Slick Single-Shot Surgeon for the Boss's Daughter
Preston Pritchet, the “main man” at Surgeon Rifles, wanted to create a special rifle for his daughter, to use in varmint and fun matches at his local club. Preston explained: “Here are a couple pictures of my daughter’s rifle. I’ve never built a flashy rifle before, because I have always felt most rifles are for hunting and should be a dull color and not flashy. But my daughter shoots the club matches with me, and after getting a lot of harassment because she was shooting a Remington, this is the result. I took our Surgeon single-shot action and stoned the surface to get rid of the tool marks. Then I sent it to a friend for engraving, and I had the action nickel-plated. Finally, the gun was fitted with a 28” Krieger 1:8.5 twist barrel, chambered in 6.5 x 47 Lapua. The barreled action was set in a McMillan F-class stock.”
Preston said his daughter had immediate success with her new rifle. “We had a match coming up and no time for testing loads. From the information on this website, I knew that 123gr Lapua Scenars and Reloader 15 should be an accurate combination for the 6.5×47. I took 123 Scenars, 37.5 grains RL 15, Fed 205M, Lapua brass. I got the rifle to the range and found a zero for her at 100 and 500 yards. To make a long story short, she took her new rifle and out-scored me at the most recent balloon match at our club. Lesson learned–with a good rifle, young ladies can definitely compete with the guys.”
A lovely piece of kit until the rings and mount hit the retina! Just look at how they sit there without any attempt to ‘unite’ the two with the rifle’s action. Yes, I know this is a bench gun, and those horribly aggressive nuts are there to ensure the rings are torqued-down to some brutish setting on the similarly agricultural rail, but I remain convinced you can achieve the same desired level of security but with an atheistic that compliments the attention to detail evident elsewhere, and still ensure the return-to- zero after recoil that is needed in what is, actually, a calibre of little recoil if my 25X47 Swiss Match is anything to go by.
Sorry if my observations are unwelcome, and yes I’m mindful most bench guns use the same ring & base type, but as someone who’s commissioned a custom-built rifle I know you can achieve something far more pleasing to the eye without compromise to accuracy, and by having Conetrol stainless steel bases machined in such a way as to meld them into the action at a fraction of the cost of the rifle engraving, and then girding the scope in George V. Miller’s finest matching “projectionless” 30mm rings.
Clearly the good news is this is still something that can be achieved and, perhaps, as a certain person’s next birthday present??!!
Cheers
Klenchblaize
I aggree, i was looking at the work on the rifle and then i was thinking to myself, what a shame that they put this ugly acessories on, sure a good gunsmith would be able to deliver somthing more pleasing to th eye without jepordising any accuracy on the rig,,,, but atleast she’s smiling everytime she put her dad to shame…..