Building A Custom Sporter On A Budget

I think every rifleman dreams of owning a custom rifle, a rifle that is unique and represents the individual’s idea of perfection. Many of us have tried to create that gun using old military actions and various combinations of stocks, barrels and accessories. If you’re a regular working guy with a family, house payment, car payment and a kid or two, having a rifle custom made for you is simply out of the question.

An article in one of the major gun magazines about assembling an inexpensive custom sporter caught my eye recently. The author’s idea of inexpensive included anew Howa action, custom barrel, a $1000 scope (in his words, "a $50 scope on a $1000 rifle gives you a $50 rifle") and a drop in Hogue overmolded stock. He ended up with a $3200 rifle. Now, I have no problem with the author, the concept, or even a $3200 rifle, other than not being able to afford one.

I do have a problem calling it "inexpensive." Sometimes, I think some gun writers have lost touch with the average reader and life on a family budget. I would like to show you at what can be done by a hobbyist with little or no gunsmithing knowledge and a one-step-at-atime approach to building your own custom sporter. Keeping the price down and junior’s college fund intact means we are going to have to do as much of the work as possible ourselves and look for bargains.

Let’s start with a few decisions regarding the barrel and action. Buying anew bolt action rifle for our project is going to start the project off at around a thousand dollars, so I would encourage you to either start with a rifle you already own or look for a used rifle.

Custom actions like the Dakota at over $2000 are out of the question Claro Walnut stock, hand cut checkering, crossover bolt handle, and a modified military triggerguard. and even a CZ or Howa action alone will run over $650, not including a barrel. Prices for used guns on auction sites at the time of writing were averaging from $500 to $800 for the Remington 700, Savage 110-111 and Winchester 70. Military Mausers were in the $200-$400 range. Prices vary a lot based on condition and rarity but these were averages.

Find one chambered in the cartridge you want. Even if that cleans out the gun budget you still have a fine rifle to shoot until finances are in order to begin customizing it. One of the advantages of building the gun yourself is the ability to build it on an installment plan and always have the base rifle to hunt with. This also gives you time to shoot it, tailor loads for it or find out what ammunition it prefers. Most likely you will find that you really

All work was done with hand files and emery cloth. don’t need a custom barrel, unless it has been damaged or neglected, as the factory barrels will usually shoot better than we can. Another major advantage of buying a complete rifle is that once you start to customize it, you will have all the basic parts you need. Triggers and bottom metal are available on the aftermarket but are also expensive.

For now, let’s stick with the stock parts and we can look at fancy do-dads after we have all the major components put together. The next step is to look at sights. If the gun came with a scope and mounts you can evaluate them at the same time when discovering what ammo shoots best in the gun. Even if the scope is cheap and horrible the mounts may be salvaged. Now we come to the big question. Do you really have to lay out several hundred to several thousand dollars for a scope?

I‘ve read a lot of comments by well-know gun writers on this subject and the advice is almost always the same, "Buy the best scope you can afford." This advise is usually given after extolling the virtues of a scope you can’t afford. Truthfully, if you’re going to shoot benchrest, metallic silhouette, or rifle competition of any sort, yes, you need a high dollar optic because scope settings must be absolutely repeatable, the knobs accessible and adjustments fine enough to put you in the bullseye.

If you’re going to shoot deer, coyote, bear, moose, elk, sheep, goats, Thumper, Bam Bam or Bambi himself, you don’t need a scope that costs more than the rifle. I’m not saying there isn’t bad glass out there. I have a $39 Chinese-made scope that came on a used rifle and it won’t hold a zero or focus clearly no matter what names I call it, and I have exhausted my rather extensive dirty word vocabulary trying.

On the other hand, I have inexpensive scopes by Simmons, Bushnell, Pentax and a Leupold VX-1 that have Far I can’t help it, I love the look of Mannlicher-stocked rifles.

308 ammo, a Pentax Gameseeker scope on a blustery day in January. Will it shoot as well as it looks? all done everything I have asked of them, including shooting some very good groups. The cheapest of these cost me $49.95 and the most expensive was $250. If you stay with the name brands you won’t go far wrong. Consider the stock. Of all the components this is the one that really defines a custom rifle to me.

You can go synthetic and have a weatherproof rifle that will hold up to anything Mother Nature can throw at it. There are nearly as many synthetic stock makers as there are lies in a politician’s mouth, with prices ranging from "That’s not bad" to "Are you kidding me?" Figure on about $160 for a Hogue Overmolded stock.

If you’re a traditional walnut and blued steel guy like me, you have the option of buying anything from a tree that has mostly been shaped to resemble something like a gunstock to 99% inletted stocks that require very little fitting. Many of them will let your action drop right in. Once again your budget defines how fancy the wood will be. For traditional 99% inletted designs I have had excellent results with stocks from Richards Microfit Gunstocks (rifle-stocks.com).

For more modern stock designs, Boyds’ (boydsgunstocks.com) is hard to beat. In both Better than I expected on a blustery January day in Missouri. I can’t wait for summer to see what it will do in calm conditions. cases, the wood will take little or no work to inlet and there will be enough wood left on the outside to allow much design leeway for carving, sculpting, inletting or simply sanding and finishing. This is where a hobbyist’s custom rifle really becomes custom.

Richards Microfit often has A-grade Claro Walnut stocks on sale at around $125 and that is a lot of pretty walnut for the money. Finally we come to the other stuff that gilds the custom lily.

Boyds’ Bold or Timney (timneytriggers.com) triggers will run around $100-125 and are excellent units for the money. Fancier set triggers are going to be closer to $250. Custom-grade bottom metal can be as inexpensive as $50 for a cast trigger guard to nearly $600 for truly beautiful custom floor plate and trigger guard units. You will probably also want to look at sling swivels, grip cap, buttplate or recoil pad, stock finish and bedding compound.

Now I’ve thrown a lot of prices and ideas out and you can see it’s no problem to spend $3200 on a custom rifle. In fact, if money was no object I could easily spend several thousand more than that but that’s not our objective. Telling you what it will cost to build a custom rifle is like trying to nail Jello to a wall. Depending on what you want and how patient you are, the rifle’s final price can be all over the place.

To give you an idea of what you can honestly expect to spend to put together your version of the perfect custom bolt action hunting rifle, let’s look at two rifles I built for myself. The first rifle is a Remington 700 in .308 Winchester. Because I’m a lefty, it’s left-handed and the original rifle will costa bit more than a right-handed version. Researching several gun auction sites, I found 700’s, Savages, and Howa’s in the $500-$700 range pretty common.

Picking what looked like a couple of solid rifles that I’d like to own left me at around $600. Winchester 70’s average $600-800 and Browning A bolts $700-800. I’ll use the $600 dollar figure for the 700 in this case. Remington 700 at $600 with a Pentax Game Seeker ($69.95), Leupold Mount and rings ($68), Timney trigger ($124.99), Richard’s Microfit Fancy Grade Claro Walnut stock 99% inletted (127.97), Nidner Buttplate and Grip Cap ($59.98) gives a final price of $1050.89.

This assumes that you will use the factory barrel, bottom metal and trigger guard and do all the work yourself with tools already on hand. No sandpaper, stock finish, files, or screwdrivers are included. It also does not include bluing or any outside gunsmithing. The precision and quality of today’s factory actions leave little to be desired in nice bluing and accurate barrels for the beer pocket book family man. The second rifle is built on a large ring Mauser 98.

This is the traditional custom sporter made by converting an inexpensive military battle rifle into a custom hunting rifle. Literally tens of thousands of custom rifles have been built on the Mauser 98 action but at today’s prices that may no longer be the most economical way to go. Back in the 1950s and 60s when this was common, military Mausers could be had for a song. Today, you might be surprised how little you can save by going this route.

It is a rare Mauser 98 that doesn’t need anew barrel and even if the one you buy has a great bore you are stuck with the 8mm chambering. Not that the 8mm is a bad round, but there is a bullet selection that renders it less versatile.

Mauser 98 ($219.95 from J&G Sales), Leupold VX-1 ($229.99), base and rings ($68), Adams & Bennett Barrel in 30-06 ($92.99), Kepplinger trigger ($209.16), Richard’s Microfit A Grade Claro Walnut Stock 99% inletted ($127.97), Bolt handle ($13.99), low safety lever ($39.99) and ribber rifle pad ($21.99) concludes the parts list.

Outside work priced from Brownells shop price survey using the average between the high and the low include welding on the bolt handle ($125), fit and headspace barrel to action ($100), bluing ($100), drill and tap receiver ($40) for a grand total of $1389.03. This is the prices for the rifles pictured and there are plenty of places where money could have been saved by selecting different components.

The selection of a different trigger alone could save us $100 and another $150 or so could be cut selecting a different scope. That would make it about the same price as the rifle built on the Remington 700. The point is this is my dream Mauser built with the components I wanted. You will almost certainly make different choices. It is clear that unless you can do the shop work yourself it simply makes more sense to start with a used commercial rifle to base your custom sporter on than to use an old military rifle.

As with the first example, I have not added in the cost of finishing supplies. With the Mauser you have to use the military bottom metal to keep the price within reason. If you can slim it down and are good with a file it can be transformed into a very nice addition to a custom rifle. Using the bottom metal as issued may spoil an otherwise beautiful rifle. Two other items worth mentioning, my Mauser as pictured also has a Gibbs three round magazine conversion that cost $39.99 that was not added into the price.

Second, both guns pictured are checkered. The stocks are not supplied checkered and I did that myself. Having your stock checkered by a professional will add from $50 to $170 to the price depending on how complicated a pattern you choose. The costs listed here were current within the last year. Shop rates are averages and may be cheaper or more expensive in your area. Any work you can do yourself to reduce the cost will alter the final price.

These prices are good estimates and there are hundreds of things you can do to improve, modify or embellish your custom rifle. They all cost money and I have not included them all. What I have given you is a ballpark figure that will produce a basic rifle customized to your tastes that can fill the slot in your safe for the rifle you want to show off at home, at the hunting camp and range. Correctly assembled it will surprise you with its accuracy and good looks. AG