Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles A Huge Thank You to Mickey Coleman

This past May, I found myself in a quandary. My very first rifle, given to me by Dad when I was 12, had always been an abysmal shooter. 2" groups were great, 3" groups were far more common, and 4" groups weren't unheard of. Neither the brand of ammo nor the bullet weight made any difference. It was to the point where I was contemplating sending it down the road.

But nostalgia always gets the better of me, & I knew I'd be kicking myself forever after if I were to sell it. Figuring I had little to lose, I called Mickey to see if he could help me. As we talked, I heard him moving about his shop, and at last he explained that he'd found a spare barrel, that could be reamed to a cartridge that would work for me, & he suspected it would probably improve the accuracy. It happened to be a stainless barrel, but I had no problem having a mix-n-match rifle that shot well, versus a pretty blued one that didn't. He then explained that he could do the work at a price far too good for me to ever repeat.

So, I pulled the action from the stock & sent it to Southern Alabama. Given that I don't patronize gunsmiths much, I had no idea what the turnaround time might be, and I was shocked to have it back in slightly over a week. It had left my home as a .243, and returned as a 7mm-08.












Unfortunately, things got busy for me over the Summer, & I didn't get a chance to check it out at the range 'til yesterday.

My buddy put together some test loads for me, and here's the first group with 120 BT's over R15:





Though I pulled shot #3, the whole group was still at �"! The next 2 groups opened up a bit... because of called flyers. Still, each of those groups had 2 overlapping shots.

This rifle was already responsible for taking my biggest whitetail buck to date. And now, it's history includes the exacting touch of an outstanding gunsmith, and a great human being. What remains to be seen is whether I actually hunt with it again: I'm pretty excited to hand it down to my sons!

Thanks again, Mickey!

FC

Glad to hear you are able to enjoy your rifle again.

One day I will have Mickey do one for me.

Is it a Rem 788?

Last year I lost the triggerspring of my Rem 721. It is hard to get one here, so I wrote about this here in the campfire, and Mickey sent me one. Without wanting money for it and without knowing me. Last august I shot my first Damwild (nearly a whitetail deer) with it. Thanks Mickey.

Yup. And to hear it told here on the 'Fire, it was the only one ever built that didn't shoot well!

FC

Real nice on all accounts.

Mickey is definately one of the good guys, and he obviously proved it in several different ways here.

Thanks for sharing. You've got a fine rifle there!

Mr. Coleman is all class!

Personally I love the blued action/stainless barrel. Just think it looks badazz.

Nicely done...

OUTSTANDING! Great story and neat rifle. And, I LIKE the way it looks!

Amen to that!

Dober

Mickey is good people.

Yup, Mr. Coleman is first class. Turned down a mauser job I needed done because he wasn't comfortable with the work it needed as he had little experience working on them. That to me is a great show of professionalism, turning down work bc you don't think you could do it to your standard.

He has cool dogs too!

Congrats on your fine rifle. Yes Mr. Coleman is a fine gunsmith and better person.

I seem to recall conversations about that gun...

Great to see it turned out.

Connection seems a little hazy - that a variable scope?

That is very nice!

Yup. It's a Vortex 2-7. Is that cheating?

FC

Mickey is a good dude! he's built me a few rifles and all of them have shot very very well!

Mickey is a class act and a wonderful rifle builder.

Was busy bedding a Coleman rifle last night... He's been super good to me.