Sneak peak at the 27 Boondoggle

[jasnt]

I’ve been thinking about ordering another barrel too. One much lighter for hunting with

Group buy? I’m probably not going to use the X-Caliber 338 contoured blank that I just bought.

my next barrel will be another McGowen prefit howage barrel. About $320 total and ready to shoot   Little more if you wanted it braked

[Jason]

I’ve been thinking about ordering another barrel too. One much lighter for hunting with

Group buy? I’m probably not going to use the X-Caliber 338 contoured blank that I just bought.

my next barrel will be another McGowen prefit howage barrel. About $320 total and ready to shoot   Little more if you wanted it braked

I'm in for the McGowen Savage prefit. I do want muzzle threaded just in case. Stainless for me though.
Is there a velocity difference between SS and a CM barrel with the same twist.

[jasnt]

I’ve been thinking about ordering another barrel too. One much lighter for hunting with

Group buy? I’m probably not going to use the X-Caliber 338 contoured blank that I just bought.

my next barrel will be another McGowen prefit howage barrel. About $320 total and ready to shoot   Little more if you wanted it braked

I'm in for the McGowen Savage prefit. I do want muzzle threaded just in case. Stainless for me though.
Is there a velocity difference between SS and a CM barrel with the same twist.

i don’t think it makes any difference but I like to paint my rifles and ss doesn’t like paint on it. Cm holds paint well

[yorketransport]

I'll reach out to a couple of the small shops I've dealt with to see what they can do for a kind of group buy. Maybe if we can source  the threaded blanks I can get a local guy to chamber up a couple of them at a good price. A guy can knock out 3-4 simple prefit chamber jobs in an after noon, especially if the blanks are already threaded.

[Jason]

I'll reach out to a couple of the small shops I've dealt with to see what they can do for a kind of group buy. Maybe if we can source  the threaded blanks I can get a local guy to chamber up a couple of them at a good price. A guy can knock out 3-4 simple prefit chamber jobs in an after noon, especially if the blanks are already threaded.

Yorke, you get any traction on this?

[jasnt]

I’ve been thinking about ordering another barrel too. One much lighter for hunting with

Group buy? I’m probably not going to use the X-Caliber 338 contoured blank that I just bought.

my next barrel will be another McGowen prefit howage barrel. About $320 total and ready to shoot   Little more if you wanted it braked

I'm in for the McGowen Savage prefit. I do want muzzle threaded just in case. Stainless for me though.
Is there a velocity difference between SS and a CM barrel with the same twist.

http://mcgowenbarrel.com/shop/full-custom-barrel/

[CAMPMEAT]

The magneto speed is like a tuning weight. It affects impact points. One variable I don’t need. Labrador for me. Imo

I rarely see a change in group size, just point of impact. I never zero with the Magneto mounted on the barrel though and I always shoot groups with it off.

Let's see the entire gun.........

It's nothing fancy, still a bit of an unfinished project. I haven't found a stock that I really like yet so it's still sitting in one of the Stocky's composite stocks. It's not a bad stock, the comb is just too low. It doesn't help that the scope rail on the Nucleus action is so tall. Even with low rings I needed to raise my cheek up almost 1/2" to get a good cheek weld.




The more I shoot the Nucleus action though the more I like it; it's breaking in really well and feeds perfectly from the magazine. I don't like the Calvin Elite trigger that's on there but I don't dislike it enough to spend $150-200 on a different trigger. I have a Jewel HVR trigger that I used on there initially but I didn't like having the bottom safety on this gun and the 6oz trigger wasn't a good fit on this rifle.

Thanks for the picture..............

[yorketransport]

I'll reach out to a couple of the small shops I've dealt with to see what they can do for a kind of group buy. Maybe if we can source  the threaded blanks I can get a local guy to chamber up a couple of them at a good price. A guy can knock out 3-4 simple prefit chamber jobs in an after noon, especially if the blanks are already threaded.

Yorke, you get any traction on this?

Not really. I've been on the road more than usual and haven't had much time to hassle the local smiths.

[Jpmiller]

Everytime I see this thread I have to go find the pic of the barrel with "boondoogle" on it and laugh. It's perfect

[yorketransport]

Everytime I see this thread I have to go find the pic of the barrel with "boondoogle" on it and laugh. It's perfect

I liked the term “boondoogle” so much that I’m actually going to rebrand my T-shirt company from Scapegoat Enterprises to “The Boondoogle”. I already got my new logo done.

[Jpmiller]

Everytime I see this thread I have to go find the pic of the barrel with "boondoogle" on it and laugh. It's perfect

I liked the term “boondoogle” so much that I’m actually going to rebrand my T-shirt company from Scapegoat Enterprises to “The Boondoogle”. I already got my new logo done.

  awesome!

[Jason]

Everytime I see this thread I have to go find the pic of the barrel with "boondoogle" on it and laugh. It's perfect

I liked the term “boondoogle” so much that I’m actually going to rebrand my T-shirt company from Scapegoat Enterprises to “The Boondoogle”. I already got my new logo done.

  awesome!

Yorke, might as well put that on T-Shirt.

[yorketransport]

There's a great story behind the logo. I'm still trouble shooting some accuracy problems with both barrels for the "Boondoogle" and it's down to either two bad barrels or bad smith work. I keep getting a few good shots followed by a flyer in two different barrels from two different manufacturers. I've tried different scopes, rings, bases, stocks, bullets, powders, brass and anything else you could think of trying to narrow it down. The decision was finally made that had to be bad smith work.

The other issue though was that the 1-7" twist K&P barrel wasn't stabilizing the 168gr Hammer Hunter despite that bullet stabilizing in 2 other 7" twist barrels for the guys at Hammer Bullets. I checked the twist using the tight patch and a cleaning rod method and came up with roughly a 7" twist and called it good because of my relatively unscientific method. After talking to the guys at Hammer Bullets we thought that maybe it was my low elevation causing stability problems. They're in MT and never shoot below 3000' and I'm shooting at 500'. We came up with the idea to have them ship one of their rifles to me to test the 168gr Hammer Hunter at low elevation using a gun that was proven to shoot it well under their conditions.

During this time, I've reached out to K&P barrels about my problems to see what Ken thought about the stability issues. While on the phone with him he crunched some numbers to see if maybe a 7" twist wasn't enough to stabilize the bullet under my conditions. Ken offered to take a look at the barrel if I could send it back to him and he'd cast a lap to calculate the actual twist of my barrel to see if the twist wasn't exactly right. He also asked if I could send him one of the bullets that I'm trying to shoot so that he could come up with the proper twist to make sure it will fully stabilize.

When I pulled the K&P barrel to send in, I noticed something on the breech face of the barrel.


What you see there, is an impact mark from the bolt nose on the Nucleus action.


That mark is on both barrels, and explains my accuracy problems. The smith didn't cut enough bolt nose clearance on the barrels, so the bolt is making contact with the breech face.

I've actually reached the point where I'm writing off this whole project. I'll send the 8.5" twist barrel back to the smith to have the threads cut of have that barrel cut as a Savage prefit in 27 Nosler and sell it. When the K&P barrel comes back, I'll have the same done to that barrel or if they just make a new barrel, I'll sell that barrel blank as a package deal along with a 270 RUM reamer and a pile RUM brass.

The upside is that I've created a new term.

Boondoogle: When your boondoggle gets boondoggled

 
   

[Jpmiller]

Is that fix you were talking about to make the rifle shoot better an expensive time consuming thing?

[yorketransport]

Is that fix you were talking about to make the rifle shoot better an expensive time consuming thing?

None of it will cost me anything, the smith is eating the cost of any work done. I've just hit the point where I'm frustrated enough to just call it quits and move on. The original goal was to have this project up and running in time for the Q-Creek ELR match in June. Since I wasted so much time trying to get the accuracy problems figured out I didn't even register for the match. I have other guns I could have used, but specifically wanted to use something as unconventional as possible. I almost signed up to use the 338/408 pistol, but it's just not built for that still of shooting competition. Since I can't follow through on the original goal of the project, I'll just salvage what I can of the money wasted by selling off the barrels and move on to the next "boondoogle".