I am new to bolt action guns - haven't ever owned one. I don't have several G's to drop on nice rifle and was wondering if these guns be built a piece/part at time? I would like to start with the action. Save a bit and get a barrel then stock etc. Might start with a complete gun but I'd rather piece a gun together based on what I want and what I'm willing to spend.

Yes you can. There are several actions that you can buy. Sorry do not recall what they are although there are the short think .556 and long thing 30-06 actions. Had a guy on here telling me about them yet that has been several months ago thus why I don't recall the manufactures of the actions.

Yes,  you can take a factory action such as a Remington 700 and send it to a gunsmith and have them square up the action assembly,  then chamber and thread up a barrel and set the head space on its..then you can drop it into your stock/chassis of choice with your trigger of choice..

You can also buy certain types that you can thread a pre chambered barrel to and set your headspace yourself(savage), but you need to know what you are doing or you could blow up a rifle..
You can also buy several custom actions in many different configurations..more money, but they don't need to be squared up like a production action does...

I bought this rifle new in 1999 when the cartridge was first released by Remington, I rebuilt it last year by sending the action assembly to Bartlein Barrels and having them square the action assembly before chambering/threading and fluting their barrel for it...Once back in my hands I installed a trigger tech trigger and dropped it into a MPA chassis...Spent roughly 2500 bucks for the complete rifle rebuild minus the bipod and scope...

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Well, MPA now builds a lite weight chassis as well....like 2.5 pounds.... been very, very impressed with the. chassis...just flat works...

Is there any place that sells just the un-barreled (or barreled) standard manufacture actions -  Tikka, Bergara, Savage, Remington etc?  That would be my starting point.  Of the non custom - and just from an unexperienced perspective my preference is Tikka and Bergara followed by Savage. As popular as the Remington 700 is - seems like they take more work that others to get set up.

At this point - and would love to hear opinions on this....my caliber selection would bee 7mm Rem mag.  It does not seem to be a popular choice as I just dont see many of the long range type set ups with this caliber in the options.

Brownells for one...

PTG has ready to go Remington actions, ready to screw a barrel on......worth a look at least...Howa also sells a barreled action, I think Brownell's or Midway sells them...

http://pacifictoolandgauge.com/834-actions-barreled-actions

Awesome - thanks for the link.

Nice - thanks for linking me up....anywhere that sells Tikka or Bergara?

Not that I have heard of...You can do custom action such as the defiant, stiller, big horn, surgeon, Kelby's, or mausingfield....

Coming from someone who has paid to have rifles built on FN and Remington actions, this is what I would do.  Granted, I am not familiar with the Tikka or Bergara actions, but you will spend the same amount of money (if not more) to get a Remington 700 action right.  Its more money upfront, but you know you will be right from the start.

Brownells has sales on the Howa 1500 barreled actions several times a year.  Kind of ironic that you can spend more on a stock or chassis than the barreled action itself.

You can buy any action that let's you throw on a savage prefit and go to town. I did this with an ARC nucleus and it turned out really well. Prefits are the way to go.

It's really common. Start with an off the shelf rifle and slowly upgrade it until it doesn't even resemble what you started with. Allow me to illustrate. I started with a box stock rifle that I'd gotten specifically to shoot squirrels with and as I got more money and more needs I upgraded it. Nowadays it doesn't even resemble what I started with. There's not even that much in the rifle $ wise. The barrel was 300 bucks, the chassis was 400 bucks, the triggers were 150 each, the Harris bipod was 100. The first set of furniture for the chassis was about $40. The second set was about $200. The first scope was $300, the others were about 1500 each and got bought and sold without any real equity loss. The rifle cost $650 to start. I'm somewhere around $2000 into the rifle not counting glass and it's a tack driver at the very beginning of its life span. I was able to do all the work myself in my garage with no special tools so there's no gunsmith dollars in there to speak of. Along the way I added a few other bits and bobs like a flat ground recoil lug and a PTG barrel nut, a A2 flash hider, and various sets of scope rings and bases. It performs as well as a much more expensive rifle. It looks like a $1200 factory made MVP LC rifle but has a much better trigger, a much better barrel and a much better buttstock (plus I like the PSG-1 pistol grip style better than the MOE style). The factory version has a proper brake and a crappier bipod and buttstock and it still has the so-so factory barrel.

Bone stock Mossberg MVP out of the box, add scope and bipod.


Stock sucked. It wasn't bedded but by plastic. So, new chassis stock & furniture on a budget.


Cheek weld not high enough so, new cheek piece and now it's shooting in matches


16x fixed mag SWFA was a bit much for these matches and the factory trigger was annoying so, US Optics ST-10 scope upgrade and a Timney (2.5lbs) trigger for PRS and a Jard (a few ounces) trigger for varminting.


It wasn't nearly as accurate as I needed as I'd abused the factory barrel and the 9 twist was not optimal for heavy bullets so, new barrel from Black Hole Weaponry (now Columbia River Arms).


Need variable magnification if I'm going to improve my match scores so, Vortex Razor 2 3-18x50mm


Time for some flamboyance with a little coral snake cerakote and a new XLR Tactical buttstock with some adjustability.


Then add a bipod extender and bounce the Vortex (disliked the turrets) for a US Optics B-17 (which I didn't like as much as older USO's because they ruined the EREK turret). It now wears a SN3 US Optics 3.8-22x44mm (not pictured)


The thing evolved radically over its life but that doesn't mean that a bunch of $ was poured into a hole. Nice part about bolt action rifles, there aren't that many parts to begin with so there's not that many to replace unlike say, an AR-15 which has all kinds of buttons and levers and pins and stuff you can get into the weeds nicely with.

Another advantage to some of the custom actions is that you can order a barrel and spin it on yourself without having to send the action off like a regular Rem 700.

This also means you can order spares ahead of time.

This is the way to go IMO, and what I’m doing currently. Buy a custom action threaded for savage small shank. Something like the bighorn origin is $825.

While you pay more than a regular old r700 action, your potential for accuracy will be much higher. You can get better features like controlled round feed, better extraction or ejection, built in rail, swappable bolt heads, etc. and the savage small shank means you can order barrels when you want, and swap them at home with just some head space gauges, barrel nut wrench, and action wrench.

Wanna take your gun from a 24” 6.5 cm to a 16” .308 for closer range hunting? Easy to do at home. It’s not as clean as a quick change barred rifle like the DTA or AI, but it doesn’t cost the same as them either.

You’ll be able to buy the rifle piece by piece when you can and assemble at home.

I built my precision rifle off of a Savage long action with a magnum bolt face.  Bought the donor action on gunbroker for $400, it was a recently produced savage rifle in 7 mm rem mag.  Got an MDT chassis as my  next purchase, followed by a custom barrel for $300, put it all together with a decent scope, and I have a .5 moa 7mm rem mag.  I had to buy a barrel vise, and wrench, plus head space gauges to put it together.  Later, I bought an off the shelf .300 win mag barrel, it's not nearly as accurate as the barrel I had made in 7mm Rem Mag, more like 1.25 moa.  You can do this on your own, for sure.