Custom rifle assembly

J

Jyoung538

Guest
I am planning on getting a new custom rifle, and would like to assemble it my self. I have never done this before but would like to for the learning experience as well as saving a bit of money. What all goes into this? What tools are needed? What processes have to be taken?
Thanks,
Josh
 
Ever see that sign ?

Labor
$50.00 Hour

$60 Hour if you watch

$75 Hour if you help

Building your own Custom Rifle is not just bolting the pieces together

You might start by learning to rebed an existing rifle that needs bedding work.
 
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Practice on something inexpensive. Sell it, keep the knowledge, then do it again... before moving up to the expensive actions.
 
What is needed for the process though, and what is a good way to start cheap?
 
Buy a savage
then buy a replacement prechambered barrel barrel, a headsace gauge, and find a friend who knows what to do with the gauge.
 
Suggestion...

Jyoung538 said:
What is needed for the process though, and what is a good way to start cheap?
Click to expand...

1. A good easy to work with action (Rem 700 is best).
2. A custom barrel fitted to your trued up action (Shilen, Krieger, Bartlein, Douglas, or many others will fill the bill). Have a gunsmith chamber and fit the barrel). Fit a Jewell trigger in the action.
3. Pick a good stock...Fajen, Six, or McMillen will fill the bill here.
4. Get good bedding advise off the web (just Google it), and bed the barreled action.
5. Tune your new rifle with various loads for the caliber you've chosen.
6. After your success...inform your interested friends that you''ll build them a rifle cheap or...you'll sell them a great custom rifle cheap. :rolleyes:
7. Now...start another one and avoid all the mistakes you've made with the first one.;)

good luck...virg
 
Brownell's sells......

a video by Steve Acker that will go into some detail about the hows & whys of rebarreling a rifle, plus it will give you some idea as to what is involved in doing this to a general hunting rifle. This is not, however, a lesson plan on building a bench gun. It will help you get your feet on the ground, & you'll have a better idea about whether you want to go any farther, or not.
 
Jyoung538 said:
I am planning on getting a new custom rifle, and would like to assemble it my self. I have never done this before but would like to for the learning experience as well as saving a bit of money. What all goes into this? What tools are needed? What processes have to be taken?
Thanks,
Josh
Click to expand...

You will need a Lathe,reamers,turning bits.
You need a stock,JB weld,ect.
You get the action,then get a barrel blank,thread,chamber,crown,fit to action.
Then,i would get a stock with Molded in color,try Kelbys,get a jewell trigger.
as for barrels,get a Shilen,Kreiger,Hart .
Then sit down and figure out how to do all this,tack out your credit card.
 
If the barrel is already chambered will the company usually thread it to the action I have on request?
 
Dick Grosbier said:
Ever see that sign ?

Labor
$50.00 Hour

$60 Hour if you watch

$75 Hour if you help

Building your own Custom Rifle is not just bolting the pieces together

You might start by learning to rebed an existing rifle that needs bedding work.
Click to expand...

You left one out Dick, 300.00 per hour if you have cobbed it up.
 
Generally speaking, you have a Gunsmith chamber, thread, and crown the barrel...fitted to the action. This is not something thats done with out many $$ in machinery, tooling, etc. At that point, you can take your barreled action and fit the trigger, bed it into the stock, finish, mount scope, whatever else needs done. Getting everything done right the first time out is a tall task as has been pointed out.
 
Jyoung,

Building a rifle is not rocket science, but it is not something you can just decide to do, go grab the parts off the shelf and assemble it.

Like building an engine, yep you can do it. But will it run as good as the original, not likely. Alot of little tricks and steps to do it right.

It is important that you learn how in steps and perfect each step prior to the next. By doing this you will learn what works and what doesn't.

As others have posted, learn to bed first. Once you have done that and can see the improvement in the guns performance, go on to working on the triggers, etc.

If you pick up the phone and call Brownells or Midway, they will sell you all the components you want right down to hand reamers to chamber with. When you are done you will have a custom rifle that has about as much chance of shooting well as I have spending the night with Halle Berry. And will prob cost you alot more than if you just go buy a good rifle.

One good way to learn is check with your local community collage, alot of them have beginning gun smith classes and most of these are taugh by having the students build a rifle under the instructors supervision.

I learned out of frustration after waiting for months for two different rifles only to get something I did not want! I took it in baby steps and prob did 10 beddng jobs before moving on. I still have the first bedding job as a major example of WHAT NOT TO DO, lol

DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT go buy a bunch of components and try to do it yourself without serious help.

JMHO

Randy
 
I agree with everyone comments. You need to start out little and work your way up. It will take a few thousand dollars to get equipment to do what you are wanting to do. I reccomend getting some instructional dvd's and you will get a better understanding of what you are getting into. Richard at richardscustomrifles.com has sereval dvds that are excellent and are no that expensive, I think they are around $25.00. After you understand the process I would reccomend going to the local college and taking some machine shop classes.:)
 
if you start with a savage for a base gun, you can do a decent job by yourself without too many expensive tools. if you truly want to build an all out custom rifle by yourself, consider taking some machinist courses at your local community college.
 
save money?

I understand the urge to assemble your own gun. It is a challenging and interesting endeavor, but do not imagine you will save money. Based on my experiences in assembling my own....you may enjoy the project , but you won't save money.
 
Jyoung538 said:
I am planning on getting a new custom rifle, and would like to assemble it my self. I have never done this before but would like to for the learning experience as well as saving a bit of money. What all goes into this? What tools are needed? What processes have to be taken?
Thanks,
Josh
Click to expand...

NO money will be saved, it will probably cost you more...

It is not just assembling parts.

I don't think you have the skills required to build a rifle.

Can you do the action and barreling work? That is the hardest and most important part of the build.

Can you correctly inlet and bed the metal in the stock? That is very important.

More realistic is choosing what you want built... the action, make of barrel, contour and twist and caliber... mounts and scope, style of stock - wood or composite (then color choices), type of recoil pad, length of stock, trigger and the weight... and picking the "smith" to do the work.


.
 
If you have the will to do what you want, then you had better have the time to invest in learning what you need to know. Being a good machinist is a great way to start, but it is not all you need to know. The best way would be taking two years of your life and going to Trinidad Colorado. Short of that, have the time to find and befriend a good gunsmith and strike a deal to work for him as and unpaid apprentice, You can do it all on your own if you have the desire and the money to buy a good used lathe and the books to teach you "How To Run a Lathe" from Southbend. Spend a bunch of time to learn how to run a lathe. While you are doing this, tell your friends that you want to bed their rifles for them for free. After a couple of dozen rifles, switch over to installing free pad installs if they will pay for the pad. After about two or three dozen of these, your starting to get your feet wet and it's time to move on to the next step, learning how triggers work This is real head time now.

Of course you have been steadily working on the lathe all this time. Lay in a big stock of cold roll and learn all the things you are going to need to get perfect alignment between centers, threading and a few other things like putting the reading on the subject to use. When you feel confident, it's time to move on to a cheap barrel and any action you want to try.

Next most important step is to READ, READ, READ and last but not least READ some more.
 
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