Finally finished the 243

ARCOREY

ARCOREY

New member
I've been piecing together a 243 for quite a while now. I've tried to do as much as I can to build this rifle and not have much down time and not go broke all at once. This past summer I finally got to a point where I had to send it off to take advantage of a few fortunate circumstances and get it finished. The specs will be at the end. The first picture is where I started, a Remington SPS-Varmint in 243win. with Burris Signature Scope and Leupold rings.
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The tupperwear stock had bad forend slap and the X-mark trigger wouldn't stay at a reliable pull and felt horrible to me. The matte black finish rusted badly and I couldn't seem to make it quit. I had the trigger replaced, epoxied the stock, and had it Duracoated. While it was out I had the bolt knob replaced.
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A little money showed up and I bought a Bell and Carlson A2 stock and an Eagle stock pack.
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In the next year I hit a winning streak on contests and won a TAB gear tactical shooters sling, and Atlas V-8 bipod with all the trimmings, and a gift certificate for a Cerakote job. I got a little Christmas money plus had been saving for about 3 years trying to hide money from life's mishaps and finally bought a Vortex Viper PST scope and Seekins rings and got the action trued and rebarreled by Bartlein. I put it all together today and hope to have it leveled and ready to shoot by the weekend.
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Vortex reticle MOA SFP
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This is my first "build". I intend to use this for paper/steel target shooting and varmint hunting for groundhogs. Unfortunatly I saw for sale sign at my groundhog hunting haven, so this might have been about 5yrs for nothing. Hopefully I can find more open places to use this monster.

Build Specs:
-Remington 700 SPS-V 243 winchester
-Bell & Carlson A2 medalist stock bedded by Controlled Chaos Arms with Marine Tex and secret ingredient
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-Eagle stock pack
-Accushot Atlas V-8 bipod and all their accessories including picatinny forend rail.
-Action true and bolt squared. Oversized lug pinned to action all by Bartlein.
-243 Win Remington Varmint contour barrel from Bartlein with 5r 1-9" twist with 3" of no taper on chamber end
-new Remington SS bottom metal BDL
-Sinclair single shot follower
-TAB gear tactical shooters sling in tan
-Accushot monopod (not pictured)
-Cerakote all metal in coyote tan by Controlled Chaos Arms
-Rifle Basix LV-1K trigger factory set at supposed 10oz.
-Seekins medium 30mm rings .87" height 4 screw
-Vortex Viper PST scope 6x-24x-50mm side focus, illuminated, matching MOA knobs and EBR-1 reticle second focal plane from Cameraland
-Butler Creek flip caps.
Hoping to shoot Berger 87gr. VLD's out of Lapua brass. Hopefully I have paper with "lights out" or "bug holes" groups to post soon. Thanks for looking at this poor guys build. Not as nice as a lot of the ones I see on here, but my first. I don't know how some of you guys and gals do this all the time. My nerves and bank account are shot
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. Now for my next build...
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Thanks guys. VaDeerHunter, my initial impressions of the scope are good. Today is the first day I've had it mounted up, but the clarity seems good and the things like the illumination, turrets clicks, side focus, fit and finish all seem very nice. It is much lighter than the Nightforce NXS. This is a big jump from my Burris Signature that I was using. I hope to run it next to my buddies 8x-32x NXS and see how it stacks up. I like the reticle better than his NPR-2 already. I need to get the bench cleaned off and get some Berger test loads going before all the varmint weight bullets are gone for the year. Then I can run it over a buddies chrono and start on field data getting my dope charts set.

I forgot to mention above the barrel finished at 28" and total weight as pictured is 14.5lbs
 
Looks pretty frikin good to me. Plenty of the good stuff on that rifle. I like it and don't possibly see how it won't shoot good!! Great Job!!
 
Corey,

Awesome looking rig. Looking forward to your range report with the beast. Sorry to hear about your Ghog property up FS. I'm kinda in the same situation, but a little different on the farm I use to varmint hunt and deer hunt. Doubt next year I'll be able to hunt the prop.

Why the 28" tube?
 
It's about time corey lol. Kidding aside, it looks great. With that parts list idk how it wouldn't shoot. Job well done I say.
 
Thanks again guys. I'm pretty blue collar, so I just couldn't swing the Nightforce, Manners, Jewell, and all the other bells and whistles I wanted for a dream rifle. I tried to trim the fat in places that I thought I could and still get by with a custom. I ditched the CDI bottom metal idea and substituted the B&C for the Manners. I went RB trigger instead of Jewell also. I won the Cerakote job and the Atlas Bipod and TAB sling, otherwise it would have been home Duracoat, Harris bipod, and a Quake Claw sling. I watched Vortex for what seemed like forever waiting for my chance to get a PST scope since Nightforce would've gotten me a divorce (still might if she finds out what this cost). Although it wasn't dirt cheap, it would be considered a budget build by some standards. I think the parts I've chosen should provide me a good platform and all I may sacrifice is name recognition or luxury over function. I atleast hope it does. Not knocking name brands, because they would be on there had I not been irresponsible in my youth and built huge debts. I'm proud to say this is a paid for project and I have enough in the gun fund to start looking into starting to build a Stevens predator rifle in 17 rem or another AR upper while still paying the bills. Anymore that is hard to do. I feel very fortunate to own such a weapon.

psychodog, I hope you're right, a lot of sleepless nights went into this

Mike, Sorry to hear about your situation. Hope all goes well for you. I know you had a lot more than a hunting spot to lose. Wish you the best in your recovery. I went 28" and 3" of no taper at the chamber so I can take an 1" off both ends when I torch it and go again. Maybe AI like you MI boys next time
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Rocky, my trigger finger is itching. Now if I could just find my reloading bench under my deer season clutter
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Gary, tell me about it. I think Rome was built faster than this rifle. Hopefully it won't prove me wrong with my choices. I reckon I've made worse shoot pretty good, this one should have a pretty good chance. After all, somewhere under there it's still a Remington
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A lot of my decisions were based on what I've seen or read here or on SnipersHide. Some of you guys posting have been a great source of info in this build. Thanks again to all those who gave advice and to those that have had such great things to say about my build. I promise to post targets as soon as possible followed by dead chucks and video of LD shooting.
 
Cory the way that stick turned out, you would never know it was your first build. Looks awesome.
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Definetely looking forward to a range report and how your Vortex compares to the Nightforce.

Good job!!!

Dave
 
Sweet build, Corey! Plenty of big land on your side of the mountain, take half a day and go knock on a few doors. I'll keep a few for ya over here. I already know of 1 that I missed repeatedly last year and would love to watch him get rolled.
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Really nice rifle, Corey! It looks like you made some very wise choices in your build. Most of what we do in our rifle builds is for us. The varmints rarely know the difference. I'm looking forward to seeing some photos of it with dead Ghogs lying next to it!
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wahoowad, if I get this thing worked out, I'll bring her over to your side of the hill one day and you can whack that hog yourself with it. I do need to ride around looking for more land. I've been spoiled with what I've had.
 
Wow Corey,

That .243 has really had one heck of a nice transformation. Last time I laid eyes on it was when it was in the stage as seen in the 500 yard groundhog photo. It looked good then, but man, you have really taken it to new levels.

How is the Vortex scope working for you?

Sorry to hear about the land issue and I hope all works well for you. That is some beautiful land you have been hunting and I just hope that you will be able to continue to use it.

 
OK I can tell that I am in a league of heavy hitters.

Sweeet looking gun very nice.

I just bought my first Varmint rifle a savage axis in 22-250. But I dont have the opportunity for shots over 300 yards since I am in flat SW Florida. So I bought the redfield 3x9x50mm so far so good.

Congrats on your rebuild sure came out nice.
 
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