Project Tic Tac Varmint SS .204, completed, final pics.

[blakeyboy]

I tend to stick to a more local forum but felt this might be a good spot for this post also, first sort of 'tactical' project for moi, have to admit, its kind of fun!

Was hoping it would like the 39gr federal sierra blitzking load and it did, it liked it best of four i tried. Setting up for coyote calling, didn't start painting until i saw some shooting of course but its all good now. We are just about complete. Talley's off and EGW extended rail on way, will use some weaver style rings on that to get my long arse scope pushed ahead where it needs and have little better ring spacing. Got 30 rounds of 40 gr v-max on it for breakin with 6 cleanings before a scope even went on it. Then 1st day on paper quick laying in field as usual to see if it had a preference of the four ammos. This was second group, 1st with the 39 gr load. .671" ctc at 122 yrds, load averaging 3660 fps.

Stock gun with HSS oversize bolt knob/handle and aluminum shroud combo.

Here i shot at 520 yrds collecting drop data. First two groups on paper. 2.0" ctc and 3.43" ctc.

List of mods:
beadblasted bolt body and upper half of bolt handle to take the polished shine off
hss bolt handle/knob/shroud combo
trigger set 2.0 lbs exact(all shooting done 2.5 lbs but just adjusted it down more)
pillar bedded down to metal inserts in bottom plastic for solid lock up
krylon fusion tan/brown

Whats left:
scope at korth for m1 elevation and move the standard target knob to windage
remount scope on egw rail
rezero and confirm drop data collection
then order kenton speed dial knob to match
then paint the rest, barrel, action, scope/rail/rings and likely bottom plastic and bottom half of magazine, only things not painted will be recoil pad, sling studs, top half of bolt handle and the bolt body

decided to stencil name on this one for comic relief, the big gatlin gun Jesse Ventura uses in the original 'predator' movie he called 'ol' painless', thought that would work on this little pea shooter

as said, having fun with this project! Will update with final pics at some point and likely some fur beside it. Hope you enjoy.

As it sat just before i painted bolt knob/rear shroud and removed scope and talleys.

As it sits now, waiting for rail/scope.

 

[Obtunded]

Awesome!

I have shot my 204 at the 500M ICFRA targets in Kamloops and was pleasantly surprised at the results. It is a fun round! I have found BL-C2 is a fantastic powder and it is very easy to work with. I have also dropped coyotes at 300 yards+ using 32 grain Vmax bullets. It is a very potent varmint round too. Great rifle and great cartridge choice for something fun and different!

 

[blakeyboy]

agree!, my 3rd .204, 2nd one of these (never tried the fed 39's in first one but it 1/2 minute liked the hornady 32's), my fourth tikka etc. etc., i tend to buy/sell lots, but decided i really missed the .204 as likely my favorite calling round so planning to keep this one around a long while as evident from the paint job lol

i do remember hitting top of mole hill at 606 yrds with the first varmint/stainless i had and those 32's, shot for shot when i had the hold sorted with the vh reticle i had at the time, and killed quite a few out to 300 with it and the cz american i had before, i tend to use coyote calling as getting blood on my next gun, this year was a savage 220f build for late season elk, got burned by coyotes but got a fox and then the elk, have a custom mini 6.8 spc from asi that i have finally found some time to get up and running to its getting the coyote calling test on monday with 110 hornady v-max while partner runs a dasher so will see what happens there, after that this tikka should be back in play and i can get some blood on it more frequently

and thats not touching on the big game oriented stuff much, just the more fun specialty oriented guns

i'm well pleased with how this one shoots the factory 39's, still not a reloader and don't want to be, bugholers i don't need, 3/4 moa and under makes me happy as primarily hunter, and i seem to be able to find it with right gun/ammo choices with todays offerings, i stick to the known out of box shooters for rifle brands and pretty lucky for years and years now getting what i want

 

[KDX]

That looks very nice. Nice shooting at 520 yards also. What kind of paint did you use?

 

[blakeyboy]

thanks, krylon fusion camo tan and brown, its not meant to be pretty to people but a little break up, just not willing to go through more effort than necessary with patterns etc. to fool a coyote...this will do, as you can see by rest of stock i do lots of distance overspray with both the brown and tan to get a more 'dirt' look....when you look at bolt shroud and bolt handle its just straight tan and you can see it brighter although its fully matted out, that stuff works better with distance spraying anyhow to keep the wet/glossy from happening...get close and apply thick and you'll see what i mean, used a heat gun from distance after each thin coat to get quick dry so i could keep applying coats, had the whole stock painted about same amount of time it took me to mask it off (20 minutes give or take?)

seeing all these tactical guns while researching parts for the tikka has me intrigued, the trainer rimfire builds etc. i can see this 'tactical' style costing a bit of coin after awhile....certainly popped a few more projects into my head

 

[blakeyboy]

The EGW 0 moa rail showed up and i'd found some leupy medium quick detach locally, not first choice but pickins were slim. The scope came back from korth (what service btw...love that outfit!) with the m1 knobs and i hunt with standard duplex reticles for everthing coyote size and up so that is how i role.

So back to laying in the snow -21, quick 200 yrd zero, wow does it stack them tight at that range! Love it. Then off to 500 yrds to confirm drop data collected the first try at 520.

So here it is with rail/rings/m1 knobs vs the talley rings and standard elevation knob.

Lined up at 500 yrds, little white dot at the top of the yellow stubble you might be able to see, that'd be the paper 500 yrds away.

Kestrel said wind 2.0 mph from left to right. 1st group held dead center of bull, 28 clicks dialed in, 4.43" ctc and a bit low and 7 1/2" right. 2nd group i held the very left point of the crosshair and dialed up 2 more clicks, it goes 2.25" and 7 3/4" right of aim point.

So in case anyone interested. I only use that simple big game info calculator and its been accurate for me to 920 yrds so far on other guns. When i do this i get a back calculated bc of .195....that matches my wind drift and come up perfectly for the elevation/temp etc. That bullet is published .287 bc above 3600 fps i believe and i get 3660. Anyhow, keep in mind, it appears to have much more consistant bc to the rest of the .204 caliber bullets i see published numbers for. Whateva, its a keeper.

Was neat to see i almost duplicated the two groups i shot at 520 over the caldwell tackdriver bag, so a tiny bit looser over the bipod. So looks like a 250 yrd zero give 4.3" pbr to 300 yrds, added 3 clicks to the 200 yrd zero as per data and good to go.

Not sure right spot to post kill photos so i will refrain but it got first blood while driving out of there on that zero/data confirmation session...just lucky it wasn't on way in lol. So red fox took it very messy at over 200 yrds, funny, first blood on savage 220f slugger this year was a fox too...only 278 grains that one took, i will be doing a fair bit of sewing, couldn't salvage this one, rubbed pretty bad already, not great shape. Anyhow, then this morning it got a large old female coyote, three legged and for a long time too, very healthy old dog at 250 yrds (my zero was bang on, hit right where i aimed). Both were down on the spot spin/bite/flop/done. 106 rounds on the barrel at this point.

So 'ol'painless' starts its life doing what it was intended to do. I will await the custom matched dial from leupold before i paint the metal to match the stock. That will complete this set up and it is now fully at war with the ever so wiley coyote.

Will track this down in couple weeks once the paint job is done and add couple pics to conclude this project.

 

[blakeyboy]

Got it completed! Korth did up a custom dial for me, again, amazing fast service. I blacked out the lines/numbers after 650 yrds as couldn't kill much but a popcan past that so its less busy. Starts at 200 and goes every 50 yrd after, will leave at 250 yrd as gives 4.3" pbr to 300 yrds. Added my wind data on laminate glued inside flip and coyotes beware when you hang up. Mask, mask, mask. Painted all but the critical, inside of action and bits on outside you want to see etc. all masked of course. Then paint paint paint. No flashy nothing on this one, not even the screw in the custom knob...it was shining to the muzzle end so it got the paint too . Had a hoot going from a-z on this project. Final pics.

3 confirmed kills so far.

 

[tkv000]

Nice gun! Reminded me of this video a friend sent me a bit back

[youtube]uiH1RhOdGWU[/youtube]

 

[GunBoy]

Wow, that is Nice T3.

 

[blakeyboy]

Nice gun! Reminded me of this video a friend sent me a bit back

[youtube]uiH1RhOdGWU[/youtube]

ha, i did see that one while googling for inspiration and parts for this project, looks like another accurate one, can only imagine if i reloaded but this one, as was my last one, plenty accurate enough for my needs