Good evening gentlemen, thank you all for the great replies. I'll have to read them over a few times to make sure I'm catching all of this fantastic advice.

This will not be my first ambitious project. I take learning prerequisite skills very seriously when I take on a project. Usually what happens is I start with a large goal, "I want to make a single shot rifle" and then as I gain more experience with the designs, I will hone it down into something more manageable!

To be clear, I was planning on building the entire action... eventually. It's been made clear by a few members that there are some excellent places to start that don't require all of the work of designing and building an action. This seems like a great place to start... I'm considering looking into the option of purchasing an existing used single shot shotgun and converting that to a centerfire rifle. I haven't done any research on this yet, it's just a thought I have floating around since they are plentiful at the local gun shop for about $50-75 a piece.

Right now the biggest thing seems to be to gather a list of actions that guys like to start with and work them to their specifications. This seems like the most expedient way to go for a beginner. 

That said, as we speak I am exploring some designs via CAD (this is my favorite way to crank out several designs and see where key issues lie before investing material and tools into a project). A book of well known actions would be INVALUABLE here. It's quite fun to look through different designs and pick and choose the aspects you like of each one, coming up with your own special concoction at the end.

Thanks again all and I hope this turns into a fun project

  They can be had on loan from the archives for a nominal fee. Contact Laurie Gapko AKA fallingblock.