I started a thread during this build on the old precision rifle forum and wanted to move it over to the new one. Enjoy. :).  

I have been into US Military firearms since I was a kid and one of my favorites has always been the M40. Well, this winter I was lucky enough to make friends with a USMC gunsmith that eventually asked if I would want to have one built and I said "hell yeah", all I had to do was gather the parts required. I am lucky enough to have done at the Precision Weapons Section in Quantico where these rifles are built for our scout snipers by USMC gunsmiths. It is being built with the exact same parts the USMC uses (purchased privately by myself of course :)) to USMC specs. Here is the parts list.

Remington G prefix receiver
Schneider 1:12 USMC contour SS barrel
McMillan A4 stock, USMC spec
DD Ross recoil lug
DD Ross 30 moa lugged optics mount
Badger M5 DBM
M24 trigger
PGW EFR
Badger M40A3 34mm rings w/ SIMRAD cap

I am pretty excited about this one, it will be a great compliment to the M24 I already have.

Here are some pictures of the build progress so far.


In the beginning...

Barrel threads, thread relief, and shoulder done...no counter bore or chamber yet

Recoil lug reaming

Clearance notch milled

Action face and locking surface before and after


barreled action :)


Lug and lug locking surface lapping


counter bore

Ready for chamber cutting

Crown cut.

Inletting for the EFR.

Drilling out the mount holes and tapping 8-40. Per the remington norm the original holes were just a "little" off.


Opening up the barrel channel for the EFR. Bedding might happen tomorrow :).



EFR glassed in. Smith says bedding of the action and DBM should be complete by the end of the week then the barreled action will get blued and it's off to QC :).

Pillars and bottom metal bedding. Action is up next :).




Action bedding and some USMC M40A3 porn :).



Bedding job all cleaned up



Completed rifle, just waiting on accuracy testing :)



Here are a couple of pictures before I got the correct scope.
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Here are some detail shots of the rifle showing all the markings that a PWS built M40A3/5 would receive.  Again, Matt is a true artist, and his skill and attention to detail show in every aspect of this build.
Overall rifle



Right side of receiver showing RFID tag :)


Barrel markings

Serial number markings
Optics Rail

Recoil lug

Bottom metal

Bolt

Stock

Bedding job


EFR Bedding

Trigger

Crown

These pictures are with the correct Schmidt Bender scope and Angle Cosine Indicator.



Here is most of the kit along with a picture of the hard to find SB marked scope cap.

Followed the first time you posted these pictures. Still can't get enough of your build. Great rifle.

Do you have a pic with the M24 and the M40a3 together?
Love the pics.  Great to see this built from beginning to end especially at PWS

how does she shoot?

Absolutely beautiful! I'm extremely jealous.

What did the project end up costing if I may be so bold to ask?

Oh she shoots :). Wish I had the time to get out more and build my skills. This is the only target picture I have from sight in. They are 5 rounds each with Privi 168gr "match". That was a long time ago, I have some M118LR coming and hopefully I can get to the range and see how it does with the ammo it was chambered for.



On cost, I paid retail for most of the parts. Off hand I have somewhere around $2000 for the parts but I parted out a gun and got the receiver for free and traded some .22 ammo for the rings and M24 trigger so I did very well on those. The trigger alone is almost impossible to find. Had I paid for everything it would have been $3200ish just in parts and then add the trade for the build services which is negotiated with the builder and depends on his skill level and wants. The scope I just shopped around until I found a USMC spec one for $2800 on gunbroker. Wish I could have gotten a USMC marked one but they were $4500+ at the time.

Here's a digital copy of USMC M40 ( A3 & A5 ) Maintenance Manual, if you need one

https://info.publicintelligence.net/USMC-M40-MaintenanceManual.pdf

Dayum....

Nice stick! You need to go shoot a ladder test now.

Beautiful!

How long did that take to get built up?

The smith had just gotten to PWS when he started my build so it was pretty quick, it was 2.5 months from pile of parts to finished rifle in my hands.

buddies OP......you and i need to be them.  i have access to land down east to shoot 1K+, i'm just saying.  i have a remington 700P, blueprinted action, bedded, blah, blah, blah that i shoot.  nice fucking rifle!

Very nice

this was one of the best sniper rifle build threads ever.

Very Nice build! It's done and it is done right.   I'd like to have one like it to go with my M40 clone and my M40A1 clone on a return stock.

This is the third time I've seen this set of pics (the other times were over on Sniper's Hide) but this never gets old. What a work of art.

I was really hoping to have a similar set of pictures for the A1 build he is doing for me right now he got very busy over the last year :).