17 Fireball
Trued Rem Mod 7
Pacnor 24" 9 twist SSM #5 contour
HS Pro 2000 stock
Jewell trigger
Leupold VXIII 6.5-20x40 (Nikon in pic)

20 VarTarg
Trued Rem Mod 7
Rock Creek 24" 11 twist #3 contour SSM
Jewell trigger
Mcmillan Hunter stock
Leupold VX3 4.5-14x40 with VHR

This is a .45 cal. muzzleloading rifle..
Remington short action completely trued, bolt as well.
Krieger .458 1-20 Twist bbl heavy varmint countour, finished @ 28". It has interrupted flutes that are .25"x .125" deep.
It has the factory Remington trigger adjusted to 2.5 lbs.
The target is 5 shot group at 100 yrds.
The pros on this build.....it will shoot a Parker Ballistic Extreme 275gr. bullet @ 3000 fps. It will take down anything in North America and Africa as well. Accuracy is amazing. Its great if you havent shot your buck yet and have to hunt cut corn or bean fields and need to take a 300 yrd shot or longer.
Cons..... With this bbl, its HEAVY. It kicks pretty good so I also added a brake last yr and tamed it down.

That's probably true most of the time, but not always. Course it depends on several things like what your expectations for the particular rifle are, how much your smith charges for various work, and most important, is the barrel fairly accurate to start with.

I posted about this one last year but for those that haven't seen it before it's a cheap SPS that started life as a 223.


I had my smith remove the barrel, true the action (single point threads, square receiver and bolt face, lap lugs and raceways, surface grind recoil lug, etc).
He also set the barrel back, recrowned, and rechambered it to 222 before reinstalling.


I pillar bedded it a Boyds ADL Classic stock myself and installed an old school remmy trigger I had on hand, so after selling all the SPS parts I ended up with a nice little sporter that's the way "I" want it and different from the crowd for about the same money you'd pay for todays Remchester, and shoots right with my custom barreled jobs.
"Shoots in the 1's". LOL


Oh yea,,, the scope's a 4.5-15 VXIII (that just got a new CDS turret last week) mounted on med Warn's.

My Gofer Gun



Trued 700
Pac-Nor #5 3grove 9twist SM in 17Rem finished at 24".
Pillar bedded in a Holland ADL stock (his pillar system is brilliant).
Gre-Tan FP assembly.
Old school 700 trigger tuned by your truly.
Weaver V24 in Luppy rings.

Don't have any target pix to brag on but 1/4" groups are pretty common for this rifle.
"Shoots in the 2's";)

CZ 527 American
Pac-Nor 3grove 9twist SM in 17FB finished at 22".
Magazine and bottom metal modified by RVB
James Calhoon bolt handle.
Glass bedded in factory stock.
3.5-10 VX3III in med Warns.

The first "custom" I did was a 788 Rem. It was a factory 223 I bought from a Pawn Shop and it had seen better days. I sent the barreled action to Van Horn Custom rifles to have the action trued up and an Olympic barrel installed. The barrel is chambered in 17 Rem. and finished at 20" using the same contour as the original 223 barrel. The trigger is the factory Remington that I reworked and breaks at 2.5lbs. The wood stock (camo painted) is the original 788 stock with a bunch of wood removed. This sucker still weighs a ton. It would probably bring more money at the scrapeyard than its rifle value! It is a very good shooter with H3223 and 25gr. Genco's.


The next custom I did was a 22lr. rimfire and it was based on a 581S action. The action was trued up, lugs were lapped, firing pin shortened and reshaped, and the action threaded. A Remington 541T barrel was lapped, threaded, chambered to a Win. 52D, recrowned to 11degrees, finished at 21". A Remington 3 screw trigger was reworked and breaks at 9 oz. Then it was all pillared bedded into an old Bishop stock by yours truely. The picture shows it with a Leupold 2-7 rimfire scope, but a Burris Mini 6X AO scope in Leupold low rings is its actual setup. I call it the "wannebe" 541 Rem., but it is my idea of the perfect Squirrel rifle. Its consistent under .5" groups at 50yds. with many different brands of 22lr. is totally amazing. Most of the work was done by Bryan Voelker.
I've done several rimfire customs through the years, most of them based on the Rem. rimfire actions. Customizing a sporter weight rimfire has been a favorite hobby of mine.




The latest custom I've done was a long thought out lightweight Predator rifle. I always found it frustrating that manufacturers considered an ultralight rifle to weigh around 7lbs (before rings,bases, and scope) and they had to shorten the barrels to 20" or less to achieve it. So I started pricing lightweight parts and stocks wanting to build a 22" barreled rifle in a fur friendly caliber that weighed under 7lbs. ready to hunt. Holy Smokes, diet plans are very expensive!! I had planned on using a model 7 as a donor to this cause, but man, to get it under my desired weight would require a carbon fiber stock and my gosh those things are over priced. Sooooo, the first thing I did was buy a Kimber Montana in 204. Oh boy, oh boy was that a good move. These things will shoot. All setup ready to hunt at 6lbs. 3oz. Perfect........well not quite.......I'm a 17 cal. lover and they don't make it in that caliber. Not a problem, I ordered another one, had the action squared, the lugs lapped, a titanium bolt handle installed and a Lilja #1 barrel chambered in 17 Rem. installed. The #1 is the same contour as the original Kimber barrel and I had it finished at 22", same as the factory barrel. I wanted this whole package to weigh the same as the 204 I have. We missed it by 1oz. The factory Montana stock is Carbon Fiber and pillarbedded from the factory, but I had it skim bedded to make sure the new barrel and reworked action bedded perfectly. I'm using a Talley Lightweight mounting system with a Leupold VX3 2.5-8X36 scope, finished it with a vero vellini sling. 6lbs. 4oz total weight. Perfect.

Here's another 17Rem (700 Classic) with trued action and P-N 3grove 9twist SM finished at 22".
It's hardly a "custom" though unless you consider my pillar bedding and trigger tuning custom work.
Scope's a 2.5-8 VX3 in low Talleys.
Shoots in the "2's" all day long when I do my part:)

I would like to see some post as to what their objective was in building a particular rifle and was it met. Such as wanting to build a rifle under 8# all scoped up, wanting to shoot a certain weight bullet so many fps....etc


Love the ideas guys, keep them coming

6.5 X 47 Lapua
24" barrel spiral fluted by Kampfeld Custom
Krieger 8.5 twist, #5 Contour
Bighorn Sporter action
McMillan Remington Hunter stock 34 Dark Tan/33 Dark Brown/33 Light Gray
Limbsaver Recoil Pad
Talley Lightweight Rings
PT&G Stainless BDL bottom metal
Swarovski Z5
Jewell Trigger
Bead blast finish
Jon Beanland Gunsmith



I built this rifle to be my primary deer hunting rig. As shown it weighs about 9.5#. At this time I have not done very much load development, but the 130 Berger and Varget show promise

.243 AI
Krieger 12 twist, 26" finished
McMillan Edge Stock
Limbsaver recoil pad
Stiller Predator Action
Kampfeld Campfire Knob
Holland .250 recoil lug
PT&G alum BDL bottom metal
Talley LW
Swarovski Z5
Metal and stock Cerekoated Coyote tan
Black Accents
Cerekoting done by Kampfeld Custom
Jewell Trigger
Greg Young Gunsmiths




I built this one with the light 6mm bullets in mind. This gun is light but the 26" barrel makes it a touch to nose heavy for my tastes. Still a great rig thats fun to shoot.

20 Vartarg Turbo
Krieger #4, 11 twist, 24" finished length
McMillan Hunter Stock, 34 Olive/33 Black/33 Light Tan
Limbsaver recoil pad
Stiller Predator Action
PT&G alum BDL bottom metal
Kampfeld Campfire Knob
Holland .250 recoil lug
Metal Olive Cerekote wit black accents done by Kampfeld Custom
Talley LW
Swarovski Z5
Jewell Trigger
Cody's Custom Guns did the smithing





I had a .204 but wanted a custom .20 cal. This gun is an absolute joy to shoot. This is my favorite stock/barrel combo and I really like this blueprint for a hunting rig. The balance is perfect for me and the weight is exactly how I prefer.

As far as the 20 Vartarg Turbo, this is a highly accurate rifle however, the case prep is a bit more involved than I prefer. It is based on .222 but the neck has to be trimmed quite a bit.

21.8 gr of H4198 and a 39 Blitzking will be a little over 3,800.

Accurate fun little rifle.

Brad

That stock color is sweet that came out very nice the stock for my 17-204 has the same colors I hope it comes out as nice

6x47 Lapua
Krieger 8 twist, #5 contour
Spiral Fluted by Kampfeld Custom
Bighorn Action
.250 recoil lug
McMillan Game Scout Stock
Desert Camo
Limbsaver recoil pad
Seekins Rings
Seekins Bottom metal
Jewell Trigger
NF NXS 3.5x15x50 ZS, MOAR
Jon Beanland Gunsmith




I really love the 6mm calibers. I had this one with the 105 bullets in mind. So far, it likes the Berger 105 Hybrid and H4350 powder very well. I really like the Game Scout stock although I do like a drop heel stock, which this does not have. This is a very fun rifle to shoot.