[quote="jneihouse"]Just picked up my backup rifle from Chiken George in Little Rock yesterday. Kitty.

VERY NICE John!!!!!! I want the top one

jneihouse wrote:The BKL's are the perfect height for me, lets me get a lot of cheekpressure on the gun. I think I'm going to powdercoat the rings, just don't know what color yet.

Kitty

Let me guess..... RED

May go with glossy black bottom halves and red top......Not sure yet

Just looking at the gun, having either half be black with the rings attached to a dark receiver and black scope won't be as flashy as the rest of the gun. I'd probably go with red bottoms and polished metal on top to coordinate with the barrel or red for both halves and polished screws in the rings.

Oh yeah.. next time you're in a shootoff, make sure to tell the other person to not even try to step up if he can't "bring the bling!"

Those sound like good combinations. .....Possibilities are limitless....One thing for sure, even if I forget and leave spottin kitty at home there should be no reason I can't pick my gun out of a crowd. Now the tough thing is choosing which one to be the primary gun and which to be the backup. The 1710 actioned gun with the fluted barrel shoots slightly better groups at 100 meters but the 54:18 actioned gun has the better trigger and the wide shoe. Both are balanced exactly the same........Guess I could flip a coin......

Sounds like the 54.18 would have to be the winner there. Better trigger and wider shoe would make it my choice unless is shoots groups bigger than 1.5" at 100m.

jneihouse wrote:Those sound like good combinations. .....Possibilities are limitless....One thing for sure, even if I forget and leave spottin kitty at home there should be no reason I can't pick my gun out of a crowd. Now the tough thing is choosing which one to be the primary gun and which to be the backup. The 1710 actioned gun with the fluted barrel shoots slightly better groups at 100 meters but the 54:18 actioned gun has the better trigger and the wide shoe. Both are balanced exactly the same........Guess I could flip a coin......

I'd go with the 54.18 and sell me the 1710 lol. You can give it to Pete when he comes down in the spring so you won't even have to bother with shipping it In fact, I just got off the phone with Pete and we agree that there is far to much Bling down there

What's the weight difference between the two. I have a 54.18 (1808) sitting here and was real interested, after talking with Mark, about converting it to a hunter.

You might not want to buy if you hear what I have already turned down for it.......Never said I was smart, just that I liked pretty guns that will shoot...There's not more that 1 oz difference between the two now. When we started the 54:18 was in a McMillian thumbhole stock and had an 1808 barrel with weights. With scope the 54:18 was 10 lbs 1. oz.....The 1710 came in well under hunter weight at around 8 lbs total....If you close your eyes and shoulder either gun you can't tell it from it's sister unless you touch the trigger (54:18 has the wide Pharr shoe) or the bolt knob (tatical knob that fits a Rem 700) or if you feel the flutes in the barrel. Balance wise they are exactly the same (courtesy of gunsmith Evelio McDonald). I went the extra mile because I wanted Pete to have something nice to shoot when he comes to Arkansas to shoot with us.

Kitty

jneihouse wrote:....... I went the extra mile because I wanted Pete to have something nice to shoot when he comes to Arkansas to shoot with us.Kitty

Oh no..... he will never be the same. He tells me he has big changes in store and planned for next year, so if you go spoil him he may have to get a part tiome job with Chicken George so he can go buy a new rifle.

The certainly are beautiful, I'm going to be dreamin of them now.

We always have a good time with Pete when he comes down. Enjoyed meeting all you guys at Ridgeway. What you all need to do is plan to come on down to the Duckgumbo's Southern Nationnals in early june. If you don't have the time of your life there it'll be your fault.....All the usual suspects plus a few more. Pete ought to talk to the Chickster......Maybe George is ready to branch out to the east coast.....

Lots of folks are putting the bling on their rifles....We may have to have a "pimp my rifle" contest along the lines of the MTV show "Pimp my ride"

With all the bling you were putting on that rifle, I thought you had someone around Coates' age in mind to shoot it...

Wouldn't be above sharing the bling with my young protege Kolby Rasmussen. He'll be coming with me to the Cup this year. Of course, for a guy who is secure in him masculinity enough to put a Spottn Kitty, who now wears an Arkansas Razorback sweatshirt and a pink bow around her neck, on his gun and travel all over the country, a little bling in not too unusual.....I am surprised that Mr. Watkins hasn't jumped on me for having BKL's on the guns and not getting them from him.....Though the pair on the 54:18 did come from him indirectly........

Kitty

jneihouse wrote:Don't think that there is any restrictions on bolt knobs, unless you found a way to make one large enough that you could in some way gain extra support.......It does give a mechanical advantage to opening and closing the bolt, which on those rifles is a little tight.....

Kitty

Can you tell me if the factory bolt knobs thread off of the bolt to allow a threaded aftermarket knob on, or are the factory knobs attacted with some other method?
Thank you for your help.

Most of the ones I've seen are on tight and maybe held in place by adhesive so you should be prepared to replace it when you take it off as it probably won't fare too well in the operation. The knob on the pictured 54:18 is the factory knob (large knob). The tatical knob on the 1710 action pictured required that the old knob be removed, (it broke in half during the removal) and the bolt had to be re-threaded to be compatible with the thread's in the tatical knob.

Kitty