I found a Rem 700 .270 ADL with a wood stock at a pawn shop about four years ago. I have always liked the .270 caliber. It appeared that it was owned by someone that stored it under the seat of a farm truck and the last time they used it they handled the rifle with blood on their hands and placed it back under the seat of the truck for 5 years.
My dad cut the barrel off to 22" and put a recessed target crown on it, I filled the iron sight holes by chamfering them, cleaned them, then heated some old base crews cherry red and let them cool. I then screwed them in, peened them and smoothed them to the contour of the barrel and finally blasted and coated the whole rifle in Brownells black Tef/moly gun kote using and HVLP sprayer. I found a synthetic youth stock and dropped it in. My son killed several deer with the rifle in this configuration using Remington Managed Recoil ammo.
Jump ahead to today, my son is 5'11" 170lbs and will turn 13 in April he needs a full sized rifle.
I ordered a Shilen stainless #4 sporter contour and .270 finish reamer from Brownells and had them delivered to my dad's residence.
I then found an HS Precision sporter stock and stainless bottom metal on another forum.
In doing some gun trading I ended up with a Leupold Vari X III.
I wanted the barrel finished 22" from the front of the recoil lug with a "tight" chamber as I plan for him to shoot factory Remington Core-lokt ammo.
Once my dad pulled the old barrel, blueprinted, threaded and chambered the Shilen barrel I picked it up and brought it home.
I tuned the factory trigger to break at 3.5 lbs.
My dad wanted me to shoot the rifle before coating it in case he needed to lenghten the chamber, so I assembled it where I noticed the barrel was not free floating in the HS stock, but I figured what the heck, he just wanted to assure there were no chamber issues, so I carried it out back and did a quick zero then shot a three round group using 130gr Remington Core-lokt:
I called the "shank shot"
Once assured everything was good I disassembled the rifle and prepped for refinishing.
I couldn't get access to a blast cabinet. I have a cheap blaster from Harbor Freight that I have used before. I had read that cement mix (fine NO rocks) will give a stainless barrel the same finish as a factory Remington 5R stainless barrel, which I like. I had some tile grout left over from a repair job so I put my mask and glasses on and blasted the whole thing with the grout after plugging both ends of the barrel. The cheap blast gun removed the old finish but left me with dark spots on the barrel that I didn't like so I used an oiled 3M abrasive pad and buffed the barrel with it using an overlapping circular motion and removed the dark spots.
I then coated the action in Brownells Tef/moly dark parkerizing gray. The bolt, rings and bases were coated in black Tef/moly.
The HS Precision barrel channel was slightly off so I had to do some minor fitting on three quarters of the right hand side so that the barrel would free float as I do not intend to bed the rifle.
I then carried the barreled action to a jeweler here in town and had him engrave the caliber and W.L. Daily Customs on the barrel.
Thanks Dad, he will love it!
I really wish I had spent more time in my Dad's shop learning when I was younger.
"When I left home at the age of 18, I thought my father was the stupidest man on earth. When I returned home at the age of 21, I was amazed at how much my father had learned in those three short years." Mark Twain
My dad cut the barrel off to 22" and put a recessed target crown on it, I filled the iron sight holes by chamfering them, cleaned them, then heated some old base crews cherry red and let them cool. I then screwed them in, peened them and smoothed them to the contour of the barrel and finally blasted and coated the whole rifle in Brownells black Tef/moly gun kote using and HVLP sprayer. I found a synthetic youth stock and dropped it in. My son killed several deer with the rifle in this configuration using Remington Managed Recoil ammo.
Jump ahead to today, my son is 5'11" 170lbs and will turn 13 in April he needs a full sized rifle.
I ordered a Shilen stainless #4 sporter contour and .270 finish reamer from Brownells and had them delivered to my dad's residence.
I then found an HS Precision sporter stock and stainless bottom metal on another forum.
In doing some gun trading I ended up with a Leupold Vari X III.
I wanted the barrel finished 22" from the front of the recoil lug with a "tight" chamber as I plan for him to shoot factory Remington Core-lokt ammo.
Once my dad pulled the old barrel, blueprinted, threaded and chambered the Shilen barrel I picked it up and brought it home.
I tuned the factory trigger to break at 3.5 lbs.
My dad wanted me to shoot the rifle before coating it in case he needed to lenghten the chamber, so I assembled it where I noticed the barrel was not free floating in the HS stock, but I figured what the heck, he just wanted to assure there were no chamber issues, so I carried it out back and did a quick zero then shot a three round group using 130gr Remington Core-lokt:
I called the "shank shot"
Once assured everything was good I disassembled the rifle and prepped for refinishing.
I couldn't get access to a blast cabinet. I have a cheap blaster from Harbor Freight that I have used before. I had read that cement mix (fine NO rocks) will give a stainless barrel the same finish as a factory Remington 5R stainless barrel, which I like. I had some tile grout left over from a repair job so I put my mask and glasses on and blasted the whole thing with the grout after plugging both ends of the barrel. The cheap blast gun removed the old finish but left me with dark spots on the barrel that I didn't like so I used an oiled 3M abrasive pad and buffed the barrel with it using an overlapping circular motion and removed the dark spots.
I then coated the action in Brownells Tef/moly dark parkerizing gray. The bolt, rings and bases were coated in black Tef/moly.
The HS Precision barrel channel was slightly off so I had to do some minor fitting on three quarters of the right hand side so that the barrel would free float as I do not intend to bed the rifle.
I then carried the barreled action to a jeweler here in town and had him engrave the caliber and W.L. Daily Customs on the barrel.
Thanks Dad, he will love it!
I really wish I had spent more time in my Dad's shop learning when I was younger.
"When I left home at the age of 18, I thought my father was the stupidest man on earth. When I returned home at the age of 21, I was amazed at how much my father had learned in those three short years." Mark Twain
