AusVarmint

Well the big day is Sunday. I'm pickin Kickinback at about 8am and where heading off to my weekend place for the day. See how this little project goes. Work up some loads and see if it was worth the effect

To accomodate the new recoil lug and fatter barrel we put the stock in the mill and removed some timber. Stu made sure there was ample room for the beddong compound and the barrel was well clear of the forend.

After the stock was relieved of some excess timber Stu mixed up some bedding compound and applied it to the stock. The action and barrel were already masked and had release agent applied. The action was put into the stock and the srews tightend until the action was sitting correctly in the stock. You can see the compound around the tang of the action.

I'm watching this with much interest..

Well done you two ! great thread/pics looking forward to seeing the results at the range/in the field
cheers
Sam

Yep, what Sam and Arch said.

Before we get into the latest update I would like to say that this shooting caper is like is a bit like Melbourne weather..........just a bit fickle

X wssm picked me up at 8am and we had a pleasant and uneventful trip to his weekender 1 1/4 hours from Lilydale. We unpacked and went about setting up the bench, reloading equipment, spotting scope and the re-barreled tikka m55 22.250.

First of all we set about putting the scope rings on and lapping them, then mounted the scope and gave the action and barrel a washout with contact cleaner to remove any remaining grit and crap hiding in the action and barrel. Then the barrel was cleaned and all was ready for the moment of truth.

I had a few factory loads that I wanted to get rid of so they were first up and then we would start developing some handloads to tighten things up. In the picture you will see a hole in the red on the target, well that was the first shot!!!!!!!!! I couldnt believe it when Stu called it.

Then reality hit with the second and third shots.

We worked up a few handloads and and started putting holes in paper with some success, two or three shots almost touching and a flyer.......this was very familiar to me as this was exactly what was happening with the old barrel but it was getting worse

So to remove the human error factor we swapped seats and Stu sent a few down with the same result. I cleaned the barrel shot some more and it was always the same.....a few touching and a flyer but a pattern was starting to appear, they were all going further to the right.

We checked the mounts, scope rings etc and all was well but still the same problem. This is when Stu said the words i was not wanting to hear. "Its the scope". And he was right.

Its been on the rifle for around 10 years and although it looks in good nick it is obviously feeling a bit fragile internally. When you consider that i paid $250 for it 10 years ago you will get the picture.

The good thing about having mates is they like to help out and this project is proof of that. And to take it one step further Stu is lending me one of his Leupolds till i can afford a new scope.

At this point i think the new scope will be a Vortex as all the reviews i have read seem very positive.



It all looks good but......

Started chasing around for a replacement scope today, looked at a few places including ebay and wasn't overly impressed with what i saw. So i went back and read rinso's report on the vortex unit he trialled. After reading that a few times and various other comments on these scopes in this forum i picked up the phone and rang Antony at Vortex.

We spoke for a while and he was really user friendly. Asked what i had on the rifle and when i told him, he knew what it was, which says to me he knows the market. As he has what i want in stock i will order it tomorrow over the phone.

The scope is a viper 6.5-20 x 50 with a 30mm tube, which reminds me i didnt ask him about rings.

P.S

By the way...... if you ring Antony to make enqiries make sure you mention Ausvarmint, i did and was pleasantly suprised

If someone can do this sort of work (fitting and machining) can this be done by them? Or does a rebarrel have to be done by a gunsmith? Or by someone with an armorers lic?

To be honest i am not sure, but the barrel i have used is a factory one and it is still the original chambering.

As far as I know which aint much! There is no law against you tinkering with your own or someone else’s toys while they are present eg. Modifying the action, changing barrels, triggers, stock etc
I guess technically if you want to be in possession of someone else’s firearm while they are not present is where the argument would be? and in that case you would have to have a written max 10 day agreement which both parties must sign and date where you a technically borrowing his firearm.
Hope this helps

All the best
John

Well a few things have happened since my last post, the first is we have machined the forend on the stock in preparation for a wider and heavier one. The other is my new Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50 has arrived. The only problem with this is i had no dollars available to get new rings for it.

A deal was done with my boss for me to make some tooling for him for cash and the rings and bases were purchased.


As you can see the forend will be getting a bit fatter with the addition of some extra wood put on.

I will also be adding some height to the comb to help with quick sight picture aquisition.

As i had a bit of time to kill one evening i thought that the old knob on the bolt was lookong a bit rough (the plating on it was long gone) so i turned up a kickinback comfortline bolt knob. Please do not confuse this with a TACTICAL bolt knob, as it will not improve accuracy or member size



.

Looks good mate, and a cool milling machine too.

What is the old scope you were having probs with?