Thread: Innovative Gunsmith Wanted?

Hi Ljp,
As I followed a similar path 15 years ago with my dreming expectations not matched ,I have Just a few suggestions regarding your built:
Once you found your gunsmith .

-Make sure that the reamer used is a Rifle reamer and not a pistol Reamer. A custom one with tighter tolerances would be a plus. ( with interchangeable pilots to perfectly match your barrel, we are talking at least 250$ worth of tooling here)
- if you fancy a picatinny base go for it, but the ruger Steel rings properly lapped with your March scope should give you all satisfaction for the range you are going to shoot at.
-regarding the blue printing, the face truing of the action can be useful, recuting the thread, I am not sure you will get any advantage, as to truing the bolt face, the bolt being in two parts with the front part floating, I am not sure you are going to get much. However insuring that the lugs have good contact on the action is important as I had to correct that on one of my 77/22 in the past.

Suppressor wise, whatever brand you are going to go with , you are going to be disappointed by the noise reduction with a 44 pill, specially if you use heavy 300 xtp, as the heavier the pill, the more powder you need, the more gases it produces that you have to contain and suppress.

As to the original plastic stock, I would replace it with a Boyd laminated, simply because it will be more rigid and way way better for doing an acceptable bedding inside.

Before committing to the built, I d suggest that you get your suppressor fitted to your original barrel, replace the trigger if you want and fit your March scope in some ruger rings and start shooting the gun as is and develop some sub loads. and then, if you are happy with noise, trajectory ..etc then commit to the built. That might save you some money.
I have been there with 2 ruger 77/44, three different suppressors, and a custom 458 socom built.

Originally Posted by rossi.45

Nelson Colie at Status Guns . . good guy to talk to and great workmanship . . . worth a look

Status_Silent

+1 for Nelson he played with my 10/22 and happy with it. Great communication

Originally Posted by Friwi

Hi Ljp,
As I followed a similar path 15 years ago with my dreming expectations not matched ,I have Just a few suggestions regarding your built:
Once you found your gunsmith .

-Make sure that the reamer used is a Rifle reamer and not a pistol Reamer. A custom one with tighter tolerances would be a plus. ( with interchangeable pilots to perfectly match your barrel, we are talking at least 250$ worth of tooling here)
- if you fancy a picatinny base go for it, but the ruger Steel rings properly lapped with your March scope should give you all satisfaction for the range you are going to shoot at.
-regarding the blue printing, the face truing of the action can be useful, recuting the thread, I am not sure you will get any advantage, as to truing the bolt face, the bolt being in two parts with the front part floating, I am not sure you are going to get much. However insuring that the lugs have good contact on the action is important as I had to correct that on one of my 77/22 in the past.

Suppressor wise, whatever brand you are going to go with , you are going to be disappointed by the noise reduction with a 44 pill, specially if you use heavy 300 xtp, as the heavier the pill, the more powder you need, the more gases it produces that you have to contain and suppress.

As to the original plastic stock, I would replace it with a Boyd laminated, simply because it will be more rigid and way way better for doing an acceptable bedding inside.

Before committing to the built, I d suggest that you get your suppressor fitted to your original barrel, replace the trigger if you want and fit your March scope in some ruger rings and start shooting the gun as is and develop some sub loads. and then, if you are happy with noise, trajectory ..etc then commit to the built. That might save you some money.
I have been there with 2 ruger 77/44, three different suppressors, and a custom 458 socom built.

Appreciate the wisdom Friwi, your've answered a lot of my concerns that I had regarding the Ruger rifle. I was thinking chambering specificaly in 44 special & concentrate on 200 & 240gr anyway as I couldn't get my hands on a Douglas 1-11" twist for 300gr so settle on a 1-16" twist which should suit these bullet weights nicely. I had read a few posts with improved accuracy with a stock replacement - the factory stock does seem to be quite floppy & no real room for bedding improvement. The boyd stocks listed are all over $100US so they don't ship, crap need to find a local dealer for the stock now. The March scope has something like 20mil elevation so I might be ok without a tapered base, depending how much "up" i have left after zeroing.

Originally Posted by LJP

Appreciate the wisdom Friwi, your've answered a lot of my concerns that I had regarding the Ruger rifle. I was thinking chambering specificaly in 44 special & concentrate on 200 & 240gr anyway as I couldn't get my hands on a Douglas 1-11" twist for 300gr so settle on a 1-16" twist which should suit these bullet weights nicely. I had read a few posts with improved accuracy with a stock replacement - the factory stock does seem to be quite floppy & no real room for bedding improvement. The boyd stocks listed are all over $100US so they don't ship, crap need to find a local dealer for the stock now. The March scope has something like 20mil elevation so I might be ok without a tapered base, depending how much "up" i have left after zeroing.

I am interested in this build I could do with a .44 mag to test my cast bullets in at present I have to rely on feedback from others, friwi is right do your basic trials with the standard set up I have a customer that is in pest control
he uses a Ruger 77/44 with my bullets and is getting pass throughs with my 280 gr FP at 900fps at 100 metres, I wouldn't bother with .44 Special cases are hard to source and could cost more than the mag cases, your Ruger will have a 1:20" twist it should be ok with 300 grain bullets, If you would like to test some bullets for me I will supply you some of each 280 FP 270HP 260HP to get you started, A friend recently won a 200 metre Handgun Silhouette comp with a score of 37/40 he missed 2 Chickens at 50 metres and 1 Ram at 200 metres so they are accurate, contact me at "robs.reload@gmail.com" if interested, Robert.

Originally Posted by shooternz

I am interested in this build I could do with a .44 mag to test my cast bullets in at present I have to rely on feedback from others, friwi is right do your basic trials with the standard set up I have a customer that is in pest control
he uses a Ruger 77/44 with my bullets and is getting pass throughs with my 280 gr FP at 900fps at 100 metres, I wouldn't bother with .44 Special cases are hard to source and could cost more than the mag cases, your Ruger will have a 1:20" twist it should be ok with 300 grain bullets, If you would like to test some bullets for me I will supply you some of each 280 FP 270HP 260HP to get you started, A friend recently won a 200 metre Handgun Silhouette comp with a score of 37/40 he missed 2 Chickens at 50 metres and 1 Ram at 200 metres so they are accurate, contact me at "robs.reload@gmail.com" if interested, Robert.

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the offer. I'll make contact once its ready to go - Will be interesting to compare cast vs jacketed.

Originally Posted by LJP

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the offer. I'll make contact once its ready to go - Will be interesting to compare cast vs jacketed.

Half the price and you don't wear out your barrel

Originally Posted by LJP

Hi Guy's,
In the need of recommendation of an innovative gunsmith. I'm wanting to put together an accurate, suppressed 44 magnum built off the Ruger 77/44 bolt action platform. I've collected a donor rifle, fast twist shilen barrel, A - Tec suppressor & a Jard trigger over a period. The intent is to accurately shoot subsonic out to 200 yards for a quiet, walkabout game collecting rifle. I want to true the action / bolt face, chamber & fit the barrel & suppressor, fit a tapered 20moa picatinny rail, fit a tacticool bolt handle & lastly bed the stock & stiffen up the flexible forend. I now have a March 3-25 FFP mill scope for dial up duties so now just need a gunsmith to make everything come together. Gunsmith suggestions?

Kobus at Guntech in Tauranga is bloody good.