My day with black ops rifles.

[BigJoe]

I have been talking to Mike on and off for a couple years now. My experience with him has been extremely positive. If you don't know who Mike Bush is and his Black Ops (formerly Underground Skunkworks) you need to find out.

Mike flew in from Montana for the day with some friends of his bringing with him his new 40x 22lr repeater, a 19" 308 and 20" 300wm. I brought some friends to a local private range and we made a day of it.

First of all mike is a complete professional presents himself really well, super friendly, and fit in perfectly with the small crowd i brought out. We got to the dirty stuff and verifying zero's and moving back.

the 22lr 40x is amazing, one of the most enjoyable guns I've ever had the opportunity to shoot. Definitely the best "trainer" I've seen. The magazine is really easy to use and it feeds awesome. You will see a trend in this post, the attention to detail Mike puts in his builds is AMAZING! You will be hard pressed to find a single flaw in the bedding or fine finish in a single rifle coming out of his shop i am sure. I have a cz453 in a manners and i'm telling you now I'm figuring out how much i can get for a kidney to get a 40x from Mike.

The 308 and 300wm were sister guns, finished just like the 22lr in the same proprietary finish Mike does on all his guns.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j300/hardcharger_photos/A95DF4FC-91D2-4FDB-9C0D-4A2A48479BB6-5060-000001E5AA10CABC.jpg
the 20" 300wm was a incredible gun, whatever Mike is doing to his chamber and barrels works. Mike explained he is seeing over 2900fps with military mk248 190grn match out of his 20" barrels. He made a believer out of me as a friend of mine and I put about 8 rounds in under 3" at 700 yards.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j300/hardcharger_photos/B630C0CA-B0E8-4D70-B30B-02552EE79595-5060-000001E594DDDAC8.jpg
The 308 was more of the same and almost "boringly" accurate. Attention to detail as with all three was amazing. Mike does some very cool things to his guns. His stock texturing is awesome, I am a huge fan. As with the finish he does. Its deep and very flat, I am not a huge fan of gloss anything on my guns. He installs a integral slide rail under the stock so pic rails can be moved up and down the rail to any desired position, again inletted perfectly into the stock. his proprietary NV mounts were well made, and really nice, he had options for stocks that usually would not be able to take the badger NV mount that i am also a big fan of. All three fed perfectly with everything we shot. No binding at all in any of the defiance built actions he uses.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j300/hardcharger_photos/2156D864-7FFD-418D-A8C5-9EEDC7C1A468-5060-000001E5A2269925.jpg
His bottom metal is really well thought out and easy to use. All the edges have been rounded and its inletted perfectly to the t4a's that they all sat in.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j300/hardcharger_photos/9ACA4FC7-3834-4EC9-8D49-411D907799FB-5060-000001E59AAE19D7.jpg
My AW made a appearance and tried to hold its own against the Black Ops weapons.

Can't thank Mike enough for taking the time to come down and visit little ol' me. Had a great time.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j300/hardcharger_photos/44ABA9E0-F046-40EC-8050-C0A2B2B3205A-5060-000001E58C22C746.jpg
Me standing with the man himself (I am the little guy on the left) I'm sorry i'm not more "tactical" I'm not high speed enough to wear cammis at the range. Stand by for some guns from black ops to be in my safe soon.

[C-grunt]

Awesome rifles. Definitely on my short list for rifles for my anniversary present.

[lethal dose]

Nice write up. Looking to hear more from you about future procurements from Mike. His creations when he was SkunkWorks were amazing tools. Keep us posted... I'm very interested in following his new endeavor.

[ALCOAR]

Agree with lethal...enjoyable thread to read. Sounds like you got to live out one of your "bucket list" range trips, and I bet it was surely a kick ass time.


Thanks for sharing with us:)

[orkan]

I've seen his work. It's very good. I've also talked to him for a few hours on the phone, which started off by him wanting to sue me for something I said on snipershide a few years ago. :rolleyes:

Needless to say that he felt like a real ass after realizing what he thought was happening, wasn't happening. It was a good discussion and I haven't spoken to him since. He's very passionate about his work, I'll give him that!

I'm assuming he's better at building them than shooting them?

The reason for my question:
http://www.gregd.net/pics/guns/pain.jpg

Can a person look more uncomfortable behind a rifle?

Maybe it's because I'm actually engaged in teaching people how to shoot on a weekly basis, but every time I see a shooter doing this... I want to go poke them in the eye with a stick. You aren't meant to have your face all tensed up, forcing an eye shut while shooting.

Tell him to relax, and concentrate on the sight picture. Both eyes open, nice and easy breaths... while relaxing his face into a nice gob of squishy putty that is meant to cushion his skull from the rifle... nothing else.

... then I wont want to jab his eye and throw dirt in his mouth while its hanging open all cockeyed. ;) I could go on nit-picking all the shit I see wrong in that picture... but I digress. He builds damn fine rifles. One of the best smiths out there. In my top 5 for sure.

You should post some up-close pics of the tang area, and the front of the action. The only guy I've seen that is as anal-retentive about a bed job (or worse) as blackops is Chad Dixon of Long Rifles Inc out of Sturgis, SD. Both of those guys can build a rifle like nobody's business.

[BigJoe]

that isn't mike, lol that was one of his friends. one of the other guys he brought got scope bit like crazy between his eyes and probably could've used a stitch or two.

I'll post more pics of his guns later. You are completely right there are few people who build guns to that level of finish as mike, one being tac ops in hollywood (mike recigno) and probably chad but i'll tell you what the ones mike had with him were absolutely PERFECT in every detail it was really something to see and this coming from a guy who has 12-14 custom rifles from diferent shops.

[orkan]

In other words... listen to BigJoe people.

In order to know what to look for... you need that level of exposure to different builds. Some will have a coronary when I say this... but I know bigjoe will understand:

GAP and the like doesn't hold a candle to the kind of attention to detail that you will find in a blackops or long rifles inc build. They are two of the better builders out there. My nod goes to chad dixon... well... because he didn't threaten to sue me, and he's in South Dakota, and I'm in South Dakota. Doesn't mean GAP rifles don't shoot. They can. ... but the fit and finish just isn't there in comparison.

But anyway... if art can come together with riflesmithing... work from those two guys are as close as I've ever seen it.

Look at this build thread. ... anal retentive doesn't even begin to describe this guy.
http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2162469


Unfortunately, this also means that they both have the same problem: HUGE lead times and almost impossible to get ahold of. I mean ASTRONOMICAL lead times. Out of this world crazy-town drive-a-normal-shooter-ape-shit lead times.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2684224

This is as of last year... and he's only gotten busier.

It is this... above all things that has pushed me toward the best factory bolt gun I could find: DTA SRS.

[BigJoe]

i was trying to explain this to a friend, GAP, Surgeon, Short Action Customs, etc etc etc all turn out great rifles.

another guy that does awesome attention work is jared at APA

my top two finish wise are tac ops and black ops, chad does good work, don't get me wrong but i like the more tactical oriented built styles of the mikes.

now the rifles i honestly shoot the most are my DTA and my AIAW both in 308 most of the time, i on a regular basis take my 308's to 1200 so don't try to tell me I need more lol. I learn more and get better with a long barrel life 308 then with a center mass holding 7saum or 338LM.

anyways tangent over. I was very impressed, i know george personally and have 3 rifles at GAP right now, i know mike from tac ops and will be working with him shortly, i know mike from black ops and have 2-3 rifles in the works with him coming in the next year or so. they all get the job done.

BUT there is no denying the little bit extra that set those top builders apart.

[orkan]

You know that chad does a TON of tactical rifles right?

... special features for the tactical shooters such as yourself, that want specific mounts and stuff for NV... I'll have to concede to you there. Blackops/skunkworks has always catered to the tactical crowd in that respect.

You won't hear me talking down the 308 when it pertains to learning. It's the best learning cartridge out there.

I'd like to see you try running them at 1200 out here in South Dakota though. ;) I got good hits at 1200+ with an 18" 308 on a day where the wind was 0-1mph. I've seen many a man come out here with their "1000yd 308's" to be sent home with a full and complete understanding of why the military claims it to be an 800yd cartridge.

[BigJoe]

Lmao I know chad does Tac rifles. Watching trace on those windy days is awesome. Nah I know I pull the 300wm out for those days or one of my hot rods. Currently my caliber list for bolt guns sits at

223ai, 22-250ai, 6cm, 260, 7-08, 280ai, 7wsm, 300wm, 338LM, 375 and 50

A couple of those are inbound but I have time on all of them.