Airforce Texan 457 build out

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Nealgl1985

Nealgl1985

Member
Dec 11, 2021
290
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MI, United States
I bought a used texan 457 from the classifieds. I'm going to customize it to my liking. I bought a AAO valve setup, carbon fiber tank, maddog recon stock, .452 Sub-MOA barrel, ultra precision trigger, and muzzle break. It will likely wear a zulus on top.

I will send all this off to lethal air for the rifle to be setup (barrel machined, trigger, and tuned). Figured I would make a post so if anyone was interested they could tag along.

I went with a 1:32 twist rate on the barrel. Tracy from Sub-MOA says it should shoot 250-350 grain slugs well. I'm hoping the factory barrel works out and I can swap back and forth depending on projectiles being used.

This is a pic of the .457 before modifications.
IMG_2113.jpeg
 
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I haven't shipped it off yet. I thought about tethering it and seeing what the factory barrel can do but I'm low on air and still haven't purchased a new compressor yet.

I like the current stock as well. I have a 257 texan in a ranger stock, another .457 in a ultima long walnut stock, so figured I'd give the recon a try. Hopefully it will be a good mix of benchrest and field use, if not, I'll just swap back to this tan stock it came with for field carry and recon for longer range if needed.
 
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I can compare it to my doug noble .457 but my new barrel is 28" so we will see what numbers it puts out compared to the factory barrels. I won't have any factory data to compare to unless it's posted elsewhere on the forums. I will post any data I get from lethal air.

I've never tuned any of my texans so hoping lethal air sorts the tuning process and reports back with the best setting for each barrel.

My goal will be a 300 grain slug moving around 950ish out of the 28" barrel. I will provide groups out to 200 yards when it's complete. We shall see what happens.
 
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Nealgl1985 said:
I can compare it to my doug noble .457 but my new barrel is 28" so we will see what numbers it puts out compared to the factory barrels. I won't have any factory data to compare to unless it's posted elsewhere on the forums. I will post any data I get from lethal air.

I've never tuned any of my texans so hoping lethal air sorts the tuning process and reports back with the best setting for each barrel.

My goal will be a 300 grain slug moving around 950ish out of the 28" barrel. I will provide groups out to 200 yards when it's complete. We shall see what happens.
Click to expand...
Hey Neal,
I'm fairly new to this forum.. and just wanted to say that, that is a beautiful Tex you have there.....as I exclusively use the AFT .457
myself,.. and Is my favorite go to AR.
I also have the Maddog Raptor on it but I'm still running the Stock LW barrel, which I have fire lapped , per Jeremy's suggestion (along with his 2018-thru current "24" valve setup that I now use)....ran 50 slugs with the finest Diamond paste grit of his recommendation which has most certainly enhanced accuracy and barrel cleaning by the way....
It is now a sleeved carbon fiber barrel to tame harmonics..(Sleeves are from a co. called "DragonPlate.com" in NY),.. A Hawke Sidewinder 30 4x16-50,....
A 60mil Ivey Adjustable scope base for ELR in a Pinch...running NSA 350g HPBT's and Zan 380 HPBT's.... both are extremely accurate at 100 and 200..

Once you do your magic to your setup, I have no doubt that you will get out of it what your looking for ... Imo this is one the greatest platforms to be created...You will def still get fantastic accuracy with the stock LW barrel.. out of the box henst bench regulated tuning for your magic pill.... but IMO can have a little push in tlc with with a fire lap as Jeremy suggested. It worked for mine ... happy shooting and be safe
 
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wimpanzee said:
I have a texan .457 with a stock LW barrel. It shoots decently, but more like 2MOA at 100 yards.
I am interested in fire lapping the barrel. Can you point me towards the instructions you mentioned?
Click to expand...
If you check the forums for air lapping some info will come up. It easy just a perfectly clean barrel and valve lapping compound in various grits on your slugs shot through your bore. You have to clean often removing any lead build up. Doing in say 3 steps 120 grit,220 grit,320 grit for example. This is nothng new for powder burners David Tubb makes a system similiar and it works..I hand lead lapped my .510 Texan Lother wather barrel,, it was horrible..Now it is acceptable..It was soo bad it would literally tear tear shards of lead off slugs and bind up up and break my action....
 
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wimpanzee said:
I have a texan .457 with a stock LW barrel. It shoots decently, but more like 2MOA at 100 yards.
I am interested in fire lapping the barrel. Can you point me towards the instructions you mentioned?
Click to expand...
Here's the link for paste used off of Amazon...
I used the finest grit (0.25) but you could use the 0.5 on 25 rounds then shoot the last 25 on 0.25....I did this a while ago, I think I used Lee Cast 340's at the time... but it will take down the Microscopic burrs and imperfections down to a mirror finish on the OEM Rifling... and cleaning the bore will be so much easier..
I just have been using a Patchworm , 1" patches along w/, .45cal felt cleaning pellets (in the front going into loading tray first, patch in the back....) and Ballistol at this point. Again like I said it's helped me..

 
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Plans changed slightly. I haven't heard a word from lethal air for over 3 weeks now. I didn't send then my texan because we never finished talking over my quote.

I have a maddog stock on order and when doug called we got to talking and he has a good machinist local that does barrel work for him. He also knows the texan inside and out and will fire lap barrels, polish out parts, and do trigger work ect.

Long story short I'm going to send my texan to him for his services. I'm going to let him do his magic on my stock valve and internals and skip the AAO valve upgrade for now. Doug thinks I can get what I'm looking for without it and I'm all for less stress on the gun if I can still achieve my goals.

Shipping texan off today and I'll report back with some results when I get it back.
 
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