700 Rem Threading Mandrel

[Zebra13]

Now another question - why is it desirable for the shooter to be concealed? This is a BR/Competition type of Forum, not LEO. Or, are groups smaller when no one can see you?

Ray

Ray,

It is a BR/Competition forum. However, any LEO who is interested in rifle accuracy and has half a brain, realized that just about every significant improvement in rifle accuracy to come down the pike the last 40-50 years came out of the benchrest camp, and that the rifles they shoot are the most accurate on the planet. These guys are on to something. That is precisely why this LEO lurks about on this forum...to pick brains and learn.

And as for group sizes being smaller when no one can see you...well...I can't answer that. But I can tell you MY group sizes are smaller when no one is there to see THEM!

Justin

 

[BobB]

Interesting. As a matter of fact I am an LEO for a town of about 1200.
When I am on duty I am the only one and "backup" is a long way off.

I built a Rem. 700 that I blueprinted the action on. I installed and chambered a Shilen Match Grade barrel with a 1 in 8 twist and I built a suppressor of my own design using a monolithic baffle. It was registered with the Form One, which allows any one to build their own suppressor, if the state allows it.

Since I know most of the County,City and State Police in this area and work with them occasionally, many of them became interested in my setup when I started smoking them in the informal competitions that we shoot against each other.So far, testing various suppressors with a sound meter that was placed perpendicular to the muzzle at 3 feet, the can that I built is still the best performer, even against some high dollar well known commercial suppressors. Even better than the reduction in sound is the fact that my particular rifle shoots some pretty consistent groups.

While my groups aren't much when compared to you bench-rest guys, I have yet to see a police rifle shoot better than my homebuilt. My group size is limited by the fact that I am shooting a a 4x14 Tactical Leupold, with a good target dot I might even do better. My best group thus far is a 10 shot group that measures .630 at 100 yards. So far, I haven't been very impressed with most police tactical rifles that use suppressors, both removable or integral, the best group I have seen hovers in the inch and a quarter range which most cops are pretty happy with.

In their defense though, most of them are limited to commercial ammo whereas I am loading my own.

Since the suppressed rifle action seems to be picking up in popularity in this area, and since I am the only one for miles around that has the equipment to build rifles, I have been getting numerous requests to thread rifle barrels for suppressors, most of theses being either 1/2-28 or 5/8-24 threads.

As a follow up to my original post of whether even building a mandrel to thread a barreled action was feasible or doable, I have since built a mandrel that works extremely well. I just remove the action from the stock, remove the bolt and remove the trigger assembly just to keep trash out of it. I dial in the mandrel using a 4 jaw chuck and run the center in the barrel using a brass widget to keep from damaging the rifling. Its a simple matter to cut and thread a barrel in this manner and it takes less than a half hour from start to finish.

It works so well that I wish I would have done it sooner.

 

[Zebra13]

Bob,

We currently have three suppressed .308's in our SWAT team's inventory. All three we're built buy Tac Ops out of Beverly Hills, Ca., and the suppressors are too manufactured by Tac Ops. Barrel length is 18" or 20" on all three guns...I don't remember exactly, as I am no longer on the team and have not played with the rifles in some time.

I did play with them a bit a few years ago and found them to be quite accurate. 5 shot groups in the half-inch range were common. One of the three dispalyed a cold shot point of impact change on the order of a half-inch. Oddly, the other two didn't, and even a bit stranger, the more the rifle was shot over time, it's tendency for a cold shot point of impact change diminished to probably a quarter inch or less.

Once you got used to the lighter weight of the gun as oppossed to the typical police type sniper rifle, they were easy to shoot, and accurate. The suppressors dampened recoil significantly, which I'm sure helped with accuracy.

Our admin liked them because they were quiet. Touching off a .308 in a middle class neighborhood at 3am will cause miscarriages. So they popped for them.

They did add length and weight to the rifle, but if the suppressor was designed into the rifle prior to building, it wasn't a big deal.

They were fun to shoot and quiet. No hearing protection was need. Just a "whoosh", similar to unplugging an air compressor hose.

And I always thought this was interesting. I chronographed all 3 guns one day. Now mind you, 2 were built at the same time, the third was built about a year later. All have Kreiger barrels, and the ammo was Winchester 168 BTHP Match. The average velocity for all three rifles was within 7 fps of each other. Testimony to the quality of the barrels and ammo.

For what it's worth,
Justin