McMillan Model 70 (first build)👊🏽

[EvanNieters]

What’s up guys. I wanted to make this post so I can explain some of the Learning I had to do about my rifle to build it out the way it needed to be. I had a very hard time getting help with a lot of my issues I ran into along the way. This post is for guys getting into the bolt action game as some helpful advice hopefully. To the long time bolt guys this can be a bit of fun reading for you. I will share some pictures of the gun once it was built. Bolt action rifles are simple but complicated. There’s not a lot going on as far as internals. I can say this confidently being faced with million piece guns to put together weekly. (Part time builder) I thought all I had to do was buy a gun, buy a cool looking stock and be done. Boy was I wrong. For starters you may want to get your action blueprinted. Blueprinting an action is when you have a competent person go through and make sure your bolt and reciever are true to spec (this is absolutely necessary if your building an older or heavily used gun) after that you’ll need a stock you like but it’s not that simple. If you want a true shooting rifle you’ll have to have a free floating stock which will not interfere with this barrel of your rifle in any way. once you find said stock it may be a decent idea to have the stock bedded in with your action. Precision rifle builders will use aluminum rods inside the stock and some composite to make 100% sure that your action is fit to shoot in your new stock for a long time while mantaining rigidity. The bedding step is recommended if your planning to shoot super long distance and or heavily use your new rifle. Once it’s all done the optics are pretty easy. There’s Mil and Moa optics. I won’t get into that difference cause that’s a whole nother thread. Definitely go with a single peice rail for your scope mounts to rest on. They’re more tru. Don’t cheap out on mount, rings, or optics. A lot of folks will change our barrels according to twist rate and barrel contour (shape). I didn’t feel the need to do this seeing that my barrel in the gun is a 1:7 twist 26” barrel. This will work perfectly fine for my shooting I plan on. Inside of 1,500 yrds. To all my fellow young guys out there looking to get into this world I wish you the best of luck. I love it so far I think it’s a lot of fun. I got my gun shooting sub MOA. The longest shot ive made with it so far is 517 yards on a 18” steel plate. My build is a Winchester Model 70 on a McMillan A5 Elite stock with an Athelon 5-25x56 optic. I’m loving the gun so far. Thanks to eveyone on this forum that’s helped me along the way and help me get my feet under me.

 

[moosemeat]

What caliber?

 

[The D]

Good looking rifle. What is it chambered in?

 

[EvanNieters]

Good looking rifle. What is it chambered in?

7mm WSM. Hard to find any ammo for but looking to start reloading

 

[EvanNieters]

What caliber?

7mm WSM

 

[Ranchhand]

Nice work

 

[EvanNieters]

Nice work

Thank you man!

 

[The D]

7mm WSM. Hard to find any ammo for but looking to start reloading

That’s really the only way to get the most out of almost any cartridge. Good luck

 

[EvanNieters]

That’s really the only way to get the most out of almost any cartridge. Good luck

Thank you! Appreciate all of the Kind words from you all

 

[Pappasniper]

That stock looks great, that caliber choice hmmm, I hope it works out for you. Yes, start reloading.

PB

 

[nksmfamjp]

Interesting choices….which trigger did you go with? How’s it throated? Seems like the twist would be good for 160-190 gr monos. That is certainly a great stock. Did it get pillar bedded? Why no muzzle device?

How do you like the optic? I played with one, but was happier with my Vortex PST Gen 2 a bit more….or my Tract.