Custom rifle?

[Tac]

What are the advantages to a custom rifle vs a factory rifle?

[cjl2010]

Confidence. That's an big plus for me. I know my rifle has quality components so all I need to worry about is my goofy as s making a quality shot

[PRDATR]

Depends what your objective is and how capable of a marksman you are. Now some will say you aren't a hunter if you don't spend $6K on a rig, and work up loads 30 hours a week.

Plenty of over the counter rifles perfectly capable of out shooting their owners putting meat in the pot, if you're up to it, for reasonable cost, less braggin rights.

[Zeke-BE]

You get what you want!!! Look, feel, style, paint, bolt, barrel length. Usually you should get 1/2 moa or better. But you can pick up a nice Remington and it can shoot .222 MOA with a sweet spot like my 300 win mag (but I can't get it to group with anything else Sub MoA, but my semi custom rifle will be sub moa on just about anything I try with it, but the load I settle for is about .435 MOA. Lots of Tikkas out of the box are 1/2 MOA.

[300RUM]

With a custom rifle everything will be fitted to a much higher standard. Things like blueprinting an action or bedding an action to a stock reduce inconsistency in how the rifle reacts each time it is fired. This generally improves accuracy. As an example of what a factory will let out the door the last Remington action I blueprinted had a 0.050 variance in the bolt locking lugs. When 1 set of lugs was engaged there was a gap between the other set so the bolt head would be twisted sideways each time the rifle was fired.

[firstcoueswas80]

Everything exactly what/how you want.

[wbyfireman]

I never bought into the custom "hype" till I pieced together my custom 338-Lapua and had Phoenix Custom Rifles build it. Smoothest, most accurate and sweetest rifle I have ever shot hands down. Found accuracy nodes with ease, topped with my Nightforce NSX and shooting 285gr ELD-match bullets it's a lethal machine.

 

Do at least one custom and you will never look back!!

[lancetkenyon]

Depends on your needs....and wants. Some factory rifles are fully capable of shooting .5MOA. But they are honestly a fairly rare occurrence in the hands of the average shooter. Quality control of high end stuff helps bring these groups in the hands of the same capable shooter to .3-.4". Cartridge choices known for inherent accuracy are not normally found in the production rifle world. Like 6.5x47L, 6XC, 6 PPC, 6.5 SLR, 6mm Dasher, etc. Same goes for a lot of the hot rod hunting rounds like 6.5 GAP, 6.5 SS, 6.5-06AI, .25-06AI, 7LRM, 7-300WM, etc. Quality handloads further increase the accuracy potential when produced by experienced hand loaders.

 

All that being said, an experienced handloader and great shooter can do things with a factory rifle that a lousy shooter with a $12k rifle, $5k scope, and perfect handloads cannot. I have seen plenty of both in my time.

[300RUM]

Depends on your needs....and wants. Some factory rifles are fully capable of shooting .5MOA. But they are honestly a fairly rare occurrence in the hands of the average shooter. Quality control of high end stuff helps bring these groups in the hands of the same capable shooter to .3-.4". Cartridge choices known for inherent accuracy are not normally found in the production rifle world. Like 6.5x47L, 6XC, 6 PPC, 6.5 SLR, 6mm Dasher, etc. Same goes for a lot of the hot rod hunting rounds like 6.5 GAP, 6.5 SS, 6.5-06AI, .25-06AI, 7LRM, 7-300WM, etc. Quality handloads further increase the accuracy potential when produced by experienced hand loaders.

 

All that being said, an experienced handloader and great shooter can do things with a factory rifle that a lousy shooter with a $12k rifle, $5k scope, and perfect handloads cannot. I have seen plenty of both in my time.

I saw a fine example of this a few years back. A couple of guys showed up at the range with rifle & scope combos that were in the 7 k to 10 k range and all the gadgets and goodies to go with them. Despite this they had rookie written all over them. They even had the binders that a professional sniper uses to log each individual shot. They got all set up and proceeded to fire 5 MOA groups at 100 yards.

[Zeke-BE]

5 MOA groups at 100 yards.

I saw this and said to myself what are you talking about Lee!!! .5 MOA is awesome!!!!! OHhhhh 5.0 MOA ha ha ha