Rifle Build - Am I Crazy

[Gclyde28]

Been doing some research and am considering building (assembling) a custom rifle. With all of the pre-fit barrels and such out there now, am I crazy to think I could order an action, pre-fit barrel, stock, trigger, bottom metal, etc. and assemble the rifle myself. It seems wildly simple on the surface, but you don't know what you don't know and having never assembled a rifle from start to finish I don't know all the little details that may be involved. Obviously, I would need the required tools (minimal it seems) to torque the barrel to the action but past that, I've already swapped triggers, mounted scopes, etc. on my other rifles I owned. I consider myself very handy so the 7ish parts of a rifle seems to easy to be true maybe?

Seems like there's a decent amount of money that could be saved acquiring and assembling the pieces myself.

School me up!

[J.B.]

at a minimum leave the barrel to action fitment to a gunsmith.

[Gclyde28]

at a minimum leave the barrel to action fitment to a gunsmith.

Can you elaborate any more on the why? Genuinely curious.

[Cajun Blake]

Seems like there's a decent amount of money that could be saved acquiring and assembling the pieces myself.

School me up!

you're not going to save as much as you think. A custom action will run $1000-$1700 depending on manufacturer. No metal work needed since the action is already trued/blueprinted and ready to go. A custom match grade stainless steel barrel blank costs around $450, and $750+ for a carbon fiber wrapped blank. GS's charge approximately $350 to fit, chamber, and crown the barrel onto the action. Prefit S.S. barrels cost around $625, and prefit CF barrels cost around $950. Net savings from $150 - $175 using a prefit barrel and doing the work yourself. Then you may have to buy a go/no-go gauge ($50-$100), action wrench ($50-75), and barrel vice ($100). Total cost of tools approx. $200 - $275. A gunsmith can assemble it for you but expect to pay $100+ since nobody works for free. After doing the math, the savings are minimal .... $150 if you have the tools or $-100+ if you have to buy the tools. Prefits are nice since most barrels are done by computers using a CNC machine and completed in < 1 hour. The traditional method of indexing and setting up the lathe/chuck manually by a GS can take hours from start to finish.

[TacticalCowboy]

I would think so. Like CB said, you may not save a whole bunch of money, but it would be cool to have something you put together completely on your own.

I’d probably build it on a savage action or a 700 footprint and do a remage style barrel. Or a tikka.

[TX03RUBI]

I’d rather buy prefits 9 times out of 10 if they have what I want available. It’s so much easier and nicer to just order a new barrel when it’s time or when you fancy. I keep my current rifle together and being used at home, then just swap barrels when needed or my heart so desires. I swapped a 223 prefit onto one of my Impacts last week. Swapped stocks on it this morning. I hate being without a certain rifle when not necessary.

[tpepper70]

Depends on how much you wanna spend. Get the cheapest Bergara rifle you can afford and drop a pre-fit barrel that takes the "Remage" nut mount option, get a barrel vise and action wrench off of Amazon, go-no go gauges, watch some YT videos and go for it. As long as everything is tight and headspace is set correctly, it'll shoot. I've done a few and it's really not that hard if you're somewhat handy. I enjoy building AR's more, but bolt rifles aren't as hard as people think.

[bmc09]

I've built several rifles with either prefit barrels or savage/remage builds with a barrel nut. They have all been simple (barrel nut builds take a little more time headspacing, but not much) and performed well. I don't think its a matter of saving money. Custom rifles are expensive whether you build it or someone else builds it. You can build on a budget, but that doesn't sound like what you are interested in.

[imyomama]

go for it.. that way you get it just the way you want, and/if you shoot the barrel out, you know how to get the next one on. Prefit is much easier and less investment (go, no-go etc..).
In many ways it's no different than putting together an ar15... if you don't feel comfortable , you can still do most of it and leave the barrel install to a professional. no better feeling to getting a gun to shoot fantastic knowing you put it together yourself. IMO.

[chicken fried]

I agree on the Savage barrel nut actions. I have one in the safe waiting on me to do the swap. Not familiar with the Remington barrel nut swap.

[Slick8]

It's a six of one half dozen thing IMO.

There's very little savings to doing it as a "one off". It does leave you limited if you're looking for something out of the ordinary regarding twist, chambering or fluting.

If you think you'll build multiple guns or want to swap barrels then it could be worth it.

Lastly, I don't know how their warranty works but every builder that's worth his salt will stand behind his guns.