The price when an action is finally located will be about $375. That’s what the last one cost me.
Several excellent gunsmiths in the United States have experience making tactical rifle barrels and fitting them to actions. No matter who does this work, be double sure to ask how many tacti cal rifles he has done in the past. Experience at this business is not only handy, it is vital.
Brian Sipe, of the Montana Rifleman, 1765 Montana Highway #35, Kalispel, MT 59901, has done most of the tactical rifle barrels on guns I have put together. However, Sipe is often booked solid 7 to 10 months ahead. Mel Doyles, RR 2, Box 196M, St. Maries, ID 83861, is another good hand at this business.
Most of the tactical rifles I have assembled have been in .300 Winchester Magnum. Equipped with 26-inch barrels, they shoot out about 3,200 feet per second using 168-grain Hornaday boattail National Match bullets. Off-the-shelf ammo is not available. Start with 68 grains of 4831 powder in handloads.
Tactical rifles have been built in .308, .30-06, and even .223, but these cartridges present too many additional trajectory problems, especially for initially unpracticed users. On the other end of the spectrum, we are currently working on a .30/.378 tactical rifle. It is made to use .378 Weatherby Magnum cases necked to .30 caliber. This may be overkill rather than underkill, as is true with the smaller family of cartridges.
The cost to barrel and cut a chamber is about $400, depending on whether it is fluted, has a removable muzzle brake, or deviates from the standard 1:10 twist. Our fluted, barreled rifles have not shot better than plain barrels, even when shot very hot, which should never happen in real life with tactical rifles. Even if the rounds are delivered over a matter of hours, the maximum rounds from one position—even in a combat situation—is always three! After that your position will be dangerously exposed.
Longer, heavier 26-inch barrels, measuring .90 inches at the muzzle tapered back to 1 25 inches at the breech, with a tactical rifle recessed crown cut in them, are very important to the success of the project. These larger, heavier barreled action sets absorb heat and recoil to great advantage.
The next task is bluing. Mel Doyles usually does this work for me. His dull-black ranch finish is especially practical for tactical rifles. These finishes don’t glare or shine. The cost for a polished “in the white” action and barrel is about $50.
Securing a proper military/tactical stock correctly fitted to a Sako barreled action is not particularly quick, easy, cheap, or convenient. Figure on another 6 to 10 months’ wait. Off-the-shelf stocks either fit poorly, are too difficult to finish-fit, are too wimpy, or lack necessary features characteristic of genuine tactical stocks.
Only two places I know of currently manufacture and fit genuine military-style/grade stocks to Sako barreled actions. Both claim to supply the U.S. Army and the Marines, but be prepared for sticker shock. Both are named McMillan and are both are located in Phoenix, Arizona. (Probably the result of a family disagreement or something.)
But not to worry. They both do excellent work, in my experience. Prices are so similar they may someday face anti-trust action from the government.
McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, Inc., 21421 N. 14th Avenue, Suite B, Phoenix, AZ 85027 and McMillan Gunworks, Inc., 302 W Melinda Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85027, both have extremely nice, fullcolor brochures listing their various styles of stocks and options available with each model. In my opinion, builders are not in the ballpark unless they order an adjustable buttplate, cheekpiece, and custom laser bedding. This will cost around $500.
It is by now close to 2 years since we embarked on this project. Expenses are up around $950 to $1,300, depending on options, and not including dozens of long-distance calls. Purchasing a suitable scope and mount is the next and last big hit. Mounting the scope has traditionally been tougher and more expensive than it should be. On my last tactical rifle completed 3 or 4 months ago, I had to go back and spend an extra $250 for more suitable, workable mounts. Even after acquiring great amounts of experience, opportunities to do it wrong are still great.
Part of the difficulty involves the fact that true tactical scopes are virtually always made up on 30mm tubes. Differences in field of vision, clarity, and utility between 25mm hunting scopes (1 inch) and 30;mm ones are dramatic. Very few people understand the nuances of a 30mm tube versus a 25mm tube until they start to practice with them.
Mounting a nontactical hunting-type scope on a first-class sniper rifle is almost always an error. Hunting scopes are not sufficiently rugged and they lack easy rear read-and-adjust dials that make use of previously prepared “come-up” or trajectory cards possible. These cards are used to preprogram the rifle to shoot accurately from 350 to 1,000 yards by simply setting the dials to predetermined readings. My choice of scope is the same one used by the U.S. Marines, many police SWAT teams, and Navy SEAL teams. It is a 16-power Leupold Mark 4 MI. These scopes are tremendously popular and often sold out. Because of their great expense ($810 each at press time), they are carried by relatively few dealers. Contact Leupold & Stevens, Inc., PO box 688, Beaverton, OR 97075-0688, to find out which dealers currently have these scopes in inventory
Attaching 30mm scopes to a rattail Sako action has become incrementally easier and a bit more certain with advent of 30mm Leupold rings made especially for Sako actions. Medium—or more often high—mounts must be used to clear the tactical scope’s huge objective lens.
Like country survivors, city types will quickly discover that sighting in a tactical rifle is a chore. City or country, there just ain’t very many 1,000-yard rages. To make matters worse, it is necessary to be able to drive between the shooting bench and the target. Using spotting scopes at 1,000 yards on relatively small, .30-caliber bullet holes, is a complete nonstarter.
After the rifle is sighted in, come-up cards can be developed listing exact scope settings for 350, 450, 600, 800, and 1,000-yard shots. Windage deflection is 4 inches per knot at 1,000 yards. Three-knot winds are common, which effectively put rounds outside most targets.
Practice-shooting these big, heavy rifles is enjoyable, but keep in mind that gilt-edge barrel life is only from 5,000 to 10,000 rounds!
Although vast experience and common sense suggest that shrewd city survivors looking for the best chance of survival should not get involved in combat actions around them, they should own at least one military-type semiauto assault rifle per family. Virtually any rifle will work in a pinch, but military designs are sturdier in long service, easier to repair, and, of course, use universal ammunition. Military .45-.70 rounds developed around 1872, for instance, are still popular in the United States!
Implementing this assault rifle acquisition philosophy is dramatically easier than it was 20 years ago. Currently dozens of firms manufacture all manner of parts sets, barrels, stocks, receiver types, and accessories for AR-15 type rifles. Personally I still prefer longer ranged, more powerful FN assault rifles in .308 NATO, but as a practical matter it’s got to be an AR-15-type weapon, because FNs are pretty much unavailable.
In my lifetime I have encountered scores of guns—mostly pistols—that were about worthless because no magazine or too few magazines were available for them. Stock up on magazines and, of course, ammo. Ten high-capacity magazines per rifle plus 1,000 rounds of ammo is a figure experts frequently cite. At this level you will at least be “in the game” with sufficient firepower to appropriate additional weapons and ammunition, should this become expedient. With 10 extra mags, loss of one or even two will not be catastrophic.