Another new build

[stagpanther]

Not every day you see a savage 111 in 270 Weatherby magnum. Always wanted a 270 Weatherby, but gave up on buying a complete gun as it seems only a few of the Mark 5's are still made in that cartridge.

[KCRaider21]

Nice looking firearm.

[stagpanther]

Thanks KC. I had McGowen make a 26" barrel in chromemoly instead of SS for a change and also in a sporter profile, thinking it would save weight-- all up weight is still a hefty 10 pounds.

The bore in the brand new barrel arrived looking like it was a messed-up used barrel and I almost called McGowen--I've bought a lot of the barrels of their's and never seen anything like it. It was filled with some kind of red powder (I'm guessing is a polishing compound?) and had other residue. Took two hours of running solvent patches and bore paste to finally reveal the smooth polished and clean bore. Other interesting parts include an original SSS comp trigger, Boyd's "featherweight" thumbhole stock and a NSS precision recoil lug.

Hope it shoots well.

[9x19]

It does look nice... well done!

[Nathan]

Dang! Did you hit the lottery! You are posting a build a day on here it seems like!

[std7mag]

Congrats on yet another build!

The beauty of Savage, they are easy to rebarrel.
I have a Steven's 200 in 250 Savage.
Now waiting on the reamer & headspace gauges for my Savage 111 in 257 Robert's AI.

New Savage take off barrel for sale. 22" sporter contour in 270 Win for sale. Picked up the rifle & spun off the barrel. I didn't put any rounds through it.
$70 shipped lower 48.

[Chipperman]

Beautiful stock. The thumb hold is on the wrong side, though.

Ah, the scourge of being a Southpaw

[stagpanther]

Dang! Did you hit the lottery! You are posting a build a day on here it seems like!

LOL--the barrels were ordered months ago, otherwise I had everything else on hand already.

[old roper]

Nice.

[stagpanther]

I tried getting some shots off today--as my luck would have it as soon as I got set up it started to downpour, I got two shots off before the rain and 30+ mph winds convinced I might not want to soak the new gun.

[stagpanther]

Rain stopped, but winds are forecasted to blow 45 mph today, going to wait till tomorrow for more reasonable 25 mph wind. The only 270 WbyMag cases I have are ones that I kept from working on a customer's gun and I only have a couple dozen--brass and ammo is otherwise unavailable (I'm not willing to spend 3 to 5 dollars per cartridge for some boutique stuff).

[stagpanther]

Change of plans.

Today's conditions backed off a tad to 27 - 33 mph winds--and tomorrow is forecasted to do the same--so I decided to give it a second try.

Once again, didn't get very far, at first trigger went click and nothing happened, after cycling the bolt a few times nothing happened at all, I noticed the bolt release was not indicating the trigger had reset. This actually happens quite often initially with Boyd's stocks in my experience and is usually because the bolt release/sear bracket is being obstructed in the inlet--so a ride back home--pulled the action and did some dremel work and was ready to go.

Back to the range and no go again, it had worked at home and I was stumped. Finally the light bulb went on and I checked the SSS comp trigger assembly (which is quite complex) and noticed the small screw for the trigger/sear angle had drifted out just enough to prevent reset. Fixed that and finally got an actual group of 150 interbonds off at 229 yds. Wasn't expecting great results since the barrel isn't "broken in" yet and the strong winds were pushing the target around (though it's still just under MOA), the good news is the gun now works properly.

[DaleA]

IMhO a handsome looking rifle indeed. I like the stock.

Just curious did you send a message back to McGowen about the gunk in the barrel? Although it seems to be a real shooter based on the group you shot I would think they owe you a little bit for all your efforts to get the gunk out. I'm guessing (and just guessing) that for them it would be a 5 to 10 minute job verses what you had to go through.

[stagpanther]

IMhO a handsome looking rifle indeed. I like the stock.

Just curious did you send a message back to McGowen about the gunk in the barrel? Although it seems to be a real shooter based on the group you shot I would think they owe you a little bit for all your efforts to get the gunk out. I'm guessing (and just guessing) that for them it would be a 5 to 10 minute job verses what you had to go through.

Thanks Dale--I think I will call McGowen just out of curiosity.

I whipped up my first batch of ammo for development--I'm trying to see if I can get close to Weatherby's premium 150 gr partition ammo since a customer of mine who's 270 wby mags I work on will likely not find any ammo for it.

[stagpanther]

I did call them and asked--as I suspected it was likely lapping compound from what I was told. Just to make sure it wasn't there for a reason I asked if this was done on purpose and was told no. No harm done from what I can tell, unless maybe it missed a final polish which I guess is possible.

[DaleA]

Thanks for the update. It's always nice to know how these things play out.

[stagpanther]

I got off my first few groups and while it holds around MOA out to around 200 yards--I have to say I'm quite disappointed in the finishing of the bore and crown, fouling builds up very quickly and takes a long time to clean. Passing a patch through it is a bumpy ride.