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Those are my photographs, Mr. NitroX! (Apologies for the dirty fingernail.)

Mr. Karamojo - honestly, I do not use the rifle as much as I ought to. Firstly, it's expensive to use and secondly, after (extensive) zeroing of it and practice on the bench, I was left with a huge bruise which stretched from the bottom of my ribs to my shoulder, so I do all of my target shooting - which I only do to keep my eye in, rather than be a bore about it - with a .308 nowadays. I've got a photograph of that bruise, somewhere. I'm becoming a bit of an old fart.

As for accuracy, it is certainly accurate out to 100 yards, by which I mean a 1" group. That's repeatable - ie. dismantling the rifle and putting it back together and taking off the sights and putting them back on. I am fairly sure that it would hold its accuracy beyond that range, but I have only used it in the mopani bush rather than the open veldt, so I haven't felt the need to zero it beyond that. Pierre van der Walt has it as good out to 300 yards with the right bullets, but that doesn't strike me as particularly sporting and, I suspect, you are probably going to get quite a lot (>18") of bullet drop and - more importantly - the actual energy delivered at that range would preclude its use on anything other than thin-skinned antelope.

In short - for accuracy, and given that it's a big bore heavy-hitter rather than a precision 'tack driver' - the takedown is absolutely fine.

If you are ever in the High Wycombe area, I suggest that you look up Lee Butler, ex-WR and now set up on his own, and have a chat with him. He made the new QD scope mounts for me. Alternatively, Paul Roberts, mentioned above. I would be nervous about using a gunsmith who did not have previous experience of safari rifles: you will be paying to educate him.

I am afraid that I am not able to help you further in relation to converting round and square threads.

The only other piece of advice that I would give is that it is much cheaper to buy a rifle with the elements that you want rather than to build a rifle with the elements that you want. A friend of mine has just bought a (new) takedown Mauser in .243 which he raves about and, frankly, if I was you, I would think that that might be an avenue worth following up. Or just keep a beady eye out on gun sale and auction websites and wait. It'll turn up sooner or later. And in the current economy, it's likely to be very good value.

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