Fiftydriver
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Well, finally I took a couple hours last night and cleaned up the bedding on my newest project. Many of you know a bit about it but for those that do not here is a short list of the componants in the rifle chambered for my 338 Allen Mag which is based on the 408 CT case:
-Lilja 40", 1.750" straight cylinder, 1-10, 338 barrel
-BAT 2"x10" single shot receiver
-BAT 40 MOA rail base
-McMillan 50LBR stock weighted to 22 lbs
-Rifles Basix 2-6 oz trigger
-Badger Ord Max 50 rings
-Currently USS Xotic scope in the saddles
For bedding I decided to make up some 1" diameter Stainless Steel pillars with 82 degree counter sunk heads to accept the three 1/4"-28 TPI high grade receiver bolts.
The Pillars were then bedded using Steel Bed and then the receiver was bedded with Marine tex. Only the receiver was bedded and the entire barrel is free floated.
Because of the amount of stress that will be applied to these action screws I decided to give the bedding a full 8 days of curing time. Most of which has been spent sitting in direct sunlight which has really been heating the bedding up nicely to insure the cure.
In milling the bedding out last night it was clear that the bedding was fully cured through and through so I decided to do the total assembly and see how she looks.
This pic shows the left side of the big girl. For some reason my pics are grainy when posted by the host web site, not sure why. You can see the barreled receiver is still unfinished. I wanted to test the rifle off the bench first to see how recoil was and then determine if I want to machine a brake for it or not. After that decision it will be shipped off to Shawn C. for a coating of Black Teflon to match up with the stock and scope. This will explain the nickname I have given her of "Black Sunshine"!!
This pic shows the receiver details. The stock was shipped with a square tang design and my receiver has a tapered tang so I bedded this area and then milled flat after it cured, turned out well in my opinion.
This pic shows the 338 AM next to my 30" barreled 257 Allen Mag for size comparision, its a bit larger!!!
Its hard to imagine how heavy a 60 lb rifle is until you actually latch onto the **** thing and start moving it around!!! It feels much more like 100 lbs at first!!!
Today I will start the barrel break in and hopefully by next week I will be range testing the rifle and then get her shipped down to get coated and finished.
Will keep you posted. Performance goals are 3500 fps with a 300 gr ULD RBBT and 3300 fps with a 350 gr ULD RBBT. This is for a 36" barrel length, obviously the 40" pipe will offer more, have to see how much more though!!
More to come soon. Next up after this will be a sub 15 lb rifle weight model to try to get it ready to hunt under 16 lbs for my whitetail hunt this fall with Shawn C. Should be exciting to say the least!!!
Good Shooting!!
Kirby Allen(50)
-Lilja 40", 1.750" straight cylinder, 1-10, 338 barrel
-BAT 2"x10" single shot receiver
-BAT 40 MOA rail base
-McMillan 50LBR stock weighted to 22 lbs
-Rifles Basix 2-6 oz trigger
-Badger Ord Max 50 rings
-Currently USS Xotic scope in the saddles
For bedding I decided to make up some 1" diameter Stainless Steel pillars with 82 degree counter sunk heads to accept the three 1/4"-28 TPI high grade receiver bolts.
The Pillars were then bedded using Steel Bed and then the receiver was bedded with Marine tex. Only the receiver was bedded and the entire barrel is free floated.
Because of the amount of stress that will be applied to these action screws I decided to give the bedding a full 8 days of curing time. Most of which has been spent sitting in direct sunlight which has really been heating the bedding up nicely to insure the cure.
In milling the bedding out last night it was clear that the bedding was fully cured through and through so I decided to do the total assembly and see how she looks.
This pic shows the left side of the big girl. For some reason my pics are grainy when posted by the host web site, not sure why. You can see the barreled receiver is still unfinished. I wanted to test the rifle off the bench first to see how recoil was and then determine if I want to machine a brake for it or not. After that decision it will be shipped off to Shawn C. for a coating of Black Teflon to match up with the stock and scope. This will explain the nickname I have given her of "Black Sunshine"!!
This pic shows the receiver details. The stock was shipped with a square tang design and my receiver has a tapered tang so I bedded this area and then milled flat after it cured, turned out well in my opinion.
This pic shows the 338 AM next to my 30" barreled 257 Allen Mag for size comparision, its a bit larger!!!
Its hard to imagine how heavy a 60 lb rifle is until you actually latch onto the **** thing and start moving it around!!! It feels much more like 100 lbs at first!!!
Today I will start the barrel break in and hopefully by next week I will be range testing the rifle and then get her shipped down to get coated and finished.
Will keep you posted. Performance goals are 3500 fps with a 300 gr ULD RBBT and 3300 fps with a 350 gr ULD RBBT. This is for a 36" barrel length, obviously the 40" pipe will offer more, have to see how much more though!!
More to come soon. Next up after this will be a sub 15 lb rifle weight model to try to get it ready to hunt under 16 lbs for my whitetail hunt this fall with Shawn C. Should be exciting to say the least!!!
Good Shooting!!
Kirby Allen(50)
