Guns and Ammo Thread

Here's a nice gift I picked up over the weekend for a buddy who will be married soon. He just started deer hunting for the first time in the past couple of years with me, has historically just borrowed my Remington 870 Wingmaster, and stuck to sitting where he wouldn't need to shoot far and hasn't had any success yet. We hunt in northern Minnesota where centerfire rifles are legal and my Winchester 70 .270 has done me very well, and I know he could use a good deer rifle for himself. So... a couple weekends ago during his bachelor party I hear some guys wanting to pitch in on a gift "from the guys" for him and I immediately think of a rifle. I got to a Cabela's over the weekend and see this .30/06 with a goofy name and I realize it's a store branded Winchester and in really good shape. A Ted Williams Model 53, made for Sears Roebuck & Co. Features a push feed Winchester 70 barreled action wearing a birch stock with pressed checkering and a three piece hinged floorplate (something the Winchester Ranger and 670 models lack). The bolt is very slick, safety feels good, and the metal and stock finishes are in okay shape, but I see the bolt handle itself has no wear. I pull the bolt and it's clean with even wear on the lugs. The scope is a Tasco Pronghorn 4x with aluminum rings and it could be better but will get the job done for now. I'm a big fan of the M70 and for $430 I made my mind up pretty quickly, and the rifle went home with me. There's new rifles out there for even less than what I paid, but I strongly believe that a high quality used rifle like this one is a much better deal at the same price.

Once home, I pulled the barreled action out of the stock and everything was clean and rust-free inside. The trigger is good and it feeds and ejects dummy rounds with ease. Found out the scope bases are epoxied to the receiver, which is just fine for now- clothes iron sat on top should remove them later. I cleaned the bore with foaming cleaner followed by a brushing with Iosso paste and it only took one round of each to get clean patches coming out and see a mirror bright bore- based on that and the still blue bolt handle I'm guessing someone only took this out deer hunting once or twice a year for a couple decades and never shot it much. The wedding isn't for two weeks so I have time to fit a 1/2" buttpad and glassbed the stock to wring the most out of it. Crossing my fingers it shoots well but I'm sure it will be fine, I'll sight it in so he doesn't have to worry about that.

My buddy has yet to tag a deer and I'm hoping he gets his first with this rifle come November- either way I'm sure he'll be happy with it and I'm glad he will have a rifle he can hunt with for a long time too.

 

I saw a Remington Model 11 (Browning Auto 5 clone, right?) on sale for about $450. How good a deal is that, and do any of you know of any common problems with those?

 

Repaired, recheckered, refinished, and ready for October.







I like both versions of this pic, the one on top represents the color in the stock pretty well and the black and white below highlights the craftsmanship, the quality of the finish and checkering.



Here's where I patched the stock, I'm satisfied with how that turned out but between us the fit of the buttpad to the stock is B-grade- been a long time since I had to grind down a very squishy pad versus hard fitting steel buttplates.

 

Model 11s are good gun, though parts can be difficult to come by. Most Auto-5 parts are not interchangeable. Value generally runs between $300-$600 and about $1k for one that is graded and in remarkable shape.

If he's asking $450, offer $350.

I wish I would have purchased a BSS when they were $500.

 

Decided to put this here instead of derailing the serious thread.

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/atlan...er-suv-hits-bump-road/1pA2ZtJkQI94xnIr9J0zcL/

Another hypocrite who knows nothing about gun safety. Why was the gun in a grocery bag? Why was he nodding off if he was afraid for his safety? Drunk?
Guns don't "go off." He pulled the trigger, whether intentionally or not. I bet there's more to this story, but the real question is will he be prosecuted?

Note the last line of the article: Member of the ABA's Standing Committee on Gun Violence.

 

This year I'll actually go deer hunting with a complete rifle, or at least more complete than last year. One of my goals for this year was to learn how to rust blue metal (in addition to improving my metalworking skills in general) and I started a couple of weeks ago with the bottom metal and stock hardware for my Winchester 70... so here we go.

Here was the bottom metal as-received from PTG a few years ago, note the chunky unshaped trigger guard bow:


There was some serious shaping work done to the trigger guard bow:


For that step I had help from someone with a milling machine and some real expertise on how to shape stock hardware like this. At first I was a little surprised how much material was hogged off but in hindsight it all makes sense.

Shaped, polished, and prepped for bluing:


After 6-7 rust bluing cycles:


Obviously the bluing isn't perfect but frankly the pieces look and feel better than expected and I think I know what I need to do differently next time and in the future for better results. My first impression is that rust bluing is not rocket science, it is pretty simple really, but it is also pretty simple to screw up and will take a lot of trial and error to nail the fine details. I would have done more bluing cycles on these pieces but there are already some issues that will require re-polishing and starting over and deer season is coming up anyways too, so I will hunt with them as-is and fix them up over the winter.

Started checkering the stock for the Winchester rifle too, these will be 24 line per inch borderless point patterns. Pretty traditional, like the rest of the gun. Now it will be a major push to have the whole thing scratched up in time for opener but either way, it's started.

 

I struggled with running over the borders at times, but these are still some pretty fucking straight lines.

 

Here's something I finished up last month, converting a Boyd's Hunter stock for a CZ 455 .22lr rifle into a target style rig with an adjustable cheekpiece. I sliced up the stock with my bandsaw, glued on new chunks of wood for a re-shaped butt and fore-end, and mixed up a ton of Bondo for filling in and aiding with shaping. The grip got moved down and back to accommodate for long hands and I made the fore-end and toe lines close to parallel for better bench shooting. I painted it basic flat black, it had been awhile since I had done anything with a rattlecan so it was kinda fun.

 

Follow up: http://www.ajc.com/news/court-order...urrender-his-passport/Juy2tcqIix2umVPHayiGrO/

Charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. From all accounts it seems like this really was an accident and the husband is reported to be devastated, but it still doesn't add up to me based on what I've read.

 

He is a damn impressive shooter, the challenge of reading wind conditions and knowing when to shoot (and when NOT to shoot) is what separates the winners from the losers in benchrest. Running 25-30 shots in a row without sighters is unreal, beyond ballsy. I never shoot more than 3-4 without double checking. Congrats to him.

His logic with the cosines for picking the 3:00 or 9:00 condition to shoot in versus 12:00 or 6:00 is very enlightening. Typically when I show up for matches, I focus on what the most consistent prevailing condition is by watching the field of flags while setting my gear up and then trying to only shoot in that condition after determining what kind of hold-over is necessary with sighter shots off target, regardless of where it is coming from. You never ever shoot when the flags are dead, there is always some condition present and it will bite you in the ass.

Also those JSB pellets are excellent, I use the 8.4 grain Diabolo Exact on paper and 10.3 gain Exact Heavy on critters- that extra mass packs a wallop and they shoot nearly as well as the 8.3 and 7.4 grain Exact pellets out of my air rifle.

Here's the latest from my workbench, trying to replicate the old original checkering pattern that was cut on these Fingergroove 10/22 pattern stocks back in the late '60s. This is the first time I've tried to copy a pattern 1:1, otherwise I am adamant about only doing one-off patterns. I think curly cherry wood like this is very pretty and will only get better with time as it ages but learned it is a bitch to checker because it feels a little soft and sticky under the cutters, leading me to really struggle with runovers. Got a lot of cleanup work to do here, oh well- at least I did a good job cutting the lines dead straight.

 

The Remington 40X .22 I completed last year has received rust bluing from Doug Turnbull and was recently photographed. Having a hard time believing I actually had a hand in making this rifle, it was a stupid amount of work but worth all the effort.

 

Thanks! I finished it with function in mind- started with a spar urethane blend base followed by a Waterlox topcoat, made sure the inletting and all screw holes and the checkering is completely sealed too, and would feel comfortable taking it out in a rainstorm as a result. It is a damn tough and water resistant finish, there's finishes that are a lot easier to apply for aesthetics (lacquer for example) but I don't like to make those functional sacrifices. I used cheap poly brushes to apply the finish, all by hand like the majority of the work that went into it. The wood is Australian walnut and it is significantly denser and tougher than American black walnut- you will have to try to dent it.

The barrel is a special 24" long 8-groove Shilen that was hand lapped by Ed Shilen himself before he passed away, was chambered and fitted by top rimfire gunsmith Roger Gorham, the receiver was fully blueprinted, and that scope is one of three internally adjusted 24x scopes made by Mike Walker at Remington (who also designed the Model 700, 721, 722, and 40x, and led the development of the .222 and 6mm Remington rounds). There are custom scope bases being made for it now. Long story short... it is shockingly accurate, truly a wolf in sheep's clothing and will be hell on turtles and snakes around the owner's farm ponds (yes that is how it will be used now, and I love it).

I'm near the point where someone would want one of my wood stocked guns just to admire in their safe but nothing makes me happier than to see them used, and used like hell.

 

As repped, just stunningly beautiful.

Rough guess what a set up like that goes for?

 

Thanks! We'll say it is well north of $5k, I don't know what the scope cost but it wasn't cheap.

I already posted this in the drunk thread but either way, in less than two weeks I'm headed to Las Vegas to attend a big ass convention as the guest of a high end custom gunmaker and will get to hang out at his booth and also meet some of the other craftsmen who have inspired me for a long time. Honestly its still hard to believe its happening. I'm a mix between giddy excitement and pants-shitting anxiety thinking about it.

 

I just picked up a Savage 487T with a basic scope, should suffice for .22 plinking needs. Anyone have any advice to impart about .22 rifles, tubular magazines, anything like that?

Also, any suggestions for treatment/bluing of a Browning High Power? I picked one from 1981 up the other day that's had most of its enamel worn off; if it'd be possible to give it a royal blue or purple tinge then that'd be my target.

 

Looks like the 487 is a slightly modernized version of the Model 87 "gill gun", which is a lot of fun to shoot. Not much to note with tube magazines, just make sure they are clean inside and out for best functioning and you include scrubbing the shell lifter mechanism when you clean the rifle. Before you shoot it, I would take the barreled action out of the stock, remove the tube magazine (and clean it and the push rod), remove the bolt (clean under the extractors here and give it a light coat of grease on the contact surfaces), and then hose the shell lifter and trigger with brake cleaner to bust out any gunk. Do not just soak them in oil afterwards, it will just attract more dirt and gunk that will eventually form a gun clogging mess.

If it is just a plinker, I'd clean the bolt and shell lifter (in addition to re-oiling/waxing the exterior surfaces) after every range trip to keep it functioning smoothly and would address the bore after every 500-1000 rounds or so. Do you have a .22 diameter cleaning rod? Best practices for cleaning that rifle would involve removing the end cap on the ass end of the receiver so you can remove the bolt and actually use a cleaning rod with brushes and jags/patches on the bore paired with a bore guide, but frankly you could probably just get away with using a pull-through cleaner like the Otis system or my cheap version which is weed wacker line with a button formed on the end. I despise bore snake cleaners, unless you can somehow remove all of the fouling that collects on them (especially important with .22s and the primer residue) to me it is on-par with re-using toilet paper. Both the bore snake and Otis are pull-throughs but the big difference is how you can wipe off and clean an Otis between passes and use fresh patches versus re-suing the bore snake surface over and over again. Be very careful with any pull through cleaner that you pull it straight out from the muzzle so it isn't rubbing on the crown surface- keeping that sharp and even is critical for accuracy.

Send it off to a bluing specialist like Glenrock or Turnbull, or buy a ratty pawn shop gun to learn rust and nitre bluing with. The high polish "hot" bluing is not a DIY process. Certain guns will get that purple-plum color over time due to the content of the steel slowly reacting with the bluing, can't remember what in particular does it but you see it on some old Rugers, etc.

 

Here's the Buckmark I referenced in the drunk thread. This is a Bullseye model made in 1996 with a 7 1/4" barrel. It is in great shape, the bore is mirror clean and the bolt runs super slick after cleaning and re-greasing. The TacSol rear sight/base and Bushnell TRS-25 red dot arrived yesterday, which I think will work well. I'm sighting it in today. Way too excited.



Also here's this cherry 10/22 Fingergroove pattern stock all finished up, I am happy with how it turned out. The wood is going to age really nicely.











The barreled action sitting in the stock is from a 1970 10/22 that I picked up at my local gun shop for $130, it was a little rough around the edges but cleaned up nicely and I'm nearly done with refinishing the walnut stock on it. Shoots great. I installed a Volquartsen hammer since the trigger was the primary weakness on the rifle and now it is one bad ass little plinker.

 

I got to shoot a big bore rifle for the first time while visiting a gunmaker in Utah last weekend. Was a .458 Lott built on a pre-'64 Winchester 70 action, weighing 9 3/4 lbs. 500 grain bullets. The rifle has been to Africa but was back in his shop to fix supposed feeding issues so he wanted me to run it as fast as I was willing and see if I'd have any problems- either that or have fun watching me get my bell rung. The video was taken after a few warmup rounds. The barreled action was sitting in a test stock the maker had around his shop without a butt pad fitted, hence the PAST pad I had on my shoulder. I shot a total of 10 rounds and didn't have any bruising but my shoulder just stopped hurting this morning. Not something I want to do every day but still fun, checking off that box now. Back to my .22s and .270.