, well that was easy as Mark is still making his own barrels and I have every bit of trust that he can make it sing. What better marriage can there be between the action that Mark originally designed (albeit AJ has provided some tweaks along the way) and one of his very own barrels.
My criteria was simple (or so you’d think) I wanted a lightweight tactical/hunter that could sling heavy 7mm projectiles out to at least 1000 yards with accuracy, it needed to be a rifle that I could carry all day hunting but also be something I could use to ring steel way, way out there (or at least the rifle had to be capable of doing that… whether or not I could is a different story
)What I ended up with is what you see here and I must admit that I am pretty darn happy about it! Oh, by the way, along the way I caught the suppressor bug and “better” glass bug as well which led to me spending even more money. Ray Sanchez from Thunderbeast (TBAC) was a great source of information in making my suppressor decision, they are a great company and I will be thrilled once my suppressor clears (my neighbors will be too). I ended up putting the Premier Scope on this build that I purchased from Eurooptic.com who are also SH members and great people to work with; however, right before I picked up the Premier I bought a March F 3-24x42 from Kelbly's and actually spoke with Jim Kelbly himself who is another guy you could talk to for hours, what a great industry this is!
I look forward to seeing what this rig can really do once broken in and loads developed and all that. I have immediate access to a 100 yard range but getting out to long distances means I have to drive long distances so unfortunately I won’t be able to do that a lot, at least for right now.
All in all, the process took about 6 months from start to finish, and that included lead times of some of the items. Would I do it all over again, you betcha, it was fun picking everything out and then seeing it all come together. It was a blast visiting AJ Goddard's shop and seeing his impressive equipment and then visiting Mark's shop and seeing all the equipment there. The work these guys put out is absolutely top rate and I look forward to posting some targets with impressive groups as my skills continue to increase as well.
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