I'd reach out to the match director and see if there's any chance they have a loaner rifle you could use if you covered ammo costs. Many do, and it'll probably be a little bit more appropriate setup.
A fast twist 223 with a GOOD bullet (75, 80, or 88 ELD, 85.5 Bergers, the heavier Sierra's...
Enjoy the productivity bump of the progressive!
With the sensitivity of the FX120i, having it isolated from the press is pretty key. I've played around with everything, and really like the ergonomics of how I have mine setup now.
On the measures it depends on the powder, with ball powder...
Eyeballing the scope reticle to the action is plenty good enough.
The thing I'll use a tool for is to make sure the scope is level per the reticle when I'm attaching the level to the scope. (Bubble or laser level) If I'm getting picky, I'll double check actual corrections on paper at 100 yds...
https://swappa.com/
I've probably bought a dozen over the years second hand through Swappa for myself, family, and friends. I usually look for current year models that have enough discount to make it worthwhile. There's money to be saved if you're willing to sort through them.
Yes, factories have access to powders reloaders don't.
With the group size disparity, are you shooting enough rounds to be confident you aren't just seeing noise in the data? Different powders certainly can change precision. There should be a number of powders available that would be good...
I have both the RS1.2 and the NX8 4-32 on rifles. Both good, I prefer the Mil-C on the NX8 for NRL Hunter, and the Maven reticle for actual hunting, and the scopes are distributed accordingly.
I’ve used most Leupolds and the Tenmile, and personally prefer what I’ve got.
I’d probably start with:
- a raised soft recoil pad, vertical grip module, carve out the stock a little so the barrel floats better, and a trigger spring if I couldn’t get near 1.5 lbs without one.
Next step:
- a scope I trust for dialing, with a matching reticle and good mounts.
Next step...
Kirby built my first custom, a 6.5x284 around 2004. Didn’t really have the money to jump into that end of the pool correctly, but I jumped anyway. I can’t believe how many questions I emailed him, he was remarkably patient.
There’s been some epic shopping sprees at our local toy store by the well heeled, and I’m no stranger to spending on guns.
Even if I had all the money, I’d build what I want vs Gunwerks. Not hating, I just want the control to spec everything just so. I’d probably consider a lathe…
It certainly gets more than its share of air time. I'm not inherently against it, but the percentage of those who are putting in the work to make good outcomes highly probable is quite small. Federal was using 1000 yard performance on elk as a point of note in their recent release, and the...
Gunwerks clearly gets a nice multiple on their products due to excellent branding targeting customers who are willing to pay to have the wheat sorted from the chaff for them. I think many of their products and ideas are pretty decent. Their ideal customers are the opposite of rifle geeks...