Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats My First Custom Rifle

So there is a custom builder here in town. By all accounts he does outstanding work. He's a long range shooter, is even on a long range shooting TV show. I've done some shooting with him and he's gotten me interested in putting together a rifle for myself.

Now he's given me some ideas and they sound good to my untrained ears. I thought I'd bounce them off you fellas and get some thoughts.

Thinking a 700 long action, 300WSM, dbm, 20" barrel, Timney trigger, maybe a McMillan lightweight stock. He is a fan of those short action rounds in a long action so you can run the bullets way out. Would AIing it be a good addition? Not sure on barrel contour - don't want a heavy pig. Twisted for long, heavy, bullets - best twist?

The custom road can certainly be a fun and rewarding one! Having a local smith you know personally is quite cool too.

What are you shooting now? What do you want this new rifle to do for you?

Is this the blueprint he suggested?
If so I would question his credentials?

How would you "AI" a 300 WSM?

If this is his idea then run away!

The AI was my thought. I'm assuming by your reaction that it not possible. How about some thoughts on what I was thinking. What's wrong with it?

As for what I'm shooting, I have a lot of different rifles. This would be my first custom, however. I want a somewhat light rifle, capable of shooting a big heavy bullet accurately at long range. Is there any merit to a WSM round in a long action. As he descibed it, it allows you to seat long bullets way out there and maintain case capacity.

No A.I.
No 300wsm
No 20" barrel


Yes Mcmillan stock
Yes Timney trigger


Seriously though what are you going to use the rifle for?
Targets?
Hunting?
Varmints?
Gongs?

The only thing that rifles are good for! Hunting! The rest is just practice for when hunting season is open.

He shoots thousands of round a year, he's not a total gun counter moron. He made a good case for the 300WSM in a long action. I'm all ears if there's a good reason not to. I already have a 300 RUM, but it's a heavy pig. I'm looking for a well balanced 30 caliber hunting rig that's very capable for long, intermediate, and short range and still enjoyable to carry. He's of the opinion that you can go to 20" and not lose a terrific amount of speed. He actually recommended 22", however.

The only reason to run a WSM is for the short action. If you're gonna use a long action then just go with a 300 win mag. With a Remington action you've still got plenty of length to seat bullets long. Might do 22", but never 20" in that round.

Light rifle shooting a heavy bullet at long range is a recipe for failure.

Long range shooting requires much practice.

Light rifle and heavy bullets in magnum chambering will be counterproductive.

If you want a heavy high B.C. bullet think 7mm , better yet 6.5mm.

Light rifle, 6.5 Creed, maybe 6.5 saum. Long action 6.5-06

Medium rifle 7mm saum, long action 7mm Rem mag. 280 Rem. 280 A.I. 284 win.

Heavy rifle 300 Win. long action.

When I say long action I am referring to Rem 700 with the long mag box.

Short actions the Rem 700 is handicapped with a 2.8" mag box.
The Savage center feed has a 3.00 mag box.
Winchester M70 short action also has a 3.00 mag box.

The length of the mag box is critical. You need the extra length in order to seat the VLD type bullets close to the lands for better accuracy.

That was my impression as well re: WSM and short actions. He made it sound like the logical way to chamber a WSM if you want to use heavy long bullets and keep case capacity. I'm just looking for tangible reasons to change my mind. I like the RUMs, but if I could put together something without all that blast and recoil, I would enjoy shooting it more. Like I said, I'm as green as they get in this realm so any help is appreciated. If I question what you say, it's only so that I can understand why you're saying it.

I have several lighter rifles in 30-06 and 308 based rounds. What I want is a hammer in a pleasant to carry, long range capable rifle. I don't have a problem with recoil and while I seldom shoot truly long range (1000 yds +) I do shoot 500 to 750 a couple of times a week. Rifles over 10# don't interest me at all. I understand that a multi purpose rifle can be somewhat of a jack of all trades, master of none, I'm hoping that there is a blueprint out there that might fit the bill.

As Big Stick would say, headstamps aren't where it's at- bullets are.
Start researching bullets with great BC's and you're halfway there.

There are a few good VLD bullets for the big .30's but you need to start them fairly fast, which takes a bit of a push. Recoil with these kind of rounds in a light rifle can be brutal and practice can be painful fairly shortly. IMHO, designing a rifle to meet your criteria is going to take a bit of studying of not only cartridges, but the overall rifle and the uses you will have for it. Hunting will require one type of build, whereas shooting targets or gongs way out there will be another type of build.

If it were me , I would consider going something like a 6.5-06, 26 Nosler, or something along those lines. Lots of power to get it going downrange, and the 6.5 bullets at the moment seem to have better than average BC's and relatively bearable recoil for the advantage.
Be sure to match the twist to the bullet you plan to shoot and a stock that fits you well. Just saying a McMillan doesn't guarantee a good fit and McMillan makes a lot of different stocks.

The big 338's- the 338 Edge, 338 Lapua, 376 Cheytac, are all proven long range performers but more than a bit of overkill for hunting conditions and very expensive to shoot regularly.

Read a bunch of what is posted on the Long Range forum and you may start to see a pattern develop that covers what you are after. And ask lots of questions- we love to help you spend your money...

Bob

I would give a hard look at the 7mm Rem. mag.

Do a 1/8 twist barrel. Run 175 to 195gr bullets.

7mm has great B.C.'s, tolerable recoil, burns less than 70grains of powder.

Components are easy to find.

The Berger 195 has a B.C. of .755. Push that to 2800fps and at 1000yds it's still traveling at 1700fps.

The 300 Win. mag will beat that with a Hornady 225gr ELD match bullet, but at the expense of more recoil, muzzle blast and component cost.

A better mousetrap in my opinion is a 6.5 creedmore with a Hornady 147 ELD. But it appears you want more horsepower than that?

Again beware of cartridges that are too long for the magazine with the longer VLD type of bullets.

The high B.C. bullets are important in minimizing wind drift and maximizing energy.

7mm Wizzum

Do it the easy way and go with a Kimber Montana either as one already in 7 or have him rebarrel a 270/300/325 donor.

Ranger, based on what I'm hearing from you, a 7 Rem Mag shooting 175 - 190 gr Bergers in a rifle that will weigh 9 - 10 lbs with scope sounds about right. You can make that weight with a Bartlien 3 or 3b barrel. Manageable weight but heavy enough to settle down. Recoil is as much as I'd care for in a 9 - 10 lb rig.

The only way I would do a short mag is on a Defiance machine XM action, no way would I do one on a long action, The XM with a mag box of 3.20 works great ,the 7 WSM is an awesome round but brass is hard to find, a better choice on the XM action would be a 7mm RSAUM as norma and Nosler offer brass, your second and probably a little cheaper has already been mentioned by ifubar and ctsmith the only change I would make would be in the contour a Bartlien 3 would be max for me as the 3b is to heavy for my taste, I'm having a 7mm mag done right now with a Bartlien 2b and is still plenty heavy!

If you plan on a large case, use a long enough barrel to burn the powder!

For a first time custom the best advice I can give you is build it lighter and in a milder chambering than you think you want.