AusVarmint

Six months ago when JR put the recipe out for a budget LR rifle based on the Omark action I made some enquiries and then decided to head off on the journey to build one. This weekend the journey came to an end with me finally getting it up to the range to shoot it.

I decided to use the Omark action, a Maddco barrel and to make my own stock after some convincing from Kenny here on the forum.

Well after many hours sitting at the table with the graph paper to design the stock so the I could put the thumbhole and raised cheekpiece into the design I finally had it.... except for the next 50 odd hours in the shed to cut it out, glue it up and shape it...... thanks Kenny

I must say a big thankyou to JR, Tony Z and Kenny for all of the assistance and guidance they have given me.

I think that the rifle has come up pretty good as can be seen from the pictures below and so far seems to shoot just as well. The pictures of the groups were achieved during fireforming cases at 100 & 200 yards.

All up the rifle ended up costing me just on $1200 and I can't wait to get it to the 1000yd match next sunday here in Townsville.

That's a beautiful job! The stock looks fantastic. I bet you are proud of it.

albow,

Thats a bloody nice rifle mate .. bet you proud of it. What calibre did you opt for ?

cheers
Rinso

That is a great looking bit of gear mate and shooting groups like that while fireforming brass makes it look like load development will be pretty easy - top stuff!!!

Single word - AWESOME!

Love the stock particularly. What type of scope is sitting on top of it?

Also to get those groups what process did you go through? I mean did you weigh brass and projectiles etc

Rinso - I went with a 30. It was more of a decision around on how to push it. I was considering the 30/284 as originally suggested by Jeff however ended up getting the 9.3x62 lapua brass and have necked it down to 30. This gives a case pretty similar to a 30/06 improved.

Simpson - The scope is a Nightforce 12-42 x 56. With regard to the fireforming I had batched and prepped the brass but was shooting the rejects from when I batched my projectiles....but looking at the results maybe I should have kept them . If you go back through the shooting sports articles here then you will find a bundle of information written by aJR on what he does to batch his components. This is pretty much what I have done and followed as a process.

The rifle is pretty much built to the spec that JR posted when suggesting you could build a budget rifle and make it competitive. The only changes are the actual cartridge choice and the self made stock.

albow,

I went with a 30. It was more of a decision around on how to push it. I was considering the 30/284 as originally suggested by Jeff however ended up getting the 9.3x62 lapua brass and have necked it down to 30. This gives a case pretty similar to a 30/06 improved.

Sounds like a good choice mate, welcome to the 30 cal club. You will find a great range of projectiles from 155 to 210 grns for it.
30.06 Imp has some reasonably good ballistics but why neck down cases Lapua make a 30.06 dont they ?
What sort of load are you looking at (powder & projectiles) or are you still experimenting ?
Would love to here how it progresses and wether it meets your expectations, keep us up to date will ya.

cheers
Rinso

Albow, f@#kn awesome mate, my next stock will be a L/R benchrest stock for a winchester action and i was thinking along similar lines to yours. Excellent job, is the ply pine? and how do you find the thumbhole set-up? What did you coat/seal it with?
Regards Alpal.

Beautiful work, albow, it makes my fugly Ackley look REALLY fugly; but that is in the process of changing; still won't match yours.
i hope to see you and all the blokes out at the range soon...
the WOOB

Rinso

Lapua do make the 30/60 brass however at the recommendation of JR went with necking down the 9.3. I am using the 175 SMK's at the moment with AR2209 and this seems to be working pretty well and will definitely keep you updated on how it goes.

alpal

The stock is made of marine ply and it has seven veneers in it. I chose the marine ply because the veneers do not have any of the "voids" in them which you will find normal ply and the glue used in making this ply is a "better" quality due to the marine environment it is normally used in. Proper marine ply will have a stamp on the outside veneer indicating that it is marine ply. I glued the laminates together with Techniglue CA which is a epoxy resin used in boat building and is very similar if identical to araldite when cured but sets faster, is half the price and more suitable to sanding. The finish for the stock is an epoxy resin product made by West Systems and again used typically for boat building. The resin is number 105 and the hardner I used is 207 which is for clear coating..... on reading this information you would have thought I was building a boat West System have a great web site as per the attached link with miles of information on their products and how to use them.

http://www.westsystem.com

Brilliant work mate that is one nice rifle!!!! If you ever want to sell it please let me know first!!!

Cheers!!!

G'Day Albow,
bloody fantastic work!!!!!!!!
Hopefully the 2 stocks I'm making will work just as well!
Cheerio Ned

Albow,

OHHHHHHH.......OHHHHHHHH .......YEAH

You have done a flamin' good job
I reckon you better patent that design
That is certainly something to be proud of.

No need to thank me....you did it all yourself....... I may have encouraged it a bit......
oh alright I admit it....
it's my fault .....but it didn't hurt for long did it

I believe the wait was worth it looking at those groups, they are pretty damn sweet, and you still haven't found the 'sweet spot' yet

KY

Thanks Albow,
I am familiar with the west system and marine ply, figured it may be that, so not only does it look great, it should last a life time.
You gotta be proud of that effort!!
Regards Alpal.

I was up with Alan on Saturday when he did some more testing of loads and there was honestly not a bad load to be seen. Just some were better than the others and in all the years of building and testing of rifles, i have never seen one that shot half inch fireform loads at 200 yds as consistantly as this one does. Even Als mate who hadn't shot a centrefire in decades was able to shoot a horizontal slot sub inch at 200 yds. The trick is now to get that consistancy in a match load which looks very promising from what i was seeing. The choice of the 9.3 brass over 30/06 or 6.5/284 brass was well justified as the places Alan went would have destroyed the other Lapua offerings. The 175s he is using should be doing well over 3000 fps and is just now getting some slight extraction stickiness which will be cured when i make up the taper and chamber/seater die combo. I measured a good sample of cases and found minimal movement, so i think it may be possible at some point in future testing that a third node can be found at somewhere around or over 3100 fps. A real credit to Lapua and their indestructable 9.3x62 brass, which should be the first choice for anyone building a 6.5, 7 or 30 based on an 06 case.
The rifle stock and the rest of the package he has put together is a real credit to Alan as i honestly cannot see how he does it all in the very small amount of time left at hand after all the attention required from his work and a young family. The enthusiasm is unique because if it were me, the only enthusiasm i would have is to smack golf balls to see which brand has the best BC. This is probably the prime reason why i have 3 unfinished actions, 6 new barrels that will never get fitted to any of my rifles, a stock that has been on the drawing board for years, and have'nt travelled, nor likely to, to a local area or State or National HunterClass, BR, Fly, 1000 yd or FClass match in years.
Anyway, i've seen Als gun shoot at 200, but the 1K next weekend will tell the rest of the story of whether a budget gun on an Omark can play the game.

Tony Z.