These are in no way meant to compare with the great customs guns I see on this forum, I'm more of an assembler than artist.

I started planning these 3 years ago when Montana announced the charter offering for their short actions. I ordered two stainless ones, the idea being to build two identical, all around North American rifles, one for myself and the other for my buddy's 50th birthday. His only rifle is a iron sighted M94 in 30-30 and I think I'm beginning to lose him as a hunting buddy since he currently doesn't have the cash to spend on a more versatile gun. We get out for whitetail in NH from time to time but his eyes ( or mine, for that matter) don't do so well with the iron sights anymore.

Since they were charter offerings I had our intials and DOB used for serial numbers.

The idea was to be able to hunt anything in North America (although if I was going to hunt specifically for large bears I'd use more gun), and since reloading is not part of the equation for him I wanted a chambering that was available with a wide range of bullets and readily available. I had Montana barrel the action with 24" barrels and chambered for .308 Winchester. I know, plain vanilla, not sexy, but factory ammo and custom ammo available from 110g up to 220g. Antelope to elk.

I glass pillar bedded them with Marine Tex in some Winchester SA take-off stocks. The barrels are free floated, triggers adjusted to 2-3/4 pounds pull, and I was able to take out the overtravel.

I painted the stocks with 3 coats of Krylons Black Matte Camo Fusion paint and then put on a leave pattern with their Matte Brown Camo and Matte Khaki Camo.

I highly recommend these paints. They are avilable at Walmart for under $4.00/can, make sure they are marked Camo Fusion. They spray on easily, dry quickly for recoating. It took a total of 45 minutes painting and drying to do both stocks. Then you are advised to let them cure for a week in a dry cool space, which I did. The result is a great looking finsh that is very tough. It won't scratch or chip off the stock at all and is almost sandy in feel. I ground the recoil pads to fit.

I put on Warne Maxima Bases in silver, the matte Burris low Zee rings, lapped the rings and mounted Leupold 2-7x33's. Since these guns will get a lot use in eastern woods I liked the 16.5 exit pupil at 2X and the 7X is plenty for open spaces.

I put front sights on the guns so an XS backup peep sight can be mounted on the Weaver style rear base.

I had some problems with the actions but Jon @ Montana addressed them for me in a timely manner. The actions are a little rough, I knew that going in but they'll smooth out a bit with use.

Here's some pics of the two of them. I gave him his yesterday, I think I may have succeeded into shaming him off the golf course and into the wild.

Nice work bob, the .308 is one of my favorites also.

How nice is that! Nice looking guns, and a great story... Hope you and your friend have many years enjoyment of the rifles and hunting with each other!
jeffe

Nice rifles.

Are those pre 64 stocks? How well to they fit?

I hunted last year with a Leupold 2x7x33, and it spent the whole time on 2X.

Thanks for the kind words guys, I hope it does the job too. Otherwise it's time to find a new hunting pard.

tnekkcc, the stocks are current (oops!) well at least they were the ones being made for the SA Classics that were produced up to this year.

They were a little tight and my barrels were a bit stouter so material needed to be removed which I did with Jerry Fisher scrapers. Everything else was Marine -Tex'd and then painted, lot's of fudge factor that you don't have with wood.

Nicely done, sir! You have every right to be proud of them!

Rob,

You painted those stocks?? WOW! Probably the first synthetic stock I have ever seen that I thought looked nice. Great work.

Thnaks Bill, that's quite a compliment coming from you.

After I had the black base coat down I walked around my property and picked out some interesting foliage and just laid them on the stocks and gave them a shot of different colored paint. Really just masked them off with leaves & ferns a couple of times. The Krylon sprays impressed me.

Rob

They impress us all! Nice job and thanks for the evaluation of the Fusion paints. I was really hoping someone would make a good spray can paint for synthetics!

Very nice work, and how could you not love a .308


(Especially from Westchester!)



Very well done as a concept, execution ain't too shabby either.

My boyhood hunting partner has bought a couple of rifles in recent years, but can't seem to get away from honeydoo or daddydoo chores come deer season.

Nice rifles that will give excellent service in the field.

How did you decide which one to give to your friend?

Rob, I am a dyed in the wool wood guy but I am very impressed with your work and the looks of those guns. Your paint job is really nice. It is also really nice of you making a gift to your friend. My hat is off to you.

WAY TO GO!! Nicely done.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
How did you decide which one to give to your friend?

One had his intitials and date of birth as the serial number, the other had mine, e.g., RAD 8.9.55 & RKS 9.21.56

Montana made the choice.

Chic, I'm a wood stock guy myself, but I know my buddy needed as low maintainence a gun as possible so plastic & SS was the only option and I wanted them to be a matched pair.

In reality, for my part, this gun will be a back up gun, a bad weather gun for those times I don't want to take the guild built Mauser or the G&H Sav. 99 or the Rem. M30 out in the muck. I have plenty of other guns including a .308 but this was really about the other guy, not me.

Rob
Great story. Reading this kinda made my day.

I "hate" the looks of synthetic stocks but the work you did on those is outstanding. Those are the first synthetic stocks that I have ever thought looked "pretty."

Jason