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lancetkenyon

.300RUM Upgrades

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Kind of a late start in the year for an upgrade to my elk rifle that my daughter will be using this year, but I was delayed on receiving the barrel I had ordered from Rock Creek that I won in a tournament. Not Rock Creek's fault, but it went missing from UPS in Illinois somewhere, and was never recovered.

 

Anyway, my .300RUM was a pretty stock Rem 700 BDL SS for a long time. I had installed a KDF muzzle brake on it, and upgraded the stock to an H&S Precision. Stock barrel only has about 200 rounds down it, but I figured a free barrel is worth installing on something I will probably never get rid of.

 

I just received the Rock Creek blank this weekend.

Rem. Sendero contour

29" length

5R 1 in 10" twist

.308"

Spiral fluted

 

It will be chambered in .300RUM again and throated to run 210-230 Bergers and finished at 27-28". I am having Phoenix Custom Rifles do the work.

 

I am also doing:

New recoil lug

True bolt and action

Bedding the stock and free floating to new barrel contour

Badger Thruster muzzle brake contoured to barrel

New bolt knob

 

I might install a new trigger down the line, but the stock one is set at 3#, so it is nice as it is.

 

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That looks like a big hole....

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That's gonna be a nice rig. Good thing your daughter has a great dad that will pack her rifle! Looks like it's gonna be a heavy one

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I am thinking weight will be around 12-13# complete with scope, I hope. My 6.5 SLR, with the same contour barrel in 27", non-fluted, and Manners T2A stock is about 15#.

 

And my .25-06 Ackley with a 28" #5 contour is at 10# with scope. So this should be right in between, I hope. A good pack is always on my back though.

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Man, I'm envious of your rifles! Can't wait to see posts of how it shoots.

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I'm thinking you'll like the 5R Rock. Re-barreled with one recently; it shoots great and hardly fouls at all. Never quite understood spiral flutes though... ;-)

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Can't wait to see how this turns out! Phoenix Custom Rifles did my 300 RUM off of a 700 action and a HS Precision stock with a badger brake and it flat out shoots with the 230 hybrids.....Good Luck!

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I got the new stock in Monday night and dropped it off at PCR yesterday. Keith has already trued the action and bolt and installed the PCR knob. He was waiting on the new stock to turn and chamber the barrel and install & time the Badger Thruster brake. Should have the rifle back by next Friday. Trying to decide on colors for the metal on the build now. Olive w. black web stock, thinking a flat medium charcoal gray for action & barrel & flat black for the bottom metal/bolt. Will compliment the black base/rings & scope.

 

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Picked up my rifle from Phoenix Customs on Friday afternoon.

 

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Tore everything apart. Sanded down the stock w. 220 grit removing the "web" and getting it ready for paint, stripped all the old paint off the action and prepped it for paint. Cleaned the barrel.

 

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Masked everything off, applied 2 light coats of primer, then all metal went to matte medium khaki, and stock got a couple light coats of flat olive. Metal all got 2 coats of matte clear too.

 

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Masked off some patterns

 

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This is as far as I got this weekend.

 

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The paint scheme will be similar to this when it is completed.

 

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I also got to brass prep. This chamber is tighter than the factory one just a bit. I pulled apart all of my old rounds (120), annealed, resized and bumped the shoulder back by .0015", trimmed everything, chamfered and de-burred, and weight sorted to within 3 grains total. From 171.5 grains to 174.5 grains for brass content. I only discarded 6 brass, so I have 114 prepped brass ready to start load development. All of the primer pockets had already been uniformed, and flash holes de-burred as well. I actually have 52 that have never been fired yet. I had pulled apart factory rounds to use the brass once I started reloading.

 

I will be using:

CCI 250 Mag primers

Remington brand brass

Berger 210 HVLD & 215 Hybrids

Powder is up in the air right now. I will probably use RL22 to get started, since Taylor has a hunt in about 5 weeks, and I have a ton on hand an that is what I used before with great results. I would like to use H1000, but that stuff is like unicorn tears to find. I will keep on the lookout for it just in case I get lucky.

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that's a sharp looking rifle. i always look forward to the paint schemes you do on your rifles

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Huge thanks to Charlie, 5GuysHunting, for selling me a 3/4+ # of H1000 to get started. I got 10 sighters of a light charge @ 85.5gr. loaded, and a ladder test set from 85.5gr. to 93gr. in .5 grain increments. I still have plenty for getting some loads together after my ladder test & group testing.

 

Got my seating depth for mag length right now, and still have plenty of case capacity, even at 93gr. if needed. Base of a 210 HVLD is still just barely below the body to shoulder junction at mag length plus a little wiggle room. Berger book states 84.0 to 88.2gr. of H1000, Hodgdon book states 85.0 to 90.0gr. for max. Another source has multiple people shooting 92gr. and one guy shooting 95gr., but he states it is a hot load in his gun. Seems high to me too.

 

I hope to get out and do a ladder test in 3 weeks. I plan on sighting it in and getting some foulers down the barrel this weekend. I won't finish the paint on the stock before the elk hunt at the end of Nov., because I need to get a load worked up first.

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