Hey, I would love some futuristic weapons built up, if you are willing.

I have quite a few weapon designs in my gallery, maybe you could use those as inspiration.


(Cool idea for making a sniper rifle! Hope it's bitchin!)

Sure, should I ever have time for art again, perhaps I'll do a couple of them as freebies for you, plus to see if I can get any interest from other people in them. I need money and I'm not good enough to commission for straight up art, but for cheaper-than-dirt technical drawings, that I can do no problem.

Why thank you, gud sir.

Why would you go with the Savage action? The Rem 700 action would traditionally seem to be the better choice. Most barrel makers stock far more in the way of models threaded for the Rem 700 then for the Savage. Also, it seems like custom making your own stock would be very expensive if you planned on using a durable material like fiberglass or plastic. It seems like you could use one of the Accuracy International AICS 2.0 stocks and get everything you want. Plus, you wouldnt have to worry about precise bedding... and it COMES setup for the Rem 700 with a detachable magazine system.

Hmm. A friend of mine recommended the Savage action as being easy to change barrels on. I plan on making the stock out of oak, which I already have, as well as every kind of tool for working with it that could possibly exist. After I got the stock where I wanted it, I'd probably take it to a friend/teacher of mine who does gunsmithing to cut the channel for the barrel and things rather than attempt to do it myself.

Part of the reason I want to build my own stock is A) I have a 15" length of pull, and I want the stock built specifically for me, B) That stock you recommended costs $1000, wheras if I build everything myself but the action and barrel I'll pay maybe half of that by the time I have everything together, and C) I like having a personal touch of things I've actually built in things.

Other note: The barrel is going to be either 36" or 44" long, which means I will likely have to get it custom made regardless of the action I am putting it on. I will however keep the Remington 700 action in mind. What it will likely come down to is which rifle I can find used to get what I need off of for the best price.

Not only would the channel for a barrel have to be cut, but it would have to be properly bedded. And being made of wood, the stock would be prone to warping from temperature and humidity changes... which is one of the very reasons wood stocks are no longer used on sniper rifles. Everything you are referring to about this gun already has to be custom... you're gonna be dropping big bucks regardless. The stock listed can be adjusted for length of pull, among other things.

Why a 36"-44" long barrel?

This will probably end up being more of a target rifle than a sniper rifle, simply due to size and weight. I want it to have as long of a range as possible, so I want a barrel long enough to get the most out of the powder. I know that wood can warp, but there are ways to help prevent it. The other reason plastics are used for rifle stocks is that now plastics are probably more easily made, stronger, and lighter, in addition to being impervious to humidity and temperature changes.

I have everything I need to do everything but cut the channel for the barrel and bed it myself (I actually probably do have the necessary equipment, but not the skill to do such an important task), and any good used rifle would give me the action, magazine, and a barrel to use until I wanted to buy a custom one. In the end, way down the line when I have everything exactly how I want it with custom barrels and fine tuned parts and everything else, I'm sure this will be expensive. However, if I make mostly just the stock and work gradually, I can have a custom rifle that is usable for not too much money relatively early in the process.

In my family I have access to a large, well equipped woodworking shop, as well as a machine shop that I could use to custom make my own magazines. I have a lot more time than I have money, so I'd be paying for the custom everything in time rather than money by doing it myself.

Ok, sorry.... not trying to BUTT in or anything. But I do have to comment. I'm one of those middle aged men that seem to know a little bit about everything.... and well, this is one of those things I actualy do know ALOT about. I was an expert in the Marines and I sell Guns for a living now.

1st. while I'm sure it looks "movie cool" or "bad ass", the drawing you have up there will never be a true "sniper" , or hell, even close to accurate out to "long" ranges just because it has a super long barrel. first thing you need to know about barrel length, after about 18 inches..... it's not going to get the bullet any more stablized for long distance flying. On old time guns like the Sharps, it wasn't the 6ft long barrel that made them accurate, it was the 6ft sight plain you had to work with. the barrel just made it harder to carry around and actualy slowed the bullet down.
The legth of the barrel DOES have a lot to do with the Velocity (which gets you more range) but once your powder stops burning.... the bullet slows down QUICKLY while still in the barrel. thats why MOST guns are set to be powder overbored.... that means the powder is still burning when the bullet pops out the end of the barrle and why most guns are LOUD as fuck.
figuring out how long to make a barrel for a paticular gun with a pacticular ammo is very difficult. you want the powder to completely burn out just at the exact moment the bullet leaves the barrel. blindly making he barrel as long as you can will....well, lets just say your money will be better spent to pick up a Wheatherby in a 300 mag.... IF thats the ammo you REALLY have your heart set on. (i'd choose otherwise, but thats just me) you can STILL carve out your chunk of wood there to make your "custom stock"... it might look cooler, but the other fellow there was correct. odds are that it will hurt your performance more. BUT if you properly seat the reciever..... and don't rely on the stock to support the barrel (think free floating) then you can carve away and make something beatiful and functional.
as far as using a rem 700 reciever.The rem 700 is not the best, but it IS the standard by which all others are measured. Hell the Marines STILL use it for sniping. still, my OPINION, go with a BETTER brand name that is already KNOWN for superior accuracy out of the box..... Wheatherby. as far as I know, it is the only weapon manufacture that give a 1-1/2 inch guarentee at 100 yards on their guns. that may not sound all that great... hell, i do better than that now with my Bro's AR.... but they don't Guarentee it to hold that accuracy. Wheatherby does.
I would spring for a stainlees reciever and barrel package with a "less expensive" synthetic stock option so your not throwing out a really nice stock to begin with.
ok, i've rambled on enuf. again, sorry to barge in, but I thought I'd let you know my opinion. please, make it "pretty", but also plan to make it practical!

Yes, the design has been adjusted slightly since then. Part of it is simply for looks, part of it is because either thumb through or McMillan (I believe) style stocks are what I find to be most comfortable. The gun is very, very heavily inspired by the Gungnir HAG35 used by Clive Winslet in Wild Arms 3, but adjusted to have a usable length of pull. http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/ps2/wa3/clive.jpg <--- Clive with his rifle.

I'm aware that past a certain point the gun loses speed, the goal is to get as much power as possible out of the shots. I was recommended to try a Savage action because they were good quality and changing barrels around on them wasn't too difficult. Stock would definitely be glass bedded, and the receiver pillar bedded. Caliber is still up in the air, .300 win mag seems to be widely available, with good oomph, reach, and accuracy. For really high accuracy stuff I'd make my own, but it'd be nice to have the option of buying regular stuff easily available. The barrel would likely be shortened to about 36" since that's the max length you can find it in most barrel blanks, according to very brief research at least. The stock would be shortened by an equivalent amount to the barrel. The shoulder and cheek rest would be more like modern tactical rifles.

Basically the goal of it all is to get a reasonably good quality, moderately high power rifle with good accuracy, that is made to fit me comfortably. A lot of the guns I've tried holding feel too small, because while I'm not the biggest guy around, I'm still bigger than a lot of people (big as in height and limb length).

I can relate to that last part all too well. < 6 ft 290 pounds! most (modern) guns DO feel a bit small. Not to sound like a hipocrite.... But I do prefer longer guns, but I mostly shoot Black powder, where more length in barrel is still usefull...and looks cool.

I had never thought of actualy trying to carve out a stock to fit ME.... Hmmm? maybe I'll try it someday too. Good luck with yours and let me know how it turns out. I am interested either way. I actualy LIKE hearing about what works and what DOESNT work... so I can pass that kind of info on to others asking about the same kind of stuff.

I'm 6'2.5" with a very long, slender body build (relatively short neck and not-giant head, so all the height is in my body and limbs). I know they make fancy guns with a ton of adjustability to them, but they're usually fancy tactical rifles and until I have however many thousand to shell out for an Arctic Warfare, or just the $900 for one of the fancy stocks of that style, I want to make my own. Nothing quite has the style to it of wood grain anyways.

Heard that ! like I said.... make it beautiful. Just make it practical. Enjoy.

Curiosity strikes, have you made any headway on getting this put together?

Oh, and if you're going to go with that long of a barrel, you may want to give the .300 RUM, or if you want to go all the way with a 44" tube, the .30-378 Weatherby Magnum. With a load of Hodgdon 50BMG, you'll be able to make about 5,800 ft/lbs, with powder burning all the way to the muzzle, and use a 220 Grain Berger VLD.

Unfortunately I have thus far had no luck with this, though I at least have a gun I could theoretically make it for as a replacement stock for practice now. Broke college student with no access to tools or materials. I'm thinking of going with a 36" barrel as opposed to the full 42" long one, depending on what barrels I can find for getting made, I'd rather just get a barrel blank rather than have to get it custom made to the length which would cost significantly more. Either way it would still be incredibly long, heavy, and unwieldy for actually taking and using a lot of the time, but it's the sort of styling that would turn heads at the shooting range quite effectively.

As for the caliber, went with .300 Win Mag mostly because it's got power, reach, and you can find the stuff. Also, because you can get a savage action in it easy and I've heard that they're good quality and have a pretty good system for changing the barrels. Also, I've heard that Remington 700 actions and such are unnecessarily difficult to accurize beyond how they come out of the box.

This project is pretty much shelved until I get out of college and have a job and money, and before I start on this I'm going to shell out for an SU-16C when I have the money so I have a tactical carbine and have all the important gun niches filled (rifle, carbine, 12g shotgun, .22 for practicing)


Another project I might work on down the line is a series of pump action guns with an upper/lower style like that used by the AR-15s, that can be quickly and easily switched into just about any caliber made very easily and be all sorts of customizable. That would have to wait until I have more machining capability available though.