Author: wizardpc

When I made my initial post about the ARFCOM Hometown shoot, I realized that I hadn’t posted any updates about what I did to the Remington 700 AAC-SD I bought in January, despite having taken several rounds of pictures.

Bad blogger. No cookie!

So here goes:

The first thing I did was get an EGW HD 20 MOA scope base. The HD model is steel instead of aluminium.

Next up was the YHM Muzzle Brake that fits my suppressor:

Fun Fact: I called three gunsmiths to try to have one install this for me. Each one said a version of “Really? Any idiot can install these. Why would you pay me do to this?” (Hint: Because YHM says to have a qualified gunsmith do the install)

Then came the scope and rings. My original plan was to get something in the $600 range for the scope, and about $100 for the rings. The money didn’t end up working out, so I got a Millett TRS-1. I got the .1 mil version, because FarmDad told me not to get a mildot scope with MOA adjustments, because it’ll mess with you. The scope gets “good for the money” reviews pretty much everywhere. It’s got fanciness like locking target turrets and a side parallax knob, and comes with a sunshade, flip open caps, and an illuminated mildotbar (not to be confused with mildot, which I did confuse it with). I’ll do a more in-depth review of the scope later but the short version is that about 10 minutes after I took it out of the box I decided I that while I won’t be returning this one, I likely wouldn’t buy it again.

For the rings…. well, due to the aforementioned budgetary problems, I wasn’t going to have rings by the time the ARFCOM shoot was scheduled so my friend James lent me some Warne 214M rings:

Now, when mounting a scope the idea is to get it as low as possible. With a 50mm objective that’s still going to be pretty high. The idea was to take the Warne rings, mount the scope, take some measurements, and then order some lower rings. When I mounted it all up, I got this:

Ignore that there’s only one ring.

The distance between the bell and the barrel is about 6mm.

But the distance between the rail and the magnification ring is, well, the ring actually sits lower than the rail. That means that this is as far forward as the scope can go with these rings. I didn’t think that was going to be a problem based on some measurements I took, but the first time I fired the gun i got scope to the forehead. More on that at a later date.

After I got the scope loosely mounted, I did the same procedure to raise the comb that I did on my 10/22 (using another Allen Company Buttstock Shell Holder and Pouch), minus drilling holes in the stock. Not doing that ended up biting me at the ARFCOM shoot. After that I tightened down the scope mounts, added the rail from the cheap chinese bipod I bought last summer, and packed everything up to go shoot it:

Wait. Something’s missing:

Ah. That’s better.

I titled this post “finished” because as we all know a rifle is never, ever, actually complete. It’s a continuous improvement process. Because of the dismal performance last weekend (which, again, I’ll post more on later) at least one part between the barrel and my eyes is probably going to need to be replaced. That bipod is completely temporary until I get a Harris HBLS. The screws aren’t torqued to spec. The rail isn’t bedded. I need a better stock but that’s not happening until I can outshoot the rifle. I’d like a scope level. But all those things can wait for now.

but this was totally worth it.

AAR with pictures and a couple of videos to come later this week. Spoiler: My most recent purchase did not do so well. Kinda embarrassing, actually.

Me? Oh I was fine hittin 8″ steel plates at 650yds. With someone else’s .308.

This morning I saw a headline that said “Teen shot and killed near school.” I remember it because 1) it apparently happened on a Saturday and 2) it said near school, not at school.

Since we seem to have a functional Illegal Moms Against Gun Ownership (or whatever they call themselves now) chapter, I expected that one to show up on their list of school shootings. Because, as you may know, they include “drug deals gone wrong at 2 am 3 miles from an elementary school” in the same category as Columbine.

Well, it seems that this may have been a robbery gone wrong.

For the robber.

I’ll reserve judgement for now but this will be one to watch since it may involve “stand your ground.”

So a while back, I was watching this video of Ryan Cleckner setting up a scope on a Remington 700:

I thought that was a neat trick with the wood cheek riser. It stuck with me. When I threw together the “assassins kit in pretty much every action movie in the 80s” as commenter Michael put it, I noticed that the while the iron sights on the 10/22 are naturally where my eyes sit when I have a good cheek weld, the scope is…well it’s a little high.

Okay so maybe it’s a lot high. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing as far as precision rifle shooting (yeah yeah it’s a .22lr–but fundamentals are fundamentals) so I’ve been trying to educate myself. In the Magpul Precision Rifle, the instructor says that the pressure your cheek puts on the stock of the rifle is “about like you’d do if you were going to sleep.” I had to move up enough to get my eye lined up with the scope that my chin was barely on the stock. That can’t be good for consistency.

I may not know what I’m doing, but Ryan Cleckner does. So I copied him. I bought an Allen Company Buttstock Shell Holder and Pouch because it looks a whole helluva lot like the one he uses.

And then I pretty much did exactly what he described:

First I started off with a couple of pieces of 1″ thick (actual) decking that were seven or so inches long and a wood shim. I didn’t want to carve on something all day.

Then I put the pieces on the stock by sliding them underneath the pouch. I didn’t really get a good picture of that but you get the idea:

The short piece of decking was a little too short:

And the longer one was just a wee bit too short:

But the combo of the short decking and the shim was about as perfect as can be:

And with the pad on, you can see how closely it lines up:

So with that all figured out, it was time to…*dramatic pause*…drill into the stock of my brand new gun.

First I put pilot holes in the shim where I was going to eventually put the nails.

Then, I taped the shim in place on the stock:

And then drilled the holes.

Now the above picture is a little deceiving. The line down the top of the stock is not actually a centerline. It’s just where the paint dip stopped..

With the holes drilled, i put the nails back in and glued the two pieces together. Elmer’s wood glue, clamped overnight, because an old carpenter told me to do that and old dudes know stuff so i listen to them:

After that? Press it in and cinch down the pouch. Easy Peasy!

I’ll do the same thing on my 700 after I get my scope mounted.