My creation:

.308-caliber Hart barrel. About 27 or 28 inches long to muzzle, proper. Six lands and grooves. 1:10 in a righthand twist. Stainless, o' course. Custom contour. Six flutes. Shrewd Number Four muzzle brake hollowed out by gunsmith to make gases escape faster, thus softening recoil. Free-floated from just in front of receiver mouth.

Montana Rifle Company Model M1999, 2004 vintage from charter run. Long-action magnum. Left-handed. Stainless, o' course. Massaged to make feeding slicker than snot on a hoe handle. Put into service as a 300WSM in October 2005. Fed beyond poorly. My fault: I just had to have the 300WSM. Totally enamored of it, I was. Just stupid, I guess. And ignorant about rifles, cartridges, reloading, long actions versus short actions, controlled-round feeding versus push-feeding, et cetera.

Richards Micro-fit Thumbhole Target stock. Two recoil reducers in buttstock: One is left-handed Hiram's Dead Mule (no longer made); other is a five-ounce mercury unit. Stock required extensive (about $2300 worth) handwork by gunsmith Robert C. Sutton of Tussey Custom in Moundhouse, NV. That was back in 2005. Don't choose a Richards. There are many other alternatives that are far, far less expensive to bring to fruition. Pachmayr Presentation buttpad.

Millett LRS-1 scope. Side-focus. 35mm maintube. 6-25X x 56mm. 140 moa of elevation. Too-high rings. Medium set comin' in the mail o/a January 10. Scope base by Near Manufacturing. Made in Canada. Left-handed. 25moa slope. VERY difficult to acquire. Near makes 100:1 in righty over lefty. $175 each. Stainless, o' course...

Chambered in my de novo mildcat, the 300 Nevada Desert Magnum. 76.8 grains of water to bottom of neck; about 86.0-86.5 to mouth. Original design. Reamer and headspace gauges by Dave Manson; reamer ground to have .002" total clearance around the neck. Forming and reloading dies designed by Ben Syring at Hornady Manufacturing Company. Factory Crimp Die by Lee Precision. Various little tools and trimmer mandrels by Lee Precision (custom stuff).

Parent case is the 375Ruger Basic brass cold-formed to 2.494 inches long. No fire-forming required. Neck is .386 inches long by .336 inches in diameter; 17�-degree shoulder angle; shoulder at 1.832 inches from head and shoulder diameter of .510 inches. Basically, a .30-06 Springsteen on a magnum case. Verified by my blue Chrony to deliver 3000 fps using 68 grains of H4831SC under the 180-grain Sierra MatchKing. Too hot: Showed "piecrust" ridges on primer. Now using slower powders.

Other bullets to be used are several between 150-grain FMJ to 220-grain round-nose by Hornady and Sierra. Doing load work-ups for two or three target and like number of hunting bullets. Powders under consideration are H1000, Retumbo, RL-25, IMR7828SSC and MagPro. Load development is an ongoing exercise as of November 2012. No definite loads yet exist.

As you see it here, the rifle was 'smithed by Bradly Hunt of Alkali International Corporation in Winnemucca, NV. Mildcat first dreamed-up July 25, 2008. First round fired July 15, 2012 after many, many changes. Just a red hair under four years. Total cost in this boondoggle: About $8,000. Yes. But remember, that's the total in essentially two rifles-- one of which is a mildcat. Doing-up your own round ain't cheap...

Weighs right around nineteen pounds. Ain't for carrying. You carry it from the car to the bench in its custom-made, $375, 25-pound aluminum case. It was 55" long in its first incarnation. Needed the custom case; nothing commercially-made that long. 52" long now.

Got maybe 250-300 rounds through it (I don't count 'em). Prints very, very small groups if I can hold my liquor and keep my sanity. Best is a five-shot at 0.136 inches. Most are quarter-minute to half-minute (when I'm sloppy or yip the shot) from 100 yards. Does well if I do well. Goal is to print half-inch groups at 600 yards and maybe get it inside one-minute at 1000 yards. Lotsa work to do until we see that...

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My dad made the adjustable sandbag. Goes way up. Caldwell sissy bag bungeed to a platform that adjusts up and down on six-inch carriage bolts. Locks with thumbscrews. Little piece of quarter-inch ply on right side is for a line level. I prefer this to my hexpensive Sinclair machine rest. Shot the .136" group from this rest. Slide leg to left or to right to adjust for windage. You'll get plenty...

History teaches us repeatedly that genocide always follows gun control.