This rifle was built pro-bono for a deserving OEF Veteran and active
duty soldier with funds available by donations from the great members of
the 24hourcampfire. You can read about it here:
 |
| Matt K., our deserving veteran with #2 at home in Alaska |
Spec's:
Sawtooth Rifles #2 .35 Whelen on a Marlin XL7
Action: Marlin XL7
Barrel Blank: McGowan #3, Chrome-Moly, 6 Groove, 24" finish
Chamber: .35 Whelen
Stock: Boyd's Grey Laminate
Bottom Metal: Marlin Polymer Trigger Guard
Trigger: Marlin
Rings/Bases: Burris 2 PC Bases and Zee Rings
Optic: Redfield Revolution 3-9x40
Finish, Metal: Sniper Grey Cerakote
 |
| With the Savage like barrel nut system, the first step is to turn the tenon end of the barrel down to just a bit over the thread size for the barrel nut to clear. This is done with the barrel held in a collet chuck and supported with a live center in the tail stock. |
 |
| Components for the build, with the factory .270 Win barrel in there for comparison. |
 |
| Alignment mandrel set up in the receiver, ready to go into the lathe for truing. |
 |
| Aligning the receiver in the lathe. |
 |
| This close-up shows the factory face of the receiver. |
 |
| A first light cut, shows how far off the face can be from one side to the other - notice the tool is cutting only half way around the face of the receiver. |
 |
| A second pass is usually enough to cut all the way around, leaving a surface square to the center axis of the receiver. |
For build #2, we used our previous method of holding a barrel in the lathe. This method utilized a set of "spider" chucks on each end of the headstock, with the barrel held in the headstock. This method is used by many builders and obviously works, but we feel our new setup with the True Bore Alignment System is much better for the barrel and productivity. For this build, the barrel was aligned true to the bore by using the spider chucks on both ends to force it to run true.
 |
| With the barrel centered up true to the bore, the outside diameter for the section of the threads was cut to the thread size, then threaded to fit the action. |
 |
| Testing the thread fit with the action. |
 |
| Reamer time! The .35 Whelen is one of those nice ones where the reamer isn't a whole lot bigger than the pilot bushing. |
 |
| The reamed chamber. |
 |
| The finished tenon/chamber with the chamber chamfered and cross-hatched inside. |
 |
| With the barrel fit up to the action, we can begin to see how the stock is going to fit. For this situation, the stock needed some material removed for the straight section in front of the barrel nut, and toward the forend tip where the barrel is larger than the Marlin factory contours. |
 |
| Setting the headspace. The go-gauge is in the chamber. |
 |
| For the barrel engraving, an inverted laser jet print is used to transfer the lettering to the metal. |
 |
| Ink transferred from the laser jet print, to be traced with the engraving tool. |
 |
| Engraving, by Lewis! |
 |
| Beautiful hand cut lettering. |
 |
| Free floating the barrel. Some builders choose to use crisp cash but we are kind of on a budget here and have to use junk mail. Not an endorsement... |
 |
| At this point, we couldn't take it much longer and had to sneak in a range trip. The rifle showed a lot of promise with a factory load and a few handloads. |
 |
| Back at the shop, it came all apart and was prepped for the Cerakote finish. Here the parts are cooking dry in the oven prior to being Cerakoted. |
 |
| The lone polymer triggerguard enjoying a much cooler temperature in oven number 2. |
 |
| The Cerakoted parts cooled down and laid out for the final assembly. |
 |
| A close up of the detail in the Cerakote finish, Sniper Grey in this case. |
 |
| Barreled action and stock prepared for epoxy bedding. |
 |
| Epoxy in place, just have to wish it luck and put it together. |
 |
| The cured bedding job. A couple imperfections on this one but it turned out structurally solid and we were happy with this result with our 2nd bedding job ever. |
 |
| Posing for some pictures on a second trip to the range. |
 |
| One of the highly collectible pre-numbered versions. We didn't start numbering them until #7. |
 |
The last we saw of it, before it took a long trip north on a big brown truck plane. |
Keywords: SR#2, Sniper Grey, .35 Whelen
