The World of Custom Rifles & Me

I feel I should preface this story by telling everybody that I know close to zero about custom guns, reloading and long distance shooting. I grew up a factory gun & ammo man, never shot anything else… until now. My first steps into this world came when I started to become aware that the guns I owned weren’t as accurate as I wanted them to be. Not nearly as consistent as I wanted them to be anyway, so while re-sighting in my rifle before a mule deer hunt one day, I decided I was ready to do it.

I’ll started my journey by zero-ing in on the caliber that would be just perfect for what I intended to use it for, and for me, that had to be hunting! A full year went by as I contemplated having a rifle built and what size would meet all my expectations in the field.

Since elk & mule deer hunting are at the top of my wish list (as well as an African Safari), I knew it had to be a big caliber, something with more “umph” than a 270 and gentler than the crazy ultra-mags that have become the rage of late. I’m not a big enough boy to handle the recoil. Well, another six months went by as I researched my options, read professional opinions & online reviews, and listened to friends’ suggestions, stirring them all in with my own ideas on what I thought I needed against what I thought I’d be able to handle. I finally narrowed it down to two choices: the 264 magnum & the 7mm magnum.

After talking to two of my closest friends who had experience with the 264, and after more intensive research on both calibers, I chose the 7mm mag. I seemed to have everything I was looking for in a bullet, a flat-shooting round that could go big enough to do the job on a bull elk if need be. The 264, in my opinion, was just a hair light for that size of a big game animal.

Now came the next important step in the process, finding the right man for the job.

It was another several weeks after sifting through a handful of recommendations that I came across a tip from an outdoor message board about a gunsmith whose shop was within a two hour’s drive from me. Instantly, I found Bobby Pitchford’s website and called to set up an appointment so I could come by to talk shop.

After meeting Bobby, I knew he was the man I wanted to build my rifle. We discussed what I wanted from this gun, calibers, and all the little details that would match it to my needs as a quad hunter: a mercury tube recoil reducer, kick-eeze recoil pad, moving the magazine release switch, the barrel, the stock, pros & cons of fluting, and of adding a muzzle break, etc.

A couple weeks later, I bought a used Remington 7mm mag from a site called AuctionArms.com for $340 so we could use its “action” for my new rifle and had it shipped directly to Pitchford Gunworks. A month later, my long-action stock from Bell & Carlson finished in mossy oak new breakup was also on the way. Now all we needed was to wait on the new barrel and Bobby said he’d call so I could come in and watch him start the build.

cont’d on Part 2.

Used 7mm that provided the 'action' for our build