blood sweat, tears, and .......HAAAAAAAAAA

[baldie]

Ever set yourself a deadline, and just missed it? by a gnats knacker?

This saga started before christmas when Jr sent me a pm, saying he had a load of gear for sale, and in it was a repeating RPA action At the RIGHT money.

Silly question really, as i had a hankering for a new rifle for this season mcqueens series. I had used my 6mmbr last season to good effect, but had to single load it. Now there are two trains of thought on single loading, the first is, that it does away with the possibility of a jam, or mis feed....no big deal you might think? it is when a missed shot costs five points, and the chance of throwing away the match. The second being, make a very reliable mag feeder, and use it...simple really.....

I dont like single feeding, you have to break stock, and eye contact, and open bolt, reload, and close, and get settled again in as little as 5 seconds, so i took the second route for this rifle.

Right, the action landed, and after careful consideration, i opted for a border "archer", in p1 profile [1 1/4" thick] with very heavy flutes, chambered in 6.5x47 lapua, and throated for 123 grain scenars. The idea behind this heavyweight being, it would keep the negligable recoil to a minimum, possibly enabling me to quickly "spot" the shot, on target, and then reload, and make any windage adjustments, "on the hoof"

Into the stock it went. Its pillar bedded, then devcon, and the barrel is sat on 3" of bedding at the cylinder face. The floorplate and assorted bits took some getting from RPA, lets just say . the stock was then milled out to accept this floorplate, which runs the excellent, but expensive sako trg magazine [10 rounder]

Floorplate was also devconned in, to give a totally stress free lock up into the mcmillan a5.

I fitted a jewell trigger, and the top sear as recommended for an rpa.

Then i got a call from Kal saying Ronin was going to the birmingham proof house the next morning, and would i like it taking? now we dont use birmingham in the shop, due to damaged rifles in the past, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Kal rung next morning to say, they couldn,t proof it, as it was light striking [i hadnt fired a live round in it] so back it came. I unwrapped it, and they had managed to damage the barrel flutes and charged me for the priveledge.

I spent the next day messing around with it, trying to find the problem...it was the sear, so in went the standard one, designed for a remmy, and it worked fine

It came back from the london proof house this morning, undamaged, well wrapped, and proofed...there,s a moral there somewhere...

 

 

 

 

I fitted it with a new nxs 8-32 x56 with the np2-dd reticle, as i think its uncluttered-ness picture wise will suit mcqueens well, its sat in lapped nightforce rings, on an rpa 20 minute rail.

 

I shot it in, inbetween proofs, and after 5 shoot and cleans, i shot a cloverleaf 3 shot group, then a 5 shot one holer. Its the most accurate cartridge i,ve ever shot, and i think it will be just the ticket.

The first mcqueens was last sunday....not bad....3 days over deadline.

[Guest 308Panther]

Nice looking Rifle, Baldie

Best of Luck in the upcoming comps.

 

 

308Panther

[craigyboy]

absolutley lovely rifle baldie, very nice, pity the proff house duffed up one of the flutes, I am sure it doesnt effect the one hole groups too much though . You are really sweet on the 6.5 X47 arent you, it does seem to be THE cartridge at the minute.

[Jager SA]

The flutes look lovely man what are you talking about.

[Ronin]

Lovely rifle, shame about the proof house - never to be used again

 

The rifle is awesome Baldie and the trigger, soooo sweeeeet

 

Definately a case for two levels in Mqueens though - standard rifles and "racyguns"

[Redfox]

Yes unfair advantage Baldie

I have heard very little good about Bham proof house recent years and they also marked up the rem that went for bolt proofing for me. Luckily I have bead blasting facilities ( glass beads) and was able to blend it in so it doesnt show, but not a happy bunny at all. The place hasnt changed in the last 50 yrs and they seem completely unaware that damaging expensive kit is absoluteley unacceptable, they seem to imagine everything is in the white and is going to be extensively re- finished!

Redfox

[foxing2night]

Baldie,

What a piece of work that rifle is??, Hang on a min!!!!

 

I just had to wipe my key board??

 

Yourself and i , Have got to sit down and have a chat my mate?????

 

All these rifles that i seen on sunday are doing my f------- head in????

 

And now you go and show us your new one?????

 

I can see you costing me some money this year ££££££££££££££

Take care my mate!!!!! And could you post some groups??

 

All the best darrel

[Orka Akinse]

Baldie

 

What a beautiful looking boom stick you got.

 

I could never fire that prone, I'd get to excited

 

Have you some load data Baldie, I'm thinkin when I need to get my 6.5 x 55 re-barrelled I might look to a 6.5x47 which brings me onto my next question, with my stick is it just a brraell change to make it a 6.5x47?

[Bambi-basher]

Nice rifle there Dave

 

It looks so right.

 

Best rgds

 

B-b

[ds1]

Baldie,

 

Very nice rifle, I take it you will be giving Rob a bit of stick with it.

 

I had a RPA repeater, but for me in an AICS I found that the short but heavy bolt lift meant that I was loosing my cheek weld to cycle the action. The AI works better for me in that respect. It is worth getting someone to video you shooting.

 

Interesting with the trigger - a mate had a problem with a Shillen trigger in an RPA - in a conversation with RPA they advised the use of an RPA trigger (mine had a blue one) on the basis that they seem to eat other triggers.

 

David.

[baldie]

Hi funky, i,ve done everything apart from the chambering.This was to be the very first, but a flushing system from the states, arrived in the uk, and the the hub at coventry didn,t see fit to, either deliver it, or inform us, so it went back, and is now coming over again. Plus the fact, i didn,t really want to lash out on two carbide reamers at silly money, to do my own...it was cheaper for me to let border do it at trade.Daft thing is, we have 3 more of the same calibre now on order.

Everything else was done in-house by myself.

DS1, i know what you mean about the stiff bolt lift, but i spent half a day, and stripped , and honed/polished the cam, and all the internals of the bolt, and now with minimum lubrication, its as sweet as a nut, and its improved the strike no end too.

 

Orca, unfortunatly mate, your 6.5x55 has too large a bolt face for this cartridge, it runs on a .308 bolt face, yours will be slightly bigger.

[Vermincinerator]

Baldie,

With all due respect you dont need a flushing system and you most definately dont need to use carbide reamers!!!

Carbide reamers are easier to break, easier to chip, must use high speeds and feeds,cannot be used by hand to finnish chambers and my opinion dont cut a chamber as accurately as a HSS reamer.

 

Ian.

[Orka Akinse]

Baldie

 

Thanks bud........ Oh well....

[v-max]

Very nice love the stock.

[baldie]

Just thought i,d give a quick update on this gun, as its now settled, and shooting like nothing else i,ve ever shot.

I,ve had a 2nd place at 400 yards benchrest with it, a tactical match 1st place , and a 1st place last saturday at 600 yards benchrest. I,ve no group pics, but the sizes were as follows last saturday. 4.375", 2.5", 4, and a 2.625 giving an aggregate of 3.375" at 600 yards. These groups were with mag fed rounds, that i havent even played with land wise etc.I,m using 39 grains of vv540 and a 123 grain scenar, which is trapping on at just under 3000 fps.

This is one hell of a cartridge for target work, and i,ll bet it will make a pretty good deer cartridge too. Certainly one to put at the top of the list for an all rounder.I built this gun for mcqueens, i never dreamed it would be benchrest accurate, but it is.

[baldie]

Yep, i am chuffed Pete, and i will be letting Les know, as he,s a good friend of ours now.However, i dont think they would take the credit for building the rifle, i did that, they only chambered the barrel, and as i,m sure you know, there is a hell of a lot more to making a match winning gun, than purely fitting a barrel.

[Jager SA]

Just thought i,d give a quick update on this gun, as its now settled, and shooting like nothing else i,ve ever shot.

I,ve had a 2nd place at 400 yards benchrest with it, a tactical match 1st place , and a 1st place last saturday at 600 yards benchrest. I,ve no group pics, but the sizes were as follows last saturday. 4.375", 2.5", 4, and a 2.625 giving an aggregate of 3.375" at 600 yards. These groups were with mag fed rounds, that i havent even played with land wise etc.I,m using 39 grains of vv540 and a 123 grain scenar, which is trapping on at just under 3000 fps.

This is one hell of a cartridge for target work, and i,ll bet it will make a pretty good deer cartridge too. Certainly one to put at the top of the list for an all rounder.I built this gun for mcqueens, i never dreamed it would be benchrest accurate, but it is.

 

Good to see it working Dave, you put a lot time and effort into that rifle, the border barrel was only a step forward I guess.

 

Nice groups and a good aggregate at that distance too.

[JR__]

Nice one Baldie, man, didn't she clean up good!. still pisses me off about that sear. I'll get you back for that sometime. Indeed the 6.5 x 47 on paper looked pretty sweet in my book, and all of the reports back from the barrels made(I had initially ordered that reamer for my rifle and a stateside Savage drop in project, but it took off in popularity hah), just plain shoot. Once I get the barrel machines going here, will be churning one out this summer. I'd been looking at 260, 260AI, and theres just too much work involved. the 6.5 lap is just right.

 

Don't know if youve been watchin, but Badger is coming out with a 3 lug flat bottomed action, kind of an AI/Rem700 split. Damn!!! The problem here there's too much choice. And no restrictions. I may be living on cold beans and tap water soon, haha..

 

JR

[baldie]

Give one a try JR, you wont be dissapointed buddy, its a super cartridge.The badger action sounds good.

[Ronin]

The Badger action not only sounds good but looks good as well, although I for one will be surprised if it comes into production this year, I believe the estimated price is $1000, if thats the case then it WILL be popular.......

 

 

JR,

 

reading into your post, can I infer that you are going to be making your own barrels? Tell more please!!!

[baldie]

Yeah Pat, i shot four rounds through it on sunday, and put it away, its F***ed, i think would be the correct terminology. The cartridge case, loses all its shoulder, and leaves around 1mm of neck, plus shot four split the side of the case. Thats when my arse went It obviously hasn,t been headspaced, as i was told, and the throat isn,t worn....its completely gone.

[baldie]

Pat, it has the waffenampts [inspectors stamps] from a chap who was at a death camp in Steyr, austria, from 39-42.He moved from there to mauser at oberndorf, where this one was made, in 1942, so it is an original mauser. I thought it has the deaths head totenkopf mark, behind the trigger guard , in the stock, but on removal of the russian varnish, it was a nazi eagle, so it wasn,t SS issued originally, but its a racing certainty, thats who last used it, as it was captured at Stalingrad, the last great stand of the SS, where thousands were ordered to stand and die by Hitler.It bears the russian serial numbers roughly stamped into the stock. I,m taking it back on saturday, to the dealer at the royal armouries where i obtained it, he has promised to sort it, and he will, as he,s a gentleman.

[JR__]

The Badger action not only sounds good but looks good as well, although I for one will be surprised if it comes into production this year, I believe the estimated price is $1000, if thats the case then it WILL be popular.......

JR,

 

reading into your post, can I infer that you are going to be making your own barrels? Tell more please!!!

 

Well in a sense, I guess. Have always made my own barrels No, I'm working for an outfit here in Florida, starting up and running a rifle/gun barrel division, primarily for their in house rifle manufacturing needs to begin with anyhow.

 

new employer

 

JR