Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Documenting a build--.280 Rem in Classic American style

I am working on my fourth, and probably final, custom rifle off the LH Zastava action. I went through my LH Remington 700 phase for about 25 years because they were the best game in town for lefties. Then I had a very good LH Winchester 70 phase, until those rifles got so bloody expensive. Along the way, the LH Mauser 98 actions from Zastava became available, and even though they are rough, they are a good basis for a custom project, particularly if the goal is a more classic--even retro--project. The current fiberglass stock/stainless metal/turreted scope era is no doubt a technological improvement, but for me not an aesthetic one.

The first was a .35 Whelen that I learned a lot from, but that I think would meet the Colonel's approval nevertheless. Next was a 7x57 with largely the original metalwork because I always wanted a Mannlicher. The third is a 9.3x62 that stepped up the game in terms of metal work and has a McMillan stock for now. (I have posted photos of all of these in the past, so won't repeat them here.)

This fourth one is a .280 Remington that Mark Penrod barreled and also did quite a bit of truing and refining to the action. I am doing the stock work, starting with a pattern that I have been shaping and truing for what feels like an eternity. For an amateur like me, Bondo truly is your best friend.



The blue on the barrel is Prussian blue with a half depth line scribed into it that helps me keep the action deep enough when I am bedding the pattern.




But a dash of spray paint evens out the psychedelic pink camo effect, and shows both where there is still work to be done, and how things are progressing overall.





I already have a chunk of wood that I think should work well for this project ...



Stay tuned, although my work obligations mean that the next installment of progress photos is likely not to arrive for months.