Lefty 6.5 SAUM

[greg_t]

Hi Fellas, I just got this one put together last week. It started as a LH 4.27" short action I picked up used. I had a barrel here off a 260 LRP (I think), it was the large shank one. I chopped off the original chamber and turned the barrel down and rethreaded it to 1.050" 20tpi. The reamer is from PTG, it's the GAP 6.5 SAUM 4s with the .296" neck.

I set the action up off the barrel centreline and trued the lug abutments and face, it was remarkably true to start with and I ended up cutting .004" off both, mostly to clean up some dents on the front of the action:



You can see the dents here after a light cut:



The final cut:



and a small chamfer:



The barrel was pretty heavy with just those tiny flutes that Savage puts in them, I wanted to knock a fair bit of weight off it and the hex look seemed like a good idea:











I just cut it to the depth of the original flutes but it knocked a fair bit of weight off it.

I figured a muzzle brake was a good idea so I machined one up from 7075 aluminium, it was originally going to be 2 port but there was room for 3, it's 5/8"-24 thread:

[greg_t]

I forgot to take photos but I set up the barrel and threaded the front, screwed on the brake then bored the hole to 7mm diameter. Everything copped a blast and a coat of cerakote then, a mix of burnt bronze and OD green on the action, barrel etc. and bake on micro slick on the bolt and handle:



I engraved the caliber before coating it:



The cerakote came out about the colour of the greenish hard anodising which is what I was after, here's the finished brake and barrel:



I missed a few more photos of making the stock and putting it all back together but here it is finished:





I trimmed up and fitted a magnum bolt head, not much work to do and works fine:





The rounds fit and feed beautifully from a 10 round AI 308 mag with the lips adjusted slightly:





It's finished off with a Glades Armory bolt handle, a Warne rail and 4-16 FFP Viper PST. The trigger is a fiddled with factory one for now, it's not wonderful but not bad.

I had a few dramas first time out with not enough case neck clearance which caused some scary pressures and loose primers but an extra .0015-.002" off the necks will hopefully solve that problem. I'm using necked down Norma 300 SAUM brass, 140gr SMK's, AR2217 powder and Federal match primers.



I'll post up some results after I get back to the range in the next week.

Cheers,

Greg

[yobuck]

interesting pics. thats a good cartridge from what im hearing. what are you looking for 3300 or so?
i had the same pressure problem with a 6.5wsm awhile back. chose to open the neck slightly as opposed
to turning necks. i ended up using 63 gr h1000 w/the 140s and norma brass. then sold the gun lol.

[hank440]

nice rifle and awesome skills

[Savage6x284]

Great work. It really is nice to have machining skills and a well equipped shop!

Interesting cartridge as well. I assume you chose the SAUM as the basis due to it fitting in the mag a bit easier than a WSM platform would.

I hope to be doing similar stuff in my new machine shop when it gets built this Spring. A fire destroyed my old shop last November and I've had a ton of fun buying new stuff since my insurance check arrived.

I'll be concentrating on super lightweight builds though. Under 7# all up with full length barrels.

[hank440]

savage

tell us about the super lightweight build in another thread or pm

hank

[Hotolds442]

Nice work Greg, I like the attention to detail you put into it.

[greg_t]

Great work. It really is nice to have machining skills and a well equipped shop!

Interesting cartridge as well. I assume you chose the SAUM as the basis due to it fitting in the mag a bit easier than a WSM platform would.

I hope to be doing similar stuff in my new machine shop when it gets built this Spring. A fire destroyed my old shop last November and I've had a ton of fun buying new stuff since my insurance check arrived.

I'll be concentrating on super lightweight builds though. Under 7# all up with full length barrels.

I had an engine shop for a long time and got out of it last year, this stuff is just good fun to do, it's nice to walk into the shed and enjoy machining stuff up for a change. I kept my lathe, a little sunnen hone, grinders, welders etc and the Tormach and a Cincinatti Sabre CNC which I havn't used in 2 years, the little Tormach does everything I need to do at the moment.

I went for the SAUM after reading about the extreme hunter rifles that GA Precision are doing, it looks to be a cartridge that will cover a fair few bases. This rifle is really a bit of a test to see how it all works, if it does everything it's supposed to I've got a Stiller Tac 30 coming and a Lilja 1:8 twist barrel here to do a really good (but hopefully lighter) one with. Then again if it all works well I might just leave it like it is.

[missed]

Nice!!! I want to build a 6.5 saum bad!