New rifle by Mick Mcphee :)

The A5 stocks......I don't like the way they ride a rear bag. I don't know how some of you guys do it but I always rest the rear of the stock on the bag making sure that the butt hook and bag don't interfere with one another. I've found that when I place the bag in the butt hook the rifle doesn't recoil straight back.....and on an A5 there isn't much room behind that butt hook for a bag to ride on. My next rifle will not sport an A5 just for that reason. To each their own.......

This is more what I was getting at with my "tutti-frutti" comment: the A5 doesn't seem to me like the kind of stock normally used to ride a pedestal + bag combo. For that setup, those shiny, slick (& colourful lol) stocks with the flat forends and no obsctructions between grip and toe seem more popular...
 
HEY! Too much tutti-frutti-stock talk! :D

(Although I've personally always wondered why 95% of F-class shooters don't buy subdued colours. :nest:)


What kind of scope? :D
 
Thanks guys for all your kind comments, here are some asnwers to your questions..

The scope is an NF Benchrest 8-32 x 56. An NXS would have been nice for this, but I have had this one for years and for F/TR or precision rifle matches I do not find the front focus to be much of an issue.

The rings are TPS, the base is a 20moa from Stiller, I found out the hard way that the forward portion of the inletting in the ejection port for the Stiller is different from a Rem700 and the TPS base will not fit.

The front rest is for my F-Class heavy rifle, this F/TR rifle will be used with a bipod, I will also shoot it in precision matches where I find the bipod to be easier to use given the changing locations of the targets in a precision match. I use this rest for working up groups especially in the winter, the feet of the bipod skitter around on a hard surface and I find you really need to be prone if you want to shoot from a bipod and still get good groups, it may be me, but I cannot get good groups off a bench with a bipod.

Having said that, when you remove the forward stud, this stock has a flat bottom and fits a 2-1/4 inch front bag insert perfectly.

Yes, the bbl is one of Mick's

Tutti-fruitti? ;)

I have nothing aginst those, I am just not that kind of guy :rolleyes:

As far as groups, I have just fired 50 rounds, 5 sets of five using Lapua 155 gn Scenars, and 5 sets of 5 using Berger 175gn vld. I used varget and picked a loading range based on my experience with my Rem700 that I used when I started shooting.

Best groups so far are

Lapua 155gn, Varget 45.4gn, 2900fps, COL 2.85 (just touching the lands) - 5 shots at 100 M: ~0.4

Berger 175gn, Varget 45.0gn, 2750fps, COL 2.85 (just touching the lands) - 5 shots at 100 M: ~0.3

Will need to further break-in the bbl and adjust the jump to the lands, but as expected Mick's rifles always shoot!
 
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Missed the question on the inletting..

I did not want to mislead anyone, the bbl, and chambering is Mick's work, as far as I am concerned that is really what makes a rifle, the stock and inletting is not what makes a rifle.

I have a second bbl with a different taper that I will use with this stock so I just continued the inletting forward a bit, for this rifle this has the secondary benefit of lots of circulation around the bbl for cooling;)
 
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You have to meet Mick to know what an absolute mechanical perfectionist he is. He makes 30 cal barrels that are as good as the very best in the world. Because only he will do the installation, it gets done right and it is properly mated to your gun.

Your rifle is a piece of precision art!!!

... hint: One should never utter the term "Barrel nut" in his presence, except in expressing your fanatical love for barrels :)
 
Lapua 155gn, Varget 45.4gn, 2900fps, COL 2.85 (just touching the lands) - 5 shots at 100 M: ~0.4

Everything about that load sounds awfully darn similar to what I use in my rifles (MacLennan barrel, JGS .308 Obermayer reamer).

I find that the Lapua 155 is a particularly *long* bullet, with a very long shank. This means that at these sorts of C.O.A.L.s, a great deal of the bullet is inside the case. Almost too much for comfort, if there are any doughnuts. And certainly an unwelcome intrusion into the case's powder capacity. At my C.O.A.L. (2.84", which gives me a nominal 10 thou jam into the rifling), the base of the bullet is about .150" below the neck-shoulder junction, and the boattail-shank junction is uncomfortable close.

The Lapua 155 is a very high performance bullet (dragwise), and is made extremely well. It and the Berger 155.5 are the two lowest-drag 155s available. But in my opinion, the Lapua 155 is a bit of a misfit to a typical short throated .308 chamber such as mine. If I were designing a chamber for the Lapua 155s, I would make it 150 thou longer than my present JGS .308 Obermayer, which would result in a COALs of 2.98" to touch the lands (and not a lot of neck-shank engagement, only about 120 thou).

I think that the Lapua 155 would be a particularly good bullet to try in really long-throated factory rifles (ahem, Remington ;-)

I haven't shot the new Sierra 155s (#2156), but I have a box here and have made some measurements, they fit a short-throated rifle like mine very nicely.

Here are some measurements I just made, comparing the old Sierra 155 (#2155), the new Sierra 155 (#2156), and the Lapua 155

I understand the the Berger 155.5 is better suited to shorter throats, I haven't yet had a chance to try them. Maybe I'll update that spreadsheet when I get some to try.

In 2010, I expect I will be shooting Berger 155.5s and/or Sierra #2156s
 
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