I swore I would never do another custom Mauser... but I did.

Found a good deal on a nice Yugo M48. 6.5x55 cartridges fit so nicely in the magazine, that I called Pac-Nor and ordered a 24" #4 contour barrel.

Yugo is at the 'smith's place, getting drilled and tapped, bolt whacked off and glued back on, new safety, etc.

And... I drew a pronghorn tag.

Life is good.

It seems I missed out on the 6.5's. The 30-06 was so dominant here what with it being military and having free ammo not to mention that it's right in the middle of just right anyway.

Now I am looking at smaller rounds that might get by. So I have a 260 Rem but it's just one of many guns I could choose from. I have never one to want to shoot something to see what happens! I think I will stick with the bigger bullets.

And then again maybe not.

What are the details on the stock, safety, trigger, mounts, scope?

Beyond a doubt, the smart thing to have done would have been to load up some 150 grain bullets for my '06s.

Doing this on the cheap, so it will wear the original Yugo stock, with substantial inletting and refinishing. Stock looks practically new. Safety is the on-the-bolt replacement. Timney trigger. Strain gage on the barrel, so I can do real load development. One piece base, and Leupold rings. Not sure about the scope. I have a Simmons AETEC that does phenomonally well, and they are only $150.

1/2" groups at 100 are the objective, and I already have a rifle with an AETEC that does that quite nicely. If I have a bit more money available, then Sightron 4-16 with 1/8" adjustments.

The main place I'm spending a lot of money is the barrel.

For the same price, I could have a total lifetime supply of 06 ammo....

However, I have a milsurp 6.5x55, and it is an awesome round, even if you do have to load pretty light for the old action. Looking forward to seeing what it will do in a strong action.

I have been trying to put my finger on why the topic of rifles is so very interesting to us.

Most of us have shotguns as well and we never ask if #6's will take a squirrel down.

I suppose that barrel will have a 1-8 twist. I shot my 260 Rem today after cleaning the barrel. It had gone 92 shots without a flier. I am only shooting the 95 gr VMax in it.

The 260 looks like a marvelous round. Doesn't seem to be too popular, and I have no idea why. It should cover everything from coyotes to moose, which is saying a lot. The sectional density is so high... everyone says that it knocks game down better than the paper ballistics indicate it should.

Pac-Nor recommended 1-8.6. I think the milsurp is 1-7.5. Anyway, they asked what was the heaviets bullet I planned to shoot, and I told them 160. They recommended 8.6.

For the first year, the stock won't be fancy... maybe next winter I can worry about a little prettier "handle" for it.

The bedding in a stock might be the Prado's law on the cause of inaccuracy. So while your stock might not be pretty you will still have to invest time to fit it well.

The major cause of where a bullet goes however, call it accuracy if you want, is the aiming. A stock that's too long when one is dressed for cold weather is really hard to aim well.