Fake A4 project

[Allen Humphrey]

Nearing the end of my fake A4 project so I thought I'd share. I started with a lightly sporterized Rem A3 that had been d&T'd for weaver mounts. It came with a pre-war C stock that has seen lots of miles and had already been modified for bolt clearance. Rem 4-43 4 groove barrel measures 1.5 at the muzzle and just under 2 at the throat. Due to the stock, I decided to go for the "been there, done that" look. Trickiest part of the build was to chage the front hole in the reproduction Redfield Jr. mount (Gibbs), to a slot so that I could use the existing hole in the receiver.

I have about 40 rounds through it now and everything is nice and solid. My expectations were for 1.5 MOA when I started the project. Three 5 round groups gave 1.875", 2.03", and 2.125" groups from 200yds (bench), better than expected. Does that sound consistent with what other folks are getting for groups?

[Jim in Salt Lake]

What kind of bullets are you using. My rifle was 1.5-2.0 MOA with Greek HXP. It came alive with Sierra 168 MKs and gets 1.0 MOA with them. I use either a Weaver 330 or a Leatherwood Chinertl. Your rifle really looks nice, you'll have a ton of fun with it.

[Bill H]

I built one a few years ago, got the idea after finding a real A4 bolt at a gunshow. I use either a Weaver 330 or a Lyman Alaskan. It shoots well with the Alaskan, but not within 1 moa.

[Allen Humphrey]

Jim,
I use Prvi 168 BTHP for all of my 03 and Garands with 46.5gr of Varget. I'll probably try some 168 Amax this summer if I can find any powder

You can see from my pictures that I was using an SR target with orange pasters over the X ring. I found that the cross hairs of the 330 exactly cover the orange. If I even twitch a little, the orange appears and I know I'm not centered up. I doubt I could shoot the same group at a plain SR target.

[holdover]

"Three 5 round groups gave 1.875", 2.03", and 2.125" groups from 200yds (bench), " need to take that baby to Camp Perry and shoot the sniper match.

[Jim in Salt Lake]

Hey Allen, I know what you mean about the sight picture. We have a lot of Midrange Prone matches here. My big problem is sighting on the spotter when the target comes back up instead of centering the crosshair on the bull. Your eye gets pulled toward that white spotter, just kills me! Your orange pasters are a good idea. I've never used .30 Privi bullets but I did buy a bunch of their copies of the .22 69gr Sierra MKs. They were very cheap and very good, sorry we shot them all up. We only have one Vintage Sniper match a year at my home range, these rifles are too much fun to shoot so I use it for Midrange. This year, I want to take it to Wendover and shoot at 1000 yards. I've got some 190gr MKs and IMR 4350 I want to experiment with. Fun stuff to think about while the snow flies....

[Jim in Salt Lake]

"Three 5 round groups gave 1.875", 2.03", and 2.125" groups from 200yds (bench), " need to take that baby to Camp Perry and shoot the sniper match.

We went last summer, it was a gas! I didn't shoot as I had two juniors with me, they shared my rifle and I watched. Walking down the line, you saw all kinds of rifles, although the majority were 1903s, either a1s or a4s. We're just going for NRA week this year but I think I'll try the CMP Western games this fall.

[km7396]

My replica 03A3 with a Weaver K2.5 does about 1 1/4 MOA with Hornady 168 Amax.

[Allen Humphrey]

Thanks for the imput guys. It sounds like we are all in the 1-2 MOA category so I'll try to follow the " if it ain't broke..." rule. I'm positive my groups will open up to the 2 minute area when shooting at a regular target with no orange paster.

We don't have any vintage sniper matches in our area, so I may do an Fclass match for fun some day.