There are some words that just don't seem natural together. You know what I mean; words like "honest" and "politician."

I imagine for a lot of folks the idea that you could have an "economical custom rifle quickly" makes just as much sense as "honest politician." Admittedly, the concept does seem to be a stretch, but believe it or not, you really can have an economical custom varmint rifle in a short amount of time. I know because I just finished building one. I'd bet you can do it too.

First, let's take a look at the economics. If you're an average guy like me, money is especially tight right now. With the rising costs of just about everything, money for nonessential spending is limited. There's absolutely no way I can justify, to myself or my better half, spending $3,000 or more for a custom varmint rifle. Sure, I want one, would love to have one, and honestly believe it's worth the money. My problem is I just don't have that kind of cash laying around.

Still, I wanted a nice .223-caliber varmint rifle, and like your grandmother used to tell you, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I found the secret is to look at this project in small, affordable steps. I know I can't come up with several thousand dollars at one time, but I can rustle up a few hundred bucks here or there over a period of months.

Okay, I know what some of you're thinkin': Why not just save the money until you have what you need to order a custom rifle? The problem with this is that if I find myself with $3,000 or $4,000 extra lying around, it will go into the household fund. That's just a fact of life for me, and I bet I'm not out of the norm.

On the other hand, $100 or so can be invested in components with no major problem. And that, my friends, is the secret of getting this ball rollin'. I can wrangle the dollars to buy an action, then a barrel, later a stock, and finally a scope.

To top it off, with a little study, I found the ideal action for frugal folks like us to assemble into a complete rifle.

The Action
Savage Arms has a reputation for producing high-quality, economical firearms. The company's guns are great values for the dollar with a reputation of outstanding performance. This is especially true of the centerfire rifles.

Not too long ago, Savage introduced its Precision Target Action. It is a single-shot action designed specifically for benchrest competition and varmint hunting. It's available in a number of different configurations. You can get it with a right-hand bolt and right-hand loading/ejection port or even a right-hand bolt and left-hand port. It will be available with a left-hand bolt and right-hand port soon. No matter what set-up you want, you can probably get it with this action.

In addition to being super rigid because it has no magazine cutout, the action comes with the Savage AccuTrigger. This is an exceptional trigger that rivals custom aftermarket triggers costing hundreds of dollars. The trigger is fully adjustable and can be set by the user for a trigger pull as little as 6 ounces. The trigger guard and action screws are also included.