Fellas,

Been thinking about doing an FN Mauser action with a Timney trigger into a little bear rifle. Have access to a Douglas #3 contour tube in good shape that is already chambered in 416 Aagaard (376 Steyr necked up and improved) for a quite reasonable price. Should yield 1 in the chamber and 3 down with ease (no magazine mods).

Thought I might do a 21 or 22 inch bbl and fit a 1.5-5 Leupold IR scope on Leupold QRW mounts.

Should make out to 8-9 pounds and deliver maybe 2250-2300 with a 350 gr bullet. In other words, its a 3900-4000 lb-ft rifle with a relatively large bullet cross section for energy transfer. Sort of 404 Jeff class. I would think that would work fine for bear and be pretty handy.

Will bed the thing into a cheap Fajen's plastic stock which while not pretty is very robust and good in the weather.

It is isn't what I'd like, I can redo the magazine and rails and rechamber for .416 Taylor.

Thoughts?

I think that it would be great for any type of bear. In fact, it would be a bit overkill for black bear, but there's no such thing as overdead, particularly if you're hunting grizzly or coastal brown bear.

Sounds like a fun project. I'm considering loading some .366 (9.3) in either 86mm or 375r cases and making a rifle around them. It'll be a bear, elk, and PG gun if I get the time to do it.

Good luck with the project and hope it works out.

My thoughts: Douglas N0. 3 sporter contour is 0.625" at the 24" muzzle point. It is the slimmest .375 caliber I would want to build, regarding hunting accuracy/stiffness and the hopes of keeping structural integrity with high pressures.

That will make for a very skinny .416 muzzle diameter even at the 21" to 22" length, and you will need a 3/4-pound stock to make the balance right. It will certainly be a light and handy rifle, about 6 pounds bare weight, if you make a well balanced piece. Will has not come close to that in a .416 yet.

Get a N0. 4 or at least a No. 3.666 for that beast and you get to use your chosen stock in good balance.

Someone before you may have already tried that barrel in .416 Aagaard, and found that it shot 3-shot groups the size of Ray's 10-gallon hat at 100 yards. Whippy barrel or bulged muzzle?

Sorry ... it is a #4 contour bbl. (My .458 is an even heavier bbl and it came it at 10 pounds with a 22" bbl and a 2.5x Leupold Compact scope.)

Barrel has been fitted to the action. Will pick it up tomorrow. Need to drill and tap one hole and get it into a stock. May be shooting it by the weekend. We'll see.

Sounds like a great rifle.
Keep us posted with pictures on your progress.

NO. 4 sounds perfect for a .416 Aagaard.

To Saint Finn:

Got the barreled action back from the smith today. We're going to do the bluing later after we get everything working.

Barrel came out abt 21.5". Weight with scope mounts but no scope is under 8 pounds. With a Leupold 1.5-5x IR 30mm scope it weighs 9 pounds. Will be VERY handy little rifle.

Still has to be fitted into the stock and the stock relieved for the bolt handle. Working that tonight. Will have to hit some places with cold blue to hold it until after the season here.

So far ... so good.