Hey Rip,
My .25-'06 is a Remington 700 that was built by John Lewis at Carolina Precision Rifles. Actually, it was originally a .338-06 Ackley and I later had it barreled to .25-'06.
CPR blueprinted the action and had the action, blueprinted Remington trigger and floor plate assembly hard-chromed. These were the days before stainless and I perfer hard chrome to stainless, anyway (harder, no galling and SLICKER). CPR pillar-bedded the McMillan black-painted stock.
Later, I had it fitted with a 24-inch Pac-Nor three-contour barrel. Now, here is where the weird part comes in; Chris at Pac-Nor had a barrel turn out strange, it was an inadvertant gain-twist. He was curious and sent it to a company called Barrel Scan, Inc. The report came back that it had an 11" twist at the breech and a 9"twist at the muzzle. The gain in twist-rate is an absolute straight line.
Anyway, Chris said "Try it, if it isn't satisfactory, I'll replace it." So I did.
I will have to say that the "inadvertant gain-twist" Pac-Nor is the fastest, easiest to clean, most accurate .257" barrel I have ever used. Most barrels (excuse me) are downright female; they piss and moan until you give them what they want. My Pac-Nor is a BOY barrel; hey, any load, any bullet is just fine with it and it plants 'em all in one spot. I like boy barrels.
The trigger is a blueprinted Remington factory one that has been hard-chromed. Breaks at 3�-pounds like an icicle; it is set heavy because I do a lot of cold weather work and I don't like surprises.
The scope is a Leupold VariX-III 4.5-14 AO with a dine Duplex. I'll replace it with a VX-III 4.5-14 with the Boone & Crockett reticle (my design, by the way) before next hunting season.
The scope mounts are Leupold QRs and low rings. Yes, I carry an extra zeroed scope, not that I have ever needed it.
The weight is about nine-pounds, complete with a mag of ammo, Harris L-S bipod and a Quaker Boy sling that I stole off of a Browning turkey gun on one of their hunts (Scott Grange looked the other way and I LOVE that ugly rubber carrying strap).
Goodness knows how many critters have died to the CPR/Pac-Nor .25-'06. Lots. I have never missed with it and I've never shot twice. Karen calls it my "AT&T rifle because it "Reaches out and touches critters."
Karen used it this year; she had doubts about her .250 Ackley's ability to kill a good antelope buck we had spotted at 306 yards. We traded rifles, she flipped down the bipod, cuddled into a hillock and asked where to hold. I said, "Right on." Scratch one nice antelope buck!!!
Good rifle.
Steve
