Here is a Ruger 77 mk 2 in .308, the Target model. It's Paul's
favorite gun for egg shoots. When purchased, you could take a box
of ammo, either commercial or good handloads, and a beer can
out at 100 yards, and that beer can would be perfectly safe. It seemed
this target model was good for about 1 foot groups at 100 yds.
It's a good design, but the implementation must have been done
on the worst of Monday mornings. Everything that could be wrong
was wrong, from action loose in the stock, to bent trigger pin,
tool marks going the wrong way on trigger/sear interface, bolt
lugs not in equal contact (in fact one was floating about 20 mils
away from contact). You name it. And of course, with a brand
new barrel, there were tool marks and it fouled easily. All that
is fixed now, and it is now a one–holer out to a couple hundred
yards, good enough for benchrest even with the cruiser boattail bullets.
After fixing the basics, one thing remained. Paul didn't want a
muzzle brake,
as anything that could possibly mess with the great accuracy was a
"don't even try that" sort of thing. But it really
pounded the user when shot from the bench. So we filled 'er full
of lead. The stock was drilled out with a couple of 1 inch holes,
lead sheet was put under the free floated barrel, and the clip area
was filled with lead. You don't really need a clip in a target gun,
or even a hunting gun if it is this accurate. Now even Doug
(comparatively a wimp) can shoot
this without turning black and blue. Since Paul is a big guy, we even
added a little lead spacer between the stock and the recoil pad to
increase the length of pull to suit him better. This was nickel plated
and then blackened, so it is hard to see in the picture.
Here is a 1911 Doug built from parts, then did the plating and other
finishing. It shoots really well, and due to the nickel plating on
the slide, does not need lube there. It'd be a nice gun to have
in the desert, since it wouldn't attract dust and sand there.
Interestingly, although technically a Colt, this gun has zero
Colt parts in it. All are aftermarket. The Kimber .22 top has
been hand fitted for zero play, but still doesn't shoot quite as
well as the .45 top does. The .45 slide is so shiny I had to
take the picture at an angle to reduce glare. Yes, those are 3
bullets that went into the same hole in the firewood backstop
I was using for test firing. Heck, I don't see that well!
In the car business, there is a
saying "if it's perfect, paint it black". Well, if it's
really perfect, try nickel plating it, which shows up flaws even
better than gloss black does. On close examination, there are a couple
of tool marks still showing on the slide, even after 40+ hours
of hand sanding. You don't hold something like this up to a buffer
and round off all the edges! I will try to get a better picture to
show off the plating, anodizing, and general slickness of this one.
The gold–looking stuff IS.
Here is Doug's favorite target handgun. Little red dot, little black hole,
totally reliable. What more need be said? It's a S&W Model 14.
It didn't need any work other than cleaning and mounting the red dot.
It already had that super nice S&W target trigger, and is shot
mainly single action.
Here is the sleeper. This is a Cooper in .223, but it looks almost
like something off the WalMart rack. Don't be fooled, this one
shoots as well (with a good handload) as the 6mm PPC below, and that
is VERY good indeed. Doug got this from a guy
who thought he'd ruined it with his excessivly hot handloads, for about
1/4th the normal price. Well, he'd come pretty close, the chamber has
a slight bulge, but the actual problem was he didn't know how to clean
out baked–on powder fouling, especially that complex mix created
by trying several types of powders between cleanings. He assumed that
once the patches came out clean with his cleaner of choice,
he was done. This is the kind of thing a borescope is nice for.
A little lapping compound to break through the hard skin, then normal
cleaning, and it shot fine after that. All it needed was the right
load and to be kept clean. The blue plastic web over the muzzle
is to keep insects from nesting in this gun. I sometimes mumble
something about damping barrel vibrations to see if anyone buys
that (it has no effect on the accuracy). It's the gun we
keep loaded over the door. The sling swivels were left on to
offend benchrest purists. Rides the bags fine anyway. And this is
the one that goes to the woods, so the sling is useful.
Here is a full out 6mm PPC benchrest gun. Boy this thing shoots!
Unlike the other guns, it just about doesn't care what sort of ammo
is put into it – they all go into the same hole no matter what.
I have a target with a 3/8 inch hole in it from 20 shots of 4 different
loads and two shooters. That's pretty good. Almost ruined it for me,
as I like load development, and with this, there's basically no point.
Well, it does show a slight preference for match grade 70 gr
Sierra bullets and powder that burns at about the right speed, which
could be any of H322, W748, N200 or N201. The trigger on this
gun is the lightest I have ever experienced. It is too light for me
to measure, or even feel. It takes a bit of special technique
to shoot this gun.
Here's a .50 cal we got for fun and games. Makes a pretty good
sign for the shop. Haven't shot it much yet. The trigger is surprisingly
good for such a simple thing. Booooom! Can't shoot this from near
the ground, as the blast from the brake will get you peppered with
various rocks and dirt. I don't like the design of this gun very
much. When shooting it, the chamber is right on your neck. With most
rifles, it is between your hands, and a mishap would leave you unharmed.
Nice to have the long barrel, but...
By the way, the handgun also in the picture is an FN Five-Seven. I made
my own reloading dies for it, as none were available commercially. That
was quite a trick as the gun unlocks under high pressure and moves
the shoulder
on the shell forward about 50 mils. I DO like the design of this one
otherwise.
All it's going to need to be perfect is a little work on the trigger
pull. Gee, this thing only shoots 20 per clip and the 28 gr titanium
core .223 bullets come out in the 2500 ft/sec range. Did I mention fun?
I will be working out a handload with 40 gr varmint bullets,
as these are the
lightest cheap ones in this caliber around.
Here is Doug's carry gun, a Taurus Ultralite in Titanium. Yes, it's
grubby. In the pants and under the pillow guns get that way. It points
well for everyone in the eyes–closed test, is reliable, but not much
fun to shoot as it's a hand–slapper, despite the muzzle brake.
This gun did need work, right
off the bat. The mainspring is in the grip, as a coil spring, and
a bump on the hammer strut retains one end. Well, the spring they
used had one closed end, (like an automotive valve spring) and one
open end, and guess which way it was put in? Yup, after about 10
shots, it stopped functioning as the spring wound itself up around
the strut. We turned it around the right way, and added a washer
to be sure. The surprise came when we went back to the gun shop
to report this. We took apart all the Tauruses, and they ALL
had this problem. Other than that, it's a good gun. One thing
about these snubbies. Normal self defense ammo, even in +P, comes
out going ridiculously slow, as in 400 ft/sec. Speer now has some
stuff that works right in a short barrel, or you can make your own,
use Bullseye and moderately light bullets with a tight crimp. This gun
is so light and so small that I have accidentally carried
it concealed into some places I shouldn't have. I just forgot I
was wearing it. Says a lot for the metal detectors in some public
places...
The large ring action of this stock Mauser 98 wants to be the basis
of your next favorite rifle. Can't you feel it tugging at your
heartsrings? All it needs...is a new trigger, a new stock,
bolt work, and a new barrel unless you actually like 8mm Mauser
and what it does to the shoulder. I think it would slightly prefer
to be redone for another cartridge that uses the .473"
face, but it
could be modified for smaller or larger. This gun is not very
accurate as is, and not much fun to shoot, as it is light and has
that uber–comfortable steel buttplate. The action is essentially
brand new, this has had only 2 boxes of ammo shot through it. The
gun was obtained from Mitchell's Mausers for the very purpose of
making it into something a lot nicer, like a benchrest rifle or
a walking varminter. Like the man said, only accurate guns interest
us. In this case, the action's pristine, the rest is junk.