Hey all,
I started a thread awhile back about what I should get and what do I need type thing to rebuild the Model 10 308 I picked up cheap ahandful of months back.
Good news is, I have all the parts. Time to start building! Goals are to inlet the barrel, pillar and bed the rifle, and have a nice looking, nice shooting rifle. Ill have some questions as I go along.
Model 10 .308 from Armslist
Criterion 26" 10 twist barrel, nut wrench, recoil lug and barrel nut from Northland
BoydsProVarmint stock in Nutmeg (Im a sucker for a classic looking rifle)
Bottom metal, trigger guard and 2 4 round magazines from Savage
Vortex Viper 6-24X50 scope from Cabelas
Vortex Rings and Nightforce 20 MOA base from Midway
Forthe moment Im going to use the stock trigger as its not terrible.
A pic of the starter rifle. Got it for a decent price, with a cheap scope, and 100 rounds of .308. I have my own homebuilt barrel vise, which is a monstrous over built thing, but I had a hell of a time getting the old barrel off. I guess I should have listened to Jim from Northland and just bought the action wrench. Even still, I prevailed, using a heat gun, rubber mallet, and a little brown sugar on the old barrel to keep it from slipping.
Started working on it yesterday. Had to remove a little wood from where the bottom metal sits. Boyds doesnt cut the channel long enough for everything to fit together.
I cut the channel longer. Will seat this up with some poly when I refinish the barrel channel.
Now onto opening the forearm up for the heavy varmint contoured barrel.
Before:
Testing:
After:
Had to remove quite a bit of material. I used a 7/8" dowel with some 150 grit wrapped on it, a half round file, my Dremel and a bunch of elbow grease. First time Ive done this so I was a little nervous about screwing something up. Barrel has a nice 1/16"clearance from the barrel nut forward.
I dont know if Savage sent me the wrong parts, or I screwed something up, but I had to modify the trigger guard and the bottom metal slightly to get everything flush.
This is what it looked like when I put the bottom parts in. Trigger guard was almost a 1/4" high.
So I filed the trigger guard down a little and the bottom metal down a bunch, cold blued them, and it looks like this now. Much better.
Well, round one is done. I need to head space the barrel next. For the above pics I just had it threaded in so I could get the barrel channel opened up to where it needed to be.
After that Ill pillar and bed. Ive never done that before, so Ill have some questions here shortly.
Questions:
The front action screw is about 1/4" long now that I changed over to bottom metal instead of a blind mag. Whats a good source for buying the screws from? Im not sure if I can get them from the local hardware store, and I dont feel like buying an entire box of them from McMaster Carr. Id also like to change the 3 screws toSSTL if I can. Im assuming that they are just 1/4X20 thread screws?
A question about pillaring. I picked up the lamp rod as was suggested in my other thread, but Im looking at the stock and I am actually worried that pillaring the stock might weaken it. On the front screw the wood is about 1/2" thick, the rear is a little better at about 1". There is not much meat to thefront and rear on these holes either. Will pillaring make that big of a difference in this rifle? Im really concerned about ruining something.
For the bedding, I plan on just removing a little material from the inside of the stock everywhere I want to bed, basically from the front of the action, to the rear action screw, ending right in front of where the trigger group sits. Ill also drill some small holes in various locations to give the Devcon a some places to really grab ahold of the stock. Do I need to worry about going all theway back to where the safety is or is that overkill? I do want to fully bed the lug. Do I just tape this off with painters tape, or do I use show polish on this part? Also, should I use modeling clay as a dam to keep the Devcon out of where the trigger group and magwell are?
Thanks for the help! Im sure Ill have more questions.
Last edited by Kaldor; 08-24-2015 at 10:36 AM.
I tracked the needed bolts down from BoltDepot.com. Price was reasonable. Shipping was a little steep, but Ive looked locally, and short of buying entire boxes of 1/4-28 bolts in the right length, I had to find them elsewhere. Also went with stainless bolts to avoid rust.
I will be pillaring the stock. Just have to do it carefully. Once I get the hardware in, Ill get moving on that.
How much should I be looking to relieve the stock for the Devcon? 1/16"?
Some progress...
The bolts from BoltDepot were a little fat. I had to chuck them up in my drill press and file the heads down a little bit. .37" is the magic number. I also had to cut them to length.
Drilling the stock for the pillars. I think I used a 1/2" drill bit for this to make the hold about 1/16" bigger than the lamp rod.
You can see a little chip out on the front hole. Devcon fixed that.
Test fit for lamp rod.
For the rear hole on the trigger guard I just drilled a hole and set a nut in with Devcon. Wanted to get away from a wood screw in this spot.
Pillars cut to length
I made a small dam from a piece of cardboard to keep the Devcon where I wanted it.
Pillars set in Devcon. Hard to get pics of this because I was working at getting everything together.
Pillars in place after a little cleanup. You can see Im just starting to cut for the bedding material by the front lug. The green marker is a "do not cut here" area. The stock is thin enough here, and I didnt want to have to rebuild it, so I just got sanded down a littlebit to allow for the Devcon.
Lesson learned here: For the rear pillar, it would have been easier to not cut the notch for the trigger in before putting it in. You can see my alignment is off just a little bit in spit of my best efforts to keep it in the right spot. It would have been easier to just use it without the notch, and grind the notch in later.
Go easy on me, Im a noob when it comes to this stuff!
Another round of pics. I just plug away at this project as I have time. Wife, kids, etc, all keep me super busy.
All cut out for bedding. I added a few 1/4" holes to really give the Devconn something to grab onto.
Stock fully taped off.
Clay in place. I chose to run the bedding from the front edge of the barrel nut to the shelf of the back lug. I might have used the wrong clay, because this stuff did shrink a little, but it was almost fibrous, so it actually came out really easy and clean later on. I also bedded the area where the bolt release is. I wanted a little more support there, and I can always carve out a little bit for the bolt release when I put it back together.
Put a double layer of tape on the front lug. Put tape on the barrel nut. I plan on bedding to the front of the barrel nut, but I do not want the barrel nut in the Devconn. This way if I ever decide I want to swap barrels, the nut will not be indexed to a specific location via the grooves on the nut. Could potentially save me some work in the long run as 6.5 Creedmoor is something Im interested in.
All ready to drop in! I was pretty paranoid about getting enough shoe polish on the action, so I went over it 4 times. :)
Stock is all ready.
Devconn in place. I have to say, its decent stuff to work with.
Action in place. Wasnt sure how to hold it in place, and Ive seen electrical tape recommended in a few different articles. In hindsight I used too much Devconn but I didnt want any voids so better safe than sorry. I gave everything a quick cleanup and let it dry for the night.
More pics shortly.
A few more pics...
The action popped out pretty easily. I was super paranoid it was going to get stuck, so when it came apart, relief is the best word I can use to describe it. Still needs a little cleanup. Ill get to that tonite providing nothing crazy is going on at home.
I just realized I did not put any pics of the headspacing process I used.
Im a cheap ass to start with. Before you yell at me about putting the action in the vise, let me explain.
I put the action in my vise very lightly, using soft jaws. Its tight enough to just headspace, not mess up the action. I drop the headspace gauge in the barrel, and threaded it on. I remove the extractor from the bolt and put it in and close it. At that point I thread the barrel in, index the lug, until it is tight. At that point I open the bolt handle, turn the barrel in just a hair more, and try to close the bolt. It should not close. I screw the barrel out a touch, close the bolt, tighten the barrel back up snug. At that point I check function of the bolt, opening and closing. Then I back the barrel out just a little bit, snug the barrel nut down by hand so nothing can move and remove it from the vise.
Here you can see my barrel vise. Its a pretty substantial beast. Cost me all of $5 to build. I build custom inserts for different barrels and diameters from pieces of scrap hard wood. Could probably even make one to hold an action much like an action wrench. Im all setup to torque the nut down.
All set to torque it to 40 ft/lbs as Jim at Northland suggested. After this was done I used a piece of clear tape on my headspace gauge to turn it into a no-go gauge. The bolt would not close on this gauge.
A few more things:
I need to cleanup the bedding job. Shouldnt be too bad. I wish I would have prepped a little better as it would have saved me some time on the back end of the project.
The Boyds stock is serviceable. Not the greatest piece of woodworking Ive ever seen, but I can make it work. I did option for the high gloss finish, but it had multiple issues so I ask Boyds to credit me back the cost of the finish, which to their credit, they did. I will end up sanding the stock lightly with some 440 and adding a coat or 2 of poly to get the look I want. In the future, I will just order the matte stock, and finish it with poly myself if I want it to be shiny.
Jim at Northland was a great resource as some of you guys know. More than happy to share his knowledge. Ill buy from him again. And the barrel nut wrench, big thumbs up. Next time I buy something from them he might talk me into buying an action wrench. :) (maybe)
I am going to re-blue the trigger guard, bottom metal, and mag bases. The black (parkerized?) finish on them looks shoddy compared to the rest of the rifle. Ive stripped the finish with sandpaper, and polished them up with steel wool or 600 grit sandpaper. The metal itself is steel, but is cast, and you can tell that once you strip it. Ive had great luck with Brownells bluing supplies. Ive refinished a couple of rifles using cold bluing, and they look as good or better than factory finish jobs. The key is a little heat, and multiple coats (anywhere from 4-10) depending on the part.
Im hoping to have this wrapped by the weekend, so I can go out and break it in on Sunday afternoon. I have a couple of boxes of Federal GMM, and some Perfecta trash. Got a couple of boxes of Sierra 168's and Hornady 168 Amax's sitting in my gun cabinet read to reload when I can find the time to run some test loads.
Thanks for reading
Very nice write up! thanks for sharing.
Outstanding thread, Thanks
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!
Excellent write up. Im getting ready to bed my 338-06 with lamp rod. Did you file down around the tops of your pillars?
I cut them a little long, and then used my Dremel to finish them to height. The rear pillar I would do different. Put it in round, then cut the slot in it, that way you dont have to worry about indexing the slot.Originally Posted by Remingtonman
Very nice and detailed write up! And the rifle looks really good!
Good job!
Scooter
I'm the Boss. I make sure what she wants gets done.
Very nice job!
I do want to add, as I can't NOT say something, that when torquing anything with an adapter, you need to index the adapter at 90* from the torque wrench. What you've done there, is change the effective length of the torque wrench, making a more effective and more powerful "lever." You actually altered the torque that was applied to barrel nut. If you are going to use it in the manner you did, it's possible, but requires some math. Hope this helps:
http://www.cncexpo.com/TorqueAdapter.aspx
Good info. Thanks for the heads up!
Great write up. I will be doing this soon to my savage 338-06. did you use any kind of a release agent on the taped up barrel nut and recoil lug or did you just set it in the devcon?
This is a great write up for bedding a rifle. I would like to do it to my rifle, also a 338-06. Only problem is, it's a hogue overmold with pillars, not sure if it would deal with the stress and bedding on a 'plastic' stock. I'm pushing a 225gr Accubond at 2800 fps, and its half moa so don't know if it's worth the hassle for something that may not adhere well..
Nice job
I just finished my 338-06 build and so far have enjoyed shooting it. the furthest ive been able to take it was just a scope sight in at 60yds, im hoping to try it at 100yds here soon. What barrel do you have on yours?
Jim at Bison Gun Works did mine. I believe he used a green mountain barrel, I just said to go with the house special. It's finished at 25" and .750 at the muzzle. It shoots less then moa out to 300 yrds, haven't taken it beyond that yet, next summer will be out to 450, but I have to wait for the snow to go first.
My best has been 2" at 300, but I'm sure it can do better. It's an amazing round. I probably have around 150 rounds down it, so it's still being broken in.
All I would say is be extremely liberal with the release agent. I mean, use it in areas that you wouldn't even think were relevant. I would just dip the entire thing in a bucket of it if I could... It's hard enough to get it out, don't make it any harder.
[I]"In the end, run what 'ya brung because it's better than nothing and don't give two ****s what some interwebs chat board guy says about your rig."[/I]
I used natural shoe polish, 4 or 5 coats lightly buffed between coats. Release was perfect.
Sorry I dug this one up, been awhile since i posted on this thread.
A little after action report...
I have about 500 rounds thru the gun since I finished the build and Ill probably put 200 thru it this weekend.
Ended up going with a Rifle Basix trigger. The stock trigger had an issue where the lug would slip all the time on cocking. Tried a few different things, ended up just fixing it permanently by replacing it. Im very happy with the adjustability of it and clean break and Im sitting at about 2lbs. I bought mine directly from Rifle Basix and the owner was more than helpful when I needed the setup instructions for the trigger that were mistakenly not included.
I have tired a whole bunch of different bullets and powders. Hornady 150gr SP's, 150gr FMJBT's, 168gr AMAX's, Sierra 168gr & 175gr SMK's, H4895, IMT 8208 XBR, H335, CFE 223, all over CCI 200 primers in 7.62X51 LC cases. The 168gr AMAX's with 40gr of 8208 XBR produce consistent 5 shots touching groups at 100 yards. The SMK's shoot about as well as the AMAX's but I seem to have issues with flyers more often on these. I still want to try some Sierra TMK's and I havent messed with any 125 or 110 grain bullets yet. The Hornady 150gr SP's with H4895 turn in some surprisingly good groups, hovering at 4 shot touching in a 5 shot group and will be my go to hunting round for whitetails out to 300 yards. The 150gr FMJBTs shoot around 1.5" with H335 and CFE 223 and are my go to load for running on the progressive and just general plinking at steel at the 200 yard range I shoot at.
To do list for loading:
I do need to test these load over a chrono to check up on FPS. Buy a comparator so I can get these bullets sitting a little closer to the lands. And I still want to get some Varget which is near unobtanium around here.
Overall, a great build. I have plans on doing a 223 this year if I can find the right gun with a DBM included.
Great write up! Great pictures on bedding the stock. Have heard about it but never seen it done or even how. Very nice looking rifle and finish on the stock.
Only thing I have to offer is watch blowing off parts with compressed air from a compressor. Depending on the type you have, oiled or without oil. The compressor with oil you can get oil in the lines, thus while blowing it off shoot oil unseen on your parts. Also if you use air tools oil can get in the lines, from what I've learned over the years as a mechanic. Most places have dedicated lines for paint due to this. A good air dryer too. From reading your entire thread though you cleaned very well! Soap, brake cleaner, the works! Great job and thanks for the very informative post and the time it took to write it all up.
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