Monday 2 June 2014

The Four Rifles of the Apocalypse

Today we will being reading from the New Testament Bible, Book of Revelations, Chapter 6 Verses 1-6, And so the Four Horsemen... The four horsemen were sent by God to reek havoc on earth to the unpenitent and to this end I thought wouldn`t it be good to have  a set of four rifles that would similarly diminish the vermin population down on the farm, here on earth..





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Introduction

Today we will being reading from the New Testament Bible, Book of Revelations, Chapter 6 Verses 1-6, And so the Four Horsemen...
The four horsemen were sent by God to reek havoc on earth to the unpenitent and to this end I thought wouldn`t it be good to have  a set of four rifles that would similarly diminish the vermin population down on the farm, here on earth..

This all started back in 2001 when Dave Tooley a USA gunsmith built me a custom 6mm PPC rifle, first reviewed in Gunmart in 2001. This was the epitome of my best looking and shooting rifle I could afford at the time and was dubbed the Plague rifle by all who saw it in action due to its unnatural way it laid waste to the pest problems my parents were having in Scotland, namely hooded crows. The name stuck and since then and following a conversation with gunsmith Mike Norris he said wouldn`t it be fun to have a rifle each named after the four horsemen that followed the same general appearance as your original Plague rifle.

I therefore set to find out a bit more about the said saddle straddler`s and found that the four chaps rode four horses each with a differing colour and named differently dependent on their vanquish on earths soil. Death rode a Pale horse, Famine had a black horse, the red horse was for War and finally the white horse was for Pestilence or Plague although now some translations from old scripts say it might be Conquest, but that would spoil the story, so Plague it is.

An unholy quest begins, Plague

A quick résumé of the Plaque will give you the idea of the format of each rifle. I like my long range Varminting and I have always like the look of a heavy barrelled varmint style rifle especially if it is shod with a thumbhole stock and better still if it has a custom action and especially if a wildcat calibre is chambered.
The 6mm PPC  custom Dave Tooley rifle sported a Hart barrel with 1 in 14 twist rate for the lighter weight bullets that had six flutes and was threaded for a 5/8  by18 pitch sound moderator. This was fitted to a McMillan MCRT custom action that had a semi cone bolt system with only an extract not ejector so I could pick out the brass without it falling in the mud, tart sir.

This gave me the best possible chance of precision and the fitment of a Jewell trigger unit set at 10 ozs weight transforms any custom product into a tack driving machine. The whole metal work was then clad in Teflon coating to achieve a muted finish, perfect for hunting and also eliminated any shiny surfaces to spook game. The best bit was the stock, I love the stocks from Harry Lawson a stock maker form Tucson Arizona, my first rifle had a Lawson stock. 

Well I wanted a synthetic stock and Harry had actually designed the Lazzeroni style stock for the Lazzeroni custom rifles and then supplied by McMillan. The stock is the single part of the rifle that transforms the overall look and feel of a rifle and I love this stock. The thumbhole just looks right and I really like the pistol grip that has an off set of some 20 degrees to give a more natural hold. The action was aluminium pillar bedded in Devcon synthetic material and the rifle was topped off with a set of Talley rings and bases to hold a NightForce NXS 3.5-15x50mm scope which it still wears to this day. Finally a superb MAE muzzle can is fitted to reduce the muzzle report to a whisper. Stage one complete, the Plaque rifle lives, it shoots a 65 grain V-Max bullet at 3087 fps with a payload of 26 grains Vit N133. Nothing within 500 yards is safe!

War

The red horse or War was next and this was to be a full blown custom item with wildcat calibre to boot. First requirement was the same Lazzeroni stock so I ordered a Black textured Kevlar reinforced stock from Jackson Rifles inletted for the Remington M700 action. I could have used a Remy action , trued or blue printed but what’s the point when my the time you pay for that work you might as well buy a true custom action that fits into the Remington bedding platform. To this end I contacted TWG services (07766 720404)  who import the excellent Predator actions  from Stiller Precision. This comes with a precision ground competition recoil lug, lovely fluted bolt choice of bolt knobs and the ability to fit a Remy style trigger, read Jewell, Shilen, Rifle Basix  and C&G Universal  as well as magazines in a similar vein. The Predator was again synthetically bedded to the stock and I fitted a Timney trigger this time as I like the wider trigger blade and general solid feel of this trigger, plus I fancied a change.

I wanted a detachable magazine as this rifle was to be a deer gun and detachable mags are handy especially if you need to change bullet weights for a chance at foxes. The HS Precision unit form Viking Arms with its stainless steel construction and black finish suited the rifle as well as my criteria and the single final feed of the cartridge is actually very positive. I could have fitted a one piece scope rail with a 20 MOA bias but this a deer gun up to 300 yards so a two pieces Leupold steel bases were fitted so I could use any Weaver type rings I liked. In fact I choose a set of Apel mounts to which the upper section was made to fit a Zeiss rail mount system. And that’s exactly what I fitted a Zeiss 7x50 T scope that has a simple 4a type reticule nice and thin with the option of an illuminated central dot. Perfect as a not nonsense hard wearing, take any abuse deer rifle.

Now the problem was choosing the right calibre, well you know me having gone this far a standard .308 would be a bit boring although very good. Being the War rifle I stuck to a .30 calibre but wanted a small superb efficient wildcat design. I loved the 6.5x47mm and thought it would be nice to neck it up to .30 calibre, so I did. It’s a simple wildcat to make and is really superbly efficient and deadly on muntjac all the way up to red stags. Its shoots a 125 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet with  a load of 41 grains of  Vit N130 producing over 3000 fps velocity at 3026fps and 2541 ft/lbs energy. The barrel was a Walther Stainless steel unit with a 1 in 10 twist rate. Fluted to reduce weight and a short length of 20 inches so fitting a sound moderator would not give a long overall length.

Famine

The Black horse, Famine, represents a very unusual and rare rifle indeed and it satisfies my odd obsession with big bullets travelling very slowly with a meagre diet of less than 10 grains powder, hence Famine. Subsonic full-bore rifles are a real interest of mine , the ability to send a 240 grain projectile in the case of the .308 Winchester case at subsonic i.e. 1050 fps or there abouts. What you have is a 500 ft/lbs energy rifle when fitted with a sound moderator is no louder than a .22 rimfire subsonic gun. No good for anything other than playing, military use and foxes in my case it does not matter as I often set out a course of fire across a few fields in Scotland up to 500 yards with steel silhouettes and have ten rounds to spot, range and one round one hit scenario, it makes you really think about the shot. The bullets drop like a stone but energy loss is minimal even at 500 yards and the wind has little effect as it travels below the super and transonic air turbulence. For instance I load a 200 grain Lapua B416 bullet propelled by only 9.25 grains of Vit N320 powder to achieve consistent subsonic velocities. I have used other weights and powders such as IMR Trial Boss and Tin Star, N350 but the Vit N320 works in my rifle.

This rifle is an original Sako Factory SSR (Sniper silenced rifle or Super silenced rifle) is built on a Sako A2 action, one of the old real quality Sako actions and fitted with a short 16 inch barrel with a 1 in 10 inch rifling twist rate. Surrounding this is a 2 inch sound moderator shroud that fits back to the action and extends 12 inches past the muzzle where a series of baffles are sited. Using subsonic reloaded ammunition the rifle literally just coughs, you hear the action tighten up and the firing pin strike is actually audible! To make it into my Apocalypse set I had the marvel, now retired, Ivan Hancock from Venom Arms (sorely missed by many) re-stock the SSR in, you guessed it a Lawson walnut thumbhole stock , Ivan sourced this from his mate Trooper in the States and Ivan crafted it into a  superbly handling totally silent rifle.

Death

Rides a pale horse, the final rifle in the quartet of misery is the Venom Arms  .20BR rifle. Probably the nicest looking rifle of the group or ever? This time Ivan Hancock and Steve Pope sourced a select not quiet exhibition grade Claro walnut stock from , yes that chap in Tucson again Mr Lawson who’s son is called Randy, that was a strange phone call, where’s my banjo?

He inletted the forend with a diamond tiger maple inset and inletted the stock for a Sako 591 action sourced from Gregor at R. McLeod’s of Tain, I like old Sako actions they make a great donor action for custom projects. The bolt was jewelled and the trigger was a factory set trigger unit, very nice. The barrel was a Pac-Nor stainless steel fluted master piece at 26 inches of .204 calibre with a 1 in 12 inch twist rate. I had Pacific Tool And Gauge make me a reamer and heads space gauge for the .20 BR case throated with actually no throat or leade because the .20 BR cartridges can be hard on barrels and with a short throat as it wore due to erosion I could just seat my bullets out a little further, thus maximising barrel life. Up front is an excellent MAE 32mm muzzle can for a very quiet report.I use a load of 30 grains RL15 powder and a 40 grain V-Max bullet for 3885 fps and 1341 ft/lbs energy. Alternatively for real speed a 32 grain Sierra Blitz King will top over 4300 fps with just 31 grains of Vit N133. The .20 BR is topped off with my favourite scope from Schmidt and Bender and that’s their Varmint 4-16X50 scope with side parallax and dot reticule in the first focal plane. The multi dot reticule is fine enough even at the highest magnification and mimics the .20BR`s trajectory well out to 750 yards, yes it shoots that far.

The .20 BR is great cartridge and I will probably have it rebarreled when it gives up the ghost with the faster twist barrel with 1 in 8 inches to handle the heavy 55 grain Berger bullet that I use in my .20 Satan wildcat, but that’s another story.

Conclusions

Therapy may be the only course of action here but it shows what can be done with a little effect and thought and achieves a rifle group that gives hours and hours of varied and enjoyable shooting pleasures. My Mum who is a devout Church goer is none too happy though! This leads me nicely on to the subject of Wildcat cartridges and their formation , I will follow this article up with a couple on designing , feeding and playing with the feline cartridge  groups that range from the diminutive .14 Walker Hornet through the .20 Satan into the 6.5 Rapier and out to the .460 Voodoo. I will also expand on some of these rifles with regards reloads, field use and actual performance on game, until then I shall be dodging any Lightning bolts from above!


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By Bruce Potts

Contacts and Pic text to follow on cd if that`s ok, cheers

01          McMillan stocks, Timney,
              Jewell trigger Jet-Z Moderator        Jackson Rifles                   01644 470223
02          Night force Scopes                         RUAG Ltd                         01579 362319
03          Ex –Venom, still going                    V-Mach                             07850 296360
                                                                       Swift Precision Rifles       01527 871620
04          Steve Bowers                                  Custom rifle builder         01242 863005
05          Mike Norris                                     Custom rifle builder         01952 670198
06          Bullets, powder, cases                    N Clark                            01788 579651
                                                                        Reloading Solutions         01865 378200
07          s/h actions                                       R Macleod &Son             01862 892171
08          Predator actions                              TWG                                 07766 720404
09          Lapua brass,
               H S Precision trigger guard            Viking Arms                     01423 780810
10           MAE sound moderators                 JMS Arms                        07771 962121
11          Walther barrels                               www.lothar-walther.de

12          Zeiss scopes                                   Zeiss Uk                            01707 871350
13          Pac-Nor barrels                             www.pac-nor.com

14          Pacific Tool &Gauge                      www.pacifictoolandgauge.com
15          Schmidt and Bender                      York Guns                        01904 487190

16         Optimate                                        Edgar Brothers                  01625 613177
Article and images by Bruce Potts

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