Building New Rifles: 7mm08 & 223SHORT

[Herdsman]

Sounding fun

Shipping a barrel from NZ isn't a big deal I guess?

[Gwion]

Not really. Just need a B709a form and a bit of patience.

[Bourt]

"and a bit of patience."

Damn!

[Gwion]

Barrel is now ready to ship to my gunsmith. From memory, that's about 8 weeks from order to finished barrel. Not too bad. Timing works pretty well with planning out finances too.

Schedule is looking good. I was hoping originally for mid July- early August.

Just waiting on this bloody reamer still... oh... and the custom dies for the 223McShort.

The 7-08 might be ready first. Unfortunately i sort of need the McShort ASAP because it's now the season for pest control in the paddocks.

[Spooner]

Just waiting on this bloody reamer still... oh... and the custom dies for the 223McShort.

Reamer get stuck at customs or something?

[Gwion]

Don't think so.

PTG may not have sent it yet but it shouldn't be far away. They said 6-8 weeks and it's been about that now.

[lole]

At least the wait is nearly over

[Gwion]

Yup... Getting pretty keen!

[Manimal]

Hadn't heard of the .223 Short wildcat, waiting to see it

[Gwion]

Hey all...

The 7-08 is ready to pick up. WOOHOO!

Only problem is that the internal mag for the 223 doesn't work great with the larger cases.

Does anyone have a spring and follower from a Howa 308 that they'd be happy to part with???

Cheers

[Gwion]

Picked up the 7-08 but the barrel is to heavy for the stock. I've had to remove a fair bit from the fore end. It will need a bit of and may not look the prettiest.

I'll play with it a bit and see how it turns out.

[Usurper]

What's the latest Gwion?

Firing yet?

[Gwion]

Waiting for my scope. If it doesn't arrive this week, I'll fit the old one I have and send a few shots off next weekend.

[Bark]

I bet you're stinging for that scope to arrive

[Gwion]

You are not wrong!

Trying to decide what bullets to order for load development right now.

Looking at Hornady Vmax 120gn for the goat & pig (not that there are many in Tas, but i will visit Vic occasionally). Might even do for fallow?
A max 162 for f class... would probably make a mess of fallow, though.
Thinking of a bonded bullet around 140gn for heavier deer and such......

[NuZo]

Can't wait to see this 223 short

Cheers,

Nuzo

[Gwion]

I can't wait just to see the reamer!

Getting impatient.

Still no word back on the return of my Sightron S-tac for the 7-08 so i'll mount the 3-9x40 Vortex again so i can start running it in and load development. Lucky i didn't sell the Game Reaper scope mount yet. It will be up for grabs as soon as the Sightron arrives, though.

Will try and get the first shots away on Sunday if the weather isn't too crap.

[Xerox]

Any luck with that weather?

[Gwion]

Nope... weather was crap: wind, rain.... also, i got an email saying that my scope was on it's way home, so thought i'd wait for it and not just fit one scope to have to change it the next week. Hopefully it arrives this week!!!

Getting closer. Also need to get some primers and pills as i only have 20 rounds of factory ammo waiting but have 100 cases ready to load.

[Gwion]

Some good news and some not so good news.

The Good: Sightron S-tac 2.5-17.5x 56 arrived back from warranty repair today!
The Not So Good: after bore sighting it, i was left with only 6 minutes of right windage adjustment remaining!

I started running the barrel in with 5 rounds. One shot, clean.... man, it was dirty after just one shot!!!

So, while firing the first 5 rounds, i was aiming at a 200x300mm target board, placed at 100m in the paddock and missed it entirely. The shots seemed to go high and left.

The dodgy bore sighting doesn't seem right to me! Any suggestions? It is mounted to a Talley 20moa pic-rail with Talley Tactical rings that have been lapped.

Any help appreciated. I'll be able to get the thing on target, but it wont leave me any adjustment for wind on the f-class range!

[nords]

I started running the barrel in with 5 rounds. One shot, clean.... man, it was dirty after just one shot!!!

Cheap and nasty factory ammo?

[Gwion]

Winchester... nearly $60 for 20 rounds, so not cheap... but seems pretty nasty! LOL

By the way... issue with scope is all sorted!

[Bourt]

By the way... issue with scope is all sorted!

Put it on the right way now?

[Gwion]

Ha ha.... Why, yes I did.

[Arth]

Everyone does that once I think

[Gwion]

Well. The rings where on the wrong way, not the scope. With a 56mm objective lens, it's pretty obvious which way it goes.

[Tonit]

Well. The rings where on the wrong way, not the scope. With a 56mm objective lens, it's pretty obvious which way it goes.

I think that would be grounds for giving up your license if you couldn't work out which end of the scope to look through

[Gwion]

I've started inletting the stock for the Zastava. It is a right hand stock that i am converting to a fully ambidextrous stock. It's roughed out with a chisel and i'll get the dremmel type tool onto it tomorrow, then bed it, then finish it with a home made concoction of bee's wax and linseed oil. AS time allows i'll post some pics of the progress.

Also informed by my gunsmith that the 223MacShort reamer has arrived. Now i need to chase up the reloading dies and get it chambered to suit. Funds allowing, it will all be ready to go in a month or so.

Now that i'm back from out little holiday and the schedule is somewhat more open, i can start load development for the 7mm-08 as well.

[Gwion]

So. I wasted a whole lot of perfectly good bullets doing a full scale load test, from min to max in 0.3 increments.

7mm Hornady 162 A-max don't come cheap!

There was a nice load early on. It shot 0.5 & 0.4 inches (two groups of 3 shots) at 100m. Probably should have stuck with that but just had to go through the whole range, looking for a mid way charge and a top end charge. As i'll be shooting out to 600yd for some club F-class, i wanted to push the velocity as far as i could and still have a pretty good load. I took it to 0.2gn over book max with barely a sign of pressure, so might keep looking for a hotter, tighter load.

Well, 45.4gn of AR2209 loaded to the lands gave me a couple of three shot groups of >0.5<0.6" @ 100m. Playing with 10though jump & 10thou jam opened it up to about 0.75", so i just went loaded to the lands.

Off i toddle to the range with 5 loaded at 45.3 & 5 @ 45.5 with the remainder at 45.4. I do this just to see if either side will give any improvement.

I was already zeroed at 100m, so 3 sighters had me in the bull at 300yards, using the 45.4 with 2MOA adjustment for elevation. Wind was almost non existent so windage dial stayed on ZERO.

For the first shoot with this new rifle (barrel and cartridge change), new load and new scope, i was quite happy with a couple of 50 scores (50.3 and 50.1).

First string, first sighter... bang in the X, second sighter, 6. Don't know what happend from there but my shooting position wasn't real comfy and i couldn't shoulder the rifle as i would normally and was getting caned by the butt plate. I'll go back to using my usual rear rest next time.

Second string was nice and consistent for grouping but was dropping low and left into the 5. With small adjustments to the scope after each shot i ended up managing a couple of 6 and another X but also 2 fliers kept my score down to 50. While loading, i did notice quite some variation on neck tension. The recent holiday ate up my funds for neck turner, etc, so all those fine tuning toys will have to wait!

All in all i was pretty happy with the first outing but not so happy that i am now out of bullets (still have 120 hollow points to develop as well). Hopefully i can get some more A-max before next shoot and get more comfortable and confident with the rifle. Next shoot is 500yd.


Update on the 223McShort. The reamer arrived but with no Go guage, so no go to build it yet. Also, still waiting on dies to form and load the cases... bit annoyed with the service on that but not sure if i should just cancel and start again with another supplier. The rifle is now chambered in 223rem and i am waiting on delivery of some good bedding compound to do the final fit and finish on the stock. It has had pillars fitted and is all stopped up and taped, ready for the job when the goo arrives in the post. The Zastava action was pretty rough to cycle, but careful file work on the bolt rails then some lapping compound and 1/2 hr working it while watching TV has smoothed it right out. Really looking forward to getting it shooting and quite frustrated with all the delays in items being delivered!

Anyhoo... that's where it's all at as of today.

Cheers.

[Gwion]

In the process of bedding the 223. Hopefully I haven't stuck it all together and I can start final finish tomorrow.