I at the moment am only 25 years old. I do hope to one day start a family and settle down and have been thinking about maybe looking into a rifle to be passed down to my son or son in law some day...I was starting to think about getting a high end Sako or Kimber, but then i thought about what about putting together my own gun...

I was thinking about buying an action, stock, and barrel and putting together my own rifle. While i know each of the parts carry some $$ it still would be a unique piece. I was thinking I could put it together and then have it blueprinted by a gunsmith....I was thinking about getting a stock and having it engraved as well....

Now here are the questions....
Is this something you think I can do with little experience or with the help of a gunsmith?
What Caliber? My fav is my .270 still so i was thinking that would be the way to go.
What type of stock?
Blued or Stainless Barrel?

It is fun and not too difficult, but it won't be cheap and it won't be fast. I took a beat up savage 30-06, removed the barrel and stock. I ordered a A&B barrel in 35 whelen from midway and a jrs stock from boyds. I also have a couple of semi custom wildcats that I bought from a friend. The problem with semi-customs is you spend $600-$1200 and end up with a $400 rifle. But they are fun and I am considering another. Maybe a something in 6.5mm. Mauser, rem 700, win m70, and savage actions are probably the most common actions for build-ups. Shilen, douglas, shaw, montana, a&b are common barrel makers. Boyds, B&C, Richards Microfit make various stocks.

If you want to build something on a Mauser, Remington, Winchester or Ruger action you're going to need a lathe and some machining knowledge... You can purchase Pre threaded, short chambered and crowned barrels but you still have to face the chamber end and shoulder. You also have to assemble and then hand ream to fit go and no-go gauges for proper headspacing. Going to need some sort of action wrench and barrel vise to hold it all and put it together / take it apart. If you want to get into truing the action and or machining a barrel blank it gets all that more complicated in the machining department.

You can go from as simple as a Savage 110 and screwing on a new barrel to buying an in the white receiver and customizing until your heart is content. Entirely up to you.

You can do a pretty good job of getting a true custom with handtools going the Savage route. I think their actions are available as separate components. Shilen makes a screw on barrel. Boyd's, McMillan, Bell and Carlson, as well as others all make stocks. Jewell, Shar Shooter's Supply and a few other's make triggers. There are also a few good scope bases, TPS, Warne, etc.


BTW. . .It is fairly hard.

Remington 700 actions are relatively easy to come by, and are the basic stock many custom gun s are built from. The barrel manufacturers are plentiful. You have already been given some good names. Let me add Dan Lilja to it, also. My advice to you is to consult a GOOD gunsmith with your plan, and after discussing what you want with him, get a cost for him to install the barrel of your choice in the caliber of your choice on the action of your choice. As I stated earlier, the Rem. actions are a real good choice to build on. You should tell him you want the barreled action trued and the lugs lapped as a bare minimum. Most stock manufacturers, particularly the synthetic ones, are FAIRLY easy to work with in regards to getting the barreled action into. Wood stocks for the most part require a whole lot of fitting and handwork, and require the specialty tools to do it with. In any regard, you will highly likely be faced with having to glass-bed the action into either type of stock. Some manufacturers advertise their products as "drop-ins", but usually only for factory barreled actions. Your custom barrel will most likely require hand fitting in either case.
Building a custom rifle is a lot of fun, but it is very tedious work for the most part. Specialized tools are normally required, and a good basic understanding of steel-to-stock relationships.
I certainly would not try to discourage you from attempting this project. I only wish to alert you to SOME of the intracasies you will encounter.
The VERY first thing I would recommend you do is locate and talk to a qualified gunsmith and get a ballpark idea of what you are looking at.
Another option you may wish to explore is having a custom rifle built FOR you, with your input in the project.
Whatever you decide, good luck, and hang in there.

Last time I had a 700 Remington rebarreled and blued with a matte finish, (no receiver or bolt work), cost me about $575... That's been 8 years or so ago... I've done everything myself since...

As I said, you can go as simple or you can spend a lot of time making a lot of jigs and chips...

There are some "OK" books in paperback that explain building and accurizing the bolt action rifle, in fairly decent detail... Might be worth a read to you...

..........Yeah.....My latest re-barrel was with a # 5 contour Lilja. Barrel was $300 by itself. Getting the action done, truing and lapping was about another $250, if I remember right. And that was just this past year. I found a good 'smith who doesn't charge an arm and a leg and is local. I'm a happy camper with that. I'm not a machinist and have none of that equipment, but I have done quite a bit of re-stocking and bedding work over the years....it's no secret that you can generally buy "off-the-shelf" new and do it much cheaper than going the custom route, but I guess it's a little bit of that self-satisfaction that goes with it, huh? The "tools of the trade" are another part of just getting started in your own project, also...

I'd go with the AR-15 in one of its various chamberings. They are like putting legos together, the options are endless, and $100 will cover all of the tools you'll ever need.

Lilja, Douglas, Krieger, Pacnor, Shilen, Bartlein, Broughton, Lawton, . . .ok, my mouth is watering. These are all top quality barrel makers. Most supply blanks or turned blanks. A gunsmith will need to chamber, crrown and final finish the outside.

I mentioned the Shilen and Savage thing because that is the only bolt together custom method I have heard of.

One note. . .Savage has an inherent advantage over all other actions. Both lugs bear on the receiver because it isn't overconstrained. Without the pivoting bolthead, a bolt action design is over constrained. Worse yet, the trigger is pushing up on the bolt shaft.

Remington's advantage is almost every riflesmith has made a Remington which shoots well. The recipe is a known entity. It takes a machinist.

This post is kind of ironic to me. Since I don't know where to start,let me begin by dispelling a couple myths/incorrect statements I noticed. The first is you HAVE to get your gunsmith to blueprint the action BEFORE you ever mate barrel to action. The action needs to be trued up so barrel can be installed perfectly and in linear alignment. Now before the barrel is installed is when you should lap in bolt lugs. Secondly,all finer barrels come already hand lapped-liljas included. Thirdly,steel is usually engraved while stocks are usually checkered althou I have seen some mighty pretty stock carvings. As far as barrels go,get the BEST you can afford and have your gunsmith install it. If you're not going to be building several rifles,it wouldn't pay to buy the tooling neccesary and wouldn't even be possible without a lathe for threading,etc. Now IF you're DETERMINED to do all that you can possibly do yourself,for more pride in being able to say you did it yourself,rent the tools you'll need as well as reamers after your barrel is chambered. I would suggest a stainless barrel and stain/finish it dark as I HATE stainless look personally,but stainless not only resists rusting,the throat will also last slightly longer on stainless barrel than chrome moly steel will. Once you get action/barrel work done,mated properly,and chambered-preferably on "tight" side,you're ready to select trigger. If you want a outstanding trigger,the single set triggers are best of both worlds. For bench work such as working up loads,sighting in,etc-you can set the trigger to mere ozs while when hunting/normal shooting you would choose unset trigger weight usually adjustable between 1-3 pounds(in my favorite example-canjar,and others). Now you have only to stock rifle. Would you prefer wood or synthetic stock? If you decide on synthetic,opt for a good 1 featuring glass/pillar/full insert bedding block. If you want wood (walnut or laminated) you can attempt to carve out from blank-which I DON'T reccomend UNLESS you already have a knack for woodworking/shaping. What would be MUCH easier is to order a stock that's inletted or almost,and rough shaped then final inlett/bed inside and final shape and sand outside. After those steps are done you'll need to hand checker & finish it. Before checkering your stock,PLEASE practice on old wood and any junk stocks you have lying around as there's NO WAY you'll be able to checker right away without BUNCHES of mishaps and mistakes. Finishing stocks is pretty much straightforward and easy as long as you pay attention to detail and not get in a hurry. What I do is airbrush my own blend on,hand rub between coats,repeat about 15-20 times. Let's see-what all have I failed to touch on while posting this without my life sustaining coffee yet?