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 so my shooting orthotic wouldn’t hit it after the shot, the barrel type & length, the stock, pros & cons of fluting, and if I’d need to add a muzzle break or not.

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. (Below – the old remington action and new barrel & stock laid out before work starts.)

I arrived in Waller, Tx., early on (date) to watch Bobby get to work on my new gun. And it didn’t take long to see that Bobby is a master craftsman. He broke down the used rifle from auctionarms.com so he could salvage the action. These are the first few steps: separate the action from the old barrel and inspect the action and bolt to check for wear or any defects. Luckily, mine had not been shot that much and was in terrific condition according to Bobby. He disassembled the bolt and checked the working parts. Then he lapped the lug on the end of the bolt to smooth them down to a precise fit when the bolt is closed. The square lug between the action & the barrel was next to be removed and inspected. Its width is measured for precision down to a thousandth of an inch, which is about equal to the thickness of a sheet of paper. ‘Heck, everything seems to be judged to the thousandth in this shop.’ After a few quick measurements, Bobby says with a slightly frustrated sigh “It’s not bad… Let’s just get a competition grade lug and be done with it.” (Below – the old factory lug compared to the competition-grade lug guaranteed to pass certain measurement requirements.)

Next came the threading and chambering of the 26” match grade Lothar-Walther barrel with a 1400 contour and #9 twist. (We decided on 26 inches for barrel length because on magnum rifles you get better velocity with longer barrels. This allows all the powder to burn before the bullet clears the muzzle.) Bobby threads and chambers the barrel on a lathe that he custom-altered to better suit barrel work, for all types of barrels. (According to Bobby, he’s an inventor not bound by traditional gunsmithing ways. He said he’s always looking for what works best when building guns. Above – here is my barrel in the machine that rotates the barrel instead of the threading & reaming tools. It has already been threaded and Bobby is preparing the 7mm reamer for chambering.) Throughout the process, a coolant is pumped through the muzzle end of the barrel to ensure that every bit of filing debris is washed out the back and never touches the inside of the barrel.

Of course, everything is fit to the precision and feel of Bobby’s hands for exact specification that he holds in his mind from 20 years of gun making. The last bit of chambering he completes by hand. (Below – the 7mm reamer grinds out a new chamber as an oily fluid is pumped into the muzzle end of the barrel. The reamer is stationary and inserted into the spinning barrel.)

Then came the fluting process. We agreed on 6 flutes to allow maximum cooling of the barrel. Bobby started the 45000ths inch flutes 2.5” from the muzzle and ran them 17” back once my barrel was secured in the fluting machine. In all of 15 minutes, he was done.

Since we figured I probably didn’t need a muzzle break, and because I didn’t like the idea of all the noise it added to the shot, we nixed the option.

The only thing left to do was a “trigger job” where the existing trigger is enhanced by having all the sear surfaces honed by hand to a mirror finish. The spring is replaced with a Wolf spring and the sear engagement screw set for precise trigger pull.

After Bobby installed the recoil reducer into my stock, my rifle was ready for assembly, which was fine with me because I was itching to get it to the range. When we topped it off with a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14X40 with 30MM tube using Warne scope rings, it was ready to roll.