baldie

Without a doubt, 2019, has been the year of the good old T3. Never known as many. Not hard to understand, its a damn good action, that makes a very nice custom rifle, with the right bits. The customer sent his old gun down for a calibre change. This is now a 6.5 Creedmoor. The barrel is a sassen 1-8" twist, and finished with an M18 x 1 thread and invisible cap, and an 11 degree target crown. The rail is a 20 MOA unit, and the barrelled action is done in Cerakote OD Green. Bolt shaft is bead blasted. Paint and DLC always wears on a bolt shaft....a simple fact of life. The customer wanted a more durable finish. Bead is actually a polish....which is why it should never be used under paint. Coupled with a wipe of oil, and cerakote on the action, you have the absolute slickest of bolts there is. Like a greased weasel. The stock is a McMillan A5. Into this went a Tier one floor plate, with my customary bedding, holding it in position, with aluminium pillars sandwiched in-between. The action was then bedded into the top, and the two beds meet and lock together. This gives an absolute rock solid action/floorplate, that is never going to move anywhere, regardless of how enthusiastic you get with the allen keys. I like to paint the insides, simply because I think it looks nice, and shows a bit of extra care. Finished with a 5 round Accuracy International magazine, and the customers own ASE Northstar mod.

Finished this one a couple of weeks ago, made a change from the usual stuff or re barrelling tikka's this year [ never done as many ] Anyway, this started life as a left hand, donor long action remmy. Its had a full blueprint, then fitted with a Sassen blank, and chambered in 7 x 64 Brenneke. The customer already has one of this calibre, I made him a while ago, and loves it. It has one of my 3 port brakes, and also a Jet z moderator. Bolt knob conversion and 20 MOA rail. The stock is an MDT model, and i've cerakoted it, in one of my camo patterns. The colours were picked to be similar to the Canadian MARPAT [ i think its called ] which has a lot of lime green , simulating Lichen, in it. A pig of a job. I dont use airdry ceracoat for ease, on jobs like this.....every colour is heat cured cerakote, and in and out of the oven many times. Takes far longer, but it doesn't wear off. Barrelled action is done in cerakote OD Green.

Fill your profile in please, as per the forum selling rules.

The barrel thread is M18 x 1.5 right hand. The thread on the end of the muzzle brake is M18 x 15 LEFT hand.

Sassen barrels are made from the same steel as the American barrels. It comes out of the same mill. You will find a lot of the people with low opinions of them, are the ones that didn't pay their bills, or created like a petulant child when they couldn't have theirs "immediately" I've used into the 1000's of both border and sassen barrels over the years, and never had a bad one. Its bullsh1t, perpetuated by people who should know better. AI dont use crap barrels.

Sassen barrels are the equal of anything else out there. The cut rifled ones have an internal finish, better than any of the American blanks. They do more hand lapping.

Nothing in the UK. I bought an area 419 Mloc to ARCA rail and modified it to fit. There is a company in the states that does a dedicated one, but i've forgotten their name, and they won't ship anyway. Worth doing. It pisses allover the saddles. The gun will retain POA on ARCA, where it won't in a saddle.

Thanks Andy, i have a SAAMI and also a CIP .338. This problem rears its head more in the .338 than any other cartridge. Usually because the "once Fired" Mil stuff is RUAG, and its very hot. The brass is also very thick, which usually means you can't shove it back far enough to chamber [web thickness] Dont get me wrong, a lot of fired brass WILL chamber in a different gun, but its very dependant on the cartridge, and just how thick/long the web is. A good example being my own 6.5 creed. The norma brass i'm using, has seen 3 barrels now, lord only knows how many cycles its had, but I did chamber all the barrels, and know they were all absolutely true, which helps.

No. Most definately not. The unfired round will be made from brass that is smaller than SAAMI spec, ensuring it will fit in any chamber. FLS will only take it back near to SAAMI, or on it, if you are lucky. Brass work hardens, which is why we anneal the necks. You can only push the webs back as far as the dies will allow, and sometimes that isn't enough to chamber the case.

Lets de bunk a few myths shall we ? Virgin brass is NOT SAAMI spec. Its smaller than it. Thats so it will fit in ANY rifle. Most dies won't size back to "SAAMI spec" either. Even the best makers seem to have trouble even getting them the right length, never mind to spec these days. Brass will spring both ways. Using brass fired in a factory rifle, then sized to fit a custom barrel is asking for trouble. Factory chambers are never concentric, nor minimum SAAMI spec. I've seen it so many times in the shop. People coming back with an expensive custom rifle i've made them. " Its won't chamber these cases, there must be summit wrong with the headspace" No, you shagwit....youve put your old ten times fired brass from from your Howa/rem/CZ through it... You put that which promotes growth and vigour in, you will get that which promotes growth and vigour out. New barrel, new brass.....every time.

Invention of the devil. They only ever break/snap in one place.

Dies arrived yesterday Steve, thank you. Always as described, and quick. Buy with confidence from this man.😊

Only shot the one at Tiffs not long back. A very steep learning curve. The Creedmoor is undoubtedly the cartridge, but you need a 140 grain bullet past 1000. I used my AX. Starting next season, I will be using an AXMC in creedmoor, and also .300 Norma. The weight is an advantage. The rifle is far more stable on bags, recoil is reduced, and spotting your own shots becomes viable. A good sling takes care of moving it about.

I'll take the redding 30-06 AI set please Steve. PM me your details buddy.

i believe Steve has stopped work on rifles ? there is a point where you are simply polishing the turd, and rolling it in glitter. As I outlined, and proved earlier, a sleeved bolt makes absolutely no difference to how the gun will shoot. It just feels a bit better. A bolt with 0.001" clearance will also cause you problems in anywhere but a clean dry range environment.

Anytime buddy, buzz me first in case i'm at the proof house, its almost weekly these days.

No derek, on has gone to Bisley already, the other will be going this next week. I always have guns in stock though. There are a couple in now.

Nice to do a colour other than black! I build quite a few AR's and they usually are what I call my basic CSR rifle....and usually black. Here's a couple of recent ones. This one has an 18" barrel and brake in armour black. Upper is a cross machine, converted to side charge. Cross machine fore end Lower is an Aero with Magpul furniture, tuned std trigger. Paint is Cerakote burnt bronze. My favourite combination, and always looks good. The second is this one Bartlien 20" national match profile blank, with brake. Cross machine upper. Aero lower. Triggertech trigger. cross machine fore end magpul UBR stock and grip Tangodown front grip and various sling attachments. Paint is Cerakote Sig Dark Grey, and Armour black. The customer send his scope and mount in for zeroing on the gun, so I took it to the range. Its only a six power max scope, which is always interesting to zero. Anyway, I walked it off the sand, onto a target and put 10 ads of GGG down it , to break it in and wake it up. About average for Mil spec ammo. Its cheap, and its good enough for CSR. I then thought I'd try my usual generic handload, which works in all my AR's. 77 grain sierra matchking 24.5 grains of V140 BR4 primer. Shooting off a bipod with a 6 power scope, I sent 5 rounds at the target, not knowing exactly where they had gone. I had a squint through another scope and could see one hole. Thought to myself, "where have the other 4 gone " ? Walked down to the target and got a shock. This is why I always recommend handloads in my AR rifles. Sure, they will shoot mil spec for CSR, but Handloads will always give quite an astounding edge. Both these rifles are bound for the winter league at Bisley.

7mmRsaum I built recently and tested at Bisley this week. These are 1000 yard targets. The " V " is 5"...... Bartlien blank.

The velocity measured on an electronic target, is the speed the bullet goes through the target at Nick. It will be somewhat faster at the sharp end.

No, its no where near as harsh as JB buddy. People do use regularly I believe, I just use it on a new barrel. The lapping process uses diamond paste, which is a little more aggressive than proprietary bore polishes, so it won't affect the lapping process [ which is far more affected by the first few rounds down the tube anyway ] I polish the entire tube.

Another good tip is to buy yourself a bottle of KG bore polish. This stuff looks to me, to be like a liquid pumice ? Every week, when I'm cleaning the guns back from proof, I follow my usual doses of boretec carbon remover and sweets, with a good clean/polish with this stuff. You can actually feel, on the rod, what it's doing. New barrels treated this way, shoot better, much faster. I'm certain it speeds up the break in process.

Luckily both you and I are in a position to experiment Andy. Personally, I love the Creedmoor. Worn three barrels out shooting allsorts with them, and It will be the last cartridge I ever ditch. As with all cartridges, it has its outright merits, and also its limitations. I blame the bullet makers. They keep bringing out these heavy for calibre bullets, when in reality, virtually all of them can be likened to a stunning woman, a thoroughbred horse, or an F1 racing car/bike. Mad as a sack of badgers. Guys who have had a gun built, or shoot a factory gun, like to try these things. Dont we all ? But it often ends in tears when they can't get them to work, because a bit of the crazy criteria is missing. I learnt a valuable lesson at Tiff's place in the last PRL. A creed shooting 123's won't cut the mustard, if you want to chance your arm in the ELR day on sunday. I was surrounding the long range stuff at 1350/1400, but they were transonic. My mate was hitting them with a .260/140g Berger. Just that little bit extra did it. There is so much truth in the old saying. "use enough gun" The creed with 140's will just about do it. A 6.5 x 47 would be pissing in the wind. All very similar at normal ranges. Shove the envelope and the wheels come off. I'm talking ELR here, not the sub 1000 stuff. Important for the guys who only run one all rounder. I reckon Gary [op] is about bang on the money with the 140 or the 143. Its about as much as it will take, and work properly.

Found this out the hard way. Dont run a barrel in with HBN coated bullets. You are prolonging the agony. All the Bartliens i've used in the last 12 months have taken a good 200 rounds to optimise. They seem to speed up around that mark, though some of the .224 blanks have gone as far as 400 before speeding up. My own .223 wylde AR15 being a good example. It was decidedly average for 400 rds, to the point I almost whipped it off. Then all of a sudden, it became WAY more accurate, and gained 200 fps. If that isn't evidence of "breaking in" I don't know what is. That was a one off. Bartliens always shoot well, but they can be slower to settle down than others. I've always thought though, that a slow breaking in barrel, may just last a bit longer. using HBN from the word go, only slows this process down. It need some naked bullets down it to smooth it out, then switch to coated.

Yes, its removed with Aluminium oxide, NOT bead media [not a good base for paint ]