Rat Rifle is finished

les

les

Hammer Time Executive member
We have heard of Rat Rods. I just finished my "Rat Rifle." The outside is ugly, but the guts are golden. I have a 308 gaintwist barrel mounted on a Remington 788 left handed action. The last two pieces of the puzzle were adding a Picatinny rail and a Timney Trigger. I had a mid priced Vortex scope that will work just fine. It was finally a nice day (sort of) so I went out to run it through some of the paces. I loaded up 10 rounds of 124 grain HH with 45 grains of Benchmark. The average speed was 3018. I shot two 5 shot groups at 100 yards and they were well under an inch. I also had a ladder put together. It ended at 46.8 grains of Benchmark and I hit a speed of 3118. There were no signs of pressure. I have more work to do! If you call it work. I really like the 124 grain HH! Mild recoil and I bet it would smoke a deer! I was having a lot of fun today. It is ugly but it shoots.

That all said, the newer guns have come a long way. I also had my Tikka T3x Lite along too. It is done too. It is a left handed gun in 6.5 Creedmoor. I put a Bell and Carlson stock on it. I changed the floor plate from the plastic one with an aluminum one. I added a Picatinny rail too. It has such a smooth action! I had worked on a load with the 92 grain Power Hammer. I was averaging 3359 fps and shooting ragged holes at 100 yards.

So why the "Rat Rifle?" It is fun to shoot. It is a sleeper, so it is a great practice rifle. It is fun to have a practice rifle so I don't burn out my 300 RUM.

rat rifle 2.jpgrat rifle 1.jpg
 
Taking a new rig to the range is always a fun day, even for a "rat rifle".
So question les. You are obviously left eye dominant but are you left handed?
Half of my grandkids are right handed but left eye dominant so teaching them to shoot is painful and very unnatural.
I'm wondering how to make it easier for them. Maybe you have some advice.
 
Littlebighorn - I am left handed too. My "adopted" grandson is left eye dominant and right handed. I'm a big believer in learning to shoot from both sides. I'm also a believer in keeping both eyes open too. The way I convinced Jackson was to have him shoot an open sighted 22 with both eyes open from both the left and right side. He was astonished at how natural it was to hit the target well from the left side because there is no shift in the point of sight. I used to hunt with a guy who was left eye dominate and hunted from the right side. I was amazed at how many times he would see a deer or an elk, and put up his rifle and take too much time to try to find the animal due to the shift. It is even more painful and unnatural when you see an animal and put up the scope and it isn't there!
 
Nice rifles, les! I intend to piece together my first Tikka build tomorrow.

Not to derail your thread, les, but you are culpable! 😀

Hope some of this is helpful, littlebighorn. Helpful as in, teach them correctly young. I never had anybody teach me until I had gotten very hard to teach!

I am right-handed and left eye dominant. A few years back I purchased a left-handed Savage .22 for my left-handed daughter. She has special needs that we now know will be with her forever, so while I let her shoot when she wants (highly supervised!), it will never be “her” rifle. So now it is mine…and I still have not tried it, though. Ugh. So I continue to close an eye. Will try to break that soon. Problem is, I have a lot of money invested in right-handed rifles. But a .22lr is an inexpensive investment.

Low powered optics are great for shorter range, both-eyes-open shots for cross dominance. I have astigmatism, so red dots bloom big time. Prisms are great. Have not tried a holo yet.

Pistols get pulled across my face to align with the left eye. It has become natural for me, but I got weird looks from the instructors when I had to re-qualify on the M9 (still haven’t shot the new Sig) a few years ago for the part-time govt job. (I do not have to maintain a carbine qual, and in fact, have never shot one for the mil).

Shooting a compound bow left-handed is perfectly natural. I have only shot traditional and recurves right-handed, though. Go figure.

So maybe there is ambidextrous hope for your grandkids and yours truly.
 
Yes sorry for the "rat rifle" derail les. I hope you get to use your "practice rifle" this weekend. I got out this morning for a quick shoot.
Back to my grandkids. Sighting through a scope seems to be the biggest challenge, or pulling a bow with a non-dominant arm.
Mostly I want them to have a fun shooting experience so I appreciate the feedback.
 
@littlebighorn , when I took my USAArchery Level 1 course, the instructor recommended that we teach to the dominant hand because of the strength and motor skills for Archery. Completely opposite of the NRA Rifle instructor’s course which emphasized teaching to the dominant eye. It’s loads of fun trying to teach Cub Scouts the Proper Basics.

@les, I’ll try and get a picture of the 6.5 Swede Manlicher to show a classy Rat Rifle. 🤣
 
On the subject of eye/hand dominance, I am largely ambidextrous but I use my left for more tasks than my right, my right eye however is quite dominant, my dad started me off shooting lefty like him, but realized pretty quickly that I was crossing my face over the butt stock to use my right eye, then he gave me a quick eye dominance test and sure enough I was righty. So he got me to try shooting right and I had a way easier time, after that first afternoon it was way more natural. I have shot a couple of deer left hand though and I do still practice that.
One of my brothers is right handed, shoots righty but is left eye dominant and still struggles at times to feel natural behind the gun.
Another brother has pretty bad astigmatism in his right eye so although that was his dominant side both eye and hand he has taught himself to shoot left and he’s pretty effective too! He still cycles his righty bolt with his right hand no matter which side he shoots from, which is also how I practice non dominant side.
 
Good advice all around. Thanks to all!

I did not get my left-handed practice rifle out today, but…I did finally shoot my right-handed Tikka 7x57 build! Scope rings are not here yet, but we functioned checked it. Headspaced perfectly and went BANG! a few times. I’ll share more about that soon in its own post.

At any rate, it is now on my to-do list to learn to shoot rifles lefty. Maybe I’ll then not feel too stupid to shoot a scattergun.
 
So does one ever just leave things alone? The 788 is a shooter! That "Rat" stock is cracked and epoxied together. I'm not convinced that I really want to hunt with like it is. I don't own a gun that isn't hunt capable. So, do I put all the effort into the Maple blank I have been working on or just buy a stock from Boyd's? I really like the Bell and Carlson that I have on my Tikka. Do I pay to get it cleaned up and either re-blued or cerekoted? Or do I buy some Cerakote C-Series and do it myself? I have the equipment. Or do I just leave it alone? I still have load development to do, but I have a nice accuracy node with 47.5 grains of Benchmark and the 124g HH. Note: The Rat Rifle has a gain twist barrel so this may be way too hot of a load for a standard barrel. I'm averaging 3218 fps with a standard deviation of 8 and half inch groups at a hundred yards. Still no pressure signs so I'll have to build another ladder.
 
Right hand dominant. In fact the only thing my left hand does well is pull the trigger. Left eye dominant, although I can shoot both it doesn’t feel natural. This rifle is a right hand bolt on a left hand thumbhole! Works for me!

P.s. There is a dead bull on that hillside somewhere!
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If it was me, I would try to get it back! The 788 was never offered from the factory in 22-250 so that is a custom rifle.
 
I don’t think it was custom as it was bought at a bargain basement price. It had a crappy finish on a canoe paddle stock and an unremarkable 3x9 scope.
 
Yes it was! My mistake. However very few were made. There are two actions. One is very short that had the 22-250 and the other was for 308 size cartridges. So I just pulled the trigger on the next phase of "The Rat" rifle. I just ordered a Boyd stock. Sounds like it might qualify as a "Rat" rifle too.
 
Does the larger 308 size action still have the 9 lugs near the bolt handle as well? I don't know why I found that so interesting.
 
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