Well I got it done!



Bedding job pretty much all cleaned up.



I taped off the bedding job so I can put a couple of coats of poly on the stock without getting it all over the bedding.



I roughed the stock up with a little 320 grit to prep for polu. I decided that I wanted to use semi-gloss. I little less shiny than gloss, but more than flat.



Hanging to dry after a couple of coats of poly.



Bottom metal, trigger guard, and mag bottoms all sanded down smooth. These are cast pieces and are really porous so getting them super smooth is not really viable. That does mean they will soak up the Oxpho-Blue like a sponge though which is not necessarily a bad thing.



Post bluing. I went 5 coats on these. My process is really simple, but doesnt follow the instructions fully. These 5 pieces took me about 30 minutes start to finish.
Step 1: Sand pieces with Dremel flap wheels and flex brushes to get into nooks and crannys, follow up with 320 grit sandpaper to removing any marks, followed by 440 grit to get it a smooth as possible. Being that this is a cast piece, you will never get in perfect.
Step 2: Clean all pieces with hot water and Simple Green to degrease, and dry with air compressor. Place all pieces in cardboard box and spray them generously with red Brake Cleaner, dry with air compressor, and wipe them down with a clean cotton rag. I cannot stress enough how important it is to remove all oil and grease. Green Brake Cleaner does not dry as quickly or as completely as the red stuff, so use the red stuff.
Step 3: Put rubber gloves on! Wet the entire part down with bluing solution, let sit for about a minute, and then scrub it into the part with 0000 steel wool. Then dry part with clean cotton rag. Repeat this step at least 3 more times. The more you do it the darker the piece will become, and the better it will hold up over time.
Step 4: When happy with color, give the piece a good wipedown to remove all wet bluing. Use a heat gun to dry the pieces and warm them up to just where they are too hot to touch. This seems to help set the bluing and makes sure everything is dry for the next step.
Step 5: Take a clean piece of 0000 steel wool and buff the pieces until they are shiney. I use a Dremel with a plastic wheel brush to get into the corners.
Step 6: Use a quality gun oil and rub each piece down lightly. I use Balistol because that is what I had on the bench. Remember, bluing is nothing more than controlled rusting, so you still need to oil the parts.
Step 7: Done! Install the pieces.



And here she is, all done.

I do have some minor issues with the trigger as the guy who owned it before messed with it a bunch and or I screwed something up. Most notably safety does not work correctly (my fault probably) and the trigger was way too light causing the sear to slip when you cock the gun (previous owners fault). I did increase the trigger pull weight which helped iron out the sear slipping issue, but still need to fix the issue with the safety. That being said, I did take it to the range the shoot it yesterday, just was careful. Ill start a separate thread to deal with these issues elsewhere on this website

I broke the barrel in with a box of Perfecta 150gr Wally-World junk that I got with the gun. For the first 5 shots, I patched every shot. For the next 10, I patched every other. The next 5 I shot right in a row, and patched after that. Did 2 strings of 5 shots. Barrel cleaned up easily with a single patch with Hoppes #9 and two patches with Hoppes gun oil. Very happy with the Criterion barrel in this regard. Did these break in shots at 50' to get me on paper. Vortex scope needed minimal adjustment here.

After the barrel was broke in I grabbed a box of Fed GMM and set targets at 100 and 200. Gun was shooting about 10" high at 100 yards which is what I figured it would do. Dialed the scope down 9 1/2" inches, and brought it to the left 3/4". Once I was dialed in I did 2 back to back groups of 4 shots that were right around 3/4". I did shoot a couple of 4 round groups at 200 yards. groups around 2" or so from what I could see thru the scope. I did not go down range to get the targets as the range was busy yesterday, and I was a little rushed because I needed to get home.

Overall, Im very happy with this build, especially being that this is the first bolt gun Ive done. I need to iron out the issue with the safety and the trigger, but Ill get to that later.

I do have some reloading to do. I have 168gr and 175gr Hornady Amax's, 168gr and 175 gr Sierra SMK's, Hornady 150gr Interlock's, Hornady 150gr FMJBTs, Hornady 125gr SST's, and some Hornady 110 gr Vmax's. I shoot a bunch of 300 BO, so lots of .308 caliber bullets on hand. I want to get a few boxes of the new Sierra TMK's in 168 and 175's as well. I plan on using H335, H4895, 8208 XBR, or maybe some Varget for powder. Once I get some load development done, Ill post that info.

Thats for watching!