Adventures in Gunsmithing

I have a Ruger M77 MKII that I had rebarreled by ER Shaw to .358, but wanted to put a synthetic stock on it. I bought a used Ruger factory All Weather stock to replace the original.

The stock came off a .350 Rem. Mag., but the barrel channel was still too small for my .358, so I gathered all of my precision stockmaking tools:



After a couple of hours working on the stock blindfolded, I had the barreled action installed. I had intended to completely free float the barrel but it still had a bit of pressure on the end of the forend when I decided to call it good;



Took her to the range yesterday and fired 3 shots at 100 yards after boresighting...250 gr. Hornady RN handloads...everybody knows that Shaw barrels don't shoot:



Well, that 0.585" group must have been a fluke...gave the knobs on the scope a twist and tried it again:



That one came in at 0.79". I think I'll save some chainsaw gas and leave it alone. Did I mention I really like my .358?