William W.
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2014
- Messages
- 109
No one seems to have mentioned checking your barrel crown.
While picking up a rifle at my small FFL, I saw a resale of a gorgeous cerakoted, well-bedded Remington 308 with the standard 24" 5R barrel topped with a vintage 3-10 matching cerakoted Leupold sight with Leupold level, on a Badger Ordnance Picatinny rail, and a perfect matching Mcmillan stock in their Desert camo with a fitted brake. The cerakoted bolt had the Badger Ordnance bolt knob. Well, says I: the original rifle was close to $1000, the stock is $1000 and the scope is $1000, what is not to like with a $3000 price? Well, the groups aren't: just over one MOA with fliers. I hand-turned off the brake and looked at the crown where it appears that the crown over the front 5/8 x 24 thread was cut with a dull tool and some of the lands material was slightly pushed into the crown, instead of being removed. My friendly local gunsmith friend concurred, removed the barrel, after I marked the lug position on the receiver (as he taught me earlier), turned a slight bevel on the crown and used it to replace the barrel on my hunting rifle which is now just at barely 1 MOA with no fliers to date.
I bought a Bartlein barrel from my commercial gunsmith, Southern Precision (who does great work), which my above-noted local friend (BTW an 85-year old former Marine who knew Land of Carlos Hathcock fame) chambered and threaded with his home lathe and cut a muzzle thread for a brake. He took the time and care to match the lug position so that the new barrel and old received slid perfectly into the very professional-looking bedding. Now, I have to engage a local cerakote sprayer to apply and cure the paint that I hopefully perfectly matched with my large selection of cerakote chips. Accuracy to be determined.
Oh, and in the process, always wanting a vintage sniper rifle and being a Carlos Hathcock fan, he is selling me a pre-64 Winchester rifle with the big (and legal) non-raised comb target stock with a heavy 30-06 barrel and 8x Unertl scope for $2000 - which took some of the sting out of my prior purchase buyer's remorse. The scope is at a Unertl specialist to have the recoil spring removed as required by Vintage Sniper rules.
Yes, I know that Carlos used the commercial stock and somehow managed to prop his head high enough on the very down-sloped relatively thin commercial stock to get a stable cheek rest for his superb shots.
While picking up a rifle at my small FFL, I saw a resale of a gorgeous cerakoted, well-bedded Remington 308 with the standard 24" 5R barrel topped with a vintage 3-10 matching cerakoted Leupold sight with Leupold level, on a Badger Ordnance Picatinny rail, and a perfect matching Mcmillan stock in their Desert camo with a fitted brake. The cerakoted bolt had the Badger Ordnance bolt knob. Well, says I: the original rifle was close to $1000, the stock is $1000 and the scope is $1000, what is not to like with a $3000 price? Well, the groups aren't: just over one MOA with fliers. I hand-turned off the brake and looked at the crown where it appears that the crown over the front 5/8 x 24 thread was cut with a dull tool and some of the lands material was slightly pushed into the crown, instead of being removed. My friendly local gunsmith friend concurred, removed the barrel, after I marked the lug position on the receiver (as he taught me earlier), turned a slight bevel on the crown and used it to replace the barrel on my hunting rifle which is now just at barely 1 MOA with no fliers to date.
I bought a Bartlein barrel from my commercial gunsmith, Southern Precision (who does great work), which my above-noted local friend (BTW an 85-year old former Marine who knew Land of Carlos Hathcock fame) chambered and threaded with his home lathe and cut a muzzle thread for a brake. He took the time and care to match the lug position so that the new barrel and old received slid perfectly into the very professional-looking bedding. Now, I have to engage a local cerakote sprayer to apply and cure the paint that I hopefully perfectly matched with my large selection of cerakote chips. Accuracy to be determined.
Oh, and in the process, always wanting a vintage sniper rifle and being a Carlos Hathcock fan, he is selling me a pre-64 Winchester rifle with the big (and legal) non-raised comb target stock with a heavy 30-06 barrel and 8x Unertl scope for $2000 - which took some of the sting out of my prior purchase buyer's remorse. The scope is at a Unertl specialist to have the recoil spring removed as required by Vintage Sniper rules.
Yes, I know that Carlos used the commercial stock and somehow managed to prop his head high enough on the very down-sloped relatively thin commercial stock to get a stable cheek rest for his superb shots.
