The .25 BR MiniMauser Micro Hunter Member William Boggs
but it could not provide the 2.55" required by the .250 Savage. Friends and experts provided advice, ranging from just going ahead with the .250 Savage idea and short-loading my ammo to just scrapping the whole idea, or even having someone “stretch” the action a quarter inch. I didn’t want to make a .250 Savage rifl e that would be unsafe if a future owner loaded it with a factory cartridge. I investigated chambering a 6mm Bench Rest, but an expert told me the stubby round would not feed through magazines, and I was never partial to the .243 bore anyway. Everything just sat still for a few years. While seeking loading information from Sierra, I talked
The BR lineup, from left: 6mm BR, .25 BR, and 7mm BR.
me a .17 Mach IV (a wildcat now commercialized as the .17 Remington Fireball) he had built on the Interarms action and told me they were good. Then I found a .223 Interarms Mini- Mauser on a used rack, and after a good bedding job it shot as well as many heavy varmint rifl es. Later on, I bought another Interarms .223 Mini and used that action to build “Old Blue,” the .17 Mach IV that I wrote about in an earlier VARMINT HUNTER Magazine.
M Interarms quit importing the Zastava-made actions and
rifl es, and Charles Daly carried them for a time. I heard that Daly was no longer importing the actions but a distributor had some actions in the white. I ordered an action set up for the .22-250 chambering, thinking I would someday turn it into a compact .250 Savage. I also bought a matching Redfi eld Jr. scope base. Both went into the safe. Alas, that project was not to be, as the magazine box and bolt throw accommodated the .22-250’s maximum 2.35" length,
y experience with Mini-Mauser actions goes back a while. About fi fteen years ago, a gunsmith showed
with ballistic technician Rich Machholz, who had built a com- pact .25 on a mini action years before, but he used a shortened .35 Remington case for his chambering. Being a master reloader and a ballistic technician for Sierra Bullets, Rich is light years ahead of me in knowledge and ability. His mini .25 was a little more into case forming than I cared to go, but he suggested a .25 BR. If the newer “short and fat” compact magnums would feed, why wouldn’t a Bench Rest cartridge? Rich sent some dis- carded 7mm BR cases for me to try, and they worked through the unbarreled action. He sounded encouraging, so I ordered a Bell and Carlson stock for the Mini-Mauser action. A .25 cal., No. 2 contour stainless barrel from Lilja Precision Barrels, Inc. came next. In a couple of months, I had “lock, stock, and bar- rel” in hand.
Meanwhile, Mr. Machholz ordered a .25 BR “no turn”
reamer from Pacifi c Tool & Gauge. Being a regular on the bench rest circuit, Rich knows people in the trade. Once before, he had put me in touch with Mark King and the resulting varmint rifl e was excellent, so I trusted Rich’s judgment fully. I shipped the box of parts to him and he hauled them to a ’smith he knew of. I don’t know who got more fun out of this project, Rich or me, but he sent encouraging reports as things came together. Rich contacted Redding Reloading Equipment and set up
BR reloading dies to accommodate the .25 BR cartridge. That process involved using a .25 caliber tapered size button, a neck bushing for the .25 cal, and machining a 6mm BR competition seating die to accommodate .257" bullets. My only responsibility was to keep writing the checks as the bills came in. As the process moved along I began researching optics.
This is the muzzle of the .25 BR barrel, showing the target crown.
Page 144 July — September 2011
I have had great success with Leupold, and Nikon has proven their quality. I also have adorned rifl es with the Tasco, Simmons, and Bushnell brands over the years, but the scope that seemed right for this project was the new Burris Timberline 4.5-14x. This scope is compact, has an excellent adjustable objective, and the matte fi nish would blend perfectly with the baked-on matte black fi nish I had requested for the rifl e. The Ballistic Plex reticle provides additional aim points for 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards — covering all ranges I plan on shooting and more. Un- like some range compensating reticles that block out targets, the Burris Timberline has very fi ne hash marks that will not obscure a distant target. With Rich calling the shots and me writing the checks, the ’smith fi tted the Lilja barrel, trued the action, pillar bed-
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