View Single Post
Old 05-22-2021, 08:52 AM   #25
Icelander
 
Icelander's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Custom Bolt-Action in the 1990s

Assuming someone wants to build their own takedown bolt-action rifle at some point from 1987-1995, due to the lack of easily available commercial models, I need to establish some things.

First, they'd probably want to chamber it in .308 Win, for the easy availability of a wide variety of commercial ammunition and bullets suitable for tactical applications out to 800 yards (even back in the 1990s).

Second, they'd probably buy the action, including the receiver (in the US, the only part of the whole that is legally a 'firearm' and where the serial number is found), commercially. Good, reliable actions you can use to make accurate rifles are hard to make and it doesn't make sense for someone to spend a long time doing so if they can get the same thing from a factory.

That being said, we don't want rare, custom orders, either, so we either need an action of which many thousands are sold per year to all sorts of people or an older surplus military action. Commercially, Savage 110 actions make a lot of sense, because unlike Remington and Winchester in the period, Savage sold their actions separately, not just as parts of finished rifles, specifically for those who wanted to assemble their own rifles.

Third step is get an aftermarket barrel you can machine to be quickly detached and attached. It helps if the person making this has very high Armoury, as if this is not done well, the rifle will shift the point of impact every time you assemble it again. Even with high Armoury, it's unlikely that you'll retain the exact same PoI every time, but you might get it within 1 MOA.

The barrel can't be bedded to the stock, obviously, so it would be helpful to free float it. Some kind of forearm or foregrip may need to extend past the receiver, but it's probably easier to remove and attach the barrel if this is attached to the receiver and not the barrel.

This leds us to my fifth point. I'll need a stock, but not a typical hunting stock or the McMillan stocks used on tactical precision rifles of the period, of a one-piece design where the forearm was part of the stock.

What kind of rifle stocks were available in the time period 1987-1995 that were attached to the action, but didn't extend further?

It would help if it was adjustable, so that Length of Pull (LOP) might be set anywhere from 13" to 16". Or perhaps a folding or collapsible stock, as long as it one that will let you handle the recoil of a .308 Win and shoot accurately at long range. I don't need 0.5 MOA rifle (for one thing, the shift in point of impact when the barrel is attached will probably imit practical accuracy for one shot when deployed from takedown carry to no better than 1.5-2 MOA), but with the right ammo, it should be possible to use it out to 600-800 yards.

Anyone know of any stocks that might work?

Could you use a G3A4 pistol grip and collapsible stock with a bolt-action action, like a Savage 110?

Probably, but I doubt that collapsible stock is any use for precision shooting at long range.
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Icelander is offline   Reply With Quote