MEET THE GUNSMITH
Z-Hat Custom

by Dick Williams

Reprinted here by permission of Guns Magazine and Publishers  Development Corporation.  
This article first appeared on the May, 2004 issue of Guns Magazine.

            For those of you who have not been to Wyoming, there are a number of reasons that firearms enthusiasts love the state.  First, it is spectacularly beautiful.  Second, it is a hunting Mecca with a large and diverse population of game animals.  Third, it’s shooter friendly.  Finally, it’s very sparsely populated, with major cities being about the size of residential suburbs located outside major metropolitan areas elsewhere in the United States.  This means that if you’re in the gun business, you can’t expect a large walk in crowd.  So any gunsmith living in Wyoming had better be good enough to attract an out of state clientele.  Fred Zeglin is more than a good gunsmith.

            Fred has a company called Z-Hat Custom located in Casper, Wyoming, and he does build custom rifles.  He also has a series of custom cartridges and makes custom loading dies for shooters ordering a rifle chambered in one of these calibers.  His work in all three of these areas is outstanding.  But as usual when I get excited, I get ahead of myself.

Paying His Dues

            Fred cut his teeth in the gun business working for an established gun shop in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho right after graduating from Lassen College with his degree in gunsmithing.  Rifles were king in Idaho.  By the time he left several years later, Fred was shop foreman scheduling the work of several other gunsmiths while still doing projects himself.  

            Moving to San Diego, California, Fred became the full time gunsmith for two large gun stores.  In this Mediterranean climate, his work leaned more toward handguns and general repair.  After five years in California and more than ten years experience in the business, Fred moved back to Wyoming where he had spent his boyhood.  For the first two years back home, he operated a retail gun shop of his own.  In 1996, he began marketing his multiple talents on the internet, and he hasn’t looked back.

            I didn’t personally discover Fred.  I received a phone call from Phil Filing at Glenrock Blue who had restored (more like rebuilt,) a Model 1897 Winchester trap gun for me (see GUNS, November 2001)  Phil simply said there was a custom rifle builder in Casper who was pretty good and might interest me.  If Phil thought he was “pretty good,” I had to follow up.  

            A few minutes looking over the Z-Hat web site (www.z-hat.com) gave me some familiarity with the series of Hawk cartridges.  Magnum velocities using plentiful, inexpensive, non-belted brass sounded like a good idea, and brought back youthful flights of fancy through the old P. O. Ackley loading manual.  Perhaps this was my chance to shoot a truly custom rifle with enhanced performance and minimal abuse from recoil.  A brief phone conversation with Fred confirmed his interest in doing a project.  We settled quickly on the 264 Hawk cartridge because I had never worked with a 6.5mm rifle and because it is an extremely pleasant big game caliber to shoot.  Deciding on the rifle took longer.  

Building From Scratch

Fred will either build you a rifle from scratch or start with whatever you provide.  You can send an action, a barreled action, or a complete rifle for him to work or rework.  To show the full range of his talents, we decided on a rifle from scratch.  He suggested a Mauser action with controlled round feeding, specifically a Charles Daly 98, and an XX premium Douglas barrel. 

 I’m not one of the “controlled feed” fanatics.  In my many years of shooting Sakos and Remington 700s, I’ve never had a failure that wasn’t caused by me screwing up the bolt stroke.  And since the .264 caliber is not your charging buffalo stopper, the dangerous game argument didn’t enter into the discussions.  I went with a controlled round feed system for the same reason I chose the caliber; I didn’t have one.  But it was when Fred mentioned he could install a Manlicher stock that my knees buckled.  I am totally goofy about Manlichers!  

The only downside is that most Manlichers feature barrels 20 inches or shorter, and I didn’t want to give up velocity in an “improved” cartridge.  When Fred said he could full stock a 22 inch barrel, I totally surrendered to his judgment.  I can tell you unequivocally that I have not regretted that decision for one moment.  Opening the box upon the rifle’s arrival at my house was one of the most thrilling long gun moments of my life.  I was looking at a thing of beauty designed specifically for me.

           The stock is a triple A fancy Claro Walnut from Acra-Bond, has a low gloss finish, and is beautifully fitted to the barreled action.  It had been equipped with front and rear sling swivels.  Barrel and action have a Double Guard finish, which is actually two finishes for extra protection from rust or corrosion of any kind.  It’s a matte blue with a coat of Teflon/Moly.  The front end of the stock has the classic nose cap fitted, and it’s finished in the same low gloss blue “Double Guard” as the barrel and action.  A NECG 98 gas shield with a three-position safety has replaced the stock Mauser shield.

             Special attention was paid to the iron sights.  There is a fiber optic front sight covered by a hood with windows, both of which set on a Universal ramp with .030” elevation built in.  The rear sight is a Classic Adjustable with a see through fiber optic insert.  Fred also sent Talley’s TNT rings and bases for a scope.  These allowed the mounting of a Burris 3X-9X Fullfield II rifle scope while leaving the iron sights in place in case some kind of disaster in the field makes them necessary. 

            The rifle had also been equipped with a Universal Quick Lock Recoil Pad from NECG that can be slipped on and off over a base plate in the butt of the stock.  If the rifle stock doesn’t fit you, you simply slide on a pad of different thickness.  It’s an interesting feature and one well suited to a custom rifle.  It wasn’t until I started shooting that I realized how nice a job Fred did on the trigger; it has absolutely no creep and a consistent let off of 3¾ pounds.

Custom Cartridges

            One drawback to most custom calibers is that you can’t buy factory ammunition.  Not so with the Hawk family.  Z-Hat stocks loaded ammunition for several of their calibers including the 264 Hawk. In fact, Fred will develop loads for your rifle with any bullet weight you choose.  This service will add to your bill because it does require range time.  If you want to load your own ammo, data is not a problem since there is a CD loading manual available that can be provided with your rifle.

            Fred tested my rifle with one load and sent data for several other suggested loads.  He also provided a set of his full-length reloading dies for the .264 Hawk that includes an in-line seating die.  This features a sliding sleeve inside the seating die body and an opening in the side of the die near the top.  When you drop the bullet into the hole on the side of the die, it is caught by the sliding sleeve and held in position as you raise the shell case up into the seating die.

            No need to hold the bullet on top of the case mouth with one hand while you raise the case with the other hand.  This worked quite well with any bullet featuring at least a minimal boat tail, but required some finesse and fidgeting with the loading lever when flat base bullets were being loaded.  I suspect that a little more case mouth chamfering would make things easier.

I originally thought this would be a “one load rifle,” but I was kidding myself.  When I like a rifle this much, I’m going to spend more time with it than one load would allow.  I had a large can of IMR 4831, and it was one of the powders recommended for the 120 grain Nosler.  I also used it for the 129 grain Hornady spire point and 140 grain Sierra boat tails although other powders were recommended for these. 

The Nosler and Hornady bullets were loaded in some brass provided by Fred that was head stamped 264 Hawk.  (Did I mention that properly head-stamped brass is available from Z-Hat for all the Hawk calibers?)  I also fire formed some 270 Win cases by shooting 140 grain Sierra SBT seconds I had purchased years ago before Sierra moved from California to Missouri.  The 270 cases formed perfectly looking like the Hawk cases after one firing.

Perhaps I was just lucky with the Noslers, or perhaps this rifle will shoot all the Z-Hat recommended loads into less than 1½ inches.  Whatever the case, I dropped the powder charges a couple of grains, and my first two loads with the Nosler’s produced 100 yard groups of less than one inch and less than 1½ inches at velocities over 3100 fps.  The IMR 4831 was not as successful with the Hornady and Sierra bullets giving groups out around two inches.  Certainly acceptable for hunting accuracy, (and I did take a young hog with the Sierra bullet,) but not up to Fred’s standards of one inch or less for full stocked rifles (half stock sporters from Z-Hat will shoot under 1/2 inch at 100 yards FDZ).

 I'm looking forward to some fun shooting sessions over the next year to see exactly how good this rifle is, and my suspicion is that staying with the recommended powders and primers will get me under one inch with any selected bullet.

Quality Has its Price

There’s nothing cheap about Fred Zeglin’s work, nor would you expect that to be the case.  A truly custom rifle is very labor intensive, and every custom piece adds both material and fitting/finishing costs to the project.  But before he cuts the first chip of metal or touches sandpaper to wood, Fred will walk you through the entire building process piece by piece.  In the long run, it is your choice as to exactly what you want included in your custom rifle.  I can’t insure you he can do everything you want for the price you have in mind.  What I do guarantee is that if you let him, he can fulfill your dream.