Finally, this project is finished and I took delivery from my smith over Thanksgiving ....here's the 411 on the finished product!
The gun was built by gunsmith Kevin Ridling in Salem and he did an awesome job.
The rifle is a 257 Roberts Ackley Improved built on an early 1970's Remington 700 BDL (left handed) long action that started life as a 270 Win. The sad thing is the donor rifle was in such beautiful condition when I found it, I almost didn't cut it up for the project!
Barrel is a Lilja #3 contour stainless steel barrel (bead blasted) 1:10 twist and cut to 24" (Made in Montana and Dan Lilja was very helpful, I highly recommend them!)
http://www.riflebarrels.com/ fitted with a custom muzzle break by my gun smith.
Trigger is a Shilen and is has got to be the nicest trigger I've ever had hands down!
http://www.shilen.com/ and set at a very crisp 2 pounds...breaks like glass!!!!
Stock is a AAA Fancy Walnut stock and was cut by Jesse at CRS Custom Rifle Stocks in Pennsylvania
http://www.gunstockduplicating.com/ and he did an amazing job and the stock required very little fitting work post-delivery for the action. Richard Noble who works for Kevin did an awesome job finishing the stock with about a dozen coats of tongue oil (my favorite finish on walnut). Stock is glass and pillar beded and barrel is completely free floated.
Optics...currently it wears a 6-18x50AM Swift Premier (
http://www.swift-sportoptics.com/) set in Warne steel rings and bases (made in Oregon!)
http://warnescopemounts.com/...eventually the rifle will get a Nikon Monarch 3 4-16x50SF/NP...just gotta wait for a sale
The rifle shoots like a dream and I can't wait to put some bench time behind it! Test fire groups with 100g Nosler Ballistic Tips @100 with IMR4895 produced under 1/2 MOA!
