My first rifle build

[B Man]

I finally found a good reason to take my Savage 114 American Classic out the safe. I'm sending it out next week to Kevin at Stockade gunstocks to get the works.

I'm on the fence b/t a 7mm rem mag ( I already have everthing for to reload) or the 7mm wsm. Leaning hard towards the 7mm rem mag.

I'm building more of a hunting rifle than longrange.

My build will be a 26" heavy sporter stainless fluted barrel (benchmark), bead blasted finish, true the action, new bolt face, & bed the stock.

I'm hoping it will be the shooter claimed to be.

What could I sell the factory American classic stock & barrel for or is there even a market for it?

Pic

 

[jsthntn247]

Re: My first rifle build

It will be. I wanted to do the same thing but did didn't want to wait 5-6 months to get it back. Mine turned out alright but Kevin does A+ work.

 

[Bob Roach]

Re: My first rifle build

I would go with 7 Mag. I have a feeling it will be around a lot longer.

Just My 2 Cents

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

I've been doing some thinking and I believe I want to go ahead and replace the stock. I love the look of a classic oil stain walnut stock on a hunting rig but Have been reading about them swelling after some time in the elements. Makes since b/c one of my favorite hunting rifles in my safe is a Ruger MarkII M77 .270 win with the wooden stock and this happened to it. Had to go back and resand the inside. So I may go with a aluminum bed block stock instead....

Opinions please

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

I've done a lot of research on stocks and I've decided to order one of stockade's stocks.

Going to drop it in a stockade woodchuck.

Gun ships tomorrow!

 

[3fingervic]

Re: My first rifle build

As far as a market for the factory Savage items, you'll probably have to go to SavageShooters.com. The site requires you to be a paid member to even look at the Classifieds, however.

I'm sure we would all like to see pics of the finished product, when it's done.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

Thanks for the info

I'll be sure to post them as soon as I get it back.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

Gun has been shipped. Just a little warning on shipping cost to those who haven't shipped a gun lately. It cost a pinky and right testical!

 

[tman300wm]

Re: My first rifle build

You're going to really like Kevin and his work. He did my first tactical build on a 10FP and I still own it and shoot the hell out of it. He makes a nice stock and Benchmark is the best kept secret in barrels in my opinion.

I don't think you can go wrong with the 7mm RemMag, it's a great cartridge, although a lot of tactical competition shooters are moving into the 7WSM these days.

 

[jsthntn247]

Re: My first rifle build

I had the exact same rifle in 7mag. I sold the stock and old barrel for 150 on savageshooters. How long did they say it would be before you got it back?

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

8-16 weeks tops only because of makingthe stock but he plans to have it out much sooner since he already has a .284 barrel blank to start the build sooner than usual. I'm hoping I'll have it back within 10weeks before the season starts.

How did yours shoot and any pics?

 

[jsthntn247]

Re: My first rifle build

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: B Man</div><div class="ubbcode-body">8-16 weeks tops only because of makingthe stock but he plans to have it out much sooner since he already has a .284 barrel blank to start the build sooner than usual. I'm hoping I'll have it back within 10weeks before the season starts.

How did yours shoot and any pics?

</div></div>

Sorry, just saw your question. Shoots .5 moa consistently, have gotten some .25, and if I was capable, I think it would do this all the time.

 

[Furtaker_.223]

Re: My first rifle build

Looks like a backstrap stick to me..... Nice rifle.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: furtaker_.223</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Looks like a backstrap stick to me..... Nice rifle. </div></div>

My full intentions! I have several stands that have +400 yds shots and a walk to a few of them on top of that so I wanted a lighter rifle than my heavy 7mm to lug around and still have a very flat shooting rifle so I went with this build.... Atleast I keep telling my self this

Update:

Had a few changes in the build, I'm still doing everything above listed but not the stock. The woodchuck had to large a channel for the barrel and would look funny after talking to kevin but he said it did fit my factory stock like a glove so I'm staying with it ( I wanted to keep the walnut stock on there anyways, just worked out) and bedding the action.

Since I'm not getting a stock built and he had the barrel blank he is going to start on it and go from there. Said he may have it ready within 2 weeks!

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

Talked with kevin today about my rifle. Had some kinda bad news about my barrel. The blank he had on hand was not a benchmark but a douglas instead. The wait is atleast 6 weeks on the benchmark, but he told me he would 100% stand behind the build even with the douglas barrel installed. I told him if he still stood behind it's accuracy then I was fine with it. He is even going to range test some loads to be sure it does what he thinks it should free of cost because of the mistake.

So far I'm very impressed

within 2 weeks it will be shipped out

 

[VKC]

Re: My first rifle build

If you reload, then I would personally go with a 7mm WSM, which is what I picked. It matches the 7mm Rem Mag velocities with more efficient powder burning and thus a little longer barrel life. The 7mm WSM is a very inherently accurate round that is easier to reload accurately. If you take a look at what 7mms are winning the 1000 yards shooting competitions, they are almost all 7mm WSM and not Rem Mags for a reason. But if you don't reload, stick with the 7mm Rem Mag.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

Just got off the phone with kevin. He is chopping & crowning my barrel tonight. He will be shipping it out next week!

Just in time to get a good load made before the season starts.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

Got my rifle back Friday.

Shot 38 rds. through it this weekend breaking it in. Rifle loved some hornady 139 gr. BTSP factory loads I had left over from years ago. But accuracy went south QUICK. I got to looking things over and the rifle stock was splitting behind the front pillar. Kevin warned me that he had seen several doing this when he shipped it and told me to keep an eye one it. I called him back up and he told me to bed it to make it through this season. So, I'm attempting my first rifle bed with my first built rifle.... The pillars were not even making contact with the action. It was against wood!

He is building me a new stock for it now. I wanted to keep the walnut stock for hunting but this here proved many peoples reason for shying away from a wood stock and going to a good aftermarket aluminum bedded one.

Here are some pics.

Crack behind the Pillar

When I built a dam with the modeling clay I Built it to where it would build up the stock at the weak point about an 1/4" out toward the magazine and let it flow under the lip to build it up also. Maybe this works. I also drilled several holes fow the bedding compound to really grab in and hopefully hole until my new stock gets in.

Now lets hope I made sure to grease everything up! Lol

I may have to go back in after it cures and add a little bit more around the sides of the action. It did not completley flow out the sides at the back pillar. Would it need to cradle it all the way around or if it's bedded the bottom of the action in the rear good try it as is.

( I did leave the back of the action floated. I went in and sanded out the tang about an 1/8" after It contacted the pillar to be sure it was floated. )

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

My 4 hrs were up so I went and trimmed up and removed all the modeling clay out of the trigger.

This is not how I saw my first rifle build going.... Espically one week from opening day of deer season.


Doens't look to bad for my first time

Going to let it set for 48 hrs before I try some more loads and see how it goes.

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: My first rifle build

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: B Man</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The pillars were not even making contact with the action. It was against wood!
</div></div>

The stock was not inletted enough for the pillars to make proper contact with the bottom metal and receiver? Did you have to remove enough wood to allow for the thickness of the epoxy, and still make sure the pillars make full contact?

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

Correct, Very poor job by savage IMO and thats the cause of my stock cracking. Look at the above post of the picture of the cracks behnd the pillar and you can notice saw dust in the inlet on top of the pillar.

I took my dremel and took enough wood down past the pillar exposing it to make contact with the action now and supported by the bedding compound.

 

[HPLLC]

Re: My first rifle build

With the recoil lug properly supported by Devcon you shouldn't have any issues anymore.

 

[jsthntn247]

Re: My first rifle build

Looks damn good for your first time bedding. It should shoot good now.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jsthntn247</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Looks damn good for your first time bedding. It should shoot good now. </div></div>

Thanks! I got the courage to bed my REM 5r after this. It did have a date with a smith but its nice to learn & know u did this ur self. At least its a good excuse on my off days...

I haven't done much testing but did shoot some test loads and found a load shooting consistant .75 moa so far at 100 yds with my 10x pentax. Going to do a little seating depth testing next but b/t the idiot behind the trigger and the scope power pretty much covering a 1" circle at 100 yds I don't see getting it much below that even if the rifle is capable. I'm shooting 162 A-max bullets by the way.

I will post some test targets with load and list of final build to date. A new full length aluminum bedded stock is in the future.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build

My new rifle lays the smackdown on its first deer. Shot with a 162 gr. A max. Load I was working up. Vitals were soup, shot in the crease of the shoulder quartering to me.

I got the load close and stopped working it up making a load with sst just for hunting scared of bullet blowup with the a max. But so far its holding a .74 avg moa at 300. I'm hoping to get that down some but I will stretch its legs and test it and report back as soon as I feel I have a tuned load getting the most out of it.



Will post pic tonight. B/t my phone and photobucket it keeps posting a pic of a target. Technology amazes me at times.....

 

[jsthntn247]

Re: My first rifle build

I use the 162 sst's as well, they are hell on deer. I load mine just touching the lands with 67.6 grains of H-1000 for about 2900 fps. I can hit pie plate sized gongs at 725 all day long if the wind doesn't get too bad.

 

[B Man]

Re: My first rifle build