|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Van Dyke starts with a short-action Model 700 ADL receiver; blueprints it, and in my sample he sleeved the bolt; winds on a 24-inch stainless steel Shilen No. 7 contour barrel chambered in .22-250 Remington in front of a Holland switch barrel competition recoil lug; and coats all of the metal in matte-black Teflon. He nestles this assembly into a modified Anschutz Silhouette stock from H-S Precision, complete with an aluminum bedding block, free floating the barrel.
There is a fair amount of chatter on the Internet and ranges around the
country about blueprinting an action. Blueprinting is actually a
misnomer, since if taken in the literal sense it would mean adding
and/or removing material from every aspect of the receiver and bolt to
make it identical to the original engineered drawing. What really
occurs is these gun builders true the receiver and bolt -- essentially
hand fitting one to the other to ensure that parts like the bolt and
barrel mate squarely and evenly within the receiver to minimize the
chance of any lost motion or torque from firing to affect the launching
of the bullet. In its most common form blueprinting alone will not
make a rifle more accurate. What blueprinting does is take out
several variables within a rifle's action and provide a measurably
stable foundation for assembling the rest of the rifle.
The beefy barrel measures 1 1/4 inches in the front of the recoil lug and has a straight taper to 7/8 inch at the muzzle. It has an 11-degree crown, with a 60 degree chamber at the terminus of the bore to protect that very critical area from damage during cleaning. At 11 pounds, 14 ounces, including Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14X Z-Plex scope with side-focusing parallax adjustment, the Critter Gitter is certainly not a packin' rifle. All that weight checked the recoil of the .22-250 down to a very manageable 1.7 foot-pounds as calculated by the Oehler Model 43 chronograph's software -- about on par with a .223 Remington, so watching a bullet impact was easy. the H-S Precision stock has a flat, square fore-end and is made to be shot from a rest. Its super-high Monte Carlo cheekpiece is actually 3/8 inch above the line of bore and includes a generous bevel -- almost a rollover -- to accommodate even a wide face like mine. There is a cutout or flute at the point of the comb to allow the bolt to be removed. The pistol grip is quite steep and has a generous Wundhammer-style palm swell to fill the hand. On this rifle the length of pull was a full 15 inches including the Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad, prompting a few comments around the office that maybe this rifle had been made for an NBA center. Because I am a habitual stock crawler, I had no difficulty shooting the rifle from the bench, but it did feel a bit weird. Of course, on a custom rifle the customer can specify length of pull, as well as any other reasonable dimension. A rig like this should have no problem planting bullets within an inch of each other with any decent load, and the Critter Gitter fulfilled that expectation, provided I did my part. the day I shot it started at a mighty chilly 34 degrees, and a few groups--especially the first two or three--scattered a bit. But as I became more accustomed to the rifle and its 11 1/2 ounce Jard trigger, and the weather warmed to a balmy 38 degrees, the bullets started to cluster tighter. My best groups came with Federal Classic with the 55-grain Hi-Shok bullet. I have no doubt that a well-tuned handload could shrink the 3/4-inch average the factory load delivered. Van Dyke told me he cuts reloading dies with the same reamers he uses to chamber a custom gun, and with suitable handloads the rifle should group within 1/4 minute of angle.
My only real complaint with this rifle was its magazine. It worked, but it required some TLC. I found it near impossible to load it by "feel" snapping cartridges in as I sat behind the rifle much as one might do on a prairie dog shoot. The first cartridge would go in easily; the second needed to be positioned just right; the third would need even more care to get it to seat and feed correctly; and the fourth needed not only a lot of care as to positioning, but a fair amount of pressure to overcome the leaf spring under the carrier. I'm sure Van Dyke could tune this glitch out in a few minutes. Too, up until now it has been probably fed a diet of carefully constructed handloads, and even NASCAR race cars get better fuel than the rest of us buy at the local stop-and-rob. Not everyone needs or wants a $2,240 varmint rifle, nor does everyone need or want an ultra-high-performance NASCAR race car. But some of us do. We take solace in knowing that every nuance of our rifle is made as perfectly as can be done by human hand and its machinery. Maybe 1/4 minute-of-angle accuracy isn't necessary to shoot prairie dogs and ground squirrels. But we still derive great pleasure in pursuing perfection. A rifle and a rifleman are all about precision. So are John Van Dyke and his rifles.
--Dave Campbell |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
