I recently had Patriot Valley Arms of Exton, PA build me a 6.5x47 Lapua for a match PRS rig. I'll say Josh is the real deal. An aerospace engineer, he's worked extensively with custom rifle action companies as a key role in designing their actions. As well as designing revolutionary bullets (Warner Tool Flat Lines). You ask an intelligent question and Josh sends back an answer that's full of knowledge, experience and reason. Although he's gaining a lot of popularity as a gunsmith, he's potentially the best kept "secret" in the eastern part of the country.
The rifle. A Badger M2008 action sitting in an AI AX chassis paired with a Kreiger heavy Palma contour 1:8" at 22" plus the TBAC brake. I sent two sequentially serialized Kreiger barrels to Josh, who headspaced them to within .0002" of eachother. I spun the first barrel on and torqued it down, loaded a generic load of 40gr of H4350 behind a 140gr Berger Hybrid and off to the range. The first 10 round group shot on a brand new barrel was .5 MOA. I went back home and turned the case necks and fine tuned the load, ending up with 40.9gr and a .010" jump. Second time at the range the rifle shot 10 shots into a .086 MOA group. Josh gave me a HAMMER. At 22" the barrel spits them out at 2750 fps on the dot.
If you're considering a custom build, strongly consider Patriot Valley Arms. The real deal. Enough writing here's the goods.
