Semi-Custom rifle build...am I nuts?

[BlueFlyer]

something that will stand out a bit and be a bit of all mine

With you, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had in making up a rifle that is what you want.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Hi AH crowd,
I am soliciting some advice. Im thinking of getting a semi-custom rifle built. Advantages would be I can pick my caliber, wood, features, etc. Downside is I don't know what I am potentially getting into. So what Im hoping you can assist on is what features you really like, what you wish you'd done differently, what aspects of the process were important to you when you picked a gunsmith to do thr work, etc.

Any guidance you can share would be really helpful. I just want to know what Im getting into. New rifles in fun calibers are hard to come by, so this seems like a cool option.

Thanks for the assist.

@Hooked Now
You are going down a rabbit hole you will never get out of. You will no longer be in Kansas Dorothy.

First decide the calibre, you may be able to buy it off the shelf.

Decide on the action type and choose either action or donor rifle.

Choose barrel. Chrome Molly, stainless or carbon fibre and barrel profile depending on calibre and weight you want the finished rifle.

Choose the wood. The prettier the wood the more expensive
Choose stock profile

Find a gunsmith/ stock maker to do said work.

All this costs big $$$$$
The most important thing to have is plenty of patience as the job can take up to two years.
Is it worth it only you can decide.

Best choice is pick a rifle you are happy with that there's a lot of after market parts for. Brands like tikka,Howa, Savage and Weatherby Vanguard .
Theses offer a plethora of stocks, barrels, triggers, magazines, bolt handles and a lot of the work you can do yourself with a modicum of skill.
With these rifles you can usually get them in the calibre you want then add or swap out thing to personalise it
After having 5 or 6 custom and semi custom guns done I have come to realise there's an easy and hard way to do things the choice is yours so is the wallet.

If you go the custom route you will find a few of us at the mad hatters tea party. Turn left at the queen of hearts and you find us at the big table muttering gun related bullshit.
Bob

 

[BlueFlyer]

If you go the custom route you will find a few of us at the mad hatters tea party

Your the second person this week to imply that I am mad with my gun builds!

 

[Ontario Hunter]

@Hooked Now
You are going down a rabbit hole you will never get out of. You will no longer be in Kansas Dorothy.

First decide the calibre, you may be able to buy it off the shelf.

Decide on the action type and choose either action or donor rifle.

Choose barrel. Chrome Molly, stainless or carbon fibre and barrel profile depending on calibre and weight you want the finished rifle.

Choose the wood. The prettier the wood the more expensive
Choose stock profile

Find a gunsmith/ stock maker to do said work.

All this costs big $$$$$
The most important thing to have is plenty of patience as the job can take up to two years.
Is it worth it only you can decide.

Best choice is pick a rifle you are happy with that there's a lot of after market parts for. Brands like tikka,Howa, Savage and Weatherby Vanguard .
Theses offer a plethora of stocks, barrels, triggers, magazines, bolt handles and a lot of the work you can do yourself with a modicum of skill.
With these rifles you can usually get them in the calibre you want then add or swap out thing to personalise it
After having 5 or 6 custom and semi custom guns done I have come to realise there's an easy and hard way to do things the choice is yours so is the wallet.

If you go the custom route you will find a few of us at the mad hatters tea party. Turn left at the queen of hearts and you find us at the big table muttering gun related bullshit.
Bob

Well, Bob, I built my 404J in less than four months and spent only about $2500. Of course, I change my clothes in a phone booth. No big name engraved on the action but it looks great, cycles perfectly, and shoots MOA (which ain't bad for a +400 caliber rifle). A custom build can be done surprisingly reasonable and fairly quickly.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Your the second person this week to imply that I am mad with my gun builds!

@BlueFlyer
Never implied that your mad. You mustn't be mad enough yet because I've never seen you at the mad hatters tea party.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Well, Bob, I built my 404J in less than four months and spent only about $2500. Of course, I change my clothes in a phone booth. No big name engraved on the action but it looks great, cycles perfectly, and shoots MOA (which ain't bad for a +400 caliber rifle). A custom build can be done surprisingly reasonable and fairly quickly.

@Ontario Hunter
I agree but that's if'n you do the work yourself.
If you have to farm it out to a gunsmith and stock maker it's a different story
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

You're in the right place. We encourage customs builds

Decide what caliber you want....

Decide what bullet weight you want to shoot...

Decide what action you want (this depends on caliber)

Decide on what barrel twist (bullet diameter squared times 150 and then divided bullet length equals optimum twist in inches) if you are adding a custom barrel....

Decide on a metal coating (Blue, Ceracote, Nitride, etc...)

Then decide on wood or stock material (this depends on action length and manufacturer availability)

All that said.... I decided on bullet size, caliber and barrel twist first, which was based on an action that I already had. Then I figured out a stock and coating that fit my application.....

Have fun!

@Mekaniks
I never try and figure out twist rate I just get the fastest twist rate for calibre.
This allows me to use any projectile from the lightest to the heaviest.
Problem solved
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Sage advice. I dont have that concern here, but there are other areas that I am still thinking through like features. When someone can do almost anything you want to do it can be hard to narrow down to what you should do. I've been having lots of conversations with the gent who will be building and I think hes going to do something really special. Appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts. All were helpful. And @Rare Breed, did I see a post that you were at the Georgia SCI at Adventure Outdoors this year? We must have walked right past each other...

@Hooked Now
When I had my Whelen built I got an MAB barrel and gave it to my gunsmith and said build the most accurate 35 you can. Rifle was a Stevens 200/Savage 110.

When I had my lowall done it was entirely different. Keep action and barrel and sleeve it with a Hornet barrel.
Bush firing pin.
New pistol grip stock instead of the straight grip
Would sourced from Luxus walnut USA. They provide top end wood to top end makers

Make stock from a blank to suit my build with red recoil pad.
Custom scope mount.
Polish action and barrel and blue all parts
You get the picture one job a rebarrel easy, the other a complete custom. One job total cost including rifle and parts $1,000
The other complete custom with me providing the timber and rifle cost to get done at today's prices $4,000+.
Neither are safe queens and both are exceptionally accurate and each are beautiful to me for different reasons. The joy of using a classic single shot built in 1897 and still going strong 128 years later say something about simplicity and quality of yore. It will still be going in another 100 years
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Maybe not radical or unique but something that will stand out a bit and be a bit of all mine. Not something silly like a half plastic straight pull or something.

@Hooked Now
I can see a lovely Browning M78 single shot ( copy of the 1885 hiwall) in a switch barrel 25-06, 35 Whelen and 400 Whelen. With some real fancy Circassian walnut.
Interrupted quarter turn barrel thread so it's just a quarter turn and barrel out then replace with next barrel complete with scope and another 1/4 turn and set to go.
Now that would be exceptional
Or a 257 Weatherby, 300 win mag and 375 H&H barrels.
Either set up and go hunt the world.
Easier barrel swap than a blaser and more class than a Rigby and still cheaper than a Blaser K95 and a few barrels.
Fortunately dreams are cheap, reality is a lot more expensive.
Bob

 

[Hooked Now]

@Hooked Now
I can see a lovely Browning M78 single shot ( copy of the 1885 hiwall) in a switch barrel 25-06, 35 Whelen and 400 Whelen. With some real fancy Circassian walnut.
Interrupted quarter turn barrel thread so it's just a quarter turn and barrel out then replace with next barrel complete with scope and another 1/4 turn and set to go.
Now that would be exceptional
Or a 257 Weatherby, 300 win mag and 375 H&H barrels.
Either set up and go hunt the world.
Easier barrel swap than a blaser and more class than a Rigby and still cheaper than a Blaser K95 and a few barrels.
Fortunately dreams are cheap, reality is a lot more expensive.
Bob

But we can all dream, right Bob? Your second set of switch barrels is interesting. I doubt I'll go down that strange of a highway. I'm probably only ready for entry level stupidity. Fancy rifle in something like .416 Taylor with wood that would make me happy just to look at it. Butter smooth action and a few of those classic British rifle features that make it a little different than off the shelf. But I would bet your two posts are giving somebody I know a few ideas.

 

[farmer_john]

@Hooked Now
I can see a lovely Browning M78 single shot ( copy of the 1885 hiwall) in a switch barrel 25-06, 35 Whelen and 400 Whelen. With some real fancy Circassian walnut.
Interrupted quarter turn barrel thread so it's just a quarter turn and barrel out then replace with next barrel complete with scope and another 1/4 turn and set to go.
Now that would be exceptional
Or a 257 Weatherby, 300 win mag and 375 H&H barrels.
Either set up and go hunt the world.
Easier barrel swap than a blaser and more class than a Rigby and still cheaper than a Blaser K95 and a few barrels.
Fortunately dreams are cheap, reality is a lot more expensive.
Bob

Closest to a switch barrel Is a 1894 winchester delux takedown from 1907. I love it tho. Taken alot of deer.

 

[Hedge774]

I’ll assume semi-custom means having an existing rifle modified to your specifications as opposed to building a complete custom rifle from scratch. If that’s an accurate description then I’ve done both. I had AHR do the #1/#2 upgrades to an existing CZ550 and I also had them build me a rifle starting from a NIB CZ550 receiver. I'm extremely satisfied with both rifles but if I had to do it all over again I'd start with an existing rifle and go from there rather than a scratch build from a receiver. Why? Money. The custom built rifle cost almost twice as much as the modified one and other than pride of ownership the full custom build isn’t functionally any better than the upgraded one. I’ll give a minor nod to the custom build for the hand made stock but in every other way the rifles are equally as good.

I'm talking with Tim @ Matrix today about the upgrade #2 package. I take it you were happy with yours from AHR. I believe the packages are the same since AHR endorses Matrix. Can you please give us a run down of what services you had done on your upgrade?