10 days to new action.

B

Boyd Allen

Active member
I went down to Visalia today to get the process started that will ultimately end with my picking up a new action in 10 days. California has a 10 day waiting period. I got a look at the action. It is a Bighorn. Oh baby, what a piece of work. This one has been timed for the trigger that I sent him (at his request) and from what I could tell from handling it with the trigger in, it is a real piece of work. The workmanship, fit and finish are top drawer. It is part of a project that I will be assembling shortly for what I informally call my "tinker toy" rifle. This action has a Remington short action footprint (This one is a single shot, but they are available cut for magazines, and in both lengths.), and takes remington triggers. The recoil lug is built in, and the threads are Savage small tenon. Both flat and coned bolt heads are available, and can be interchanged, because the bolt (with has an integral handle that has screw on aluminum outer ends, that look really well integrated and styled), heads are interchangeable and float. They also are set up with a gas block. The material of the action body is stainless that is machined after hardening. I will be working with two cartridges, a conventionally fitted, quality 6PPC barrel, and a drop in 6.5x47. The barreled action will initially be tested in a pillar bedded single shot 40X stock, but if it does as well as I expect, I will probably splurge for something better, to wring out the last little bit of accuracy. I have been shooting my bench rifle very well holding it, so the 40X stock will not be a particular problem, just require more work. This action will have both coned PPC bolt head, and a flat one for the 6.5. I know that there are a lot of good actions out there, but I am looking forward to wringing this one out, and just thought I would share. I forgot to mention that it has the optional, smaller target style loading port, the rear bridge is the same contour as the front (not cut down) and it came with a one piece Picatinny 20 MOA scope base. AJ Goddard has been in the CNC maching business for a log time, and his experience shows on this action. It's purdy, inside and out.
 
Boyd man sounds like your going to get a nice Christmas present. Are you going to use this as a plinker or put a benchrest stock on it and put it up against the big dogs when its dun?. I would like to see a pick of this new toy when you get it.
 
Don,
This is kind of a dual test, to see how it does with a more generous bolt clearance as a conventionally barreled PPC, to see if the separate bolt head will it allow it to shoot as well as it would with a more closely clearanced bolt. It there is any question about this, a tighter bolt will probably be tried.

The other part is to see how it does for accuracy in a caliber that might be found in a tactical application, using a drop in barrel for a small shank Savage. The flat bolt will mate up to the drop in, nut headspaced barrel (in this case a varmint contour McGowen, drop in, that was intended for a Savage) In my experience, a flat bolt will feed loaded amunition just fine. It is only when trying to feed a case that it hangs up, and that does not present much of a problem, I have an old DGA that has a flat bolt face, and it feeds loaded rounds (6PPC) without a hitch. I think that it will be fun to see what a rifle that is bolted together from ready to go parts (except for the bedding in this case) can do in the way of accuracy. The trigger that I am using is a Jewel, and the stock that I am starting with was part of my first bench rifle that did a pretty good job, but was replaced by an EDGE prototype that Kelly was nice enough to give me, back in the day, installed and painted. If the PPC test goes as well as I am hoping, I will probably spring for an up to date benchrest stock, perhaps a Meredith so that I can use it more comfortably with a heavier recoiling caliber. My friend has on of that design on a Panda, and he is doing really well with it, and likes the design,
Boyd
 
boyd
Sounds like a great project, I will be eagerly waiting to here all about your progression.
Seems to me that I read or was told that AJ does something a little different with his threading methods in the receiver. I don't remember what the process is, or type of threads they are. I don't really know a lot about it, but I think its supposed to be a better way of cutting threads. Maybe you already know about this. I will see if I can find the info I read and post a link. It was very interesting, I do remember that. Lee

I did a little research and what I found was this.
The lead thread of the receiver is truncated to mitigate galling when installing a barrel. Now Im not a machinist so I don't know exactly what that means, but from what I have read no one else takes the time to do this.
Sure looks to me like AJ has his act together on these actions. I would love to own one!! Lee
 
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Lee,
Basically, truncated means cut off. I would think that in this case, it means that the tops of the threads do not come to a point, but have flats of some width on their tops. Recently, I ran into a situation where even though the wire measurement of a barrel was small enough that it should have fit (compared to barrels that do fit) because I had used an adjustable die to reduce the tenon's pitch diameter a little, and that left the tops of the threads sharp, I had to go farther undersized than I would have liked to to get the barrel to fit. I presume that this is because the action's insert was thread milled with a tool that left did not cut to a full V in the bottom of the thread form. I think that by forming threads with flats on their points, contact will be on the flanks of the threads, where anti-seize products stand a better chance of doing their jobs.
Boyd
 
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