nvbroncrider
Handloader
- Aug 20, 2011
- 3,085
- 4
Well last week I went to one of my best friends weddings. I hadn't seen him since I graduated college in Dec. 09. Unfortunately the rifle wasn't quite finished when I got there. In fact I sent him the rifle and he brought it with him to Iowa. When the UPS driver dropped it off he told him not to shoot his eye out. Kinda gave him an idea but I told him I'd never do that and besides what does the mailman know. So after I got to Iowa and sat in Evanston WY for 7 hours while I-80 was closed. He put me to work as slave labor doctoring some calves then branding and cutting some others so when we finally got to the house I told him why don't you open that package. He opened it and was in total awe. He said now your gonna make me buy a scope? I told him nope. I got a stock, a scope, a trigger, and a couple boxes of ammo in the car. He looked at me kinda funny. So we dry fired it a bit and asked what he could shoot with it. I replied anything in NA. So we took it in the house and I took my bag of tools in and started taking it apart. We took the new stock out of the box and he started playing around with it and asked why I bought a new stock. I told him it's about .5-.75 lbs lighter than the factory throw away. He didn't believe me. Finally I got it apart and handed him the factory stock he looked at it saw the hollow forend and said no way is it lighter another friend of his was laughing at me at the time thinking I had no idea what I was talking about. After they handled each stock they asked each other which one was lighter each one agreed that the new B&C stock was lighter by a large margin. So as I took the assembled the floorplate and magazine they started asking about the new trigger on the table. I just stated the factory trigger sucked and was recalled. So after I got the trigger in and stock assembled I had them dry fire it. When Logan squeezed the trigger for the first time it caught him by surprise. A big smile came on his face and he started giggling like a school girl. He fired it another 3-4 times and just was in awe. He handed it to his friend and he pulled it and couldn't believe it. I took the rifle back and took the Z3 scope out of the box. His friend went down and grabbed his M70 7WSM PF rifle. I then lapped the Talley rings and mounted the scope. After all was said and done we compared the two. The M70 weighed in at about 8-8.5 lbs. Logan's new rifle was considerably lighter I bet it can't be over 7.5 wouldn't surprise me if it was under 7. So I laid the rifle out on his new Pelican case and we got talking about planning an elk hunt in CO. He couldn't resist any longer and I tossed him a knife and he cut it out.
So the next day we set up a target at 25 yards and I told Logan go ahead. He balked at the idea and said I ain't taking the first shot you built this thing and it's gonna blow up on me. So I reluctantly took the first shot. It hit a hair low and about 3" to the right. A quick adjustment and we had it dang close. Took the box out to 100 yards and I put one more down range had it tuned in 3 rounds so he took a few shots and put a couple in about an inch. He thought it kicked a little We set a beer can on top of a fence post and he quickly dispatched it. His buddy shot it and was totally surprised be the lack of recoil in that light rifle. So Logan was totally happy with it and I said well shoot a group with it. He complained a bit and had me shoot it. First two were touching and the third I pulled and the group was at about an inch.
A couple days later he got to show it off to his new father-in-law and his folks and they were totally impressed. It was really neat to see how proud he was of it. He's one of my best friends in the whole world and I'd do anything for him. We ended up going fishing while we were there and drank a lot of beer that week and got to recall all the stories and good times we had together. Talked about the 200,000+ miles we spent in a car or truck going to rodeos. All of our wrecks and bad experiences. 4 years was too long and hopefully in Oct. we will be in CO chasing elk on a mountain side.
I know you guys are going to ask for pictures that I don't have. I broke my phone while I was there. But here are the details on the rifle.
M700 SS action blueprinted with a spiral fluted bolt
24" SS Supermatch 1-9" Mountain Rifle contour Pac-Nor barrel chambered in 280AI
Jewell trigger
B&C Alaskan Mtn Rifle stock in Tan and Black web BDL stock
Z3 3-10X42 #4 in Talley LW low rings.
I built it as a 700 Ti clone.
So the next day we set up a target at 25 yards and I told Logan go ahead. He balked at the idea and said I ain't taking the first shot you built this thing and it's gonna blow up on me. So I reluctantly took the first shot. It hit a hair low and about 3" to the right. A quick adjustment and we had it dang close. Took the box out to 100 yards and I put one more down range had it tuned in 3 rounds so he took a few shots and put a couple in about an inch. He thought it kicked a little We set a beer can on top of a fence post and he quickly dispatched it. His buddy shot it and was totally surprised be the lack of recoil in that light rifle. So Logan was totally happy with it and I said well shoot a group with it. He complained a bit and had me shoot it. First two were touching and the third I pulled and the group was at about an inch.
A couple days later he got to show it off to his new father-in-law and his folks and they were totally impressed. It was really neat to see how proud he was of it. He's one of my best friends in the whole world and I'd do anything for him. We ended up going fishing while we were there and drank a lot of beer that week and got to recall all the stories and good times we had together. Talked about the 200,000+ miles we spent in a car or truck going to rodeos. All of our wrecks and bad experiences. 4 years was too long and hopefully in Oct. we will be in CO chasing elk on a mountain side.
I know you guys are going to ask for pictures that I don't have. I broke my phone while I was there. But here are the details on the rifle.
M700 SS action blueprinted with a spiral fluted bolt
24" SS Supermatch 1-9" Mountain Rifle contour Pac-Nor barrel chambered in 280AI
Jewell trigger
B&C Alaskan Mtn Rifle stock in Tan and Black web BDL stock
Z3 3-10X42 #4 in Talley LW low rings.
I built it as a 700 Ti clone.
