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The Kinks

3K views 29 replies 15 participants last post by  52DH&R12 
#1 · (Edited)
Too much Bud Light, nothing to do, the internet and a credit card can be an issue for some people...especially me!

Anyway, a buddy let me try a different lot of Eley Match recently. Looked like it wanted to shoot decent, so got on this thing called the internet to order a brick.

Trouble was, my eyes wandered away from the ammo section, next thing I know a lot of boxes started showing up here.

Piled it all together, gave it to a friend and this is how it turned out:
Trident by kseatm, on Flickr

Looks nice! He shot it a bit to test his chamber work:

1st outing/Trident by kseatm, on Flickr

Think it might be ok.

It's a Trident action, and the cool thing is, these come with the name of rock bands as serial numbers. When I got to pick mine, had an idea of what I wanted but it wasn't to be. For some reason, Culture Club wasn't available:confused: Who doesn't like Culture Club?

Anyway, chose The Kinks. And not because I have an affinity towards cross dressers named Lola...Mostly because of spending one of the best weeks of my life in London many years ago. Hung out with a few guys named John, Paul and George. No, not those guys! These were just three drunk guys I met riding the Tube. We had fun though:bthumb: Even found some pictures a few years ago from one of our adventures. My wife made me throw them away. :rolleyes:

Oops, got sidetracked there.... Anyway, going to put this thing to the test tomorrow. Can't wait!

Wanted to try one more BR build for awhile. Thought long and hard about a 10x and almost got one, but after fighting my Falcon for two years just to get it to shoot, didn't want to go down that road of having to fix a custom action just to make it work correctly. So, decided on a 2500x and started saving. Been saving my nickels and dimes and finally just said the heck with it. My friend Don Blue did the work, and he did his usual great job. He'd promised me he would do this gun back when I told him I was going to get one. It just happened sooner than expected. Think I mentioned this about a year ago. I move kind of slow sometimes.

Just glad I could get him to do it. It's nice to know someone that cares about what they do. And Don cares! I think he's more excited about this stuff than the people he does the work for! But then, he is "The Plumber of Piney Hill". Not sure why that matters though...

So, thanks Don! Can't wait to see how it shoots.

Now, anyone need the complete Smokey And The Bandit movie set? East bound and down indeed...I really need to stay off the internet...

Kenny

Edit: Sometimes people don't realize I'm yanking their chain. The actual names of the three guys I met in London were Bob, Gavin and I have no idea anymore. But, good guys all. And no animals were harmed!
 
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#4 · (Edited)
Me, weird? You should meet Mike and Don...

Honestly, I'm kind of excited on this one. Probably more than when I had my first one done. Know more about what goes on in the process now, and know what to look for. When the action arrived, was really impressed with the attention to detail and machine work that Jerry Stiller put into this. So, I do want to say thanks to him. Wouldn't know the man from Adam, but he does good work.

This action is basically a 2500x but in a 3 lug version. Smooth as silk, and actually like the different bolt throw when compared to the 2500x. Those are smooth as silk, and I've been lucky enough to shoot a few. So, kind of knew what I was getting into here. But this was a spur of the moment buy (getting the Trident over the 2500x). But am completely happy with it.

It has a Shilen .900 straight barrel, a Bix n Andy trigger (set at .4 oz) which is kind of light... But, the thing won't slam fire no matter what you do. For those who are stuck on the Jewel triggers, you owe it to yourself to try the Bix or the Flavio triggers. These things are nice!

The stock is a Scott Lidgard stock. Can't remember now exactly what wood it is, but it's something from Africa. Do know it's not knotted pine!

Recently tried a 10x in one of these stocks and was so impressed with the stock that I spent the money for this one. Had a Mike Turner stock that needed some finishing for this gun. But, this was just too nice of a stock to pass up. That's what I've been telling myself at least...

We'll try it out tomorrow. Needs to be tuned yet. Don just stuck a tuner on it and shot a few groups. Have a regular Harrel tuner and one that has been turned down to a much lighter weight. We'll see tomorrow what it likes the best.

Got me some ammo, a nice rest and a whole day set aside at an indoor range. Plus, get to hang out with a good friend the whole time. What's not to like about that?

Kenny
 
#5 ·
It's only rock and roll, but I like it!

Kenny, I couldn't help myself as I'm a Stones nut. You have come a long way since your days with Lola. I mean Miss Chunky! What in the world will she do when she sees you with a runway super model ? !!! She used to be the one saying "You Really Got Me" Don's work is a sure fire No. 1 Hit ! Congratulations on your new love and hope to see you caress her soon!
 
#6 ·
Kenny, I couldn't help myself as I'm a Stones nut. You have come a long way since your days with Lola. I mean Miss Chunky! What in the world will she do when she sees you with a runway super model ? !!! She used to be the one saying "You Really Got Me" Don's work is a sure fire No. 1 Hit ! Congratulations on your new love and hope to see you caress her soon!
Thanks Mac! Looking forward to this one.

Ms Chunky is now back to only apertures. And she is happier now than ever. Tweety is shooting pretty darn well, so she's reached her pinnacle I think. Now it's just a barrel/ammo lottery with her. Would have been perfectly happy just shooting her from here on out but in the back of my mind there was always that little voice that kept whispering "is it really the barrel or ammo".

For the next journey, wanted to remove those whispers. So, now I know if there is variation, it's in the barrel or ammo.

The stock is good, the bedding is good, the action is good. Now, do I have to do my part? Oh crap!

Will be at Stonewall and hopefully Ms Kinky (of course I had to give it a name) will be ready willing and able. If not, Tweety can do pretty well on her own now.

One nice thing, I won't have to bug John Brown about how to make the action actually work correctly now...John keeps locking the door and hiding behind the sofa when I ring his doorbell... You'd think he's avoiding me...

Take care and thanks again

Kenny
 
#10 · (Edited)
Did you get the "Kinks" worked out? ;) Wet, cool, rainy day, perfect conditions for shooting inside.

George
Actually, it cleared up a bit yesterday. Cool, but clear. Mountains looked nice as the sun came over them. Of course the rains came later.

At to the gun, it acts like it wants to shoot. Just played with tune and tuners. Thinking right now is that the diameter may be making it want less weight on the end. Seemed to do pretty darn well with a turned down tuner. Used what Ken Camper calls "The Plunger" and it really became less picky on actual tuner settings.

Still want to explore everything above 160 on the lighter tuner. Went through the whole range on the regular tuner and found a pretty good spot. But only shot targets with the light tuner.

Just overshooting targets, using different speeds on each row. Likes a lot of different speeds and lots of ammo. Two in particular. Fun to point, aim and shoot and watching the dot disappear.

Beautiful gun, stock tracks very very well. Fun to shoot. Got a case of the giggles many times yesterday.

That action is really nice! The bolt throw seems less than on a 2500x. But never really paid attention to that area when shooting those models before. For a new action, the thing is slicker than can be. Just a joy to work with.

Trigger (Bix) is of course nice. Big difference between that and the Jewel.

Think I'm going to have some fun with this thing. Right now, at a minimum, it's as accurate as the Falcon . And that's with less than a brick of ammo through the barrel.

Will need to tweak the extractors a little, as they show a tendency of behaving like an Anschutz. But not nearly as bad. Just not as consistent as they should be when ejecting empties. But not nearly anything to worry about.

Overall, a very nice action, easy to cycle. Smooth as silk. Tracks awesome, shoots pretty darn well. Still want to settle on a tune. Will shoot again this week and possibly next weekend. Once tune and tuner is settled on, just need to shoot it and get comfortable with what the gun likes. Really need to get it outside but looks like I'll need an Ark to get to the range. The rains keep coming. Maybe early next week.

Spent some time working with rest setup, what the gun likes as to front stop distances, rear guide settings, ear tension on front, etc etc. Shot only off the one piece yesterday. Had the SEB set up next bench over, but eyes got buggy after almost 6 hours of looking through a scope.

Did have a lot of fun though.

Don did an awesome job on this gun. It really does look like it's going to shoot very well.

You guys flooded out yet? Will give you a call this evening after work.

Kenny
 
#11 ·
That is one beautiful rifle. I have been playing this bench rest game for only 3 months and it is both a gas and a challenge. Thought I was pretty good at shooting groups (around three-eighths) but that little ARA target humbles the heck out of me. Bought my rifle used. 2500x action, muller barrel, Flavio trigger, anglin stock, Harrell tuner. Been working with a bald eagle front rest and protecktor rear bag, but the pappas rest should be here in a few days. btw, what kind of rest is that in the pic? Adapting to free recoil has been interesting but I guess trying to learn to read the flags is really the toughest part. Again, beautiful rifle. May you score a 2500 in the near future. I would probably have named mine Grateful Dead or Leon Russell??
 
#12 · (Edited)
The rests on each end are Randolphs. The middle rest is a SEB NEO. We used that for the pic but I normally use that a lot.

Honestly, IMHO, after shooting off of all kinds of rests, if I could only use one rest, I'd stick with the NEO. But a one piece is a great way to shoot too! I use it mostly for testing ammo, tune and things like that.

Thanks for the compliments. All three stocks are beautiful. And the guy who made them does excellent work. Of course they don't come bedded, but these, to me, are about as close to a Pippen stock that you can get. As far as tracking and such. Slightly different styles in some areas though. And inletting is such that they are really easy to bed. Of course Pippen bedded the stocks he made for your gun, so you had something that was a work of art right off the bat when you got something from him.

You'll like the Pappas. A lot of people use them. As for going forward in this, just enjoy yourself and try to learn something each time out. This isn't as easy as people think. Maybe I'm limited by my own abilities...

But keep track of what works and what doesn't. Get some good, and I mean good, wind flags. And keep learning how to read them.

We shoot inside during the winter so it's an equipment race to a large degree. But outside, everyone has a chance to move up a bit in the standings when the wind's blowing. All you have to do is finish ahead of the other guys...;)

Good luck to you. Just remember to have fun. If not, it can become work.

Kenny

Edit: Oh, my buddy came up with the perfect name for this new gun. Everyone thinks of Lola when you mention The Kinks. And we know who/what Lola was. So...to take an even more slightly twisted turn on this, he mentioned I should call the gun Divine. Not so much for how it shoots, but for who/what Divine was...Did I mention my buddy has a sick sense of humor?
 
#13 ·
The rests on each end are Randolphs. The middle rest is a SEB NEO. We used that for the pic but I normally use that a lot.

Honestly, IMHO, after shooting off of all kinds of rests, if I could only use one rest, I'd stick with the NEO. But a one piece is a great way to shoot too! I use it mostly for testing ammo, tune and things like that.

Thanks for the compliments. All three stocks are beautiful. And the guy who made them does excellent work. Of course they don't come bedded, but these, to me, are about as close to a Pippen stock that you can get. As far as tracking and such. Slightly different styles in some areas though. And inletting is such that they are really easy to bed. Of course Pippen bedded the stocks he made for your gun, so you had something that was a work of art right off the bat when you got something from him.

You'll like the Pappas. A lot of people use them. As for going forward in this, just enjoy yourself and try to learn something each time out. This isn't as easy as people think. Maybe I'm limited by my own abilities...

But keep track of what works and what doesn't. Get some good, and I mean good, wind flags. And keep learning how to read them.

We shoot inside during the winter so it's an equipment race to a large degree. But outside, everyone has a chance to move up a bit in the standings when the wind's blowing. All you have to do is finish ahead of the other guys...;)

Good luck to you. Just remember to have fun. If not, it can become work.

Kenny

Edit: Oh, my buddy came up with the perfect name for this new gun. Everyone thinks of Lola when you mention The Kinks. And we know who/what Lola was. So...to take an even more slightly twisted turn on this, he mentioned I should call the gun Divine. Not so much for how it shoots, but for who/what Divine was...Did I mention my buddy has a sick sense of humor?
Oops, I thought this was the thread about the three new stocks! I'm an idiot.
 
#18 · (Edited)
As George told me, "Experience can be expensive". He wasn't lying...

Did learn a lot. And it did turn out great. As John Brown told me, "Only took you two years to get it to shoot". He wasn't lying either.

But again, the Falcon can shoot very well. Shot today as if I was in an IR match. Just flipped back over to the Ratchet barrel on the Falcon as I wanted a comparison to the Muller. Shot the Falcon for two targets "pretend 10.5 and 13.5". I really think the Ratchet is just a tad better than the 8 groove. As long as you keep it clean!

Then shot Miss Divine in a three card UL scenario. I'll say if it was an actual match, I'd have done well all the way through with both guns. But practice is practice. So, who really knows. Everyone knows how up tight I am. So under pressure, I'd probably throw one into the 2 ring. If there was a 2 ring. Maybe I'll add more rings to my targets. Easier to score...

Also, afterwards shot an ARA target with two lots of fouling ammo. After scoring it, maybe I should be using other ammo to foul the barrel...

Anyway, the fun in this is to see what happens. Along the way, we all pick up things that make us shoot better. Ain't it fun!

Kenny
 
#26 ·
Don congratulations on building a fine rifle for a really good guy. :bthumb::bthumb::bthumb:

Congratulation Kenny! :beerchug: Good luck in the Triple Crown and the matches leading up to it.

Kenny sounds pretty pumped and says they are doing a bit of celebration at the moment. He certainly deserves to celebrate with all the hard work he's put in.
 
#30 ·
Congratulations to Kenny, Mike and Don. :bthumb:

Kenny stopped by yesterday morning for a pep talk, he was concerned about the rain having an effect on performance, I gave him a little guidance about how to deal with it. He called me this morning to give me the good news about him and Mike, he was astonished, seems what I told him really worked.

George
 
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