My First Bolt Gun

[Thebelly]

Nothing fancy, but I've purchased all the components for my first bolt gun:

R700 action (from an ADL)
Criterion barrel in .260 Rem.
AICS Chassis
Bushnell 6-24x50

All the parts should arrive to the assembler on Friday, and I look forward to being way too involved in bolt guns now!

no pics until assembly is complete.

 

[Thebelly]

Chassis has been delivered.....

 

[Twisted Jester]

Got my AICS last summer and love it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine. Let us know how it goes!!

 

[rancilio]

Looks like its going to be a dandy!

 

[Thebelly]

Oh, the barrel arrived today... 28" Criterion in .260 Remington.

 

[Thebelly]

It started with a R700 that wouldn't give up the barrel. No problem, just give a tiny bit of the heat, and off it comes!

It's a little dirty, so lets just clean it right out.

The lower lug had good contact, but the upper lug had (guess-timating) less than 20% engagement area. Hand lapping will help with that. The receiver was less than .0005" off from concentric, so no need to thrown it in a lathe.

A little bit of friction in the bolt was causing a binding in the cocking action. A couple turns with a strop, and all is well.

Time for the barrel install.

Bigger recoil lug on the right, because why not.

Close up of the barrel nut system.

It's not very short.

The gun, as it sits...

 

[SilverxFoX]

Nice looking gun, I have the same aics and love it. Now to cerakote that barrel! Are you going to have the bolt knob done? Phoenix does great work.

 

[Thebelly]

Nice looking gun, I have the same aics and love it. Now to cerakote that barrel! Are you going to have the bolt knob done? Phoenix does great work.

Unknown. There's isn't a whole lot of clearance for my meat hooks under the current bolt knob. Maybe I'll get a KRG ops to see how I feel about it.

 

[6.5labs]

I did not realize in your original post that it was a barrel nut kreiger. I realy look forward to hearing how it shoots.

 

[Thebelly]

When I got home, I tried to see what ammo dimensions will fit, as far as OAL and what not. The ammo that I currently have loaded up fits fine and cycles through the gun without issue. It's .260 virgin brass, so I guess I going to keep it separate from my gas gun stuff.

 

[EasyGravy]

Thebelly Im ttying to do the same thing with a r700adl la in 30.06... are you not going to have that action trued before new barrel install? I dont know much but a gunsmith I know always told me to true and action before rebarreling, as the cheap rem actions werent always true. Have you run into any issues with this? Gun looks great by the way

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Thebelly]

Yeah......

Here's my gun (on the right, obviously) next to a factory AIAX .338. Almost the same length.......

 

[Thebelly]

Thebelly Im ttying to do the same thing with a r700adl la in 30.06... are you not going to have that action trued before new barrel install? I dont know much but a gunsmith I know always told me to true and action before rebarreling, as the cheap rem actions werent always true. Have you run into any issues with this? Gun looks great by the way

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

The 'smith checked it out, and it was square enough to use. It would have crossed my threshehold on 'diminishing returns' to square it up exactly.

This is my first bolt gun, so I am horrendously under-qualified to comment about whether or not future issues will arise that can be directly attributed to the un-squareness of the receiver.

Here's today's firing schedule:

Shots 1-5: fouling and function

Shots 6-10: zeroing

Shots 11-15: grouping (see picture below)

Shots 16-50: dope and mv extrapolation.

 

[Thebelly]

I guess shots 1-5 and 6-10 could have been concurrently, but I was actually more concerned about it blowing my face off. I've never been involved with a bolt gun build/assembly, so I was asking about 1,000 questions a minute just that I could understand what was going on. I was really just wondering about WHY and HOW each thing got worked on.

Great couple of 'smiths took part.....

 

[Thebelly]

I can probably stand to shoot these 123 Scenars a little hotter. They're currently at around 2770 fps. If the brass can handle it, I'd like them to be shooting out about 2875-2900 (or faster). That depends on whether the gun still groups well or not.

 

[tony2772]

I guess shots 1-5 and 6-10 could have been concurrently, but I was actually more concerned about it blowing my face off. I've never been involved with a bolt gun build/assembly, so I was asking about 1,000 questions a minute just that I could understand what was going on. I was really just wondering about WHY and HOW each thing got worked on.

Great couple of 'smiths took part.....

More like a 1,001, just kidding, and thanks for the props. The barrel should start to come in around 200 rounds, at least that's my experience with these barrels. And yes you should be around 2900 with the 123's, let me know if you wanna give the 140's a go we'll do some horse trading.

 

[Thebelly]

More like a 1,001, just kidding, and thanks for the props. The barrel should start to come in around 200 rounds, at least that's my experience with these barrels. And yes you should be around 2900 with the 123's, let me know if you wanna give the 140's a go we'll do some horse trading.

Yeah, let's go for it. You ok for a swap of 250x of the 142s?

 

[dsnipe]

Nice build brother. I have a CBI 260 match barrel on a trued up savage and that thing will shoot. Prolly the most accurate gun I have for the money invested. That barrel nut is a sweet setup for the do it yourself.

 

[Thebelly]

Nice build brother. I have a CBI 260 match barrel on a trued up savage and that thing will shoot. Prolly the most accurate gun I have for the money invested. That barrel nut is a sweet setup for the do it yourself.

ESPECIALLY for a Remington action. The 'smith told me that it wouldn't take long once all the rest of the action work was done, and he was right. Line it up, hit it with the go/no-go gauge. tighten the nut, recheck go/no-go, torque the barrel down. 10 minutes.

 

[tony2772]

Yeah, let's go for it. You ok for a swap of 250x of the 142s?

No problem, you shooting Saturday if so I will bring them

 

[Thebelly]

No problem, you shooting Saturday if so I will bring them

Yep, I'll even put them in a little plastic case. See you Saturday!