Would love nothing more than to be a part of this for sure. Unfortunately time off/away is next to impossible. Haven't went on a vacation in over 10yrs. Sad I know but thats my life lol.
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Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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All of us being human, like to mess with things . We buy something or are given something and we want it to be more and better fitted to us and our needs at that time . We buy a new truck and put a bed liner in the bed ( I like the spray in ones ) steps on the trailer hitch running boards and mud flaps or splash guards on them . We spend a lot of time and money doing this and as Reemty said we will not see any return for it when we resell them . Well we being us do the same and spend more on our rifles . We ponder on what caliber we want , what make and model . We may spend a lot of time trying to decide if we want to buy a factory rifle or do we want to build one on a factory action that has been trued and blue printed ( a throw back to our days of building engines for our cars and trucks ) or maybe we think we will save up and buy a custom action . When we do buy a factory in the box rifle most of us will take it out of the box clean it and might even put a scope on it then sight in the scope all the while wondering what we might do to make it better for us . Then being human we start to tinker with it . I will pull it out of the stock and check the fit of it with the stock .If it's not a 22-250 Ruger I will free float the barrel and pillar bed the action ( I have found that most Ruger 22-250's like the front of the barrel to rest on a pad of bedding if they are sporter weight barrels for some reason ).Then comes that rough gravely trigger I can't have that so then comes the decision of what trigger do I want to buy and put on it and what set weight do I want or do I want an adjustable weight trigger that I'll set at 2 1/2 - 3 lbs and leave it there for the life of the rifle hummm . Next comes the stock does it really look like what I want it to is the length of pull the best for me awh heck I'll put it in a different stock and bed it again as time and money allows . Someone I know has a bore scope so we look down the barrel ( and that scares me to no end it looks like a bad wash board road ) I clean it for hours then look at it one more time . It turns out that I'm happy with how clean I got it but it still has all those awful machine marks in , who did that rifling job must have been a new hire . So then I order some of those bullets that a guy that shoots targets out to 1000 yards and beyond builds and sells to fire lap my bore , who cares if it shot good groups I'm going to make it bug hole 5 at a hundred yards with these lapping bullets and the magic they impart to my bore . Now I've put a couple of hundred rounds down the barrel and come to find out the locking lugs only have 60 % contact on one of them what happened here now I have to get it lapped also then recut the chamber as well so that means I'll need the barrel set back a turn also . Will it ever end for this rifle awh shucks I'll just go buy another rifle I've already put too much into this one and it doesn't appear there is any end in sight to what I need to do for this poor thing to be what I wanted it to be . Just my dry sense of humor . I really do modify somethings on all my factory rifles and trucks I just don't get that carried away wit it . I'm not a gun smith nor do I want to be I just need my equipment to function well when needed and I like to tinker with things I am human after all .
Man have I been there lol. Anytime my wife knows I'm looking into getting something new/different the question comes" so what's it REALLY gonna cost when you get done jacking with it or getting the rest of the stuff to complete it?" Lol. I'm also pretty bad at over studying/analyzing everything before I make a decision between choice A or B. And I will still screw up occasionally and pick the wrong one lol.
Sounds extremely familiar............all of it.
So then let us visit about what it is that we expect from our rifles and how we go about getting there with them . I used to think that I wanted all of my rifles to shoot at least a half MOA at 100 yards . I have put together a couple that have shot bug holes at 100 yards with 5 rounds . Now I want one that has a first cold bore shot that is dead on at 100 yards and will group well at 300 yards and any where between 50 yards and 300 yards . I sight in at 100 yards so as to not shoot over at 100 yards and less as for calling I have had shots that all I could see was a blur of fur at a few feet . It depends on what I'm going out to do as to what caliber I want if I'm going out to kill beaver that are being a problem then I will take a 22lr , 17hmr or some other rim fire with open sites that have glow in the dark paint on them , as I'm going to be set up close to the creek in the brush and low light conditions . If I'm going out for fox , coyote or other predators I will run any thing from a 223 to a 30-06 with a good scope mounted well and stable on it . I like most every one else will do some things to my factory rifles to get the most out of them . When I go to buy a new rifle I like to be able to look at it feel it in my hands and shoulder it . So what I do first is decide what I'm looking for in chambering before I even leave the house . When I get to the store I will look to see if they have the make and model I have in mind , if they do I ask to look at it . I will open the bolt and pull it out of the action hold it up with a light in the back ground and look down the bore , then look at the locking lugs to see how well they are machined and the action channel . Then I will shoulder it to see how well it fits me and the balance of it . If I like what I see and feel then it's probably going home with me . If it does go home with me when I get it home I take it out of the box and read the owners manual , I know it's strange to do this but I still do .I then pull the bolt out . I will check to see how the barrel and action fit the stock is it free floating have any rubs or a pillar at the front of the stock for the barrel to come to rest on and supposedly return to the same place after every shot . I will then check out what the recommended torque specs are for the action screws then remove them and take it out of the stock . Today we have a lot of synthetic stocks that they clam to have good bedding systems in , I don't trust them to really be all that they are said to be , that's just me . I want the whole action to be bedded as well as the recoil lug and close to 2 " of the barrel in front of the action so that's what I do along with pillar bedding for the action screws . That's taken up a couple of days by now but I want the bedding compound to cure before I do any thing else . Next I want to mount my scope mounting system . I like a one piece base that is adjustable I put it on the action with the screws loose then press down on it front then at the back so I can see where it is high . Most of them don't really fit the action very well and it seems that the back end is usually free floating when you push down on the front . So now I get ready to bed the mount . I want the bedding compound to adhere to the mount not the action so I put release agent on the action and clean the base with isopropyl alcohol . The screws have release agent also , I put a small amount of bedding compound on the base stick some round tooth picks in a couple of the screw holes and slide it on the action . I torque the screws on the end that fit good and just start the screws on the end that didn't so it's lined up right and the screw holes aren't filled with compound . Then check that your screws aren't so long as to protrude into the action . If they do I will then take them out after the bedding has set file them down or get shorter ones . Now I've got at least 2 days and may 4 in it but I can feel good about what I have to start with . If you have a base that has a dovetail front scope ring hole you will have cleaned that out when the bedding compound wasn't set yet , you can then mount your scope rings and get them lined up to each other and the bore of the rifle . Now I'm ready to mount my scope . I like the Burris Signature zee rings they don't mark the scope tube you can use them to help line the scope to the bore if you need to or you can give yourself up to 20MOA on your scope with them . I set my rifle up and level it off of the race ways of the action some people use the mounting base to level off of . I put my scope in the bottom rings . I hang some blank paper on my wall then take a 2 foot level and make a level mark on the paper so that I can se it through the scope . Then loosely put the top ring halves on adjust the scope true to the level mark and torque the screws watching that it stays true to the line . Then I clean my new rifle set up and get ready to sight it in . That's how I do my rifles . How do you all do yours ?
Not much experience in this realm as I'm somewhat of a newcomer to this field. Only thing I've done was removed the stock to do a good cleaning and retorqued the action screws. My 7mmRM has a Bell&Carlson M40 stock with aluminum pillars. Scopes I have were mounted at the store since I didn't have all the gadgets to do a proper job. That's all I had to do to my "unicorn" 7mm. It's a shooter. I demand sub moa accuracy in any gun and have been lucky enough to achieve that through handloading for it and my AR.
What I have found with pillars is they keep the action screws torqued to the proper torque as they don't compress , shrink or swell with moisture changes and large temp swings . Even a good synthetic stock can and does expand and contract to some extent . If scopes are mounted correctly it doesn't matter who did it . If they aren't mounted true then you can't reliably dial them for elevation my brother ( who didn't know this at the time ) kept telling me you need to leave those knobs alone you have to dial them both or you'll shoot left or right . It's all enjoyable for me but not anything I would want to do for a living . Where I live most of the time the humidity is in the low double digits and where you live it's upper digits so if you come here your screws will loosen and if I go there mine will be over torqued especially with any kind of wooden stock .
I've read about such anomolies and understand the concept of most of it. I'm at 425ish ft altitude here. As always your processes are very thorough. I would do whatever it took also just never had to go through all that part yet. Unfortunately the way my brain works is I can usually read how to do something several times over before it registers fully but if someone knowledgeable will take the the time to show me how to just one time it usually sticks for life. Ws much as I hate to not do everything myself I try to be smart enough to let someone else handle certain things till I learn to do it right than take the chance of screwing it up. My hopes are for my next one to be much more my hands on than someone elses lol.
74 honker , When the time comes that you would like to see things done AGI makes some good videos I have watched a few of them . You can find them at Midway USA . And I also try to know my limitations and then let someone else do that part till I learn how . I live at 4500 feet above sea level and often will go up to 7500 or 8000 feet above sea level , bullets preform a little differently with less air density .
I will definately look those up. From what I understand and have learned mainly from the vast knowledge of this site is that performance usually increases sometimes considerably at altitude. Mainly in velocity and trajectory or is it just trajectory.
If many of you haven't figured out yet I'm a bit old school for most my age. Many of the things I do are A for the tradition and B out of respect for those that came before me. When I began this journey I consulted my good friend and mentor in shooting and handloading from KS. He is a 3rd generation handloader and his knowledge and help has been priceless to me. I (with limited funds usually) wanted one gun to do it all so to speak. I kinda had my heart set on a 30.06 and I wanted to be able to shoot 1000yrd but after a long search just didn't find exactly what I wanted. We discussed finding a donor and just making one when I came across a barely used M700 long range model in 7mm RM. Didn't know a whole lot about the caliber so called him up for an education. After a lengthy Q and A and it was priced really good I jumped on it. Got the gun in April 19 took till Sept before I got a good scope and the rings and base were my xmas present from my wife. My friend who no longer shoots 7mag only because he went to 338WM for elk sent me about 100 once fired cases and a set of RCBS dies from his late father. He also sent me a page from his dads notes from 1994 to use as a reference. Seen he had best luck out of many with H4831sc. I picked a 168g SMK as a starting bullet. Figured if it can shoot anything it would be those lol. 4th test load through it I bugholed. Tweaked a few things one at a time of course a was good but not that 4th one. Tried it again and almost bugholed but even tighter. Like 2shots were at .116 moa and I shanked the third and knew when I pulled the trigger lol. I knew I had it so loaded 3rnd with H4831sc and 3rnd H4831 just to see if there would be a difference. Nope 6 consecutive shots cold, clean bore no foulers and put them in 1 hole of roughly .3. I told him his dad must have put some kind of pixy dust on those dies and I will NEVER not use them. I knew his dad also and was a great guy whom we had many talks about this stuff long before I ever started reloading. This truly is a unicorn and I smile at every trigger pull. The longest I've took it so far is 425yrd and kept it at .3 moa. Just got the beans cut next to my little range so 1k is the next attempt lol. At some point I will probably pick a good hunting bullet and nosler most likely and work up another load but for now this one sure is fun. I know factory guns just aren't supposed to shoot like this but it's a unicorn.
