We do a great number of custom bolt action builds; everything from scratch built rifles for law enforcement and competition shooters, to mild overhauls and customizing of family hunting rifles and plinkers. Although we do have some standard builds, the bulk of our work is all custom. That means we will sit down with you and discuss what you are wanting to accomplish with this rifle, what your budget is, and what your preferences (if any) are regarding aesthetics and materials. We will then work up a custom build that fits you like a glo
The heart of any rifle is the barrel. You can do a lot of work on the firearm, bedding the
stock, cutting a good chamber or perfect crown, even lapping scope rings, but you will never be able to shoot better than the barrel. If the barrel is poorly cut, rough, uneven, or possibly even crooked, then there is very little point sinking a ton of money into the firearm. We typically start with Kriegers, although we will also use Bartlien and Benchmark without hesitation. Shilen also makes an above average barrel for the hunting crowd, where they're looking for a slightly more budget friendly option, and if it shoots 3/4 MOA, that's more than good enough. We have a high pressure hydraulic flush system that allows us to flow high pressure coolant through the barrel while we are cutting the chamber. This gives you a great chamber finish, and keeps everything cool and clean while cutting.
As a 'value added' piece, we include a custom machined bullet seating guide with every rifle we chamber. Since we are using hand lapped barrels anyway, we have to cut off the last inch of the barrel, since it will be slightly oversized from the lapping process. We take that barrel stub, square it up in the lathe, and then cut just the throat of the chamber in that stub. You can then set that stub on a loaded cartridge, and measure the overall length. Since the stub is a piece of YOUR barrel, and the throat is cut with the same reamer used to cut YOUR chamber, you are actually able to measure how the ogive of the bullet will interact with the rifling in your barrel. Once you figure out how far off the lands your rifle likes to shoot, you can measure that and record that number. Then any other bullet you load up can be set to that same number, and the ogive will be the same distance off the lands.
Another huge decision in your build is what action you want to start with. The action is going to make much less of a difference to accuracy than most anything else, but it does effect what features the rifle has and what other parts you can put on the firearm. As well as how easy it is to work on. For example, if you purchase a Remington 700 action, just about any stocks or triggers in existence will work with that action. If you start with certain Weatherby or Browning platforms however, parts and accessories are going to be just about non-existent. We have the tools to work on just about any action you pick, and with our new CNC capabilities, we can even modify some exotic actions to work with conventional parts. It may be cheaper to buy a new action, but it can be done.
The stock is another big piece which is often overlooked. The clamping force on the
receiver acts as a dampener to the rifles harmonics, so it is critical that the stock is consistent and will not flex or swell during humidity or temperature swings. In addition, the stock is your contact patch with the rifle, and greatly dictates how the rifle will work for you. For example, can it take magazines, can you adjust length of pull or comb height, can you attach bipods, slings, or lights, does it have a good recoil pad... and the list goes on. We have a number of good options for stocks, as well as we can do fantastic bedding and pillar bedding jobs to make almost any stock servicible. We can also do custom wood stocks which look classically beautifull, but shoot as well as any modern chassis system!
And last but not least, the finish. We offer Cerakote as a finish for the rifle, stock, accessories, even the optic. It is a baked on ceramic coating which is currently the industry standard in durability. It can be done in a satin black which is almost identical to a bead blasted and blued finish, or we can do a higher gloss black, or we can do it in almost any color or pattern imaginable. We have a digital stencil cutter to create almost any design, pattern, logo, moto... anthing you can imagine. Of course complexity and colors increases the price, but we are literally only limited by your imagination!