Here she is all stripped down (hum, I forgot to include the old barrel in this picture). She started life as a remington (obviously) .243. The stock was in decent shape; the action was in good shape. In this picture (though you cannot see it) the lugs have been lapped, and the threads of the action recut, as well as the action face squared. The large bolt handle will be put on next, and then the barrel mounted/head spaced.
Here is the McMillan stock. A2 with brown textured finish. I like the painted finish, it hides mold lines and better yet, it feels good to the touch and provides a good gripping surface. This is an optional (no cost) feature on all SC1 rifles. There are a limited number of colors available though.
Next up is the bolt handle and barrel. Stay tuned for more pictures and info soon.
UPDATE (09/29/04)
The Barrel arrived. Its a 24" Chrome-Moly #7 Contour .308 with a 1:10" twist. I like to put a target 11 degree crown on them. The bolt handle is being attached now, and I cannot chamber until I have the bolt back, which should be soon.....
The bolt is now complete with the new bolt handle, of course, the final finish (color) has not been applied. That will all happen together as a total rifle, after barrel has been mounted and chambered and the hole thing blasted.
All of the metal work has been colored and baked. The color is a dark brown. I tried to adjust the color balance in the image above to be faithful to the true color, but my photoshop editing skills are rookie at best, and the real color is darker brown than is represented in the picture above. The brown took quite a few more coats to get complete coverage than black or green, but it turned out nice.
UPDATE (02/02/05)
Well, here she is, in all her glory! The glass bedding went well, and everything came together as planned. There were no major surprises with the final assembly. Be sure to click on the above picture to see a large version. There is only one thing left to do before the rifle is complete.... test fire!
And here she is with her test target. This was the 2nd group out of the rifle. The barrel has not been broken in yet, and its well under .5 MOA. (this group measured .33). The 3rd group was almost identical. The scope is a Mueller 4-16x50mm Tactical. There is a review of it in the equipment reviews section.
I plan to do a few more of these progress pages especially with the new SC prototype rifles coming out soon so stay Tuned!