I am knew to the forum and this is my first post. I am just interested and curios about the possibilities when it comes to building a custom rifle. I have seen in other posts here that there is the option of either building a rifle on a military mauser type action or a Remington, Winchester action. I think I would be interested in a Model 70 action myself.

My question, are there companies that sell various custom rifle components such as rifle actions? I would appreciate any input that may be offered.

Check in the Brownells catalogue, look at the Charles Daly website, and follow the MRC (Montana Rifle Company) threads posted here. - Dan

Treehawk,

Winchester and Remington as well as others, will not sell just the action. They do sell barrelled actions though and you will probably have to order it in through a dealer to get new ones.

Alternate plan "B"

This time of year, there should be deals all over the place for good used rifles. Look in the paper, pawn shops and on the net for people looking to sell their rifles at a cheap price. You can sometimes pick these up for a song and then you can discard the stock and the barrel keeping the action and trigger for your project.

If you go this route, find a gunsmith you can trust and have him inspect the rifle you purchase to make certain you aren't getting shafted. Make sure you can return the weapon to the original seller (get it in writing) if it does not check out well by your gunsmith.

Most pawn shops in my area will do this. I have even had customers show up to my shop with the party who is selling the rifle while I go over it with a fine tooth comb. This can get uncomfortable for the seller if he isn't on the up and up. If the seller has nothing to hide, they will usually go along with this.

"If they won't stand behind what they are selling, perhaps you shouldn't stand behind it either."

Malm

Used rifles are the favorite source for actions (and there is rarely anything wrong with the action itself, even if the rifle is bruised and rusted). Another alternative is to just go to Wally World and buy one of the synthetic stock "price leaders" that they sell, then have your gunsmith strip it down for the action (you can even get a few bucks back out of the stock and barrel). Wally (or similar stores) will have a leader-priced Remington 700, Winchester 70 (some even have a new type of controlled feed bolt face), a Weatherby (Howa), or a Ruger 77. All are good actions.

Treehawk,

Welcome to AR.

You can not go wrong with a Winchester M70 Classic or Pre'64 action to build a custom rifle around. The new Winchester Classics are affordable. Another perspective is to purchase a new M70 and use it until you are ready to build depending on the amount of customizing you seek. If you plan to build a caliber for use on dangerous game animals then I think you will be better severed with a control round feed action.

B

Thanks for all of the information and advice. I think I am going to look at buying a new Winchestrer Model 70 and plan on customizing sometime in the future as Buliwyf suggested. That seems like a pretty sound plan to me. Thanks again!!