Well, today it begins.
It started in fall of 1995 when my parents got me a Remington 700 in .270 for my high school graduation present. I put a 3x9 Leupold on top with my money, and the deer have died consistently since. I reloaded alot back in the early 2000's, and even after glass bedding the stock and alot of load development, it'll only ever put 5 shots into maybe 1.5" or so.
Fast forward to last weekend, I went back to the loading bench and then the shooting bench to develop a load for a more modern polymer tipped boat tail, the 130 gr Hornady SST. I've killed deer with the Sierra 130 flat based spitzers since 2000. New bullet, fresh load development, and I found myself back at a dang 1.5" group again.
And so, now that I'm finally less broke than I was 20 years ago, I've decided to take my gun and build a custom. I've been talking with Rusty Morman, a gunsmith who's the brother of one of my knifemaking friends, Kelly Morman. They both shoot benchrest. Rusty recommended the 280 Ackley. After some research, I agreed.
Today I ordered a Bartlein stainless barrel in 2b contour, "heavy sporter." It'll weigh 3.6 lbs compared to the factory barrel at 3.1 lbs, according to the charts.
I plan to order parts etc over the next few months. Rusty will do the lathe work, and I'll do the rest.
It started in fall of 1995 when my parents got me a Remington 700 in .270 for my high school graduation present. I put a 3x9 Leupold on top with my money, and the deer have died consistently since. I reloaded alot back in the early 2000's, and even after glass bedding the stock and alot of load development, it'll only ever put 5 shots into maybe 1.5" or so.
Fast forward to last weekend, I went back to the loading bench and then the shooting bench to develop a load for a more modern polymer tipped boat tail, the 130 gr Hornady SST. I've killed deer with the Sierra 130 flat based spitzers since 2000. New bullet, fresh load development, and I found myself back at a dang 1.5" group again.
And so, now that I'm finally less broke than I was 20 years ago, I've decided to take my gun and build a custom. I've been talking with Rusty Morman, a gunsmith who's the brother of one of my knifemaking friends, Kelly Morman. They both shoot benchrest. Rusty recommended the 280 Ackley. After some research, I agreed.
Today I ordered a Bartlein stainless barrel in 2b contour, "heavy sporter." It'll weigh 3.6 lbs compared to the factory barrel at 3.1 lbs, according to the charts.
I plan to order parts etc over the next few months. Rusty will do the lathe work, and I'll do the rest.
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