Folks,
Over the years, I have completed a lot of custom rifles to get both the caliber and the action I wanted. I never spent a lot of money. They are as follows:

-F.N. commercial Mauser that was a 6mm-.284 and I bought for $75 became a .280 Remington

-VZ-24 sporter that was a .30-06 and cost me $95 became a .257 Roberts

-VZ-24 that I bought for $10 with a ruined barrel bacame a .280 Remington

-1903 Springfield sporter bacame a .280 Remington

-1903 Springfield sporter became a .270 Winchester

-F.N. commercial Mauser .30-06 with a 20-inch barrel became a .280 Remington

How many of you have dabbled in building your own custom rifles? Take care...
Joe

Kinda like the .280 Rem, huh? Me too. The closest to a custom rifle I have would be an AR-15 that I've been tinkering with. Just fairly easy parts swapping so far. After the holidays I'm looking at a Mauser that a friend has to see if I want to try customizing it.

Right now I'm in the process of completing my 6MM Remington which was a 1917 Eddystone in it's previous life. It shoots pretty good as is, but will be putting new stock on it if it ever shows up. Was alot of fun to do.-tr

Hey Joe

I took a Sako 75 SS action and sent it off to Hart and had a 26" SS 280AI barrel installed. It has a McMillan stock on it and is a pretty good shooter



That turned out so well that I sent off a Browning 300 win mag to a gunsmith in Salt Lake City to install a 26" Douglas XX Match Grade barrel in 6.5 rem mag put on it. Should arrive back anytime.

I think once you get the bug, you start looking at all your rifles and wondering what you can make them into.

I only have 4 custom rifles.

20BR on Rem 700, Shilen bbl, HS Precision stock
7-08AI on Sako 591M, Shilen bbl, McMillan stock
330 WinMag on Mauser 98, Shilen bbl, AAA fancy Fajen-Rinehart stock
338 WinMag on Montana 1999, Shilen bbl, McMillan stock

Unfortunately, none of them were cheap to build.

300 Whisper Yeah!!!!

I have two really custom guns. One is a 358Win based on a Remington 700 and the other is a 357 Maximum that started life as a Russian made SKS. It is a straight pull bolt now as the gas system was removed when I put a 35 caliber barrel on it. I did all the work myself because the 8 gunsmiths I contacted wouldn't touch it. They all said it couldn't be done. I had to modify the "bolt" face, and the magazine follower along with all the other details but what took the most time was fitting the barrel and then making the stock work. It shoots 1/2" groups at 100 yards so I guess it works. At least it works as it was designed (re-designed) to.
I have a modified 03A3 but I don't count it as custom - just sporterized.

I bought a old beat up mauser action .308 and custom craft my own stock and i have in the mail a shilen match grade #7 barrel in the mail. As is shooting .37 at 100yrds with handloads. Its still a work in progress but still a real shooter

Good luck with that new barrel. If it shoots almost 1/3" now it may be hard to get those groups down much. The stock is nice. It's not my kind of stock but I can see that you made it fit you and that is the important thing.

joe: thanks for starting this thread. I'm impressed with your cost factor on the customs you have built. Regretably, mine have been a tad more dollar intensive. But, customing gives me the 14 1/4" LOP I desire in a range of cartridges (mostly Ackleys) that I enjoy. I've enjoyed reading what others have built.

Most of my customs are on commercial FNs, Sakos, CRF M70s or Ruger No1s. I prefer Krieger barrels, although K&P and PacNors have been good barrels as well. I like well figured wood in some cases, too, and haunt gun shows in search of special blanks. The new Timney triggers are top notch and are used on hunting rifles whereas Jewells adorn some of the bench and target rifles.

PaulS: have you used the 358Win on game? I'm a big fan of M71 and, of course, Winchester intended the 358 to take its place. Browning and Ruger now have rifles in 358, so I am teetering on the edge of buying one. What has been your experience with it?

When I was in High School my best buddy's dad had a pre 64 featherweight in 358Win. He was our anchor in a deer drive. When he shot a deer hit the ground and if you heard bang, bang, bang, you had three dead deer on the ground. The 358 Win is a real good Eastern deer cartridge and will do a job on bear and moose as well.

This is a custom gun I built back in the 80s. It is not in my album. It is a 6.5x06 with a Douglas premium AG barrel stuck into a Remington 700 action. The stock is a Richards Micro Fit Ex fiddle back in claro walnut. Scope is a Burris Signature. It will do 3,700 plus FPS with an 85 Sierra into .25 inch groups. It is a deadly heavy varmit rig.

The componets I prefer are:
Remington 700 / Win 70 classic / Montana Rifle Co: Actions
Lothar walther / Krieger / Shelin: Barrels
Timney / Taylor: Triggers
X-Otic Wood Blanks & inletting: Stocks
Burris / Hakko: Optics
Accurate Plating, Bob Cogan: Chrome
Internal, 16 degree: Muzzle Break
Ed

I'm in the process of having two guns built. The first one will be a 7mm-08 Ackley Improved in a McMillan stock, 20 inch stainless fluted Lilja barrel, Leupold Varmit Hunters scope and Jewell trigger (something for deer sized game out to 500 yards). The second will be a 7MM STW in a H.S. Precision stock, 26 inch stainless fluted Lilja barrel, Jewell trigger (something for out to 800 yards). Haven't decided on the scope for the second one yet. I have received the barrels from Lilja after a two month wait and they go to the gunsmith on Friday. Any suggestions for a scope on the second rifle?

I bought from a friend a 6.5 x 55 Swede, he took off the military stock and put a lovely slim synthetic camo stock on it, cut the barrel back to 24" and installed a Timney trigger. He had a scout mounted scope on it but I had the bolt reshaped and had a proper scope (bushnell Elite 3200 in 3-9 x 40) installed.
It is a sweet shooting rifile (under 1") with 129 gr. Hornady SST's and also Barnes 120 XLC.

The 358 win. has always performed better than any expectations that I had for it. I don't hunt moose but if I did I think I would choose a larger caliber. I am one of those who believes that there is no such thing as a gun too big or an animal too small. The 358 has performed well on the big Cascade Mulies that we have and on elk it is as good or maybe a bit better than my '06 but that is as big as I hunt. I am also recoil sensitive so I don't shoot any bullet larger than 180 grain in it. Even that is about the limit of my tollerance. I really like it for coyotes - I shoot the 158 Sierra pistol bullets and it performs like a grenade on the small dogs even out at two hundred yards.