Benchmark barrels
Custom gunsmith recommendation
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RH300UM
Well-Known Member
Travis at RBros Rifles is my suggestion
Got these 4 and 2 others from him
Always top notch work and very accurate
Every rifle is test fired and has the load work up if you want it.
snox801
Well-Known Member
I have two by them and they are not what I would say are true customs.
Plus I had some issues with communication with them. First one had a wrong twist for what I needed but also somewhat my fault I requested a twist they would recommend with only heavies one mind and I got standard 10 twist which limited me. Again not 100 percent on them either. Second was a 6.5 creed great rifle and good price but not a true custom in my book.
reconrover
Well-Known Member
I'm really glad that many folks here are chiming in with success stories from a variety of shops. Like I had posted above, I have had great luck with LRI. My two experiences with another very well known smith involved .338 builds. One took about 2 months longer than expected, and I was hit with a multitude of expenses for having to "fix the custom action" I had sent...??? Another was a high end Lapua build.....that ended up not having the proper spacing, and the firing pin would only ignite about 30% of the primers (light strikes), and the cerakote I ordered came back to me a different color than I had picked....arghhhhhh...and a HEFTY bill to boot. recommendation, send across a box of ammo with the planned build, and have them at a minimum test fire it before sending back to you. My lesson learned.
JC in Calif
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2007
- Messages
- 170
Ranger Rick
Well-Known Member
Entropy, After reading several reviews on custom gunmakers and also posts on building your own custom rifle with or without a gunsmith, I decided to order all the parts and have a gunsmith assemble my first custom rife. I bought a BigHorn action wrench and the smith used it along with his high end gun vise. Time to assemble was less than an hour, so I waited and his charge to assemble my rifle was $65.
Here are the parts for my 300 PRC build:
Proof Research carbon fiber Zermatt Arms pre-fit barrel for the BigHorn SR3 action (ordered from Stocky's)
Zermatt Arms BigHorn SR3 action milled specifically for a Wyatt's PRC extended internal magazine
Hawkins Precision M5 Oberndorf bottom metal (BDL style)
AG Composites carbon fiber Visigoth hunting rifle stock. This order was critical. I supplied the above parts info to AG, and they built the stock with precise CNC machining. All parts fit perfectly, and no inletting was needed.
I added a TriggerTech Rem 700 Special trigger, an APA Gen 3 Fat B....d muzzle brake, and a Zeiss V6 Conquest scope. I love this rifle as it is shoots sub 0.40 MOA consistently at every distance.
My next custom rifle will be a 6.5 PRC hunting rifle with slight changes = a Hawkins DBM bottom metal and the APA Gen 2 Little B..d brake. A good, experienced gunsmith in your area should work fine. RR
Here are the parts for my 300 PRC build:
Proof Research carbon fiber Zermatt Arms pre-fit barrel for the BigHorn SR3 action (ordered from Stocky's)
Zermatt Arms BigHorn SR3 action milled specifically for a Wyatt's PRC extended internal magazine
Hawkins Precision M5 Oberndorf bottom metal (BDL style)
AG Composites carbon fiber Visigoth hunting rifle stock. This order was critical. I supplied the above parts info to AG, and they built the stock with precise CNC machining. All parts fit perfectly, and no inletting was needed.
I added a TriggerTech Rem 700 Special trigger, an APA Gen 3 Fat B....d muzzle brake, and a Zeiss V6 Conquest scope. I love this rifle as it is shoots sub 0.40 MOA consistently at every distance.
My next custom rifle will be a 6.5 PRC hunting rifle with slight changes = a Hawkins DBM bottom metal and the APA Gen 2 Little B..d brake. A good, experienced gunsmith in your area should work fine. RR
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Wayne york, oregon gunsmith. In pendleton.
AggieHunter
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2014
- Messages
- 91
Darrell Holland is awesome. www.hollandgunsmithing.com. He's built me a 22-250 w/1& 8 twist that drives tacks w/a 77 grain bullet. He also teaches long range hunting as well. Go to his website
This is exactly what I do.
Caliber? Weight? Max range? Chassis. Traditional stock? Carbon stock?
caliber? Range? Chassis or stock?
300wsm 9.4 lbs with scope, bipod, mag
Or with Proof barrel in carbon stock and Ti action. Lighter still.
1/2 MOA guarantee. Most shoot 1/8 Moa with OEM match or precision ammo. They break-in every gun (1st 20 rounds by Bartlein procedure) and shoot them for performance. Develops custom ammo. Partnered with Hyperion Ammunition.
Call Josh. Core Elite Operations. That's his 300WSM below. 17-yrs Navy Team 18. Builds guns used in anger. As far as I know, not once has any rifle (out of hundreds built 223 to 50BMG) not shot or come back for anything whatsoever.
8136990341
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I have a few Tooley rifles. Not much better anywhere.
SSG Graybush
Well-Known Member
If you want to do a diy build its not hard. I just did my 1st diy build in 7mm mag 8T OMR prefit 26" barrel with a NSS trued 700 action. And used a McMillan ultra-lite Game Hunter stock. But in hindsight I would do a 22 or 24" barrel, give up 70 to 100 fps for a better all around/off hand shooting/slightly lighter rifle and use a ulta-lite Game Scout stock, my favorite. Even though its all CF with a lightweight scope its still 10#'s empty. And in WY at 7500+ ft lighter is better, imo.
NSS has the headspace go/no go gauges and action wrench you will need, all you need to have is a brench with a vise, a 1-1/8 crows foot (I beleive, off the top of my head) and a ft#'s torque wrench plus a Fat wrench which any shooter should have anyway.. NSS has nice thick recoil lugs that fit into their action wrench and are indexed correctly while torquing down the the barrel nut.
I installed my barrel in about 25 minutes, and I set the headspace 3x just to make sure it was tight, and right being my first time. I get 12+ firing with Norma brass with a belted magnum and get no line in front of the belt.
I highly recommend doing a diy build if you have any mechanical skills. My 7mm mag is sub half to half moa accurate with a 180 gr vld-h @2944 fps with a sd of 6. For my 1st, am happy.
And teach youself how to bed actions with jb weld and kiwi shoe polish as the release agent. Bedding the action and scope base will help with accuracy. I watched every YouTube video and read up and read up and its not that hard.
Hunting action on a buget, a 700. Nice get a Zermatt/Bighorn origin or sl3, which I recommend, another hindsight, with the money you spend get a full custom.
Barrel if not a OMR(Oregon mtn rifle) or PR(proof research) prefit, get a Bartlein, Kreiger, Lilja, PR or a top tier barrel maker. Some say a cut barrel is better, my barrel, a OMR, is a button pulled stress releaved hand lapped barrel and its pretty good.
And dont do a dbm imo, mags are unnecessary and limit cartridge coal and are just something to lose/forget on a hunting rifle.
You can research on here. Cut vs button pulled barrels.
I went 7mag 8T because it carries 1000 #'s of energy to 1000 yards at any attitude and has the same trajectory but less recoil then a 300 win mag with a maxed out 208 gr bullet. And in a pinch you can find ammo anywhere. Theres a lot of Gucci calibers but selection and local availability are more important for a hunting rifle.
Stilts75
Well-Known Member
Three get my vote
1.Rbros Rifles
2.Spartan Precision (San Jose CA)
3. Short Action Customs
1.Rbros Rifles
2.Spartan Precision (San Jose CA)
3. Short Action Customs
1.Borden Rifles, 2. Allen Precision Rifles, 3. Lane Precision Rifles
