CurtInAtl Posted February 25, 2012 Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 But it's probably the best I am going to get it using mostly hand tools. You can still see the remains of one of the deeper pits about half way from the rear sight base pin hole to the muzzle, just to the right of the floor joint. I have worked it down to 600 grit. I didn't take any before pics but these were right after I started. The implements of destruction. I started out with just a file but it took all day to work 1 strip down the length although it was really good exercise for my shoulder following rotator cuff surgery. To try and speed things up and keep the barrel round I made a jig that would let me run it full length against the grinding wheel then rotate it a few degrees and work my way around. I never let it get too hot to hold in my hand without letting it air cool. The grinder left alot of ripples and such so it was back to the file and then I started with 80 grit sander belts using a shoe shine motion. Then I went to 120 grit belts then 220 sand paper then 400 and 600 grit. The muzzle and cwown still need a bit of work. The barrel looks really short in the last pic but it is 16.5 inches. There are a number of pits in the receiver but I am not going to do anything with it without consulting someone who knows way more about this sort of thing than I do. There is still some work to be done to the larger diameter section of the barrel just in front of the receiver ring. This has been an interesting project. I haven't done any metal working beyond the occasional mower blade since high school where I learned to weld. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Hess Posted February 25, 2012 Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 Looks real good. It it amazing what can be accomplished with simple tools and persistence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted February 25, 2012 Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 Looks a WHOLE lot better than what you started with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadio Posted February 25, 2012 Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 There is a metal finish, duracoat, I think, that has a filler that can be applied first, may dress up the pits that are too deep. http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=0/k=duracoat/t=P/ksubmit=y/Products/All/search=duracoat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted February 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 That looks like what I need, thanks. Since I have trashed the forearm of my military stock and I do not want to sink a small fortune in this particular rifle I am thinking about changing gears and building it for my 9 year old grandson as his first big bore rifle. He had been shooting .22's since he was 6. The forearm is only going to be about 7 or 8 inches measured from the front of the receiver and I will cut the butt back to the cut out where the side mount sling swivel was and install 1 1/2" recoil pad. I was thinking of putting on a barrel band sling swivel to give it a safari rifle look since there is not really going to be room for one on the stock. I have an older 1" Bushnell scope I can put on it. The only thing I am not going to be able to do by myself is modify the bolt handle to clear the scope. This rifle and some cast bullet Trailboss loads will be just about perfect to help him to make the move up to centerfire shooting. Who knows, he may even take his first south GA hog with it. The recoil pad and barrel band are things I want to learn how to do anyway then add in reshaping the stock an this will be a total learning experience. When I do start on my Mannlicher stocked rifle I have 3 donor rifles to chose from, a VZ-24 and 98-22 both made by BRNO and Yugo M48A. I have less than $125 in each of these rifles and compared to the Spanish rifles I am working on now the BRNO actions feel like they are running on ball bearings. I also have a couple of $39 large ring/small shank Turks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Hess Posted February 25, 2012 Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 Those $40 Turks are worth about three bills now, by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donmarkey Posted February 25, 2012 Report Share Posted February 25, 2012 Those $40 Turks are worth about three bills now, by the way. I knew they when up but I didn't think that much. Want to buy a few? As for the pits they look too deep for duracoat filler, if you are painting you can fill them with acraglas. Got to hand it to you, you are more ambishious than me. I would have used that for a tomato stake. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustvyper Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 JB weld works like a charm, if you're gonna duracoat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken98k Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Hi-Temp Lab-metal work great for repairing pitted milsurps and can even be powder coated. http://www.alvinproducts.com/Products/Products.asp?id=2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted February 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Does anyone have experience with this trigger? It sure seems like it would be easier to do than modifying the bolt safety for scope clearance. One thing that concerns me is that neither the Bold or Timney trigger appear to have the little post at the front that fits in the slot in the bottom of the bolt preventing the trigger from being completely pulled unless the bolt is in battery. If they don't have it I will just go with a Huber Concepts trigger which uses the original sear and then replace the bolt safety. Also, is there someone here that can forge or weld a bolt handle that will clear a low scope on a '93 bolt for me and mount a set of Leopold standard bases at the same time. I have not checked around for prices yet but I figured I would ask here first. I was going to check with "Boltman" who is on several of the boards but his turn around times seem a bit long. He claims to be able to do a bolt for $40 but I don't know if that is about the going rate or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odies dad Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 If you remove the charger hump from the rear ring, you will get rid of about half of the pitting there. Makes it a little easier to install the rear scope base also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted February 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Do I just grind the raised part where the clip goes in down to the contour of the flat part behind it? EDIT: Ya got to love the internet. One search yielded more info and videos than I can possibly sort through. I remember when all we had to get technical info in a hurry was FAX on demand and phone calls and there was never any real hurry involved. I remember it taking days to find the strapping info for an 80 meg Seagate hard drive back about 1984. My 19 year old daughter doesn't really believe me that we used to have to look stuff up on paper or call someone else who had the info on paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donmarkey Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 You can do whatever you want to the rear bridge, it's nothing more that a bolt guide. But is you plan on scoping this thing, get the bases first and grind off the hump close to the rest and finish with a large flat file to keep everything square. Use the bases as a guide, you can lay a straight edge across the top of the bases to see if one is higher or dipping. If I remember right all the after marked triggers with safeties don't have the bolt lock post. but I don't mess around with pre 98s very often. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
911rat Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 I like the Timney much better than the Bold. If I remember right, the Bold trigger had some plastic parts that just bothered me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted February 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Something like this? It still needs a bit of work. What do you do with the two little arms on front that go on either side of the clip? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken98k Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 If you're very talented with files you can simply file the top of the bridge 30* degrees each side. The middle is a 1" radius. The best way is to find someone with a mill and the correct fixtures and tooling. You should try to keep a nice crisp line where the slopes break downward at the sides. You should find quite a bit of info on this in the MFRC archives. I like to use the original type triggers with pre 98s. They have a special feature that combined with the bolt, prevents the trigger from being accidently pulled while the bolt is out of battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken98k Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Here'sanother view of the same receiver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken98k Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 I think you're going to have some trouble with mounting your rear base to that. At this point STOP! I would suggest using a "one piece base" Use a drill & tap jig. mount the one piece base with just the front screws. Turn the reciver over and fill the gap between the bridge and the base with epoxy putty such as JB WELD. Allow to dry, then tighten the rear screws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted February 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Towards the front where the base usually goes I took off just enough to remove the hump and match it to the back. At the back edge I took off a bit more to try and get rid of some of the pits. I am going to put in the low scope safety on the bolt and a Huber Concepts trigger, I have used the triggers before. You can get a nice pull with them plus you retain the original sear with the out of battery safety feature you mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gitano Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 Looks great! Good job! Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted February 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Thanks Paul, I am really enjoying this project. From the beginning I was planning on re-barreling this rifle so I wasn't really worried about the headspace. I am not one of those guys who looses a lot of sleep over headspace anyway especially dealing with surplus rifles and surplus ammo, neither of which were made to SAAMI specs. Anyway, since I have decided to try and use the existing barrel and the chamber will likely end up 4" from my Grandson's nose at some point I decided that I ought to go ahead and check. I dropped a Forster field gauge into a clean chamber and put the stripped bolt body in and it did not even come close to closing. In fact out of 3 m1916's and 4 bolts I could not find a combination of rifle and bolt that would fail. I have never really looked before but according the SAAMI chamber specs the 7x57 maximum length to the datum line is shown as 1.8047 and the field gauge is 1.804. I assume that the nogo gauge is 3 or 4 thousands shorter than the field gauge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Bought a set of Remington 700 iron sights last night on Ebay. I checker my son's Rem 700 BDL .243 and the sights should work fine on my barrel. Rem 700 .790 at rear sight .665 at front sight Taper .125 1916 rework .760 at rear sight .642 at front sight Taper .118 A Safari Rifle, even a small one, just doesn't look right without a set of irons. I was really surprised at how high the bids were going on Rem 700 sights, and it's not like there was any shortage of them. I got this set for $37.50 but many were going over $50. A set of new takeoff's can be had at GPC for about $60 hood and all. The only thing mine doesn't have is the groove for a hood which shouldn't be too hard to add with a little patience. There is one small pit left in the barrel but it is in just about the perfect spot to use a barrel band sling swivel to cover it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 The scope base and rings came in today. It looks like it was designed to work on an altered or unaltered bridge. I pulled the handguard off of my unaltered 1916 and it fits exactly the same as it does on the one I am building so it appears that I didn't over grind the bridge. The scope looks sort of bent here but it's just the image. I am probably going to try and mount the base myself using the vice and levels then sight through the bore to the far wall then line the base up to the same point on the wall. The rear ring is windage adjustable so the alignment to the bore is not quite so critical. Once everything is laid out and marked up I will move it to the drill press vice and square it up to the bit then drill. Sounds easy, don't it. Since this is just hobby work it doesn't really matter how long it takes to get it setup right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtInAtl Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I checked a couple of local smiths and the going rate seems to be $25 per hole to drill and tap. If I have the scope base and iron sights done that comes to $175 worth of holes. I am going to continue on with my plan to do it myself. They also want $150 to swap a barrel. That is just taking the old one out and screwing in the new one. I am definitely going to get a barrel vice and receiver wrench. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougar69 Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I checked a couple of local smiths and the going rate seems to be $25 per hole to drill and tap. If I have the scope base and iron sights done that comes to $175 worth of holes. I am going to continue on with my plan to do it myself. They also want $150 to swap a barrel. That is just taking the old one out and screwing in the new one. I am definitely going to get a barrel vice and receiver wrench. That`s the best way. Just do a lot of research on what you want to do & do it. That`s what I do & then you like I will feel that it`s done right & it usully is. If not, you learn by your mistakes. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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