AB/BC Gunsmiths for T3X Mountain Build

D

D.Pagenkopf

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I have a 300 WSM T3X that I purchased with the intention of making lighter for AB mountain hunting.
I want to make this rifle as light as possible, I can't pack as much as I used to due to a back injury I'm recovering from.
Heavily inspired by images of the rifles I've seen on Rokslide and out of NZ in particular. Motto for build is "light makes right".
I'm in the Calgary area, willing to travel for good work.

The list of work I want to do is as follows:
A) Wildcat stock via Wildcat in Sherwood park
-bedding with titanium pillar
-paint with a spider pattern
-titanium recoil lug

B) Cut down the barrel a couple of inches, thread for a muzzle brake
-Would like to put a self timing brake on similar to Browning recoil hawg

C) Flute barrel- Regular straight flutes or spiral

D) Flute bolt- preferably spiral

E) Receiver work
-Mill open top and side of receiver
-lightening cuts where possible

F) skeletonize talley rings

Z) Cera coating- single or two tone?
-I'm undecided at this time, very last thing to do when machining is all done.

These are the things I've thought of, if you guys have any recommendations for gun smiths I'd greatly appreciate that.
 
Hill Dog aka Whelanlad skeletonised his A-Bolt a couple of seasons back.
Might want to check his build out for ideas to incorporate into your build.
Gary E Flach is a site member and a G/S, search him out and ask if he is interested or knows of someone who might be closer than the Vancouver area.
Rob
 
C) Flute barrel- Regular straight flutes or spiral

D) Flute bolt- preferably spiral

F) skeletonize talley rings

what will really be gain on it. not talking about cost, the stock will gain you a lot those 3 specific options not really.

if you can find titanium rings and base they will be light and lighter than talleys.
 
I went down the Tikka lightening route last year and I'm looking forward to see how yours turns out if you can find someone to skeletonize your action. I got a bunch of titanium parts from High Velocity Hunting in australia. Going to an aluminum bolt shroud was one of my biggest weight savers but going to titanium bolts and a titanium bolt handle saved me some ounces as well.

Paul at PR Precision fluted my bolt which looks great but didn't save me much in weight. I have a fluted IBI mountain lite contour barrel that's going to be put on sometime this year which should save me some weight as well.

My only suggestion for the rings is to look at Hawkins Precision Long-Range Hybrid Rings. Mine weigh 3.2oz and are what I would call premium talley rings. I don't think skeletonizing them would be a good idea but at the weight they're at I don't think you'd need to.
 
Had a member PM me with KS Arms in Edmonton, they collaborate with Wildcat. Going to send them a message.

coleman1495 said:
Maybe check Paul Cook (PR Precision). He’s a sponsor here
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I looked up his website, I really like his fluting and the prices sounded reasonable for that service.

FLHTCUI said:
Hill Dog aka Whelanlad skeletonised his A-Bolt a couple of seasons back.
Might want to check his build out for ideas to incorporate into your build.
Gary E Flach is a site member and a G/S, search him out and ask if he is interested or knows of someone who might be closer than the Vancouver area.
Rob
Click to expand...
I'll try to find it and shoot him some questions.

medvedqc said:
C) Flute barrel- Regular straight flutes or spiral

D) Flute bolt- preferably spiral

F) skeletonize talley rings

what will really be gain on it. not talking about cost, the stock will gain you a lot those 3 specific options not really.

if you can find titanium rings and base they will be light and lighter than talleys.
Click to expand...
I do realize that the biggest gain will be from the stock change hands down. I also like the aesthetics of fluting on a rifle too- I'll only be saving grams which might be mitigated with the addition of a muzzle brake and a bottom metal. I do have a spreadsheet going to track all of the weights of the components to see where I gained and lost weight. I'll look into titanium rings, that'd be a nice addition.

Rodder said:
I went down the Tikka lightening route last year and I'm looking forward to see how yours turns out if you can find someone to skeletonize your action. I got a bunch of titanium parts from High Velocity Hunting in australia. Going to an aluminum bolt shroud was one of my biggest weight savers but going to titanium bolts and a titanium bolt handle saved me some ounces as well.

Paul at PR Precision fluted my bolt which looks great but didn't save me much in weight. I have a fluted IBI mountain lite contour barrel that's going to be put on sometime this year which should save me some weight as well.

My only suggestion for the rings is to look at Hawkins Precision Long-Range Hybrid Rings. Mine weigh 3.2oz and are what I would call premium talley rings. I don't think skeletonizing them would be a good idea but at the weight they're at I don't think you'd need to.
Click to expand...

Wicked. I have to hand it to the Kiwis and Aussies, they love their t3xs and have a good selection of aftermarket parts. I'm planning on getting from HVHA the titanium bedding kit, trigger spring and aluminum bolt shroud. I just saw that Lumely Arms has a Ti Skeletonized bolt handle that looks pretty sweet and seems to be light while maintaining a good shape. I'll look up the rings, those sound good.

I've also seen some nice parts out of Montanna on the Mountain Tactical website. One of the challenges I have now is finding a bottom metal and picking out one- I'll need that part and the HVHA Ti kit from Aus before I can get a stock made by Wildcat which is probably a 4-5 month lead time.
 
I can say that I have seen a guy at our range one day with a factory browning abolt titanium that was made years ago. his was in 300 wsm .nice light rifle but the recoil of that rifle was just no fun at all he put 3 rounds down range with it and put it away.
 
Sun_and_Steel_77 said:
Check out this thread. https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/2219625-Milling-a-Tikka-T3-T3x-receiver?highlight=tikka+receiver
Click to expand...
Thanks, looks like PR Precision is on there and is willing to do receiver milling.


rar said:
I can say that I have seen a guy at our range one day with a factory browning abolt titanium that was made years ago. his was in 300 wsm .nice light rifle but the recoil of that rifle was just no fun at all he put 3 rounds down range with it and put it away.
Click to expand...
Interesting, was there a brake on it?

For me as it sits I can't really shoot the rifle with a good limbsaver airtech recoil pad on. From forums I've read, lots of people have stated the T3X stock is no friend for recoil where other brands are. I'm hoping the combination of a good 30 cal 4 port brake, bedded receiver and the limbsaver airtech pad will make this unit manageable.

I have run a recoil calculator on my loads and the 300 wsm had an equivalent recoil of a 308/30-06.

I like this video on recoil, who knows how accurate it is or if there were any schinanaginizing...

https://youtu.be/cvjPze99t8I
 
I bought the HVHA aluminum BM and Mountain tactical BM to compare and I found the mountain tactical option to be much better. No matter what you go with you'll be adding anOz over the plastic factory one. Mountain tactical is 2.3oz while the factory is 1.1oz if I remember right
 
as I recall there was no brake on the browning titanium 300 wsm .he actually let me hold it. it was light would guess with scope and mounts. it probably weighed in at 6.5 pounds.
 
What about optic? Are you gonna try and go light on that or go big heavy 30mm rings and 50+mm objective with massive magnification?
You can save quite a bit of weight going with smaller 1inch tube and lower or fixed magnification!
Carbon fibre stock and carbon barrel or ti would help to I’m sure but at what cost?
 
D.Pagenkopf said:
Thanks, looks like PR Precision is on there and is willing to do receiver milling.



Interesting, was there a brake on it?

For me as it sits I can't really shoot the rifle with a good limbsaver airtech recoil pad on. From forums I've read, lots of people have stated the T3X stock is no friend for recoil where other brands are. I'm hoping the combination of a good 30 cal 4 port brake, bedded receiver and the limbsaver airtech pad will make this unit manageable.

I have run a recoil calculator on my loads and the 300 wsm had an equivalent recoil of a 308/30-06.

I like this video on recoil, who knows how accurate it is or if there were any schinanaginizing...

https://youtu.be/cvjPze99t8I
Click to expand...

the recoil of the 300wsm is equivalent of the 300hh not 30/06.

talk to Paul he will help you for your project and he s answering fast with no bs.
 
Taxes, taxes, taxes! Mandatory theft validation and verification season is upon us and I've been away from the keyboard!

Rodder said:
I bought the HVHA aluminum BM and Mountain tactical BM to compare and I found the mountain tactical option to be much better. No matter what you go with you'll be adding anOz over the plastic factory one. Mountain tactical is 2.3oz while the factory is 1.1oz if I remember right
Click to expand...

Yes, I do realize that aspect, but in the end, I would have a more solid bottom that would be solid.

rar said:
as I recall there was no brake on the browning titanium 300 wsm .he actually let me hold it. it was light would guess with scope and mounts. it probably weighed in at 6.5 pounds.
Click to expand...

That is a light gun, without a brake or ports at the least that would be brutal.

DGY said:
What about optic? Are you gonna try and go light on that or go big heavy 30mm rings and 50+mm objective with massive magnification?
You can save quite a bit of weight going with smaller 1inch tube and lower or fixed magnification!
Carbon fibre stock and carbon barrel or ti would help to I’m sure but at what cost?
Click to expand...

I have a Leupold MKV CDS 30mm tube 3-15x44mm(or its 50mm...). That part of the build was not totally subjective to the weight. It fit my criteria for an optic. Looking at other similar Tikka builds as mentioned before I was seeing a good number of guys using the exact same and their weight numbers looked good.
(I had a Nightforce SHV 4-14 I sold to buy the MKV, the Nightforce was not doing me any favours for weight when I started running the numbers)

I was thinking of keeping the stock Tikka barrel, biggest weight savings on machining work will come from cutting the barrel down a little and threading the barrel.
I have considered a carbon barrel but I wasn't certain that I wanted that look persay.
Dollar for dollar what I saw with the Wildcat stocks they had a better cost/weight ratio.

medvedqc said:
the recoil of the 300wsm is equivalent of the 300hh not 30/06.

talk to Paul he will help you for your project and he s answering fast with no bs.
Click to expand...

PR Cook said:
I'd be happy to help you with this project if you like. You can PM me or better yet, My email is: pcook338@gmail.com
Cheers!
Paul.
Click to expand...

Paul, I've reviewed your website and I have to say you've got great work. I will be in touch.

***
General update. Went through the Calgary gun show with a long time friend. Talked with a vendor, and purchased a brake yesterday for my build. After talking with the vendor, a rifle builder and my friend they both were in the Rem 700 action camp, build a rifle that way. Cost mid $4000 mark (not including optic).

I sat down with a handful of rough estimates based on talking to the vendor, a gunsmith and PR website. Cost of the rifle with the upgrades $3750.

I am attached to the Tikka, love the brand and the fact they build a great value rifle bar none to the market.

I'm heavily reconsidering the build now.
 
D.Pagenkopf said:
Taxes, taxes, taxes! Mandatory theft validation and verification season is upon us and I've been away from the keyboard!



Yes, I do realize that aspect, but in the end, I would have a more solid bottom that would be solid.



That is a light gun, without a brake or ports at the least that would be brutal.



I have a Leupold MKV CDS 30mm tube 3-15x44mm(or its 50mm...). That part of the build was not totally subjective to the weight. It fit my criteria for an optic. Looking at other similar Tikka builds as mentioned before I was seeing a good number of guys using the exact same and their weight numbers looked good.
(I had a Nightforce SHV 4-14 I sold to buy the MKV, the Nightforce was not doing me any favours for weight when I started running the numbers)

I was thinking of keeping the stock Tikka barrel, biggest weight savings on machining work will come from cutting the barrel down a little and threading the barrel.
I have considered a carbon barrel but I wasn't certain that I wanted that look persay.
Dollar for dollar what I saw with the Wildcat stocks they had a better cost/weight ratio.





Paul, I've reviewed your website and I have to say you've got great work. I will be in touch.

***
General update. Went through the Calgary gun show with a long time friend. Talked with a vendor, and purchased a brake yesterday for my build. After talking with the vendor, a rifle builder and my friend they both were in the Rem 700 action camp, build a rifle that way. Cost mid $4000 mark (not including optic).

I sat down with a handful of rough estimates based on talking to the vendor, a gunsmith and PR website. Cost of the rifle with the upgrades $3750.

I am attached to the Tikka, love the brand and the fact they build a great value rifle bar none to the market.

I'm heavily reconsidering the build now.
Click to expand...

for that project where are you on the weight side?

if you can details your win or loss of weight that will be great,.

thanks a lot.
 
Here's a similar project I recently put together for a customer. Coming in at 6lbs even, the CF barrel cost him some weight compared to a good quality, light contoured barrel, but to each their own. It certainly made for a handy, light and solid rifle that balances well and comes up very nicely.




 
PR Cook said:
Here's a similar project I recently put together for a customer. Coming in at 6lbs even, the CF barrel cost him some weight compared to a good quality, light contoured barrel, but to each their own. It certainly made for a handy, light and solid rifle that balances well and comes up very nicely.




Click to expand...

is the rigid action still on? thank you for the pictures,
 
Sorry medvedqc, are you asking if the action looses rigidity due to the sheep cut? My answer is always "yes of course it does!" This is an aggressive and intrusive modification that cannot be undone. It is done for trimming weight, for aesthetics and, some customers feel it makes dropping a single round into the chamber faster/easier in "stressful conditions".
The next thing I say is that: It brings the tikka action "down to the level" of all its friends: Sako, Remington, and every other open topped, mag fed, cylindrically based receiver out there. Those actions seem to do alright...
In the end, I cant say I've seen a difference on paper pre-post sheep cutting an action but there can be no dispute, opening the top of the receiver mathematically removes some level of rigidity.
Cheers!
Paul.
 
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