Guns, Bows, Shooting Sports, and Hunting .308 Builds

[GHarman]

It took a few years to get this together in my spare time. Its amazing how busy one can get after retirement:-laf.

Family comes first. Then play time!

Heres some pictures of a . 308 that I have wanted since my Vietnam tours.

The nice thing is that the materials and components are far better than those available 45 years ago. I also got to do the work, myself!

First I procured a McMillan HTG stock, an H-S Precision 10X barrel with a 1-11" rifling twist, A JGS Reamer ground to my specs in the neck and throat, a used Remington M-700 receiver and an aftermarket thick recoil lug.

The Receiver wast faced and trued as well as the bolt face. The lugs lapped and the barrel fit and chambered with +. 004" over the Go. gage.

The Reamer was ground with a . 340 Neck Diameter and a . 3085" diameter Throat. This allows chambering of factory and military ammo with minimum clearance and minimal room for alignment errors. Military and SAAMI sporting clearances at the neck and throat are very generous. Accuracy and reliability with minimum slop is what I wanted with out the requirement of turning necks with a hand lathe for a mechanical fit.

The Stock was ordered with a Red, White and Blue theme. However the background color should have been White. It wont get lost in the forest:-laf, thats fer sure. Getting it custom painted is far to expensive for me. I really would like an AMERICAN Flag Theme with the gold colored EGA on the off side of the butt stock. (Price for the paint job is a cool $1000) So, I'll just cerro coat it or put a rag cover on it, when necessary.

Presently the rifle is shootable, but I have a punch list of items to clean up before it will be considered finished.

Heres a few pictures, taken over the course of several years as the process evolves from components to a shootable Rifle.

Enjoy,

GregH

 

[GHarman]

Heres the Stock and Barreled action before the barrel was crowned. Stock is inletted from McMillan, BUT it is not Bedded. That will be the biggest task!

GregH

 

[GHarman]

Stock fitting

Heres where the rubber meets the road in a rifle. Bedding, besides the machine work in the proper fitting of the barrel, is paramount to making the rifle shoot accurately. A rifle is a tuning fork, as it were. From a Physics standpoint, it is a periodic wave. You want the bullet to leave the barrel at the same point in time and space relative to the harmonic pattern set up by the act of firing the rifle. The pressure time curve of the propellant and the bullet starting in the rifling detail how that harmonic pattern is initiated. This, is just from a laymans perspective. I am not a physicist or an engineer. You just gotta find "the right note and tune it by ear":-laf!

GregH

 

[GHarman]

Stock bedding continued

More fixturing and boring for the bedding pillars. GregH

 

[GHarman]

Stock Specifications

The HTG stock was ordered with a solid fill and reinforced with carbon fiber. It is a very rigid stock and should handle about any abuse a person could dish out.
The bedding continues the aluminum pillars are fit to the receiver and epoxied into the stock and Titanium Devcon is added to the bedding procedure.

 

[GHarman]

Butt Plate

I decided to hand fab a butt plate from aluminum. A commercial plate was to expensive and I had some scrap aluminum around the shop.

After shaping and contouring the aluminum. I hot glued it to a fixture block to cut horizontal grip grooves in the surface GregH

 

[GHarman]

Buttplate lightening cuts

After hand grooving with a file. I flipped the butt plate over and reglued it to the fixture block for the lightening cuts in the milling machine. There is still glue residue stuck in the grooves. from the after effects of the reverse and glue but it will be removed with a wire brush. GregH

 

[GHarman]

The 90% Finished product

Here it is, ready to shoot.

Final finish on the inside of the stock and metal work as yet to be completed. Have to tear it all down after load developement and inspect everything, complete the punch list and coat the inside of the fiberglass stock with automotive primer. Hope I got everything and hope you enjoyed the picture gallery.

Any questions? Ask away! This is one of the things I love to do!

Working on another Rifle for my Son. Will post that one when I get it together. GregH

 

[The patriot]

NICE!!

I've been wanting to do something like that with one of my bolt rifles in 6. 5x47 or another 6. 5 caliber, but the money thing is always a problem. :{

 

[GHarman]

Thanks! Doing it yourself is always cheaper. However you must have the tools. Its not modular like an AR as you know and can see. Stocks, actions and barrel blanks are getting far more expensive than an over the counter rifle.
As yet, I have a couple of hunting rifles to build and then;
Building a stock from scratch and bedding it to a bench rest quality receiver is my next long term goal. A 6061-T6 plate aluminum core with exotic wood to fill out the contours and add class! We'll see how much I can squeeze in the next few years!
I've made wood stocks before and find wood fun to work with and absolutely beautiful when finished. However, the humidity plays havoc with zeros and bedding.
My Sons . 308 will have one of my wood stocks on it. However, it will only be a fair weather range rifle. I just completed bedding that stock to its barreled action. Hope to get it assembled, this week. Have lots to do to load ammo. The chamber is a tight neck and requires hand fitted cases. He will get some centerfire rifle experience, this SummerOo. !
GregH

 

[goodguys75]

Here it is, ready to shoot.

Final finish on the inside of the stock and metal work as yet to be completed. Have to tear it all down after load developement and inspect everything, complete the punch list and coat the inside of the fiberglass stock with automotive primer. Hope I got everything and hope you enjoyed the picture gallery.

Any questions? Ask away! This is one of the things I love to do!

Working on another Rifle for my Son. Will post that one when I get it together. GregH

nice... what kind of scope? not sure if i missed it in the read... and a bipod would be nice on it also.....

 

[GHarman]

goodguys75, The scope is a Sightron Big Sky SII 6-24X with a duplex reticle.

The Ring/Base unit is a Dednutz scope mount with 10 minutes forward cant.

The front sling swivel allows for the attachment of a bipod, if ya want one. I only use them when hunting varmints. I've found them to be a hindrance when big game hunting.

GregH

 

[GCroyle]

Greg,



Really cool work, I'd like to see the basics of a scratch built in person, details galore.



OK, now lets see the targets show us the groups.



Building a rifle for your Son, wow.



Regards,



Gary

 

[GHarman]

Cast bullets and reduced loads

Hey Gary! Good to hear from you!

So far I have only shot cast bullets and reduced loads(15 Grains of 2400) through this rifle. They performed as expected. Nothing to brag about, but the purpose is to polish and deburr the throat, gently!

Full powered load development has not begun as yet. I plan on doing that concurrently with my Sons Rifle. Barrel life should be in the neighborhood of 5000-7000 rounds If I dont push the pressures to the maximum. SAAMI Spec. pressure for the . 308 Winchester is 60,000 PSI. Military spec. 7. 62x51 NATO is loaded to 50,000 PSI.

Barrel life of 10,000 rounds or more is possible with reduced pressure cast bullet loads.

Presently, my range at the shop is closed down due to fire restrictions. We are having some wet weather, but the County fire restrictions have not been lifted.

Being very careful about dry pine needles in the impact area and very high fire danger.

I want to build a bullet trap but that is another project and I need some Core-10 steel plate.

GregH

 

[GCroyle]

Greg,



Gotta find a way cause I have the excuse to get out to CO and them MT. Range in backyard, that's got your priorities straight. I wish I had the chance to worry about shooting a barrel out, not too likely.



We're in long lef pine counrty AKA Southern Yellow Pine. Needles might be 6-8" long and cones the size of a small football. That combination has become my go to campfier starter, needles blaze up hit the cones and all heck breaks loose. Good stuff. But the strange part is that here folks buy BALES and BALES of needles, use as mulch and the stuff is like a fire starter ring around their house. Still haven't found a chance to make the fire piston.



Gary

 

[GHarman]

Gary, You come out and I will take you to a real rifle range! Buffalo Creek /Camp Fickes Gun Club! Or Colorado Rifle Club.

GregH



Buffalo Creek Gun Club



Home

 

[GCroyle]

Time to play the lottery, win it all, sell the house and hook up to my Airstream and start wearing out some tires.



The range that I got my hi-power education at was in Memphis MSSA and we had out to 600 yd at that time, but that was 10 years back for me. Targets with pits and a pit crew that gave you instant spotting of your shots, good stuff.



Nice looking range.



Between you and BIGNASTY I think TDR should ban the both of ya for your pics, Elk herd in the back yard, spike camps, custom bang sticks, Bridgeport in the shop and a bunch of Big's he's got it stuff, mule snow plow the list goes on... ... ... ... ... ...



What's a good time to visit?, ya say 363 days out of 365?

 

[GHarman]

Best time for an Airstream is June through early October, if ya want to see the high country. Anytime is OK with me! You can camp here at the house. If ya can manuever the trailer into the lower driveway! Water, toilets and showers, as ya need them!

BCGC has the 600 Yards with the butts. CRC has 1000 yards with coverd butts, a 500M sillouette range, a 200 yard short range and a pistol range. Plus shotgun trap, skeet and cowboy action ranges.

BCGC has a long military history and is in some really beautiful country!

GregH

 

[HHhuntitall]

That looks pretty nice, Gharm!!! I likee!! Now we need to try it out on some hogs!!!



Hey, there's pretty good facilities there at the range!! Don't invite him to your house, Gharm, tell him to camp at the range, and then you have an excuse to go over there and "check" on 'im!!

 

[BIGNASTY]

Greg and YOU LET ME SEND MY CANNON OUT!!!!!!!!!!! gee buddy thanks a bunch :-laf looks good to go from my side.