Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Rifles I just finished

I am new to 24 But have been on THF quite a while. Here are a couple customs I just finished for inventory. All shoot 1/2 MOA. 300 Win, 270WSM and 308 1/10
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Very nice and welcome!

Nice rifles.

Welcome to the fire.

Thanks!

How about the specs on these rifles.

They look great.

DF

+1

No problem I actually have them listed in the For sale area.
They are all built on Stiller actions. Timney triggers at 2.5 Lbs. Hand lapped bench mark barrels, bedded and floated on B&C Stocks. Weigh 8-9 Lbs
They are all 24 inch barrels. The 300 win mag is 24 plus a 3 hole threaded break that I make. Coating is a bake on KG gun kote like cerakote but I actually like it better.
The 308 is a 1/10 twist

I think that covers it all??

Nice work.

DF

Give us your thinking on using Stiller vs. other custom actions.

DF

Well in my opinion I do not really know how much of a shooting benefit you receive from one custom action to the next I would not have enough proof to make a good argument, after you have stepped up to a custom action over a standard action is really the big jump. I personally like Stiller as a company. They sponsored a TV show that my wife and I did a few years back. There turn around is fair and the they are not the cheapest or the most expensive. I think they machine on heck of a part and their fit and finish is awesome. I spent a few years working for Bowtech/ Savage arms doing planning and procurement for R&D and I do not think I ever saw a part as nice as the Stillers. I like the pin in lug and mounts but I know that is not exclusive to them. The way their bolt fits on the recoil lugs is dang near perfect every time. I would argue that as a gun builder it is an easier build than blueprinting a remington 700.

On a remington 700 or even savage action you can get some awesome accuracy given that it is blueprinted and mated with a good barrel. In fact my gun I am hunting with this year is on an old used Remington action but it shoots 1/4MOA. IMO you just do not get the same fit 90% of the time on a standard action. For example when coating the barreled action on a remington the bolts fit sloppy enough that you do not have to be too worried about the amount of paint you get in the action. On the stillers you have to be dang careful because if you overspray the bolt will not fit. If you notice on a remington sometimes when you dry fire the gun you will knotice some bolt lift on the knob that can be pretty bad. On the customs you rarely see that.

All my opinions Get any solid action, square it all up and put a really good lapped barrel with it. Put it in a stiff stock, Bed and float it. Tune the trigger and you can get most of them to shoot good.

270 WSM has sold

Speaking of a tight fit, can't that become a problem in dusty, dirty environments.

Mausers are pretty sloppy, but are robust and hard to stop even when dirty.

DF

I have never had a problem with them, Snug is good in my book, means good fit and them means accuracy. Much rather have snug fit than sloppy. If it sloppy you might as well shoot an AR I know a lot of people are fans but I personally do not love the mauser style actions. I think they are harder to get to shoot well, not to say we have not done some that shoot great. Just my opinion.

When you say the rifles are guaranteed to shoot 1/2 MOA, what criteria are you using? An average of five 5 shot groups at 100 yards? One 3 shot group with factory ammo?

I typically start the break in process with 5-20 rounds through the gun cleaning as I go. (unless the customer wants it broken in a ready to go, then I shoot more till it sets in). Then shoot 3 to 5 shot groups with factory ammo @100 yards, unless the customer has asked to match the ammo to the rifle that I have hand loaded. I do not want to create a gun that shoots 1/2 moa but you have to shoot some special hand load. All my personal guns but 1 I shoot factory ammo. And the one I shoot hand loads its a 7 mag I built to shoot a bison with the 180 bergers.
Obviously there are some factors in that I cant control. Are you shooting cheap corelocks out of a custom rifle, and are you a terrible shot

This image is the prefect example. This was the 270WSM that I sold yesterday. I shot the gun 3 times cleaned it good. Shot the 4th shot low. Made a slight adjustment shot the 3 shot group at 1/2MOA, made a adjustment and shot the 5th shot in the center. This gun is not 100 % broken in and I was shooting cheap winchester ammo just to break it in. I know though that this gun when it gets 20-50 shots in it with good ammo its going to be under 1/2 MOA. I have not sent targets with them in the past but I am going to start doing that. I made my logo on business card and am going to start shooting that and sending it with the gun. Uploaded with ImageShack.com

That's a pretty cool idea to have a business card/test target.

Yeah my logo is kind of a circle so I made it 1 moa for 100 so i can get all the bullets inside of it. I have not shot it yet but looking forward to it. Figured would be easier to send that with a gun than a whole big target.

The bold text is one reason I would consider using this gunsmith for a build, I don't know him either. Someone who is straight up and does not throw a bunch of BS on the table when faced with a question he may not be able to answer.

Dumb question, but what does the bolt handle rising during dry firing reveal?

I pulled a Win 70 out of my safe to "re-discover". The bolt jumps a large amount when dry firing

That is an interesting question I would love to know more about that. There are tons of opinions on this and I have never reached a good answer or figured out how to really get rid of it. I see it WAY more on Winchesters than Remingtons and hardly ever on customs. I have tried to see if it effects accuracy but I am not conclusive yet but I feel like it does. Here is what I think it is

- Slop in the action bolt and the firing spring is strong enough to move it
- The reset alignment in the trigger area is not perfect ie maybe the action is tweaked or not cut 100% correct
- The firing pin spring is too tight, or too loose.

It would be in interesting experiment to shoot a group as is, then pull the bolt up a bit after reseting it to see what position you get the least amount of jump. Make you a wedge out of tape as a new shelf there and then shoot another group. See if there is variation in the groups. Thats what I have been trying to work on but no real big conclusion yet.