I was in a Gander Mountain over the weekend and noticed that there was a few Stevens 200's in .223 that had a bull barrel. It was an extremely front heavy rifle, but they wanted only $500 for one.. Just curious if anyone else has seen this...?

Must be a special run for Gander, didnt see it offered on their web site.I know Savage did a special run of model 93's in 17hmrs for Dicks sportinggoods a few years ago.Would be neat to see,have a model 200 in 223 it shoots sub moa groups with 36 gr. varmit grenades but after the 4th consecutive shot the barrel heats up and poi. changes due to the small contour of the barrel.Can get three shot groups in the .400's at 100 yrds with Sierra's 69 gr. hpbt and benchmark with it.Like to get one of those bullbarreled ones to see how well it preforms past four consecutive shots.

I have one of the 200 in .223's as well. I haven't played around with it enough to even come close to your loads, but it shoots satisfactory for me! I kind of thought it was a Gander special run, but I wasn't sure. It was another ugly gun though! And I would've tried to counter weight the back as it was too front heavy for me! I suppose a mounted scope would help though...

Same as the Savage with the tupperware stocks, very front heavy. We added lead shot to the rear of my son's Savage 12FV. It balanced much better and tightened groups up even more, although it was extremely accurate to begin with. Waaaay too heavy to carry. Another option is an after market laminate stock.

Well that would be kind of fun... I bet if you found a good deal on a stock you could have a sweet shooter for less than $650!

I bought a youth model 12FV (223/26") for my son. Added the shot and he used it that way until he grew out of the youth tupperware stock. With the shot added it had nearly zero felt recoil. Then we got a Boyd's Laminate to replace the nasty plastic. I don't think Boyd's is still offering that Target Thumbhole, yet they may still be available someplace on the web? Here he is getting ready to toast another pdog wit it.



It shoots great and with the Savage 223 heavy barrel's, (we have two) I've been able to run 100ish rounds through before cleaning the copper out in a PD town. Now it will get hot, but I can shoot a good number of consecutive rounds thru mine without noticing any POI changes. POI changes would likely be more noticeable at the range, however I've not noticed it there either and certainly haven't seen it after only four consecutive shots.

Red, how did you add the lead? I am curious about this now.... I know my stevens has a styrofoam insert in the stock. I figure if I can just pull that and throw a bag/sock full of lead?????

The sock sounds like a good idea. Yeah pull the styrofoam out. The only trouble I ran into was the lead is so heavy it pushed a gap between the recoil pad and the stock where some of the shot was able to leak out. To fix that I poured the shot in and left it about 1/2"-3/4" low and filled that portion with hot glue. I let that harden and the replaced the recoil pad.

On another one, I molded a piece of solid lead and glued it in place with a big old glob of silicone. It wasn't quite as heavy and never had any troubles.

Oh so you just pour it in loose then! Ok, i'll have to remember that! Thanks Red!

If you catch them on sale, you can buy a B&C Duramaxx stock from Midway for under $100. Don't bother with anything but the black ones, you can paint them yourself, and save some $$. I have three, and lots of other guys snap them up whenever they can. I bought two of the pre-painted ones before I smarted up Now I just go with the cheapest one possible, those cans of Krylon will last for SEVERAL stocks more, I'm sure.

I did. The sock idea sounds like it's worth trying though.