My AX.....

[baldie]

I wanted a 6.5 Creedmoor for some time, but could not bring myself to take the barrel off my .308 AX, it's that good.

 

The only answer was start from scratch. I acquired an older model AX, the first one without the barrel changing facility. It came with the quick adjust cheekpiece and target pad in .308.

 

Off came the barrel, and I de-bonded the action from the chassis.

 

Into the lathe went a Krieger blank with a 1 in 8.5 " twist rate. Chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. I decided this was going to be a sub 600 yard rifle, so chose to finish it at 20" , mainly for portability in tactical type comps.

 

 

 

The brake is an American Precision Arms fat B**tard......which is pretty appropriate considering my stature at the moment....

 

It is without doubt, the most efficient brake I have EVER used. The rifle does not lift whatsoever, simply slides backwards. Its only downside is that the shooter gets a little of the blast as the ports face rearwards at 30 degrees.

 

 

The bipod is one of Brian's excellent Phoenix pods and i really like it. Pendulum pods simply work better. Look at the TRG.

 

 

Onto the paint.

 

The gun was entirely stripped down to the last nut, bolt and bush in the stock.

 

Paint is ceracoat H series on ALL parts, over a freshly blasted surface.

 

The pattern is Flectarn, only using 4 different browns, which are AI dark earth, Barrett bronze , McMillan tan and the main colour being Patriot brown.

 

 

The scope is the new Swarovski X5 and what a belter it is. Its sat in NF lightweight rings, which have been painted to match the action.

 

Finally the action was reunited with the stock with factory spec resin and torques/components to full factory spec.

 

Interestingly, when i boresighted the rifle, it was only 1/2 a minute from optical centre.

 

 

Digging through the powder cupboard, I realised I had given away some of the powders I had considered , like reloder 15 and reloder 17. Bugger.

 

I had a pot of H4350 but didn't want to start working up a load with an unreliable supply of an American powder.

 

i really wanted to use Vhit, as its readily available, and I can buy it in bulk. Looking at the burn rate chart, vhit 150 is almost identical to 4350 so i checked out Lapua,s data for the powder. Went with 39.8 grains of vhit 150 and a 123 grain Scenar. Loaded to the data length.

 

Carted myself off to Diggle on a typically wet and wind thursday afternoon, and bore sighted the gun in.

 

These were the first 5 rounds down the tube.

 

 

I cleaned the bore and then fired another 5.

 

 

Cleaned again and continued for another couple of groups, which were much the same.

 

All I,m going to do now is adjust seating depth to see if it alters anything.

 

That load is good enough for me. I will chronograph it to see what the velocity is for the ballistic app, but I hope to get my 1 to 600 settings at a practise day tomorrow. I like hard, real world date, taped to the scope.

 

A project I had been promising myself for a long time, and I'm very pleased with the result.

[John MH]

Shame you cannot make the RBL Dave, looks like this gat would be ideal.

[baldie]

It would John, but I,m on family hols that week.

[terryh]

Dave,

 

I'm beginning to like short rifles, that looks the part.

 

Must also have closer look at hose bipods!

 

what does it weigh in at?

 

what sort of velocities, or velocity loss, are you seeing with the 20"?

 

Cheers T

 

ps if you're in Cornwall again for your hols I can give you a lift up, sneak you away, just tell her your popping out for some fags or something!!

[baldie]

Haven't chronoed it yet Terry, but the CM loses on average about 15 fps per inch [its very good , short ]

 

There was a very good test done in the states, where basically a guy kept cutting an inch at a time off. He got down to 18" satisfactorily.

 

We are coming down to widemouth bay, fancy a pint ?

 

The gun is sort of...midweight...but very pointable.

[Wazzer]

Same load as I'm now using with my Ruger

[baldie]

It seems good Steve.

 

Any idea of velocity ?

[Wazzer]

Haven't had chance to chrono it yet but was shooting the tennis balls the other day at just over 400 yds with 6.25 moa istrelok calculates the velocity at just over 2800

[terryh]

Dave,

 

Widemouth (pronounced -Wid -mouth BTW!) is literally on our doorstep - let me know when you're there?

 

T

[Shuggy]

Beautiful rifle. However a couple of things piqued my curiosity:

 

- It must be great to have two AX rifles, but why not simply swap over the barrels on your other AX as required? Surely it can be done without any harm or significant loss of zero?

 

- You appear to have gone with the max load for N150. Did you go straight to this without working up? I'm just curious why.

[Brillo]

Now that look a nice set-up Dave. It's almost as good a s the one you made for me.

[baldie]

Beautiful rifle. However a couple of things piqued my curiosity:

 

- It must be great to have two AX rifles, but why not simply swap over the barrels on your other AX as required? Surely it can be done without any harm or significant loss of zero?

 

- You appear to have gone with the max load for N150. Did you go straight to this without working up? I'm just curious why.

 

 

It would have been simple to change the barrel on my AX from 308 to 6.5 Shuggy, as it has the q/d screw facility. I just know that the 308 barrel would never have got put back on thats all. I would rather the 308 remain as a complete gun, because I will use it then. I like my rifles ready to go from the cabinet as shooting time for me gets more and more limited.

 

I,m taking today off to get 1 to 600 yard zero's as a treat...I,ve worked all weekend, and 7 days a week is becoming the norm, rather than extraordinary, these days.

 

Yes that is the max load.

 

I would never advocate doing that , but i know the gun, I know how it is barrelled, and I know Lapua,s data is very conservative.

 

I also shot some at 40 grains with no pressure signs whatsoever, but the groups were opening. There would no doubt be an accuracy load at a higher weight, but I don't want to cane the Norma brass.

 

Accuracy beats speed every day of the week.

[Shuggy]

Many thanks for the reply Dave - makes perfect sense.

 

Enjoy your day off at the range; I am sure that you have earned it!

[varminter]

Thats pretty!!!

[Wazzer]

Did you chrono it today

[mikeroz]

I know what you mean Dave, my switch barrel Barnard SM hasn't had the 308 barrel on it since Sept 2014 when I did the Safari steel challenge that Scotch Egg arranged. As you say, if it were a complete rifle I'm sure it'd get used more.

[baldie]

Did you chrono it today

 

 

Tried....and failed

 

It got to 6 o clock, and we couldn't get the bayonet between the fore end and brake, and it was getting rather cold. I will whip the fore end off at some point and do it.

 

I got drops at all ranges out to 600 and going off a previous 6.5 x 47 with a 20" tube I previously owned, i,m estimating around 2800 fps.

 

i was consistently smacking the tennis balls all the way out to 600 in the storm with it. The wind was horrendous.

 

The most amazing thing of the day though, was at 300 yards and further out. The brake enabled me to see my own bullets going downrange.

[Andrew]

Nice rifle!

I have a similar brake on my RPR and I also can see my bullets travel in some conditions. Shooting steel i can watch the paint fly. Recoil is nothing but it certainly roars compared to the suppressed rifles my friends shoot. I have noticed that I occupy a large gap along the firing line when I'm shooting.~Andrew

[Brillo]

Dave, you say you don't want to "cane the Norma brass." Is this a mis-print or do Norma make Creedmoor cases?

[baldie]

No, they make em Mark....I have them on the shelf.

[Wazzer]

Think the 2800 will be some where about right, I get very little recoil from the ruger and can easily see my fall of shot

[bradders]

I get very little recoil from the roger and can easily see my fall of shot

 

What you do in your own time is your business, but hey ho it's a modern world and you crack on

[Wazzer]

Bloody predictive text

[pork chop]

What you do in your own time is your business, but hey ho it's a modern world and you crack on

and the award for funniest post of the year goes to wasser

nice rifle by the way dave

[Swarovski1]

Very nice dave.ive recently bought a T E Terminator muzzle brake.in the tests the did on youtube on there brake testing gadget the T E Terminator is better than the fat bar steward.checkout terminator website.i am very pleased with it.