Gun Show and Tell September 2017

[Nick]

Hey Everyone,

Figured I just bought a new firearm and wanted to show it off. So have any of you recently finish a build or purchased a cool firearm you want to show off.

So the Gun is real, I photoshopped in the Bang Flag. It is a Chiappa 1873 single action revolver in 22lr. For those wondering, this is considered a buntline because of the 12 inch barrel. When I picked it up, the FFL asked what I ordered. I told him it was my new Concealed Carry and that it should be under my name. He walked to the back and we all heard him laugh when he saw the box. The best part was when he came around the corner with it, I asked if he had any inside the waste band holsters in stock. That comment cracked up the other 6 people waiting in line.

[Lampy]

You watched too much Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote!

[Tapper]

Apologies for the impromptu pic, haven’t bothered to take any nice ones yet.

Just finished this build. It was originally purchased as a cheap varmint weight utility rifle in .308 from Dick’s for about $350. I bought it for the Savage model 10FCP action and older style barrel nut, which I favor.

I stripped it, re-stocked it in an inexpensive Choate tacticool stock with an aluminum bedding block. I lapped the block, then skim-bedded the action, leaving the barrel free-floated from the lug forwards, and the lug itself fully supported in epoxy (West) with a west filler for strength. Then I mounted the barreled action and fitted the stock (I like prone rifles with a lot of pull length), added a cheek rest. Mounted Talley rings, made a 35mm lap, lapped the rings, then mounted the scope and leveled it. Add a bipod, and a Millet 6-24x mil/mil scope, and shootin time.

If the barrel shoots, I’ll hang on to it long enough to burn it out, but ultimately the gun will be sporting a Bartlein heavy varmint weight barrel in either 6.5 or 6, and I haven’t decided which yet, or which case. So interesting to me, that people are starting to win matches with .243’s now. Good old .243

Up until now, the most accurate rifle I’ve ever owned, was also the cheapest. A Remington 788 in .243, with a Tasco 3x9 scope on it, that I bought for $149 on sale at Woolco in 1980. It had an 18 1/2" barrel too, and a three round detachable magazine. It had no right to do it, but it would routinely shoot .25 MOA, it was light weight, cheap to shoot, no recoil, ugly as sin, and it was a laser. It would easily vaporize a prairie dog at 400 yards, and fully disassemble them out to 800. I did switch the scope to a 10x weaver with a micro-fine cross hair, but that’s it - no smithing other than stoning the trigger a little. Every shooter who ever saw me shoot that gun offered to buy it. There has to be one on the positive end of every manufacturing bell curve right? This gun was it. The one.

Lost in divorce court.

Sure hope this gun shoots. Didn’t spend much on it, but the odds are in my favor. No wife.

[frank_lima]

I got a KelTec RDB recently and absolutely love it.

[PearceDunlap]

I got to hold the one James has, it’s so nice. I can’t wait to shoot it.

[AndrewLeCody]

I just saw one of these at my local store, looks pretty awesome.

[Nick]

I bought the giant pelican case to cutout all nice like yours for my long range rifle. Too bad even their big case is too short to fit my by 1 inch.

Nice Job and can’t wait to see your improvements all over that guy.

[Ferman]

Did you get this before the came out with the non pistol grip, sliding stock variant?

[Tapper]

Thought I would post an update. I took the new rifle out fora spin, and took a few boxes of factory match ammo with me. I wanted to see if the gun would group, before I invested in bullets and powder. I used a box of Federal Premium Gold Medal 175g open tip match, and a box of Black Hills 175g BTHP.

I was looking for something less than MOA groups, but not much less. Normally, you can drag .25-.35 MOA out of well tuned handloads, so .90MOA gets me in the ballgame.

I started with the Federals, zeroed the scope, and fired the first sets of groups. I got several in the 90s, a bunch in the low 80s (no doubt technique warming up). I was happy. Real happy. Going to be a shooter, I thought. So I switched to the Black Hills ammo.

Um, that’ll work. I shot quite a few groups that size.Sure wondering what it will do with tuned loads.

[Nick]

What distance did you shot at?

Looks like a nice range. I ran Ed to the range last week to sight in a couple firearms. Talking about going from factory ammo compared to hand loads. We shot some Tul cheap ammo and it grouped so bad that we thought the gun had issues. Talking groups the size of a pumpkin at 50 yards.

Ed wss a bit embarrassed by the tul group and wanted to move to the next rifle. But I pushed him to buy a box of different ammo at the range. So he grabbed the next cheapest ammo, American eagle, and shot a groups the size of a quarter to a silver dollar with a 3x scope. Ed now understand that ammo really makes a difference. He is now ready to do some hand loads with proper match bullets to figure out how much he can bring the grouping down.

[Tapper]

This was at Garland Shooting Range, all groups at 100 yards off a bipod. Garland is a nice range, but can be really busy on weekends.