SLR15 BOLT ACTION SNIPER RIFLE ARMORER COURSE

When:    June 10th, 2024

Where:  Sandusky, Ohio

We conducted a 1-day (8-hour) Bolt Action Sniper Rifle Armorer Course at the Ohio Tactical Officers Association Conference.  This is our 18th year teaching at the conference, and we look forward to more in the future.  The training room offered plenty of table space, and decent lighting for a conference room.  We used a media projector and portable screen to project some animated graphics of the weapons system, powerpoint detailed pics of gun parts, and especially when using our electronic borescope to project the live pics onto a large screen.

The weapons Officers brought to class were  a mix of Remington 700's, Savage 10/110's, Bergara, and Sig Sauer.  People are welcome to bring whatever brands and models of rifles they wish to class, we bring parts for the Remington, Savage, and Winchster/FN type rifles with us.  We ask that if people know they are going to need parts for a rifle that we won't have parts for in class, that they either bring replacements or make arrangements with us before class so that we can bring them to class to make needed repairs.    

The Student base were all Law Enforcement Officers from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

The morning started with going through the course manual that all students are given.  Students were supplied with their own set of basic tools that are necessary to do the work on their rifles.  We also provided lots of gunsmithing/armorer tools, torque wrenches,  gauges, borescopes, cleaning equipment, bore guides, vises, etc.  All students were supplied with samples of Slip2000 "EWL" Extreme Weapons Lubricant and #725 Cleaner Degreaser, which allowed them to clean and lubricate anything that needed it.  A short session of nomenclature was covered, at which time covered every feature and exterior piece of the rifles.  We also went through the eight cycles of fire, function checks, and basic inspections.

Students field stripped their rifles.  Once field stripped, proper maintenance was shown of where and what to clean, how to clean it, and why some areas need specific cleaning.  We discussed fouling of different types, and how it effects accuracy in sometimes a good way and sometimes in a bad way.  With discussions on fouling, it is our recommendation that Snipers keep a log of their maintenance in addition to shooting log book notes, as over time they will start to see a pattern of how each individual rifle performs with what levels of fouling and maintenance, which may give them an idea of when and how to clean and to what level.

We covered different types of cleaning solvents and methods, and warned people to be careful on not leaving it in a barrel too long if it contained ammonia to avoid damage.  We showed several types of copper solvents, and showed the proper procedures for using these for fouling removal, and how to keep these from damaging things.

Everyone was given the opportunity to borescope their barrels.  This is a great time for everyone to see what different barrels look like on the inside, and see the damage people create due to the cleaning methods.

Note:  We had the borescope integrated with the median projector.  This allowed everyone to see what was going on inside the barrel, as it was projected upon the large screen.  There were several barrels which had a heavy fouling build up in the chamber at the neck area of the casing, which is something we see more often on suppressed rifles due to the heavy back pressure and carbon fouling.  This allowed us to make a point that people need to clean the chamber with a brush and solvent to remove this fouling, as if it's neglected the carbon build up could cause over pressure and extraction issues.  We supplied chamber brushes for people to use to clean this area.      

We showed everyone how to gauge their rifles for muzzle erosion, headspace, and also covered suppressor mounting and gauging, to include suppressor maintenance issues.  Everyone took advantage of the gauges.  

Note:  There were a few rifles present which had been passed down through several Snipers.  The Snipers in this class that had the hand me down rifles, didn't have the previous Snipers data books.  We recommend that the books stay with the rifles, no matter who it gets passed onto, as this is the historical road map of the rifle, which this data will tell you not only how this rifle performs, but also the round count and any accuracy on consistency issues, parts replaced or repairs it may have had in the past.

When people bore scoped their rifles, they could see which ones had abused and neglected, finding pitting from not removing ammonia based solvents, scratches and gouges from the lack of use of bore guides, muzzle erosion issues, etc.  We allowed everyone to gauge their barrels for muzzle erosion as well, showing where this would be one of many causes in loss of accuracy issues.  A couple of barrels were close towards the end of their lifespan, but none failed.  

Note:  One of the rifles in this class was out of service due to accuracy issues.  When it was scoped, there was a lot of cleaning solvent damage, about the front half of the barrel was so pitted it had very little rifling left.  This barrel also showed where it may have had a squib round, and a new live round was fired behind it, as you could see an impact area in the rifling.  The agency that has it will now get it replaced.      

When done with the barrels, we moved into the bolt assemblies.  With the bolts out, were were able to have everyone remove the firing pin assemblies.  Everyone cleaned all the carbon and other fouling inside the bolt body, and this showed where suppressed rifles have more fouling issues which require more maintenance.  Several different types of disassembly tools were supplied, and then we also simple field methods of disassembly.  It is our belief that Snipers should know how to disassemble bolts in both the workshop and field, as if a rifle were to be dropped or something where it picked up debris like sand, that they can deal with it onsite when necessary.  Firing pin assemblies were lubricated and reassembled and checked for function.

Note:  The second time through the ejection system, we supplied people with the Sully Ejector Tool, which works on the Rem 700, Savage type rifles in long action and short action, and AR10/AR308 variants as well.  We also supplied them with the Sully Delrin Punches in 30-cal, similar to the 5.56 version that we use in the AR15 / M16 Armorer course.   Everyone put these to good use, making ejection replacement much easier when not using an ejector tool.    

Note:  One of the Savage rifles was brought to class for having ejection issues.  Upon inspection the ejection spring was about 40% shorter as compared to a new one.  We supplied the Officer with a new spring, and once installed thing started working correctly.  

We covered extractors, from issues to replacement.  Everyone with Remington 700's had rivetless extractors except one older 700 that was a guess of 70's vintage with a riveted extractor.  We also covered replacement of both riveted and rivetless extractors.  We went through inspection of bolt lugs and proper lubrication, with our recommended preference to a moly based lubricant on the bolt lugs and why.

Everyone was shown how to remove their barreled actions from the stock. We discussed torque of the actions and inspected them before removal, a couple were found to be out-of-spec for torque, with several of them under-torqued, and a couple of them where the torque didn't have any pattern -- we discussed how this may effect accuracy and consistency, along with stress.  Everyone removed their actions from the stocks.  We cleaned and inspected the stocks, pillars, bedding, lugs, hardware, bottom metal, magazine assemblies, etc.  We showed different examples of pillars, bedding, recoil lugs, stocks, etc.  Nobody had issues with stress on the pillars or recoil lugs.  With the actions removed, we showed how the different trigger groups were mounted, their cleaning & replacement.  We also showed the different adjustments of the triggers, and cautioned everyone to leave these within factory spec, and that if they are out of spec to contact the Manufacturer for service procedures.  This warning is viewed from the Law Enforcement Sniper point of view of possible civil issues when something is out of factory spec.

Barrels were inspected for crowns, muzzle erosion, and headspace.  We showed how to do minor crown repair, and discussed when crown damage needs to be remachined.  We also showed several rifles with threaded barrels, and discussed using some type of brake, comp, flash hider, or suppressor mount, and how these do help protect crowns.  We covered barrel materials, finishes, treatments like cryogenics, and barrel twist rates and how they pertain to accuracy of different bullets, loads and projectiles.

Lastly we moved into the scopes, mounts, and scope rings.  We showed different types of scope bases, how these should be lapped, trued, and properly mounted (To include bedding).  We showed how to properly mount scope bases & rings.  This included a session on gauging for proper alignment.  The misalignment of the scope rings causes stress on the scope, which can effect its performance and repeatability when dialing things around.  We then showed how to lap rings, scope base mounting, bedding, scope ring mounting with and how to true and lap them as well.  A couple people took advantage of our scope lapping and gauging tools, and reworked their scope mounting to get it in proper alignment and remounted correctly.    

Here is a brief course description:
The course covers the Precision Sniper Rifle systems of the Remington 700 series, Savage 10/110 series, and Winchester/FN 70 series type rifles.   Other brands of rifles like Accuracy International, Tikka, Sako, Steyr, Ruger, Bergara, Sig Sauer, Daniel Defense, etc, are welcome in class, the only thing we ask is if people know they need replacement parts, then to check with us before hand to make sure we have brought them with us, or to bring them with the rifle to class so the necessary repairs can be made.  All students will have the opportunity to inspect their rifles and make any corrections in class to insure their rifle is in top working order. This is a hands-on class that will cover action disassembly & repair, proper torque of the action, extraction and ejection, maintenance, truing/lapping scope rings to maximize the performance of the rifle and optic, inspection of the pillars and bedding, and more.

This course covers:
* History of the Weapon System
* Cycles of Function
* Armorer Disassembly & Assembly
* Identification of Common Problems and Parts
* Nomenclature
* Identification of Group Components
* Stocks, Pillars, Recoil Lugs, and Bedding Inspections (Traditional, Synthetic, and SOPMOD)
* Cleaning and Maintenance
* Barrel Inspection
* Ballistic Issues
* Crown Repair
* Parts Interchangeability & custom fitting
* Headspace
* Firing Pin Protrusion
* Trigger Removal, Cleaning, and Replacement
* Chamber Inspection
* Accessories and Customizing
* Tool Options and Selection
* Scope Base Mounting
* Scope Ring Truing & Lapping


CY6
Greg Sullivan "Sully"
SLR15 Rifles
DefensiveEdge.com
(763) 712-0123

Excellent!!!  It is always a great conference.  Our courses were both full with standing room only in the back, so lucky he got in.



CY6
Greg Sullivan "Sully"
SLR15 Rifles
DefensiveEdge.com
(763) 712-0123