Working Projects & Such

Got both Super Custom Savage rifles ready to test fire. These were built for the Gateway Dynamite shoot but will be going to Pierre for the Varmint Hunter's Jamboree late July – if I can afford the trip! Both weight more than 20 pounds. Both have top-end 24-inch, Pac-Nor 1.35" cylindrical barrels fitted Remington style with Vais muzzle brakes. Both are based upon the single-shot, short-action, Model-12. Both have the new 4-ounce Sharp Shooter Supply trigger. Both are fitted with the David Tubb titanium striker and super-duty spring. I shortened the striker fall and increased the spring tension somewhat so that lock time calculates to be close to one-half of stock, which is already just as good as (or better than) the vaunted Remington 700, in stock form.

As I try to list all the folks who worked to get this project together, the list stagers me! I can think of McMillan – Dick Davis, Buffalo Arms – Dave Gullo, George Myer, Randolph Constantine, K&M Services – Ken Markle, Pacific Tool – Dave Kiff, Robar – Robbie Barrkman, Superior (?) – David Tubb, Savage – Ron Coburn, Brian Herrick & others, Norma – Torb Lindskog & Christer Larsson, Jody McPherson, Joe McPherson, By Smalley (my partner in Superior Ballistics Inc.), and Delane Thomas. I am sure that I have missed someone.

I build custom dies for both guns using Newlon die bodies. I converted a 6.5-284 Redding competition seating die into 6.5/60 (when it is not in use, I keep a case inserted to protect the delicate walls of the sliding sleeve).

Both chambers have a proprietary throat design the Dave and I worked out. We will see how it works soon enough. Joe's (younger son) uses the Savage laminated stock. We fitted it with an old Shillen sleeve that was made for a Short-Action Remington 700 (required about 45 minutes work with hand tools and a Dremmel tool), a very easy conversion. Of course, the stock required major surgery but Jody (older son) is a Master Cabinet Maker, so that was no big deal. Joe wanted finger grooves and several other modifications and of course the barrel and receiver channels had to be seriously modified. We sanded the bottom of the foreend very flat so it will ride the bags better. I added a wedge to the heel so that it will recoil without rotating, so that the shooter can watch the bullet all the way out, which is critical at Gateway. We hollowed the butt and filled those 7/8" diameter holes and the magazine cutout with lead poured from a lead pot (insulated the wood with paper, poured, cooled with water, removed lead pieces, epoxied cooled pieces back in.

My father lengthened one of Savage's tactical bolt handles and I recontoured the knob to an ellipsoid. Looks rather strange but seems to work good. I modified the receiver on this gun to provide maximum feasible camming action (I did not use quite enough taper on this case – or for some other reason – and extraction with normal loads is always somewhat sticky, I hope this solves that problem). This about triples the cammed bolt retraction from stock and is a huge improvement.

It is chambered in 6.5/60 SMc (version three, long necked) and I already have plenty of data from my far more mundane converted Savage in the short-necked version of that round. The case is a highly shortened, thinned, perfectly concentric and web cut to identical internal shape and thickness, 416 Rigby with the SMc elliptical shoulder and a very long neck. Usable capacity is so close to 202 grain Norma 6.5/284 cases as to be indistinguishable (that was the goal). Base of Norma 130-grain Match bullet will seat close to juncture of neck and shoulder. Ballistics are better that 6.5/284 due to superior shape. In my 28-inch gun I easily got 3300 fps but in this shorter barrel I will be very happy to get 3100 fps – one problem is that the only propellant that has shot truly exceptional groups in my gun is H1000 Extreme and the good load is a case full with vibratory settling. With this longer neck and 0.15" deeper throating (where the other chamber was supported to have been cut), I can sure get in a few more grains of H1000 but I would prefer not to push that. I already had to make a custom seating stem that exactly matches the bullet nose to prevent undue bullet deformation and the resulting variation in effective seating depth and hence bullet jump due to very high seating pressure (epoxy in a Redding Competition seating die stem).

I could never have done this without the invaluable help of Ken Markle (K&M Services) who perfected the cylindrical redrawn cases and then formed the shoulder – I can do the latter but making the web and head and primer pocket perfect is something else! You do now want to know the number of minutes and cost in each of those cases! We are close to $10 each and at least 5 minutes and I still have to fireform, trim to length and outside turn! Obviously, I will be very careful with the 200 that I have.

When I get home, I will be fireforming those cases (sans bullets) and then testing loads in that rifle.

Jody's gun is more conventional. He insisted on a Tactical stock from McMillan (great stocks but not a good choice of models for what this gun is for, in my opinion). This gun has all action parts NP3 plated – slick as ice. It uses the handy Savage Tactical bolt handle, in stock form.

The Pac-Nor barrel is chambered in 300 Jody (300 WSM with less body taper and a hemispherical shoulder – cases fireform perfectly due to perfect design by Dave Kiff at Pacific Tool) – this gives about 3 grains more capacity than the stock 300 WSM and has a better case shape so should give better ballistics anyway. Unfortunately, the otherwise superior Norma cases (best concentricity I have ever seen, measured 20 and found exactly one that had as much as 0.0013" runout at the midpoint of the body) are far heavier than the Winchester cases so usable capacity is identical to a 300 WSM chamber using Winchester cases and the same seating depth. I sure wish Norma could lighten these cases 30 grains and keep the same quality – this chambering needs all the capacity it can get for target work!

I have 50 cases outside turned and loaded with 200-grain Sierra MKs that are moly-plated. Test loads use H4350SC Extreme, based upon the great results I had with a 300 WSM chambered target rifle that belongs to Delane Thomas (a friend fired his first-ever benchrested target with that gun – 5 shots into 0.3" at 200 yards and another friend drove up and distracted him as he fired the last shot, he called it high and it was and the others made a legitimate 0.1" group! So, I am quite happy with the basic load.

This barrel was designed with a 10-inch twist as I see no value in launching the heaviest Match bullets at 2700 fps or less, we want to launch whatever bullet it likes at near 3000 fps as time of flight is an issue at Gateway – no wind flags and one is shooting across three gulleys and upward onto a mountainside so there are plenty of gusts and wind changes.

Then I have two other Savage rifles that I have to finish and two lever-action custom jobs that should be ready to put back together as soon as the NP3 plated parts and a barrel get here.

As a test, I did one other thing on Joe's gun, I set up the camming sleeve clearances so that the bolt is always in tension, when closed. This will keep it from moving at all when the striker releases. It makes a huge difference. When the striker is released on each of the two otherwise identical guns the sound is completely different – Joe's sounds far more metallic. This may prove to be a very bad idea – vibrations? We will see. The potentially useful thing is that nothing but the striker moves and the bolt must always be in the same location each time – that cannot be bad.