Regarding the issue I am having with the magazine, I talked to the person I bought the stock from and he stated that he did not use the clip. I decided to use a piece of cardboard as a shim between the magazine shroud and the inletting for the magazine to secure it. This did away with the clip for now and allowed the action to sit down on the pillar. This does cause contact between the rear tang and the stock, but I'm going to continue on and see how it shoots before I revisit possibly floating the tang and bedding the action. The magazine does function properly now despite the clip not being there and the barrel is completely free floated all the way to the barrel nut. It actually has a pretty decent amount of float to it so hopefully that will be advantageous to cooling...



Took the time here to clean the barrel from the manufacturing process... Here is what I got out...




Continuing on with the installation of the optics. I installed the EGW 20 moa base and torqued to 20 in lbs. Also applied a dab of blue loctite on those screws. I also installed the Burris Signature Zee rings and went with the +/- 10 inserts this time. I previously had 42 MOA of up adjustment which would have been plenty for my application but I went ahead anyhow with a little extra cant just in case a miracle happens and I get the chance to go long... LOL... Anyhow, installed the rings and torqued those to 30 in/lbs using blue loctite also. The Vortex Viper HS-T went on pretty easily since I already knew were I wanted it. Just had to level the recticle with my own little redneck leveling method and torque the clamp rings down to 30 in/lbs also using blue loctite.










After I got eveything tightened down I took it outside bore sighted the rifle. I could certainly tell that I gained some elevation adjustment from the +/- 10 inserts. I brought it back to the bench and measured the distance to the lands with the 175 SMKs as well as the 168 SMKs. Those results are:

175 SMK's = 2.845" OAL touching the lands

168 SMK's = 2.865" OAL touching the lands

I threw some once fired FGMM brass in the tumbler, put the rifle in the safe and calling it a day.... I will try to come up with a plan on load development this evening and try to start loading some rounds tomorrow. Hopefully, I can test drive this thing by the end of the week. If you can't already tell, once I start a project I pretty much move along with it... Sometimes working so quickly is my greatest enemy but its just my nature. My wheels are always turning and I'm trying to think out ahead most of the time... LOL....