Octagon barrel bolt action build

[p_ham]

My dad has been talking about building a .338-06 for just about as long as I can remember. I finally talked him into buying everything for it so I can get it together for him.
B&C stock, Remington 700, McGowan barrel
I'm not sure what scope he's putting on I but rest assured it'll have a gold ring.

This won't be as in depth as my lever action thread, there's just not that much machine work.

 

[p_ham]

Started by truing up the action and bolt

This reciever still had half of the face as just a rough saw cut

The barrel he ordered was a straight taper and HEAVY! I think it was 4.5lbs? I re-contoured it to match a lightweight Weatherby barrel I had.
I made a threaded boss I can mount on my rotary table to squeeze every inch out of my little mill.

 

[p_ham]

Draw filing the tooling marks out


I forgot to take a picture of timing the barrel, basically it's just a level on the barrel flat and another on a rear scope base.

Checking stock fit


Still need to cut the ports, but the muzzle brake blank has been locked on and blended seamless.




It's already been headspaced so really all that's left is finishing the brake, coating, and reassembly.

 

[TN2shot07]

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about an octagonal on a blot action and it is different but I think I could get used to that! Nice work as usual, can’t wait to see the finished product

 

[220yotekiller]

Can't wait to see what you do with this one!

 

[Addicting]

I can’t believe how far out of true that receiver was. Very nice!

 

[p_ham]

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about an octagonal on a blot action and it is different but I think I could get used to that! Nice work as usual, can’t wait to see the finished product

I was skeptical myself, I like it though! I haven't decided if it's something I want to offer yet.

Can't wait to see what you do with this one!

It should turn out nice.

I can’t believe how far out of true that receiver was. Very nice!

Some grown up words came out when the barrel came off and the saw cut presented itself.

 

[T Bone]

I enjoy following your builds. It looks great!

 

[Mallardsx2]

I have that same indicator. lol

 

[BrentD]

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about an octagonal on a blot action and it is different but I think I could get used to that! Nice work as usual, can’t wait to see the finished product

I once saw an interesting round to octagon barrel on a Mauser that was quite striking. This was in contrast to the popular octagon to round barrels common on American lever and singleshot rifles. This looks interesting to me, although I'd prefer an octagon muzzle brake the same size as the barrel, if I was to have a muzzlebreak at all. However, it ain't my rifle.

Love to see a little creativity. The final product should be pretty cool.

 

[p_ham]

I once saw an interesting round to octagon barrel on a Mauser that was quite striking. This was in contrast to the popular octagon to round barrels common on American lever and singleshot rifles. This looks interesting to me, although I'd prefer an octagon muzzle brake the same size as the barrel, if I was to have a muzzlebreak at all. However, it ain't my rifle.

Love to see a little creativity. The final product should be pretty cool.

I'm going to have to see if I can find a picture of that round to octagon, it sounds interesting.
If this barrel wasn't getting a brake it would've been octagon all the way to the muzzle. There wasn't going to be enough of a shoulder for the muzzle threads, hence the flared muzzle. This was the cleanest way I could think of making it work.
I've got some dud barrels I want to experiment with doing doing twisted octagons on, might look good, might not.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I love bolts with octagonal barrels. Nice work!

 

[BrentD]

I love bolts with octagonal barrels. Nice work!

It strikes me that all such rifles I have seen have been germanic. Can you think of any English octagon bolt guns?

p-ham, I can't recall if the round to octagon had a wedding band or not, but think probably not.

Twisted octagon would be creative, though not traditional, and I'm a traditional guy. You are the creative guy. Go for it (sounds hard).

 

[Ben Lamb]

It strikes me that all such rifles I have seen have been germanic. Can you think of any English octagon bolt guns?

I can't recall any bolt guns, but I do remember seeing some single shot stalking rifles with octagonal or 1/2 round bbls. The Brits seemed to prefer the ramped style of rear sight versus the milled in sight that the Germans tended to prefer.

 

[Caseknife]

Could you have just cut the ports into the flats of the barrel, like EDM porting, such as Magna-Porting? Looks good, waiting for the end result.

 

[noharleyyet]

Like octagonal blends...following

https://flic.kr/p/2mHZY8s

 

[BrentD]

noharley (when are you getting that thing and changing your name, anyway? ),

That is a traditional American Octagon to Round transition. HOWEVER, there is much more than can be done. "Wedding bands" are where the really cool factor comes in. Here is one from Hallowell's gun dictionary.

You can be as creative as you want with this, but I really like this particular, fairly simple version.

In my opinion, the key to a good transition, wedding band or no, is to avoid substantial changes in diameters across the transition. Often, Lever Guns have far to great of a barrel diameter reduction at the transition and it looks funny. (feels funny to - the balance can go right out the window if you have a big tulip thing going on).

 

[p_ham]

noharley (when are you getting that thing and changing your name, anyway? ),

That is a traditional American Octagon to Round transition. HOWEVER, there is much more than can be done. "Wedding bands" are where the really cool factor comes in. Here is one from Hallowell's gun dictionary.

You can be as creative as you want with this, but I really like this particular, fairly simple version.

In my opinion, the key to a good transition, wedding band or no, is to avoid substantial changes in diameters across the transition. Often, Lever Guns have far to great of a barrel diameter reduction at the transition and it looks funny. (feels funny to - the balance can go right out the window if you have a big tulip thing going on).

I like the transitions where the diameter across the flats is the same as the diameter on the round so the corners fade nicely into being round. Are the wedding bands an actual band that's sweated onto the barrel or they machined?

 

[BrentD]

I like the transitions where the diameter across the flats is the same as the diameter on the round so the corners fade nicely into being round. Are the wedding bands an actual band that's sweated onto the barrel or they machined?

All the wedding bands that I know of, are machined as such. But there is no reason that they could not be sweated on. Just seems like more work. Are you familiar with Hartford Collars at the breech face, or Rigby flats? That is another area where creativity can be employed. You have a pretty steep, but fairly traditional tulip at your breech face, but you could create something of your own if you wanted. Well, maybe next time anyway.

 

[cahunter805]

Great build so far! Can’t wait to see it finished. Are you coating it? If so what color? What bullets do you plan on shooting?