So I am in the middle of a build that started with seeing a barrel for sale. A local gunsmith with a great reputation was selling a barrel pre-threaded and chambered for a Remingotn 700 in .284 Winchester. I happen to like both, and when I found a Model 7 SS for a great price the wheels started turning quickly. I contacted the gunsmith, and he said we should give it a whirl. Sooo, I now have a 22" roughly #1 contour Apex barrel installed with 0.000" run out. I have a Wildcat Composites UL Model 7 blank on its way.
I'll post a pic later, but I am trying to understand everything I can about the Apex barrel.I understand that it is cut rifled, that the old guy that built them was out of Prescott, AZ and had a name for himself doing gain twists. Any other info someone can lay on me would be great!

One of my .221's has an old Apex barrel. It began as a .222 and was probably at least 10-15yrs old when I got it in the mid 80's. I believe it's button rifled. An excellent barrel, very accurate.

I am 99% sure Apex is still in business in Flagstaff, Az. Now run by Steve Webb, the guy who bought it from Sam May.
I have two phone numbers for them, and I am not sure which is the most current.
520-526-3671
928-853-0502

Apex started with either Sam May or Joe Pfeiffer in Californa back at the end of WWII or maybe earlier, the history is not very clear. There are photos of some of the machinery in Roy Dunlap's book, when Joe Pfeiffer was running the machinery. I have a bunch of KodaColor prints of the machinery I took when I visited Apex.

Sam May moved the business to Flagstaff sometime way back.

Then Randy Brooks bought Apex in the 80's and moved it to American Fork Utah.

Lex Webernick ran the barrel shop and built rifles for a time at American Fork, then he went on to his fame with Lightweights.

Randy Brooks decided to sell Apex in the early 90's, I happened to be in Provo at the time and toured the Apex facility when it was shutdown. Beautiful old school barrel making machinery: Two Pratt & Witney twin spindle gun drills, two P&W twin spindle reaming machines, and the prize, a huge Builders Iron Foundry cut rifling machine, looks like a Pratt & Witney "Grashopper" on steroids. And several lathes, grinders, milling machines, tool grinders, hundreds of gun drills, reamers, rifling cutters. The rifling machine was equipped with straight sine bars for constant twist and curved sine bars for gain twist. It could handle barrels over 8 feet long and bore up to 2 inches or so. I think it was a WWI vintage machine.

Steve Webb bought Apex and moved it back to Flagstaff, last I heard he was making Titanium A-10 30 mm barrels. Lost track of him, anyone know a contact? I would like to purchase some 45 and 50 caliber gain twist barrels if he is still in the "small bore" stuff.

The Late Apex barrels were known to foul. Your barrel will need a good lapping, they were lapped after rifling at Apex but could use some more, especially if a gain twist. I have lapping tools for the Apex Gain Twist barrels, a straight cast lead lap will not work. I will post photos if needed.

I think they pulled buttons when Apex was at American Fork, if so, Steve Webb wound up with the button pulling equipment. The big cut rifling machine had been converted to hydraulic operation and it could also pull buttons.

Wow, that is a history lesson and a half! Thanks fellas. I still owe you all pics and I will get that done.
This is not a gain twist, but a 1-10" I believe. I havent used the rod to check it yet.
As far as lapping, make a cast plug and push it back and forth with JB? I am not a lapping type of guy.
So it is likely that this barrel was last made under Randy Brooks' ownership then? It better shoot the TTSX's I have.....

For a long time, Sam May was cutting the rifling using a broach. This allows a single pass rather than the repeat cut in modern cut rifling as used by Kreiger, Bartlien etc. It is not the same as button rifling which does not remove material but swages the imprint of the rifling into the barrel blank. The broach removes material.

I would not be shocked to learn that Randy Brooks converted to button rifling but the machines described will cut or broach.

Steve Webb is/was doing cut rifling, and according to him they had Sam May come in to teach the in's & out's of his tooling.

Sounds like a neat build who is your gunsmith?

An original Apex custom from late 50s - early 60s.

Mitch Kendal did the metal work. I am going to wrap up the stock. Talley's and a Zeiss Conquest with Z600.
Should weigh roughly 6.5lbs all in.
Like I said, I need to post some pics!

I saw a couple of broaches when I was in the Apex facility, but I would say nearly all of the brarrels were cut rifled. Dozens and dozens of rifling cutters in racks on the wall adjacent to the big rifling machine.


The capability was there to pull buttons, but I am pretty sure no button rifled barrels were made for selling. From talking with Randy I think they were getting close to setting up a button puller about the same time when Apex was shut down. There was a big hydraulic broach in the building that had not been set up in production, it came from Ogden surplus. It could pull broaches or buttons. Also in the building were two tracer milling machines from Ogden, they were to be set up for machining drop boxes for big bore bolt actions. But Alas, all the plans went astray when Lex went out on his own and Apex in American Fork ceased to be.

Apex was a real neat old school barrel shop. They had made many big bore gain twist barrels, a pair of .750 barrels had just been completed and sent off to Europe for the building of a .750 double, this was long before H&H came out with their .700.

That may well be a Joe Pfeiffer built rifle. Joe was one of the best in his time, he was called "The California Rifle Maker." He had maybe 6 to 10 machinists/gunbuilders working for him, they did it all from making the barrels to carving stocks from the blanks.

About 12 years a guy walked into my shop with 4 Pfeiffer barrel blanks in a wood box, straight cylinders with no threads or chambers. Pfeiffer and the bore/twist was stamped on the end of each. Wow! what a find. One is on my 35 Whelen.

Straight twist works OK for a cast lead lap. I would run a bore scope down the barel first to see what you have. JB is pretty fine, you may need to start with a Clover brand lapping compound in fine grit and see how it comes out.



My lapping tool. Big handles and there are two angular contact ball bearings back to back with a spacer inside the body. Note the grease fitting!
The sleeve on the barrel is threaded to fit the barrel, it guides the rod and has an adjustable stop inside to keep the lap in the bore on the return stroke. A empty case is drilled for the rod and is held inside the chamber by a teflon spacer, this keeps lapping compound out of the chamber. And there is an adjustable stop on the rod to keep the lap in the bore at the muzzle. I can get a barrel very warm to the touch with this rig, a cleaning rod is not sturdy enough!

I have rods for different bore sizes, they screw into the lapping handle spindle and are secured with a setscrew.

A 1950 Popular Mechanics article about Joe Pfeiffer's operation.

http://books.google.com/books?id=r9...mp;q=joe%20pfeiffer%20rifles&f=false

As I promised, here are some pics as of today. Its looking to weigh in at 106oz all in. That is..... 6 5/8lbs

The .284 feeds slick as it ever has for me.




Wildcat Composites Model 7 UL (weighs 17oz pictured with 13.5" LOP. Bolt is 8 helical flutes, with the shroud put on a diet.
22" Apex
Talley Lows and Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 Z600

Man that is gonna be slick, but I am partial to the model 7s.

That looks like a really nice build. I have heard good things about your gunsmith hopefully I can get him to do some work for me in the future. The Wildcat stocks are supposed to be as good as anything coming out of the U.S. these days how do they feel and handle?

If my memory is correct, I seem to remember Jack O'Connor using both Apex and the other barrels mentioned here. I can't pronounce the names and I sure am not going to try to spell them.

I might be wrong, but I don't believe that any of the well known barrel makers used a broach. If they did, I don't think they would have used a broached barrel on one of their top of the line barrels.

Be nice. It was a long time ago.

How well are you liking the Wildcat Composites stock?

I have one on my .280AI,it's very light and stiff.Finishing the blank is similar to finishing a Bansner. Monashee

Alright some questions were asked and I was busy working on that beast.
I like the Wildcats quite a bit. I believe that they are lighter and stiffer than a Bansner (I have had both), and this is a very nice and easy blank to work with.
So far I have filed out the notch for the bolt handle, ground out the high spots in the bedding areas and barrel channel (the channel needed a hairs breadth of broadening in the last half)
Then I prepped everything for bedding.
Now I normally use Acra-glas and have been party to the use of Marine-Tex. I have a disease call "can't wait for this crap to cure-itis" so when I was talking to a semi-knowledgeable and sober acquaintance that plays with a lot of guns he mention that GOOP has two products that he has switched to: Supermend and Marine Epoxy Paste. Same idea as Marine-Tex just all round better specs. The warning came on the GOOP Marine though: it sets in 5 minutes and cures in 2hrs. I had a small flickering light bulb go off above my cracked melon and I said "ADHD Epoxy....sweet"
I did a test run with GOOP Marine and epoxy dye and it seemed to set in 7-8 mins and was rock hard and sandable in 1-1.5hrs. Yeah...... and that test piece had the epoxy 1/4" thick.
So I prepped everything well, used my standard clear shoe polish break on everything and taped like I should.
Mixed the epoxy crammed it in and set the barrel and action fast. It was a little scary, that crap sets really fast when you make a large batch.
1.5hrs later I was pulling the metal and action apart and it was rock hard. Man was I happy. This is my new go-to.
Given the quick set time and all it is not for the faint of heart, but I am assured the Supermend is just as good, and it is a little less time sensitive.
Anyway, its all bedded now ready to rock, and the trigger guard is setting with the old fashioned Acra-glas as I type.
I am going to put a .6" Pachmyer in black on the back end (chickened out on the red), and then do the feather coat to smooth out the rest of the stock.
The paint job is going to be determined. When I had everything together the contours are too nice to do anything to funky. Pics up to now.

Did you get the Wildcat with the carbon (full or only forend) or is it pure fiberglass?

Interesting mould lines.
Anybody import one of these stocks to the US? Price?

I didn't get carbon it is straight fiberglass. And still 17oz;)
I don't see why it would be more than $300 to the US, it's getting stuff out of the US that is the problem these days.....

I wouldnt bother with the carbon fiber on his stocks. I have spoken to Stuart multiple times about the benefits of carbon fiber on his stocks, and they are minimal - the weight is almost identical, and his stocks are so stiff already it isnt worth it in my eyes anyways. He doesnt offer many patterns, but the ones he does offer are very light, stiff and best of all he lives within driving distance of me. wildcatcomposites.com

5lbs 4.4oz. I have a pad, fill and paint still. The stock bedded weighed 18.3oz.
I should finish around 5lbs 10oz I am guessing.

Wildcat did not indicate to me that he would have any problem whatsoever in shipping to the USA. I have not pulled the trigger yet though.

Looks Good AF, let me know when you get to drive her, I have lots of 284 load data that worked for many of my past builds.

Really cool. But a 284 Win in anything is cool.
jmho
Tim

Yes I will. Cant thank you enough for your work, it all looks great!
When this other Pacnor arrives and I get out to visit we can talk about that load data, and taking my 6.5x47 and making it into a .260 AI.
I have had a couple rookie "uhhhh-ohhhhh" moments with the stock, but have the epoxy on hand to fix it
We'll stretch it to 600m come May!

I agree.

Ok, it has been a bit, but I got busy. I will throw an update in here and I have finished pics.

Last off I had no pad (I wanted a 752 small black 0.6")but finally found one. I am not a Limbsaver fan, and up here it seems everyone only sells and displays them. I had to have the same business look three times and on the fourth try I asked to look in the "old" Pachmayr box. Bingo, found one.

After fitting, I applied the feather coat and sanded. That took a total of 3 hours with dry time.



So...next to paint. I really like doing that and I am very happy with how it turned out.




It has a primer, and then a textured base followed by flat olive drab in two coats. Then I do the cedar stencil method. I like to stick with colors with similar tones or depth of shade. Flat black was the over coat and it was given 3 coats.
This was followed by 5 coats of satin hardner.

Sorry about the iPhone pics. The next batch are better.

So for the guys wanting an ultra-light stock with the stiffness of a McMillan, Wildcat is an option (I still love my Mc's). They will take care of you and this is what a 14 1/8" LOP stock finished at:


I had to put it all together to have a final total on weight. Pretty fantastic given the Zeiss on top.

This is the finale. I am really happy with it and had fun participating in the build personally, and appreciate the work that others did on it, and you know who you are. Thank you!

And to wrap it up, Model 7 SS in with a 22" #1ish contour APEX barrel. Bolt shroud trimmed and bolt 8x helically fluted semi fast. Talley UL Low rings, lapped and a Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 w/ Z600. Wildcat Model 7 stock with UL fill finished with a 0.6" 752 Pachmayr pad @ 14.125" LOP. 6lbs 9oz.

I hope that this was somewhat interesting.

So, I changed the scope to a seemingly more appropriate 6x42 Leupold and went shooting. It doesn't like 120 Btips. It puts factory PP ammo into an inch but my favorite combo of H4350 and 140 TTSXs sure perform!

6lbs 5oz is the final scoped weight and with that combo even the elk and moose are in trouble.

Well, it does look like it came together nicely, can see why you are pleased. That's a nice set up, the 6X42 will definitely look better and should be really tough. I'm thinking of putting one of the Leupold 6X36 or 6X42 scopes with the LR duplex on my 35 Whelen that is being built this summer.

nice history lesson. looks like a sucess.

WOW, what a worthwhile thread!!!

An amazing amount of history on the Apex barrel. Plus excellent comments on making a really light rifle.

Personally, I learned a lot by following this thread. Many thanks to the folks who made it so GREAT.

Blessings,

Steve

Nothing To not Like On This One. Nicely Done

I quite like a 6x and the 42mm is bright. For the record Mitch was great to deal with and the rifle speaks for it itself.

Nice to have you post about all of this, you happen to be a favorite gun scribe of mine. Well put also, I felt I owed updates and pictures due to the content that others graciously contributed. The article on Mr. Pfieffer was particularly of interest.

I'm going to get Mitch to do some work for me in the future, have heard a lot of good things about him.

Another good story highlighted by a bunch of great pictures. Thanks.

I don't know where you are for magazine constraints, but thinking that the M-7 allows for about 2.815" roughly I wager a guess that the ogive of that 140 TTSX is slightly inside of the case mouth...?

Try some RL 17 in your 284 win. for the heck of it.

Who has tried RL-17 in a .284? Hmmm. Anyone used it in a .270 yet? The data is virtually interchangeable.

remm338win,

By the looks of that group you've posted, RL-17 is going to have to work awfully hard to tighten things up from what that load of H-4350 is giving.

That's looking good, real good..!