Successful Transformation....

[Joel Russo]

Some of you may recall I had a .338-.408 that I stocked with a beautiful piece of Bubinga up for sale a while ago. The rifle was built for a customer quite a few years back, and I eventually ended up buying it back from him. After looking at the rifle collecting dust in my office for many years, I put it up on the block on LRH. The rifle got a lot of interest, but no one wanted such a high end piece of wood under the metal.
Got a call from a customer/friend on the left coast who has one of these from me in the same high end stock. Said he had a friend interested in the rifle, but wanted to switch out the wood for fiberglass.
Ouch, that hurt.
This "friend" of his bought a NF scope from me years ago, and is quite a good guy.
Well, we came to terms on a fair price for both of us, and I ordered a McMillan stock.
Replaced the brake with a more efficient one, gave him a tight bedding job, and applied a fresh coat of graphite black CeraKote. Mounted a NF 5-25 ATACR on top, and figured I would give him a good zero instead of just a bore sight.
Grabbed three loaded rounds form my beloved "Eleanor" rifle, and headed out back.
First one landed a bit high and right. I figured, what the heck, I'll shoot the other two, then center up the group with those knob things on the scope..
Dropped three into .232" and called it good...

This is a fresh barrel with only about 30 rounds down it.

I call this project a Successful Transformation.

Enjoy:

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Oh man...that pains me to see that! What an awesome stock. I'm glad you finally sold it though. I've been watching that rifle in the classifieds for some time now. You have turned rifle bedding into a science.

 

[matt_3479]

Man that stock is just so beautiful, **** shame he wanted fibreglass instead! Love to own a rifle like that

 

[Dosh]

As always, a supremely perfect example from Mr. Russo.

 

[Joel Russo]

Thanks Gents~

Now I have a stock sitting on the coffee table instead of a complete rifle.. May need to find a donor barreled action to bring the project full circle..

 

[johnnyk]

That tight group tells me all I need to know about your stock(s), bedding job and barreled action. Beautiful, precise and gilt edge accuracy. Eye candy. You are a blessed man and a talented artisan.
JohnnyK.

 

[Edd]

What would it cost to buy that stock?

 

[RMulhern]

Dang bolts on the wrong side!!

 

[Joel Russo]

What would it cost to buy that stock?

Call me during the week, and we'll figure it out together.
7178050940

 

[Joel Russo]

I sent this rifle to the new owner, and gave him a brief tutorial on brass prep and die set up. He's a smart guy, so it didn't take much.

A few days later, he sent me a text with a picture of a group he shot at 300 yards.

We're both happy campers...LOL

Here's the verbage:

"This is too good to be true...the first shot didn't feel good, even though it was in the bull, the second shot I flinched... I got up from the bench, walked around for 5 minutes, sat back down and over the next 10 mins or so shot 3 shots into .309" at 300 yards..

Here's the target: