NRA American Rifleman: Assembling a Custom Left-Handed Rifle

We have arrived at a world where building a "custom" rifle in your garage or basement is possible and rivals any produced by a manufacturer or gunsmith. It's astonishing. However, tolerances and manufacturing systems have paved the way for this reality. Frank Melloni of American Rifleman Magazine discusses this idea in his latest article, Assembling a 'Custom' Rifle for A Left-Out Lefty. Melloni summarizes this succinctly: "While 'custom' typically implies the use of premium materials, a significant amount of the cost is to compensate the craftsman doing the work. Therefore, if you can develop the skill yourself, you can own high-end items without having to pay the high-end price."

For Melloni, this project stemmed from dissatisfaction: he couldn't find a left-handed rifle that met his long-range needs. Now, there are many excellent rifles on the market, but few cater to southpaws, leaving many to opt for custom solutions. Among the top actions, he chose a Pure Precision SKLTN. The foundation of this action is in its Remington 700 footprint. But like many other manufacturers, Pure Precision improved on it with a 75-degree bolt throw, an M16-style extractor, and compatibility with pre-fit barrels. This opened a world of possibilities. Melloni settled on Shaw Barrels of Pennsylvania. The historic barrel maker (whose history dates to World War I) spun a #3 contour barrel chambered in 6.5 CM with spiral fluting for a creative flair. 

With the action and barrel in hand, you only need a few specialized tools: a barrel vice, action wrench, torque wrench, and go/no-go gauges. Frank obtained most of his tools from Short Actions, while the torque wrench came from Real Avid. (For detailed notes on the assembly process, see his article, where he goes in-depth). Once the barrel is screwed onto the action, the rest of the build is quite simple, even easy.

All photos courtesy of NRA and Frank Melloni. 

The next step after assembling the barreled action is to install a trigger. A TriggerTech Diamond was selected because it is one of the few premium triggers available for left-handed actions. This package was nestled into an MDT ACC Elite Chassis. Melloni remarked on the chassis ergonomics: "Shooters can tweak this stock to fit every imaginable feature of their body and shooting position. Starting with the buttstock, you can adjust not only the height of the cheek riser but also its horizontal axis. This pairs nicely with the stock's ability to vary its length of pull. Final tuning comes in the form of buttplate cant, which serves the modern, more squared rifle shooting position rather well." The rifle's limitless adjustability accommodates shooters of all body types- right-handed, left-handed, male, or female; whether David or Goliath; this chassis can work for you. 

Now that the rifle is assembled, the last task is to go outside and shoot! If you want to know how well the rifle performed, check out this article! For additional articles like this, visit American Rifleman.

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