Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Pierce Actions...another REM 700 clone

Yeah thats my point. 2.3, 2.8, sure. It just seems a little silly to build a .223 on an action that can handle a WSM. Yeth the little CZs and such are too small.

It has a Sako extractor. I have a lot of pics if somebody can host them for me.
Butch

I am awaiting my Stiller Predator to get it's 6BR bbl installed.

In the meantime, I have a Sako 75 that has a one piece bolt, and a Sako extractor (who'd thunk it?) and it has shot sub inch groups at 200 yds, out the box.....My ammo of course..

But my Ruger 6.5x55 #1 falling block is wanting to get properly 'broken in' on a deer soon, and it also shot VERY accurately out the box.... 1.1" at 200 yds...

SO, I TRULY expect my custom Stiller w/custom bbl and Jewell, etc. w/high mag scope to cut groups far smaller than my factory rifles.

Hope I am not disappointed w/my 6BR, and don't expect to be.

Expect to post results when all is together.

Features might vary, but I'll choose a custom '700 clone' action any day over a Rem action and expect quality/performance to be as good as any blueprinted action, and hold it's resale much better.

Now if Sako made those old L579 actions, I'd happily barrel one or more.....yes the old pre-Garcia's, as the L461/L469s, and even the long actions were nice.

Butch, I am not fond of the EXTRA LARGE lettering either, not sure if that is for advertising or some mfg. reason, but cosmetically, I'd be changing it if I were building them.

Nothing wrong with 'branding' your product, but moderation......think of how small the emblems are on the BMW's and Mercedes, etc.

Not slamming here, as if anyone wants to hear me rant, let's start talking Remington QC and MY experiences. Nope sorry, my blood pressure needs to be left alone....so Claude, I emulate your sentiment.

In all fairness, I am not sure I ever heard of a bolt handle coming loose on a custom action, as one just fell off a virtually NEW Rem 700 (and no beating on the handle, etc. to any Rem Lovers that want to argue).....ironically, I do not recall buying another Rem rifle since.

+700 WGM!!!!

In my Rem 700 I use a Pierce firing pin kit. It just dropped in and works super. If he made a left-hand action I would buy one and never llok back.

As per cost, reliability, and durability Stiller is HARD to beat! I sure do like em!!!!!!!! Talk to Glen Harrison at Phoenix Machine on yesterday he should have a nice action as well he commented on 1 month on the turnaround time once order is placed!!!!

Pierce does offer his action in a left hand configuration, I just picked mine up from him the other week. All I can say is I have seen them all and the Pierce is right there in every aspect with the Borden and BAT actions.

Butch is spot on here, it's not the type of action that you would build a nice walnut stocked custom on by any means. I wouldn't use a Pierce for that either, although it would look better than the Stiller. I would use a modern Mauser style for a custom rust blued walnut stocked rifle. Classy is hard to define but for me, it's a claw type action, not a tube of steel.

Dennis

I know of one McMillan custom action rifle that had the bolt come off on the first lift after arriving in hunting camp in the Canandian outback! I believe it was the result of someone leaving the bolt in the rifle where it could be leveraged against the received during handling by the airline goons. But nonetheless- this was a high dollar custom action that bit the dust at the BEGINNING of an expensive hunt!

That's why I am waiting (still) on my Phoenix action with a one-piece bolt. Had I known it would take this long, I probably would have ordered a Borden rimrock action.

Thanks I might have to look into the.

I had some input regarding a different aspect of one of the companies. Customer Service.
A while ago, I called and ended up speaking directly to Mr Pierce about buying a couple of his firing pin/spring assemblies. I gave him the payment information and advised him that I was going to use it on a hunt that was right around the corner. I told him time was short and I wanted to check zero's with the new assemblies in before flying out. He understood and advised no problem. A bunch of days passed without anything arriving so I called. Mr Pierce said they forgot to get some bit of information and hadn't sent it out yet. It was some [bleep] bit of info that would have taken less than a minute over the phone, but for whatever reason he didn't make the call and didn't ship the merchandise. No problem I told him. What steamed me is that he recognized that he put me behind the 8 ball on my time line (I now only had 3 or 4 days left). But he refused to even consider paying the FedEx Next Day to fix his mistake and get it into my hand in time. I ended up cancelling the order and going with another assembly after I got back.

Prior to that we had conversations about his then new action and I told him I was in the market and would speak to him about it more after returning from my trip. Guess what...his penny wise, pound foolish treatment of his customer cost him a sale on his receiver, and some bad publicity. I ended up with a trued 700 and someone else's pin/spring assembly and am happy with it.

...but now that I'm getting the itch to build on a custom receiver, I'll have to make sense of the "700 pattern" custom's out there. ie, Stiller, Borden, Lawton, Surgeon etc. Boy there's alot of choices out there. Anyone aware of a comparison table? I will never buy from Pierce.

I have 2 Borden actions,1 a Rimrock I built a 280AI on and a Timberline we're building a 6.5STW on.Both were delivered on time,Jim and Joan are both absolutely wonderful people to do business with.

If you are considering a Stiller in a short magnum, consider this quote from Mr. Stiller. "We never did and still don't expect the short action magnums to eject a loaded round." Funny that I have not seen that mentioned in any of his advertising. I have one and won't get another. The Borden and Peirce look like viable options.

Dennis, not familiar with thos actions. Murphy's law can hit any mechanical device I am sure (just hope it does not hit my hunting buddys 700 trigger, as he CONTINUALLY fails to empty his chamber after getting back to camp putting faith in the safety!$%^&*

Anyway, Love my Sako and Ruger never have to worry about a breakage, my Stiller will be a local deer/varmint and paper gun, but ANY serious rifle will NOT go with me to rough country in the outback, if it's a bolt that is not a one-piece design. I simply will not put myself in that situation again. A one piece bolt to ME is a requirement for a serious duty gun. Just MY feelings on things due to a failure, and how that gun failure turns into a failed hunt, much less for a dangerous game hunt or one having to defend themselves against a rare but potentially deadly attack by a bear etc. 100% reliability is a goal that requires eliminating a weak link in a potential bolt handle failure IMHO. However remote that chance is, I am not going to take that chance by choosing what I feel is an inferior product. MFG. costs are what drives bolt design I feel, so spend a little more and rest easy you have a superior design in product reliability/longevity.

Not knocking quality actions w/o one pc. designs as MY experience was w/a mass mfg. of varying QC, but again when the application calls for something serious, no reason to chance it. Punching Paper and varmints is not what I call serious though others opinions may differ ont that, but camping out in the wilderness, etc. etc., that is what I am referring to just to clarify.

Sorry to hear of the short mag issue, maybe Stiller will make it right and can swap out for a non short mag action and you can just use it for another build???? Seems like that 'issue' needs to be proactively told to prospective customers to maintain a good reputation.

Please let me know where your buddy hunts so I can be nowhere in the vicinity. I would not go out with somebody that puts a round in the chamber and walks around, much less leaved one it after getting back to camp!!!!!!

My Borden Alpine Mag will eject and feed loaded 7WSM rounds very smoothly,But Jim did design the alpine mag around the WSM's!

Then how do you get the unfired round out of the chamber??
Will the extractor let go so you can kind of rattle it out??
Is this because the port is too short?

Borden actions are really nice!!

The port is too short. The extractor lets go, so you can pull the loaded round out. I had to have my gunsmith modify the port and work on the spring tension on the ejector just to get it to eject fired rounds. This was after sending it to Stiller and having them botch it up. Apparently it was OK to have a round eject straight up into the scope and bounce back onto the follower? Also after paying shipping both ways from Alaska, waiting over 1.5 years for the action, and paying my gunsmith to fix a faulty action, I did get an offer to send the action back (again my shipping expense) to get my original purchase price back. Sorry to vent, I'm getting pissed off all over again. I guess some customers matter more than others?

I am currently building a WSM repeater on a Stiller. I was not aware of these issues. I can live with the short port as it probably stiffens the action anyhow. I guess if the extractor didn't let go you could just pull the bolt. A definate PITA but not the end of the world. Sounds like you had the ejection issue a couple of years ago? maybe they have changed the ejection angle since then? I guess I will be answering my own questions soon enough.