RBHarter
West Central AR
This is a joint effort gun . Malcolm Ballistic Tool is responsible for the barreled action , chamber , trigger and headspace , the rail , scope , stock and bottom metal are on me .
I bought the action and bolt from a guy on a BP forum , it is a Santa Barbara 98' .
MBT had a barrel available and a GI 2 stage trigger .
I wanted a field rifle so the trigger is smooth and crisp but about 5# .
The barrel is 23" , 1-14" at .351 x .357 .
The stock is a Fajin discovered in a box on a long forgotten shelf in the back of a barn circa 1974 . The checkering is very nice probably too good for me . The bottom metal is an inside the bow release hinged floor plate . I feel like I paid too much for it but it was below market for similar commercial offerings .
The scope is a post and cross wire El Paso Weaver K4 . So far it seems solid in spite of showing it's age .
This is a typical group regardless of the desire to drive a load or plink . I've run bullets from 358-125 up to 35-250 . I've even run a few 148 and 161gr Lyman WC . The flyer there was due to a lost check .
Today's shooting was with the 358 XCB aka 360-228 FP .
It delivered notable groups in spite of the stupid hot day . 2050-2150 fps seem to be the happy place with 358-200s up through the 35-250 . 40-44 gr of I4350 seem to deliver the bullets into that window .
The XCB ,as calculated by Strelok , carries 1000 ft lb out past 200 yd with just a 12" drop .
Truth be told this rifle is boring . Pick a bullet , fill the case to 95% , seat to touch and go shoot groups . In the 125-158 gr pistol bullets 11-1500 fps with about 8gr of Unique is the ticket . Boring .
