Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Model 7 .358 Win redux

This was my first "custom" rifle; it started as a 7-08 M7 LSS and I had Pac-Nor rebarrel it to a 20" .358. In my naïveté I went with a long-shank numbered profile. So I had to do a lot of work to the lammie stock to fit it. I ended up killing many blacktail with it- at least a dozen. It wore a 2.5-8 Leupold to start; then I ran a 1.8-5.5 Zeiss Conquest for a number of years.

Among other downsides of that profile barrel (for this rifle anyway) was that I then couldn't swap it into other stocks. I tooled up to do my own rifle work so it occurred to me I could take that barrel off, send it to PN, and get it re-profiled for a pittance... so I did. Had them turn it into a Remington Sporter profile, which then opens up all manner of stock options.

So I finally got around to buying a new stock. It's just a BC Alaskan; since this isn't a precision rifle I couldn't really justify spending more. I like the feel of those stocks, too. I had a Swarovski 3-10x42 AV that is a superb low light scope and nice and light so I mounted that in the Talleys. The rifle is totally transformed- feels great, balance has moved forward, and that scope is gonna work great for what this rifle's mission is- which is dark timber still-hunting and very dim grey light conditions.

My MO has been "improve what I've got" rather than buying new rifles for the last few years, and this definitely qualifies. Really digging it! Plan on whacking a blacktail this year with it, unless my new 6.5 SAUM build cuts the tag first.

So it's a .358 M7, 20" tube, sporter profile, B&C Alaskan