My frustration with the word "custom".

[Alex Wheeler]

One day I will make a post on what I "know" makes for an accurate rifle. Names and brands are not it. My point in this post is that, yes there is something to producing consistently accurate rifles. You will always find exceptional extremes.

 

[Deleted member 115360]

One day I will make a post on what I "know" makes for an accurate rifle. Names and brands are not it. My point in this post is that, yes there is something to producing consistently accurate rifles. You will always find exceptional extremes.

It rhymes with smarrel

 

[Mike Matteson]

I have never heard that remington is building one off actions where do we find these ?

Remington was building custom actions until it went out of business. Now that it has been sold, the action probable come back in and fore sale. I have seen them in there boxes, but they somebody else and I couldn't get one at that time. The one thing why I got an Rem. 700 long action was that TriggerTech goes right in. The Adjustment is easy, and simple. Poundage is from double set to single set triggers, and from oz to pounds depending which one you purchase. If I don't like how it shoots I will replace the action. A custom rifle to me is. Special reamer that changes the neck to a special thickness, length of free bore, changing case dimensions, barrel, resizing die for what being built, twist rate depending on what you are going use what type of bullets to shoot. I have built several stocks for me, because of my arm length and I am left handed. I looked into checker the stocks, but never tried it. I bedded my own action. The rifle was fitted to me, to long for others. Other than that you are just putting parts together.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

It rhymes with smarrel

Nope. A poor action never gets a good smarrel.

 

[JMW67]

what was custom about the actions or were they just a trued up 700 I have never seen one and am curious

 

[Deleted member 115360]

Nope. A poor action never gets a good smarrel.

Well, the cheap Savage rifles have an action that reminds me of that time me and my friend Billy Ray jumped a Volkswagen with 3 wheels over a train trustle into a rockpile full of rebar every time I cycle them, but they had game changing accuracy......so?

 

[skipglo]

Being an old drag racer IMO there is a big difference in "Custom" vs " Highly Modified"

Had to read this Twice...getting Old...first I read DRAG QUEEN! Thank God I put my glasses on! ( Sorry Bean...Rum)

 

[ntsqd]

IMHO Buleprinted has a specific defninition: It is built to the exact specifications and tolerances (or no tolerance) as the orginal designer put in the original design. I have blueprinted car engines many times - and there is lot of work to get parts or modify parts to exact spcification. Same for a firearm. Read up on "Family Porsche" - a Porsche built to exact specification for a memeber of the Porschefamily.. Custom on the other hand is different - it is something new built from the ground up or modified to a one of a kind. Restomod is more of a cleaned up original something with different parts added - such as '57 Nomad wagon with a later model Corvette engine.

The problem with that definition, and that is the common definition, is that everything is set to within factory tolerances. So it is not any better than something right off the showroom floor because all of those parts are also within factory tols or it would not have made it far enough to be sold (excepting the parts that slipped by). This is true of both vehicles and rifles. So "Blueprinted" sounds good, but it really doesn't tell me anything new. OTOH if a rifle is being sold with an action that has been "trued and tuned", now that tells me something useful.

In my whole 30-odd year career in manufacturing and Engineering I can recall seeing Basic dims on three different drawings. Not that the whole part was Basic, just one or more of the dims on the drawing. Which is to say that a part with a dimension that has no tolerance (aka "Basic") is a pretty rare thing indeed. Mfr's do not like them, they drive the cost of the part literally astronomically high.

I do cars more than rifles, Restomod is a very familiar term. One that I think should be applied far more often than it is. When I see something like a '57 Nomad with an LS3 in it and the seller is calling it "Restored" I immediately figure they're either lazy, ill-informed, a shyster, or a used car salesman; and possibly all four. When they label the same car as a Restomod then I think that they're being much more truthful and are likely much more engaged in the car hobby.

"Custom" could be defined as I changed one action screw from blued to stainless. That makes the rifle truly one of a kind as there aren't likely to be any others out there with only one SST action screw. So calling a rifle "Custom" means nothing, but it sure sounds good!

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Well, the cheap Savage rifles have an action that reminds me of that time me and my friend Billy Ray jumped a Volkswagen with 3 wheels over a train trustle into a rockpile full of rebar every time I cycle them, but they had game changing accuracy......so?

Opinions are opinions, records are records. Savages are ok, so are 700s, like I said its not a name its the fundamentals. What Id like more people to understand is how critical the action is to accuracy. Every bit as important as the barrel.

 

[Deleted member 115360]

Opinions are opinions, records are records. Savages are ok, so are 700s, like I said its not a name its the fundamentals. What Id like more people to understand is how critical the action is to accuracy. Every bit as important as the barrel.

I'd say if you have a gun that shoots .8 moa, and you want to shoot .5 moa, then yes the action is as important as the barrel, but you can slap the worst pile of junk action up to a good barrel and shoot moa or better.

 

[JMW67]

Opinions are opinions, records are records. Savages are ok, so are 700s, like I said its not a name its the fundamentals. What Id like more people to understand is how critical the action is to accuracy. Every bit as important as the barrel.

I would have to agree the action is to a rifle what the foundation is to a house if you start with crap you will end up with crap

 

[Paulstarr]

I think most of us have been on the planet long enough to know what a custom gun is.Relax and don't let the jokers wind you up.

 

[Tiny Tim]

Only if they seller is charging "Custom Rifle" prices for a less than truly custom built rifle, then IMHO it does matter.
To most well informed firearm owners the term "Custom" means all or nearly all of a firearms major components or parts are top grade made to much higher tolerances and QC than those used in mass produced factory rifles and the parts and components are hand fitted and hand assembled.
The had fitting and hand assembling is again IMHO where the real cost differences are incurred.
Firearms made of a combination of standard quality factory mass produced parts and top quality parts I would imagine fall under the heading of semi-custom.

Agreed. That is why I stated that terms must be agreed upon. I should have clarified with the qualifier, "by the parties in the discussion/ negotiations." I run into this defining of terms in almost every area of life because people misuse terms unknowingly or ignorantly all of the time, myself included.

 

[Jon Bischof]

as you can see, this is a more pure quasi-custom.