Custom Rifle Journey/Review *Pic Heavy*

[huntnful]

Travis Stevens does a nice job building rifles and chambering barrels. A couple of years ago I had him build my 6.5PRC (ironically the same as Steve's but a 22" barrel) for me before I started putting my own rifles together. One of which he chamber the barrel for. Highly recommended.

He’s an excellent gunsmith, also with excellent communication. He always answers the phone and is very professional and punctual. I would not hesitate to get another gun built by him at all.

 

[Quandary]

This is the 6.5PRC Travis built for me;

 

[Wrench]

This thread made me start looking for new jobs

Notice that these rigs are sitting on a rig welder truck. I started there myself.

 

[huntnful]

Notice that these rigs are sitting on a rig welder truck. I started there myself.

Yes sir, my buddy and I are both pipe welders. That's his rig and a few of his rifles in that picture as well. He's worse than me when it comes to guns and optics haha.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Something I'm very curious about is glass bedding. I'm having my hunting rifle bedded in a KRG Bravo right now and the builder asked whether I want to have the first 1-2" of the barrel bedded. He said if I plan to change the barrel out at all then I shouldn't have him do that. He also said he doesn't think it will have an effect on the bedding's resistance to POI shift (which is the only reason I'm having the bedding done anyway).

Do you have that section of the barrel bedded in your rifles that you're switching barrels out on? This is the first glass bedding I'm having done and it's for the sole purpose of zero retention.

 

[ada5771]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

 

[SouthPaw]

Something I'm very curious about is glass bedding. I'm having my hunting rifle bedded in a KRG Bravo right now and the builder asked whether I want to have the first 1-2" of the barrel bedded. He said if I plan to change the barrel out at all then I shouldn't have him do that. He also said he doesn't think it will have an effect on the bedding's resistance to POI shift (which is the only reason I'm having the bedding done anyway).

Do you have that section of the barrel bedded in your rifles that you're switching barrels out on? This is the first glass bedding I'm having done and it's for the sole purpose of zero retention.

I wouldn't bed the barrel area if you think youll swap. Is it a Tikka Bravo? I've got multiple thousands of rounds and many travel hunts through two KRG bravos, both with barrel swaps, with zero bedding and no issues at all with zero retention using known good scopes and mounting.

 

[JohnJohnson]

I wouldn't bed the barrel area if you think youll swap. Is it a Tikka Bravo? I've got multiple thousands of rounds and many travel hunts through two KRG bravos, both with barrel swaps, with zero bedding and no issues at all with zero retention using known good scopes and mounting.

It's a Mausingfield M5 action in a R700 footprint Bravo so the bedding is a bit more important to get a good fit I think.

 

[huntnful]

Something I'm very curious about is glass bedding. I'm having my hunting rifle bedded in a KRG Bravo right now and the builder asked whether I want to have the first 1-2" of the barrel bedded. He said if I plan to change the barrel out at all then I shouldn't have him do that. He also said he doesn't think it will have an effect on the bedding's resistance to POI shift (which is the only reason I'm having the bedding done anyway).

Do you have that section of the barrel bedded in your rifles that you're switching barrels out on? This is the first glass bedding I'm having done and it's for the sole purpose of zero retention.

I don’t have them bed the shank of the barrels. The barrels get swapped out too often. My current 22CM is bedded into a cheap chassis and it has had no issues so far. 380 rounds in, and quite a few miles riding like this.

I checked zero last time I was out. With a group before, and after the shooting session.

 

[DeCoura]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet so that it's digestible for a reader. But please ask any questions regarding any additional info that you'd like!! I'll finish the post with a summary of why I changed certain components.

You'll see a variety of optics in here, I'll avoid discussing what caused the changes, because we all probably know the answers lol.

I killed my first buck in 2018. Then I became addicted to it, and started hunting big game HEAVILY in 2019. Over 100 days a year.

Like a lot of people, I started out with a christensen arms ridgeline, in 6.5 creedmoor. I shot that rifle for all of 2019. New as new could get at big game hunting and rifles in general really. I killed some deer with it.
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After that season, I knew I wanted a better rifle platform, and a hotter cartridge. As well as wanting to get into reloading and more into long range. In comes the 28 Nosler. My first custom....

Built by Hells Canyon Armory. I basically just asked Mike for his premium, lightweight, hunting rifle build. He suggested his "Carbon Killer" in 28 Nosler. I knew literally nothing about custom rifles at this point. I just said, "sounds good" and the build commenced basically lol. Took about 8 Months from deposit date.

Specs on the 28 Nosler:
Lone Peak Fuzion Ti Action
AG Composites Ibex Stock
26" Benchmark Barrel, carbon wrapped by Mike himself. 1-8 twist
Trigger Tech Special
Hawkins BDL Oberndorf

I shot this rifle for 2 seasons. 2020 & 2021. With a variety of bullets. It was a great shooting rifle!

Group at 1120 yards with 195 Bergers.
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After two seasons and over 800 rounds, the barrel was absolutely smoked. I put a steel bartlein barrel chambered by TS Customs on it, and sold it to a great buddy of mine. This was when I started thinking more about steel barrels, but I'm a slow learner as you'll see... lol. Gun absolutely hammers to this day!
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In the meantime, Mike at Hells Canyon Armory was building me another rifle. A 300 Norma Improved. Because I just wanted even bigger and "badder", no real other reason honestly. This build spec was almost Identical to my initial 28 Nosler. This build took 15 months from deposit date.

300 Norma Improved Specs:

Lone Peak Fuzion TI
AG Composites Ibex stock
Mikes carbon barrel. 26" 1-9 twist
Trigger Tech Special
Hawkins BDL Oberndof

I used this rifle for all of 2022. It was also a great shooting rifle, but I really began to notice impacts wandering after only a few shots down the barrel. And it would take me forever to get range data because I had to let the barrel cool for minutes between shots to get larger sample sizes without "flyers". And the TI action was running ROUGH and almost non functional on the late season hunt with my dad. I could hardly cycle it in the freezing temps....

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BUT, being the way that I am. I had Travis Stevens at TS Customs also build be an ultralight, short barreled 6.5 PRC in 2022. Literally no justification for this build, other than I wanted a "truck gun" for coyotes I guess.

Lone Peak Fuzion TI. DLC Coated (this was new to me). Diamond Like Coating
TS Customs KS1 Stock from AG Composites
20" Bartlein Carbon Barrel 1-7 twist
TT Special
Hawkins M5 Oberndof

This DLC coated TI action was the smoothest running actions I'd ever used at this point. It was unbelievable. I only killed a few coyotes with it and put a few hundred rounds down the barrel before selling it. I wanted funds for another build. Go figure haha.

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After the 2022 season, I didn't really want to invest the money for full new build at the moment. But I knew I didn't want anymore carbon barrels, because I didn't see any accuracy benefit, or really even much of a weight benefit to them at this point. I also knew my TI action wasn't acceptable with how it cycled during that late season hunt.

So I sent my Norma to Ty Shaw at Flatline Precision for a rebarrel and I sent the action off for DLC coating.

Ty chambered a 1-9 twist steel bartlein barrel in his own 300 Norma Mag Improved design, did some fresh cerakote, and I had the rifle back in a short manner. It cycled much better and shot EXCELLENT with that new steel barrel.

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But before Ty even finished the rebarrel, I was already wanting a full build and just to get rid of having TI actions all together. Because I have a problem, cleary haha. So I did load dev on the bronze Norma, and sold it to a good buddy.

For 2023, I had a fetish with accuracy for some reason, so I decided that I wanted to try to piece together some HEAVY rifles, with a steel barrels, steel actions and my first adjustable stocks, that would shoot better than any rifles I'd ever had. They shot amazing for sure.

I had Ty Shaw do this next full build, that I would use for most of 2023. Coming in at over 12lbs scoped. Another 300 Norma Mag Improved. Build was 4 months to complete after deposit.

Bat Vesper Long Action
TS Customs Adjustable KS1 Stock by AG Composites
1-9 twist Benchmark Med Palma Contour
TT Special trigger
Hawkins M5 DBM this time.

I packed this gun all over hell. Honestly, I didn't really notice the weight. But I ended up killing all my animals under 200 yards with it in 2023. And while it did shoot a ton of small groups, I was realizing that tiny groups, aren't necessarily what kills animals. But I knew I loved the steel action, and my god that steel barrel was forgiving with every bullet I shot down it, and long shot strings too. 5 shot fast cycle groups constantly in the .4" range with no wandering.

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Ran out of file attachment room.... will continue in next post. Bare with me please...

Have you ever looked at a 6.5 284 Norma?Any thoughts on it for white tail and mule der?