223 Benchrest rifle build, with lots off pictures

[josh82]

Custom build based on a Ruger American action.
Al started out, because I was looking for a cheap bolt action gun for foxing in 223. Finaly I settled on a Ruger American compact stainless, in 223. As the box came in, I started directly with making some quality ammo for that thing. Had already some Lapua 223 cases ready, and loaded them up with Sierra Match Kings, 69 grain BTHP, went to the range, and shot it a bit, I was shocked, no group under 2 inches…
Made my way home totally disappointed, and thinking what to do, I could send it back… as I came home I packed that thing away and, tried to forget about the bad day.
But I wanted to make anyway a custom gun some time, I started thinking about taking this receiver as a basis for my project. I pulled the barrel, and totally disassembled the gun. Just with the bolt and the receiver I went to my company as I have all the dedicated measuring equipment which my home shop lacks. I just wanted to make sure that the receiver is fairly straight to start with. And to my surprise it was totally straight, even with a multi thousand dollar 3d measuring machine it proved to be straight. Then I measured concentricity off the bolt hole, and that was fine too, but the internal finish was horrible, they just bored that hole with a dull boring bar, the surface, I would have made better with a hacksaw… ok here we go…

Ordered a Lothar Walther SS barrel, and as I wanted to lap it myself I ordered it without match finish and, I’ve chosen thr bore and groove diameter to be 5 tenthou under actual measured bullet diameter. Sent them an email and waited for their reply, they said that barrel would be out of CIP/SAAMI spec, and I said, here in Switzerland we don’t care about that. And they agreed to send me a pressure test barrel which meet my spec.

Once the barrel was in I made myself a lapping jig, and started lapping the barrel, until it matched my bullet diameter of my SMK69 grainers. As I lapped the barrel I kept slugging and measuring, and as I reached final diameter just a hair under my actual bullet diameter, I stoped lapping, to save some 1-2 tenthou for the final finish.

Moved the barrel over to my CNC lathe and dialed in the bore, until I couldn’t measure any runout with my 1 thenthou dialindicator.

My loaded round measures .252 so I went for a .250 neck diameter. As I didn’t had a reamer handy I went to my company and stuck a piece of HSS rod in a CNC grinding machine, programmed the coordinates and pressed the start button and went for a coffe… after measuring my reamer, and making sure all dimensions where as I wanted, I went home again and started chambering my barrel. All went fine. Then I threaded the barrel tennon to 1” 16tpi, that went well, then I checked the fit with my receiver, it was a bit stiff so I decided to screw it off, and that ing thing won’t move anymore… It galled on there…. I should have known that, but as I work mostly with tool steel I just forget about putting some good anticease in there… good I cut the barrel off in front off the receiver and bored the plug out. Lesson learned!

I started all over and that time with antiseize all went well.

Then when all was finished I wanted to use the origanl stock for the function test, and I hacksawed the sides off the forend away to make room for that fat barrel, but it was so flexy that I screwed that piece off plastic off and threw it in the bin, where such a cheap stock belongs.

I had a salvaged target stock in my basement, from a target airrifle, then I tried to fit that, but the stock wouldn’t fit in any way I would cut and file it…

So as time is a little bit off concern, I decided to just buy something I can just screw on. As here in Europe the aftermarket support is quite small for American made rifles. I went for the only option which was stiff and had good bedding right away. The MDT LSS chassis. Which proved to be a good decision.
When that thing came in I bolted it all together, and headed to the range.
Wow, wow wow, no load work up nothing, it just grouped in the .3’s as you can imagine I am a happy camper.

 

[bill larson]

Ruger American

Very nice work..... and good results......
bill

 

[josh82]

Very nice work..... and good results......
bill

Thanks bill, I had a lot off fun making that build and I've learned a lot. and I think thats the best way to start a hobby, build your equipment yourseld and you understand whats goin on. Thanks for the coment.
Josh

 

[DanSavage]

Very nice build,, I love the .223 and 69 smk it's all I've shot out of it since it shoots so good. I use AA 2495. My barrel is a McGowen bull barrel at 26" that I occasionally screw on a Savage action for police sniper prone matches at 300 yards. I have about 4 first places with it so far with money on the line there was a lot of custom guns on the line too. Only rule is no brs and no ppc's. I'm sure you will have many happy days shooting your new rig.

 

[josh82]

Very nice build,, I love the .223 and 69 smk it's all I've shot out of it since it shoots so good. I use AA 2495. My barrel is a McGowen bull barrel at 26" that I occasionally screw on a Savage action for police sniper prone matches at 300 yards. I have about 4 first places with it so far with money on the line there was a lot of custom guns on the line too. Only rule is no brs and no ppc's. I'm sure you will have many happy days shooting your new rig.

Thank you for your coment! Sierra bullets are my go to bullets, all my guns just love them, they may not have the highest bc in class, but who cares if they have 5% less energy at a given distance, its 5% less waist because you can strike your target at whatever distance you want. One off the pic's above shows a military range where we are aloud to shoot out to 640 meters. And with that gun i can make cold bore hits on a 8x8 inch target. And fire 10 more shots easy on the same target.
I think every cartridge, except old obsolete designs, can be made to shoot like a 6br or ppc, the only difference is on them you find loads off informatiin about tolerances and load data which works. So the easy way is to go 6br or ppc, but dor me its aint fun to make what all people do i love to find out what works and what not. It's just that I am curious nature, if someone says to me thats not gona work, you can bet what i try next

Would be nice if you could post some pictures off your settup!

Josh

 

[DanSavage]

Josh, I will get a few pictures of the rifle and a few 10 shot group's I have. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[DanSavage]

I spent a half hour trying to get a pic on here, I'll try some more.

 

[DanSavage]

190 yards for score.
I have it in a Savage F class stock now with the 3" fore end. This is with the Bartlien 6br barrel on it and a Sightron 36x instead of the NXS 8-32x

 

[josh82]

View attachment 19211

190 yards for score.
I have it in a Savage F class stock now with the 3" fore end. This is with the Bartlien 6br barrel on it and a Sightron 36x instead of the NXS 8-32x

View attachment 19212


View attachment 19213

Dan, awsome rifle, love it! Is that the factory FClass Savage stock which you use? It just looks so nice.

What barrel contour do you have on there? I have a straight barrel no taper 1.15 inch. 22 inch long.

Is that a 110 Action? Or what is it? I had a Savage Axis in 6mm BR but pulled the barrel, and screwed it into my Ruger No.1 which I use for fieldtarget now. Had a.222 barrel on there but, 6mm just buck the wind way better.

I shoot only prone, with shoulder pressure, as I never had luck shooting free recoil. Best groups where in .3's but now I got them down consistently in the high .2's. But only at 100 meters, there I use the 53gr SMK flat base bullets. No bullet can beat that one for short range accuracy. At 300 meters the 69 gr SMK is king

 

[DanSavage]

It is a model 10 with the B&C Varmint Tactical in the first pic, barrel is 26" 1.060 taper to 1" at muzzle.
Second is a factory f class for a target action 4.4 and model 10 action drops right in,, only use 2 screws. It has a custom Apache built barrel 6br 8 twist that is 26" 1.060 the whole length.

I have quite an array of barrels for this and a 110 action with a BVSS stock.

 

[DanSavage]

For prone competition I set it up like pic. 1 and use my homemade bit pod called the chair lol, that's what it is the back of a folding chair I welded on a Harris swivel swing stretcher and have adjustable steel rods for leveling. "Steady as a chair".