SIL's rifle

[fiver]

well step one is done and drying.
I mixed up a little olive drab looking bedding compound and wedged some tooth pick in the cracks to hold everything open then worked the compound in there before pulling the toth picks and letting the wood fall back into place naturally then smoothing everything out.
then I bedded the whole front 4" of the stock and done the recoil lug and first 1-1/2" of the barrel.
i'll let that all dry for about 3 days then fill in between the two.

damn near couldn't get the barrel out of the stock but all the screws go in and out properly and all the bottom metal fits a bit better now too.
after the middle part of the fore-stock I will address the crack down the middle of the stock [all the way down]
I am going to cut and form a couple of S shaped pieces of cold rolled steel and flatten them out then relieve the stock and bed them into place.
I see two areas that need this badly, and one is gonna be a little tricky.
and in one place I will just hog it out and bend the ends over on another piece of steel in more of a Z shape [only straight and not so big on the ends] then bed that in.

after that I'm going to build up the slop between the magazine box and the wood and then attack the tang area where there is another small crack at the top and the bottom.
I will most likely just degrease those and force some acrylic glue in the cracks.
I have to remove some of the wood where the rifle has been rubbing and build up other areas for better support and fill in the gap at the back.
I also have to build up the screw holes where they have wallowed out but that'll just be a couple of metal spacers I fit in there that closely fits the screws themselves.
once I get done the stock will be stronger than it was originally.
it better be it's gonna be half steel and half bedding compound.

oh I have a plan to find out if the wood will take the cera-kote or not too.
more on that later as I type this all out.

 

[fiver]

I got looking at those cracks again today and decided to use some acrylic glue to hold everything together and give the bedding compound time to dry.
i'll continue with the bedding later and start cutting the dog bones tomorrow, and maybe doing some of the inlay cutting.
it was amazing how much of the acrylic glue this thing sucked up I just kept on letting it suck it up and filling it in with more and more.
then I almost glued myself to the stock without knowing it. [shaking my head]
I need supervision sometimes.

I know Ben is getting a good chuckle out of all this amateur hour stock stuff.

 

[Ben]

I am finding this one VERY interesting.

Ben

 

[Brad]

Ben would still be crying if he saw the stock in person.

Fiver, this IS one of those times when a photo would be nice. Sigh

 

[fiver]

it probably would.
the more I look at this thing the worse it gets.
but I know there is no hope of finding another stock even partially inletted for this thing. [and i don't have the talent to carve one]
so I'm just band-aiding the cracks and tying all the pieces together as I go.

you can clearly see where just working the bolt would rock everything forward in the stock and every time it was fired it would all move back again.
the bottom metal is actually a good fit in it's cut out as far as looking at it around the edges.
But the front where the bolt goes through to the action floats off the stock by about 1/8" making things worse.

 

[Brad]

So the action can move back and forth on firing/loading? Yikes, kinda hard on the stock bolts and holes.

 

[Ben]

the action can move back and forth on firing/loading?



UUmmmm, my head is starting to hurt..............

 

[freebullet]

Ok fiver's peeps got in touch with me. They provided a couple pics. The first is the rifle he started with and the second is what he is trying to create from it. Enjoy, happy new year!

 

[fiver]

it used ta could.
it don't move at all now. [I can barely get it in and out of the stock]

the SIL come over today and I taught him some reloading [I prepped all the brass yesterday and had it ready] then let him weigh out the powder charges and seat the boolits/bullets.
I done a quick eyeball on the scope settings using the neighbors porch light and we went down to the range with the rifle as it was sitting for a bit today.
I had him shoot one shot at a dot and made a quick scope adjustment, then had him shoot a three shot group.
he just used a front rest sitting on the bench, and shot a 3 shot group.
between the wind and the cold and his not so steady rest he managed a nice diamond shaped 1" group at 50 yds [using 41grs of I-3031 and my home swaged bullets]
I had him hold off while I took a couple of shots with my 25-06 and a varmint load I'm working on.
then he took another 3 shots.
the first shot hit right next to his first shot in the group.
his second was in between his second and third from the first group and his third was right next to his third shot from the first group cutting it's hole.

I think I got everything settled down and tight, i want to do a little more on the bedding but it's hard to argue with it shooting like that
we got home and I noticed he had the scope set to 3 power so I asked him about that and he said that was where it was so he left it alone.

I told him to take it and shoot the rest of the ammo he made today under better weather conditions and we could do more work on it later. [I got the steel dog bones cut out and shaped while he was loading the rifle ammo]
we made up some 40S&W cast loads today and gave them a function test by pulling up and rolling down the window and popping off 2 magazines at the falling plates.
no leading and 100% function so I'd say they worked, even though I used rnfp boolits for the 38-40.

[and yes we can practice drive by shooting at our range if we want]

I need to do the crea-kote thing on Jackie's 7.7 anyway, it's the last thing it needs to be finished and she has been after me to get it done.

 

[fiver]

OMG that's funny.
the stock on that rifle is pretty close to what I started with except that one was nice before the accident.
this one came from the maker like ju errr an inexpensive discount store rifle.

 

[Brad]

Is that a rifle stock or kindling for your fireplace? That is rough.

Did you make sure to hold the 40 sideways when shooting out the window?

 

[fiver]

I'm just glad he didn't shoot my mirror, we were both shivering from being out in that wind.
I could clearly see where he was hitting because the snow kept making a nice clean slate.

 

[Brad]

That would have been a good thing to do from his car, just saying.

Is that little girls tactical pistol?

 

[fiver]

well the knife looks like something she would do but with a clamp and not tape.
but if it isn't steel pistol I don't think she would shoot it.
she makes waay too much fun of her husbands 40 S&W [round] and that it's a Taurus.
she compares it to her 38 cal black powder revolver only with less power.

 

[Brad]

Smart girl.
My daughter likes my 1911 but she can't shoot it for nothing. Don't lay down halfway to the target or you will get shot!

 

[freebullet]

Smart indeed. Never been a fan of Taurus autoloaders. I've had a couple of their revolvers and they aren't as terrible.

 

[fiver]

so we were in Town tonight for a bit and I stopped into a little pawn shop.
in there was this rifles Twin.
only it had all of it's barrel length, the bolt doesn't drag, the screws weren't tightened down an extra 1/4", the sights were still intact, and the fore stock isn't cracked down both sides.

it was in 243 instead of 308 which is too bad since I am looking for another 308 to work with for some odd reason.
I might just suck it up and go pay what they want for it [300 ish] drop another 300 on a new barrel and have it installed.
or maybe dig out all my brass and left over bullets [from the 6x57] shoot everything up then re-barrel it.

 

[freebullet]

The reason you want another 308 is because they are about the most fun a guy can have. If I could only have 1 it would be a 308.

 

[fiver]

I really prefer the x57 case size.
but the 308 case is one I can easily get or make brass for, and I do make bullets and boolits for it already. [cheap to shoot is the real reason I think I want another one]
it just works on deer and elk too.
I probably have too many rifles now, but if your gonna go overboard it might as well be with something that makes sense.
probably why I have 4 err 5 [or maybe more] 30-30's floating around the place.

 

[fiver]

so I keep thinking about that stupid 243 in the pawn shop.
I looked and I have a set of 243 dies [dunno why I never had a 243] I have some 243 brass [and a bunch of 308 brass]
and I got some 6mm bullets..
I'm thinking of sending the wife down to talk to the ladies at the gun counter and offering them 225 for it.
shooting up all the 6mm bullets I have in it.
then re-barreling to 308 or re-boring it to 7-08