Gonna build a a rifle , tell me what to do.

[PrairieBoy]

Am looking for some insight and advice because I am building an accuate , versatile rifle in .204ruger.Right now I have a m77hawkeye allweather that is not bad but not really accurate.I didnt knowmuch about rifles when i bought it. I am curious if it is worth just "rebarrelling"? and building from that action or should I go a different route? The action on the ruger seems good and well built and I plan to stick with a controlled round feed. Say i do just go with a rebarrelling , going with a 1in9 twist will that still shoot the lighter 32 or 40 grainers as well as the 50 grain vld's? I should also say that I would like the rifle to be light enough to carry and handle but also nice to shoot paper with.

any help is appreciated.

[Glen]

You might lose the 32's in a 9 twist unless you slow them down. Too many RPM's & they'll throw their jackets. This is speculation on my part tho.

[Mike]

To borrow (and modify) and old car saying...

Accuracy costs money. How accurate do you want to get?

In other words, what are your goals? Right now, none of that is clear enough to offer much meaningful advice. Perhaps you could elaborate on what your intended purpose for this rifle will be, what your expectations for accuracy are and how much you want to spend. From there, you'll get a wealth of input from guys who know a whole lot more than I do (but I'll still play along so that I can learn, too).

[surfclod]

Do you have a gunsmith in mind to do this work?? This would be the first thing I would start looking for as they would have lots of experience and could guide you through a first build.

The Rem 700 action is probably the most commonly used as the platform for a custom rifle. I honestly don't know if the Ruger action is a good one to work with or not but I don't know of any "precision" shooters using a Mauser type action, the controlled round feed is typically prefered for a dangerous game rifle. Thats not to say they cannot shoot well but I am not aware of many using that type of action.


Another thing to consider is a Savage action that allows you to install the barrel yourself without the use of a lathe. Plus because of the "floating" design of the bolt, "truing" is not as important as other actions. I recently got a Shilen barrel that is ready to install as soon as I get the time but my factory tube is fine for now and I plan to spend my time shooting gophers and not developing new loads. A new Stevens action is pretty cheap and you could sell the unfired factory barrel for $50-100 to spend on a nice trigger, many have used carbon fiber arrow shafts, fiberglass and imagination to stiffen the flimsy stock, I have seen some really nice jobs. That was my original plan this winter, use my new bull barrel on my Savage 12 VLP for bench shooting and put my factory barrel on a Stevens, stiffen the stock a bit and use it with a 3-9x scope for bipod and walkabout, then return it to 243 for deer season, but economy cut hours back so can't afford a second varmint rig.

Maybe in July I will try the new barrel out. I went with the standard 1-12 twist cause I doubt I will shoot at ranges distant enough to make full use of the heavier bullets, RIO has a 1-11 twist that may be a good compromise. Shilen only offered 1-12 or 1-9 so I stuck with what works for me, if they offered a 1-11, or 1-10 I may have chose that but did not have that option. If I want to shoot beyond 500 yards I think I would go with a different cartridge, I love the 204 but it has its place.

Personally I would first try a bit of tweaking with your Ruger first, a bedding job and trigger tune up may keep you happy. Even if you build a new rifle it would remain as a lighter bipod or walkabout gun. My Savage has nearly be abandoned twice, once in a deep snow when coyote hunting in SK and another time in the Alberta foothills going after wolf, it just sucks carrying a heavy barreled rig.

[Jim White]

You might lose the 32's in a 9 twist unless you slow them down. Too many RPM's & they'll throw their jackets. This is speculation on my part tho.

Good advice. I've seen that in the target world. In a spotting all you see is a little puff of smoke...maybe.

Jim

[Ray P]

PrairieBoy...........If your happy with the way your Ruger fits you, and you have a good smith to work with, there is nothing wrong with have a quality match barrel installed on a Ruger action. Rick in Oregon's 11 twist Pac-Nor is a great choice. I'm using 12 twist Hart barrels.
I have 1000 yard bench rifle built on a Ruger 77 markII wearing a 30" Hart 10 twist barrel that will do 6.227 for 10 shots at 1K
Keep us posted and good luck
Later.
Ray P

[Wrangler John]

I used a new .223 Savage Precision Target Action. Ordered a .204 Ruger barrel, 1:12 twist, 24" length in the Savage Varmint Contour, Select Match grade from Shilen. The stock came from Sharp Shooter Supply, they have pillar bedded laminated stocks available in a couple of styles for about $300.00 ready for finish. They also sell the action screws you'll need. Pick up a set of headspace gauges from Midway USA, or PT&G, a Savage barrel nut wrench and action wrench, (you can also get a Farrell barrel vise). You'll also need a 1/2" torque wrench to set the nut tension.

Check the recoil lug location pin to be certain it fits all the way down in the action slot, and file it down a few thousandths until it does.

Go to http://www.switchbarrel.com and read how to install a barrel, no gunsmith needed. You can also read the section on how to change the bolt head so you can swap in another barrel chambered for any other cartridge size, such as the PPC's or cartridges based on the .473" head diameter.

My completely home cobbled rig shoots .246" groups at 100 yards. Just came back from a sage rat hunt in Central Oregon, with a smile on my face. Out to 250 yards that Savage obliterated 'em with 26 grain Barnes Varmint Grenades. I managed to hit a fair percentage out to 350 yards, but the wind was blowing waves in the alfalfa and those little bullets did drift a bit. Here at home, it just splats ground squirrels so regularly that a miss is always my fault. Price wise it runs a little more than a factory rifle, but you buy the stuff over time, and the Shilen barrel is premiere.

Or buy the action and send the whole thing to Fred Moreo at Sharp Shooter Supply and have him do the entire build for you. They offer Douglass XX barrels which work very well - or they'll thread and chamber any other make for you.

This is not rocket science. Barrel changes are essentially screwing a pipe on to a fitting against a stop gauge. Changing the bolt head is simple, taking about three to five minutes after the first swap. I was really surprised as how close the groups are to the original POI after swapping between the .204 Ruger and the 6mm PPC.