I am now officially finished with this rifle! I got the stock back from M1Army over on the M14 Forum today and it's ready for the match on Saturday. He did a fantastic job!



















Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

That looks fantastic!

That’s really gorgeous. Can’t wait to hear how it shoots. I apologize if I missed it in an earlier post but why did you choose the Trijicon for your optic?

quote:

Originally posted by cigardad:
That’s really gorgeous. Can’t wait to hear how it shoots. I apologize if I missed it in an earlier post but why did you choose the Trijicon for your optic?

I chose it for the glass clarity, the thin crosshairs and the adjustment knobs under the caps. They have very nice positive clicks for switching from 300 yards to 600 yards during the match.

The other hunting scopes had either inferior glass, thick crosshairs or mushy clicks.

The rules state that the scope has to be a 3-9x40 and cannot have target knobs (must have capped turrets).

While most Leupold hunting scopes would fit the bill, I find them more difficult to use when trying to land precise hits on the X-ring and adjusting for windage and elevation.

I don't trust the Hi-Lux scopes. I've handled them and they are of pathetic quality compared to the Trijicon. When you adjust the magnifier, you can see the image shifting. You can grab the ocular lens with two fingers and wiggle the entire ocular piece up and down, which means it's flexing hard under recoil.

One of my customers had an Athlon scope which was much more robust than the Hi-Lux, but the crosshairs were so thick it almost covered the entire x-ring. I had to even up the "pie slices" to get a precise aim on the X-ring with that one.

Tony.

That Sir is an absolutely beautiful rifle? I wish I had 1/10th of your talent .

That looks great, Tony. Nice job!

That is gorgeous.

My son and I shot the match today and the rifle did great! I'm still getting used to shooting this rifle and I made some mistakes trying to get settled into position with the sandbag. After we registered, there was a single shooter that needed a teammate, so they asked me if I could shoot both relays, category B (Vietnam era), and I said yes. So I shot two matches today. The first relay was with my son and the second relay was with the lone shooter.

Long story short, I cleaned the 300 on both relays with a 100-6X on relay one and a 100-3X on relay 2. At 600 yards, I shot a 98-3X on Relay 1 and a 100-6X on relay 2! So in all, I dropped two points out of 40 shots for record. I only brought a box of 50 so I had to be wise with my sighters. I used 7 sighters at 300 and 3 sighters at 600.

Anthony and I had a team score of 389-13X (Silver) and the other shooter and I had a team score of 388-14X (Silver). In both cases, Anthony shot better than the other shooter who was shooting a M1A. Anthony was shooting Wes Howe's Super Stocker LRB M14.

It was a great day and Anthony and I shot the best we've ever shot both individually and as a team. This is the first time we've scored in the Silver category. Before this, it was bronze. I believe only one other shooter outshot me today and it was by X-count.



Ignore the ghost shot "0". It was erroneous reading.







I don't know what my second teammate was shooting but my bullets were 345 FPS faster at the target than his were at 600 yards.

My bullets were only 130 FPS faster than Anthony's, but I'm running a full 1.2 grains more than he is simply because I won't run my bolt gun load through his M14. Anthony and I were both shooting 169's.

Tony.

It sounds like you and your son had a great day. There is nothing like having a son who shares the same passion as you. Great shooting, beautiful gun and enjoy the time you are spending with your boy.

Did I mention how dang nice that rifle is?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: usncorpsman,

Nice Rifle, and Nice Shooting! No doubt an incredible day on many levels...Bravo to the Benavides boys!

Thanks for the kind words, my friends, and thank you for following my journey with this rifle build.

It's definitely one of my favorite rifles now.

Tony.

Just wow, Tony. Outstanding. What a beautiful rifle!

Tony, great looking build.
Side note, where was this match held?

Thanks! It was held at Port Malabar Rifle and Pistol Club in Palm Bay.

Tony.