.243 Project

[Coltdriver]

I acquired a Ruger #1 barrelled action a year or so ago.

Then I got an unfinished stock from Great American Stocks that is one grade under exibition. They have nice wood but the work required to fit and finish a stock will be apparent if you get one to do yourself.

They are at http://www.gunstocks.com/

The stock was semi inletted.

Rather than risk my crude cutting on this stock I took it to the folks at the Colorado School of Trades Gunsmithing School.

They did a first class job of fitting the stock to the action. The student estimated his actual time at around 45 hours. They charged me less than $60 for the work.

Now I get to go about the task of shaping and finish sanding the stock. I ordered it in a very long lop. It fits me perfectly. Once I get it finished I need to find someone to checker the grip for me. If anyone has a suggestion for a good source let me know.

I am going to inlay some interesting things on the right side of the stock. Its going to be decorated like the old Indian stocks of the West with some brass tacks but some lapis and some other pieces will be inlaid too. I have a friend who is a master furniture maker who will do the inlay work for me.

I'll post a pic or two as we move along with this project.

 

[Coltdriver]

Stock Fitted to Action

Now that the stock has been fitted the sanding to shapee part begins.

There is a lot more than meets the eye to doing this right. I am glad I did not try to do this particular task myself.

Shaping and sanding is much easier.

You can see how much "over hang" there is so there will be some vigorous sanding to get it to fit the action properly.

The wood sure is pretty when you wet it. Its still in the raw unfinished state here.

 

[griz]

The figure in that wood looks nice. I would like to see it with the finish applied. No rush, I am patient when I'm not driving.

 

[GunNut]

Looks really nice, but how does it shoot?

One of these days I will buy a Ruger #1, and try it out.

Steve

 

[Rockstar]

I acquired a Ruger #1 barrelled action a year or so ago.

Then I got an unfinished stock from Great American Stocks that is one grade under exibition. They have nice wood but the work required to fit and finish a stock will be apparent if you get one to do yourself.

They are at http://www.gunstocks.com/

The stock was semi inletted.

Rather than risk my crude cutting on this stock I took it to the folks at the Colorado School of Trades Gunsmithing School.

They did a first class job of fitting the stock to the action. The student estimated his actual time at around 45 hours. They charged me less than $60 for the work.

Now I get to go about the task of shaping and finish sanding the stock. I ordered it in a very long lop. It fits me perfectly. Once I get it finished I need to find someone to checker the grip for me. If anyone has a suggestion for a good source let me know.

I am going to inlay some interesting things on the right side of the stock. Its going to be decorated like the old Indian stocks of the West with some brass tacks but some lapis and some other pieces will be inlaid too. I have a friend who is a master furniture maker who will do the inlay work for me.

I'll post a pic or two as we move along with this project.

How about posting a pic or two or some five-shot groups @ 100 yds? Sounds like a really beautiful project rifle.

 

[Coltdriver]

Last night I sanded the sides down to reduce the "overage". I will post a pic of this. I got it just right, there is just enough over to match the forearm. They don't run the wood flush with the metal, there is about a 32nd of wood higher than the metal.

After I get it shaped, get a butt pad mounted and get it finished we will see if it shoots as nice as it looks. I had mounted a #3 stock and forearm on it last year and tried a few 95 grain noslers over a Ken Waters pet load but that story is in another post. Fortunately I did not damage anything.

The cheek piece does line up the sights perfectly. I need to find a very thin butt plate or pad.

 

[mustanger98]

Looks good. Hey, what said of the stock is the cheek piece on? I might just have to get one of those done up.

 

[Coltdriver]

Trimmed to Receiver and Butt Plate Fitted

Went to the Tanner Gun Show in Denver today and picked up a thin Pachmeier grind to fit butt plate. Got that put on.

A couple of weeks ago I trimmed the stock to the receiver. I also angled the cheek piece slightly down going forward and sloping away going down.

One of these pictures shows the side of the stock wet to bring out the contrast in the wood.

Next step is to get the rest of the stock finished to 100 grit so I can begin the process of taking it finer and finer prior to applying the finish.

 

[Coltdriver]

I inherited a set of Hornady Custom Shop .243 AI Dies from a varmint shooting guru. These bring the shoulder of the cartridge to a 40 degree angle and increase the powder capacity of the case by about 7%. Since the Ruger is easily up to the added charge this will just give a little more flexibility to the rifle.

So I could not resist having the Ruger reamed to take this version of the .243 cartridge. The ream involves removing the barrel, turning it back about one thread, refacing the end of the barrel, adjusting the extractor cut and setting the head space. Depending on how the barrel comes out of the lathe it may need to be reblued.

The action was dropped off at my favorite smith shop in Denver, the School of Trades. The conversion will cost about $50.00. Rebluing, if needed, another $15.00.

In the meantime I have been sanding all of the machine marks out of the stock. I have been using 100 grit to get these stubborn little devils to disappear. By the time the AI conversion is done it should be ready to go shooting!

 

[esheato]

Coltdriver,

I've enjoyed following this project. I'm eagerly awaiting some groups on paper.

Best of luck with the rest of it.

Ed

BTW, it's a beautiful piece of wood.

 

[Coltdriver]

I finally got all of the machine chatter marks sanded out of the stock this weekend. Then a little shaping was done. Then it was finish sanded with 180 grit then 220 grit.

220 is as fine as I want to go at this point. A cabinet maker told me you can get the wood so smooth that it wont take oil uniformly.

Here is a picture with the first rubbed on coat of minwax tung oil.

The minwax is not pure tung oil. It has some hardeners in it that make it a bit tougher. I am not going for the high gloss finish. Instead a satin low gloss finish is the goal.

I will let this harden for 24 hours. Sand it off with 220 and apply another rubbed on, wiped off coat. And so on until I get it sealed.

After a few more coats I will take it over to my wood worker buddy to see what we can do to inlay the right side of the stock with something unusual.

I went to pick up the action last week but the trigger was maladjusted and needed to be properly reset. So I left it at the smith.

My office buddy Eric has invited me to his club range when the stock is done and mated to the action so that I can sight it in and beging some load development.

 

[Coltdriver]

First Five Shots and Fireforming

The Colorado School of Trades called Thursday, the ream to .243 Improved was done and they got the trigger set properly. So I picked it up Friday.

This morning I mounted the semi finished new stock to the action. The stock needs some more sanding and tung oil but it has about 6 or 7 coats on it now.

I also mounted a Bausch & Lomb 3000 Elite Scope. Its a 3X9 40. I bore sighted the scope by mounting the rifle on my bench rest, looking down the barrel and adjusting the scope to a sticker on a house about 50 yards away. I did this from the comfort of my living room and just lifted the shades enough to be able to look down the barrel.

I had loaded about 40 rounds of VMAX 75 grain and 58 grain bullets in the standard .243 cases. I had another 30 of the 95 Grain Nosler Partitions in a Ken Waters "Pet Load". His favorite for "big game" with the .243. Again these were in the standard .243 cases.

So I went off to the Pawnee Grasslands Northeast of Greeley to do some fireforming of the brass and to see how it would shoot.

The target posted is, I swear (no April fools day nonsense), the first five shots out of the rifle using the 95 Grain Partitions. I stepped off the distance and shot from a kneeling position.

I backed off to 200 yards, moved the poi on the scope up two clicks and could hit pop bottles and clay pigeons (that I scrounged from the area). I was not hitting them every time, but that was my fault. Its amazing how the rifle moves around at that distance. I went all the way out to 250 yards and, using the 75 grain and 58 grain bullets, was able to hit pop bottles and clay pigeons.

Monday AM my friend is taking me to his club range as a guest. Tonight I am loading up a variety of loads using the 95 grain Partitions. We will see how dialed in I can get this rifle from the bench.

 

[Coltdriver]

Case Comparison

Here is a fireformed Improved case next to a standard .243 case.

The Improved version has about 7% more capacity. It also headspaces on the shoulder after you have fireformed it.

I was surprised that the overall case length changed by only one or two thousandths.

 

[Coltdriver]

Trimmed the stock

Well I did not want to do this, but I had to.

The shooting position was so uncomfortable that I had to reduce the lop.

I was having to really strain my neck forward in order to get within the eye relief of the scope. And the scope was as far back as I could get it.

Plus I like to hold the forearm of the rifle with the back of my left arm against my body when I shoot standing up.

So I removed the stock and took it to my woodworker guru's shop and we lopped off two 3/8 inch pieces for a total of 3/4 of an inch. Now its perfect.

I know I should have got this right earlier but I confess to being an amature.

This shortening also meant that I had to reshape the butt pad to the stock which meant that I also had to sand off all of the finish.

The good news is that my wood worker buddy called this morning and he is going to inlay the stock for me. So having the finish off is a good thing.

Good thing deer hunting season is not till this fall!

 

[Terrierman]

This is as nice a thread as one will find. Thank you for keeping this going and posting all of the photos. You're going to have a hell of a nice rifle that will certainly be the one of a kind, made all the better by your own work on it. I'll be very interested to see more progress and of course the final product.

 

[Jaim03]

Coltdriver, I also add my thanks for such a complete posting of the project. Congratulations on all of your hard work. For a member new to gun ownership, what type of wood is that beautifully figured stock?

 

[Coltdriver]

Terrierman and Jaim03 I am glad to hear your enjoying this a bit, I sincerely appreciate you comments.

The stock is supposed to be one notch under exibition grade walnut. I always wanted a rifle with an exceptionally pretty piece of wood but the prices that accompany those rifles are out of my reach. Besides I wanted to use the rifle hunting and they get banged around a bit no matter how careful I am. I think I paid about $250.00 for the semi inletted stock. I bought the wood first, then got the barrelled action last year.

I am going to finish sand the stock again tonight and take it over to my wood worker buddys house. I have known John for over 30 years. In his prime he would command $20,000 to $30,000 for a single piece of furniture. I am looking forward to what ever kind of inlay he wants to put on the stock.

 

[Coltdriver]

Here are a couple of pictures of the pieces we removed. My friend did this on a real high end miter saw. The blade took up 1/8 of an inch and each of these are 1/4 inch thick. So the total removed was 3/4 of an inch. The LOP is now perfect. Its surprising what a huge difference 3/4 of an inch makes!

My friend won't get around to the inlay till later so I went ahead and refinished it with the tung oil. I removed some scratches with a piece of 400 grit and wiped on and off one last coat. Heres a picture of it now. The wood looks like you can see into it. The grain from the butt to the forearm looks like it matches, just an accident, looks the same way on the other side.

We go to the range where I can shoot if from a bench on Wednesday. Targets from the bench to follow!

 

[Coltdriver]

Hows this for a string! 100 yards.

This was from a warm barrel and from a bench rest. The forearm is just a bit loose so that on a bench the front of the forearm touches the barrel producing this vertical stringing. I will do a bit of work on the forearm to eliminate the movement. Without pressure on the front of the forearm the barrel is fully floated.

It shoots better from an off hand position because I grab the back of the forearm and it does not move.

 

[Coltdriver]

Sighted in to Hunt this Month

I took the rifle to a range yesterday and got this result at 250 yards.

There was a right to left wind blowing around 15 to 20 mph. I had sighted it in at the Cherry Creek range a couple of months ago in calm conditions so I know it centers well at 100 yards.

These are 95 Grain Nosler Partitions loaded up with 44 grains of IMR 4831 using Federal Match Primers. The length on these has the bullet just a few thousandths from the lands.

If I can find some deer I can definitely get close enough with this rifle. My ballistics say that this should be close to zero over the bulls eye at 300 yards.

 

[Coltdriver]

So I got 20 pieces of Lapua brass and I figured out in my second year of reloading that cartridge OAL is not nearly as important as shoulder to base length.

This rifle reliably strings when there is no headspace.

It tamed right down the first time I figured out I had to bump the shoulder a bit to give it some headspace!

So I am getting a Forster trimmer and will do the Lapua brass right.

I will post some results when I get some.

I am going to try some 85 and 87 grain Sierras and Noslers respectively.

If everything works this year my son and I are going to try to meet in Wyoming for a speed goat hunt.

 

[PTK]

220 is as fine as I want to go at this point. A cabinet maker told me you can get the wood so smooth that it wont take oil uniformly.

For what it's worth, we at CST finish stocks to 600 grit and then use basically a rouge rub to get it glossy after a few coats of the proper oil.

 

[Coltdriver]

Here is the result of my work with the Lapua Brass. I am really happy with this. I shot this group at 100 yards. The other hits on the target are me setting the scope. I only had 20 rounds but it dialed in very quickly.

What a relief, I had never really been able to get this rifle to shoot until I discovered that one key to an Encore is the headspace. It applies to the #1 as well. Live and learn

These are 85 grain Noslers over Reloader 19 in Laupa brass with Federal Target primers. The bullet was just on the lands. I did work the brass a lot. Formed it to the AI chamber with cream of wheat, FL sized each piece then sized every piece to the chamber by bumping the shoulder with a body forming die until they were all uniform, then reamed the necks with a Forster reamer and just kissed the end of the case to make them all perfectly uniform. I also used a set of Competition Redding Dies to do all of the work.

I am convinced that most single shot rifles simply need serious attention paid to the head space and that the culprit is not COL but the shoulder to base dimension.

 

[Coltdriver]

Got An Antelope with the .243 Today

I drew a Colorado Ranching for Wildlife tag for a doe antelope. I got a guided hunt at Kiowa Creek for 7 preference points.

This morning I bagged a doe there at just over 200 yards with my little 85 grain Nosler partition load. Ran about 20 feet and went over.

What an incredible experience a first class guided hunt is. If you ever want to hunt elk, muley or antelope Kiowa Creek is just incredible. First class operation on pristine rolling ground with mesas and rock and trees and untrampled vegetation.

All of the work I have done with this rifle has finally paid off with a first class result for me.

 

[PTK]

Fantastic news! I'd love to see finished pictures, if you have any.