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ronploude

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About ronploude

  • Birthday 04/17/1949

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    ronploude

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Miami, Florida
  • Interests
    Hunting, Shooting, Gunsmithing, and Woodworking

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  1. Tim, In the long run, I think that you will be happier with a new stock. No matter what you do with the military stock, it will still look like bubba's work. I built a Scout rifle using a M44 action and an ATI stock. The ATI plastic stock is not well made in my opinion. There is a noticeable seam where the two halves of the mold met to form the stock and mine had a slight bend in the forearm. This made is push on the left side of the barrel. I had to open up the barrel channel on the left side so that the barrel could be free floated. I also went ahead and glass bedded the action because the inletting did not fit the M44 very well. If I were to do it again, I would go with a Bold wooden stock. Bold has classic looking laminated and Walnut sporter stocks for Nagant rifles. The cost of the Bold stock is maybe 25% more than the ATI, but it is a nice looking classic stock. I've used several Bold stocks on Mauser builds and have been very happy with the inletting and final look of the stock after its finished. Ron
  2. ken98k, My rifle also shoots high also. I've shot my rifle with 8X56R surplus ammo to try it out when I first got it with the idea of reloading for it later. Later never came. The short light rifle kicks lick a mule and is unpleasant to shoot. With the wide grouping at 50 yards, I decided that, even if I could improve the grouping with load development, it still would never be a pleasant rifle to shoot. It now stays in my gun cabinet as a collectors item. Ron
  3. Nice job on the bolt handle. It looks like it will be easy to grab with the palm of your hand when you go to work the bolt. Did the Turk give you any problems with regard to welding the bolt handle?
  4. I assume the definition of "smp" bottom metal is "self made part"? If so, then I'm in awe. The bottom metal alone is quite a piece of metal smithing.
  5. Thanks for the lead, Tinker, but I just finished converting a VZ24 Mauser firing pin to the shorter Yugo pin this afternoon. Mine didn't come out as any where as good at the one on gunbroker.com but it is functional. As a follow up to my previous posting on this subject in which I commented on my broken firing pin (a picture of the broken M24/47 pin tip vs the unbroken VZ24 firing pin tip is below), I converted the VZ24 firing pin that I had to an M24/47 intermediate pin. I started the conversion by grinding off the rear most cocking sleeve lug of the firing pin with a bench grinder. Then I put in a new lug recess on the firing pin shaft with my drill press and dremel tool with a grinding wheel bit. Being the first time that I did this conversion, the result will not win any beauty contest in the gunsmith's gill. The only thing I can say is that it does fit my cocking sleeve and shroud and it is functional. Part of the problem in getting a clean cocking sleeve lug recess was that I couldn't get the dremel tool's grinding wheel perpendicular to the firing pin. The drill press chuck was in the way so I ended up with a tapered recess rather than a sharp lug shoulder. Fortunately, the 2 existing lugs provide a good mating surface with the cocking sleeve. After putting the bolt back together and inserting it into the rifle, I loaded a primer into an empty case to test it. It worked perfectly, leaving a nice centered indentation in the primer. I've attached a couple of before and after pictures. They are included here to serve as an instructional guide for someone else who can't locate an intermediate length firing pin for their Yugo Mauser. What I've accomplished shows that an full length Mauser firing pin can be modified by anyone with a few tools. If you don't have a drill press, I can easily imagine how the job could have been done with a vice or its equivalent, a file, and a dremel tool. I would have never had the courage to move forward with this were it not for the encouragement and advice I received from this forum.
  6. James and Don, You've both given me ideas and advice that has encouraged me to try making an intermediate firing pin from the full length pin on hand. I've got a decent stand up drill press and a dremel tool that will lend themselves well to implementing Don's technique. As you've both stated, the trick will be to get the new grove in the right place; and I've got an idea of how to do that. Thanks guys! I'll give it a go this weekend and let you know how it works out. Ron
  7. The firing pin in my .220 Swift sporter is broken at the tip. I didn't notice it during the sporter build process. It is broken at the tip and, except for the tip being shorter, it looks normal. However, the pin won't project out of the firing pin hole in the bolt when released. I ordered a new pin but received a VZ24 pin in the mail. This is a full K98 Mauser length. The guy who sent it to me hasn't responded to my email protesting the switch for my order. Looks like I might be stuck with what I got. How can I shorten the K98 pin to fit my M24/47 action? If I had welding equipment, I could probably cut about 1/4 inch from the middle of the firing pin shank and weld it back together. But, I don't have welding equipment. With the tools at my disposal, I can file, grind and cut. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
  8. Boyds Gunstock Company has good deals on laminated wood stocks. Their current weekend special is for a thumbhole finished laminate stock for $89. Unfinished stocks go for $69. You might consider walnut. The walnut stocks are the same price as the laminates and the two that I've bought had nice wood. Ron
  9. I don't post much but I've frequented this board over the past few years and have learned a great deal from it. Like Waterdogz, I enjoy learning something new with each sporterizing project. My first project was a 25/06 where I removed the Mauser barrel, lapped the lugs, trued the face of the Yugo Mauser action, and glass bedded the barreled action into a fiberglass stock. The action was sent out to have the bolt handle welded on, the action drilled and tapped, the new A&B barrel chambered, and the completed action blued. My second sporterizing project, a .220 Swift, found me doing my own chambering, glass bedding, finishing of a Boyds laminated stock, and cold bluing the action. The action was again sent out to have a bolt handle welded on and the action drilled and tapped. I find that I'm prouder of the way this second project came out because I did most of the work myself. I'm now starting a 35 Whelen project where, in addition to the work done on my .220 Swift project, I plan to do my own drilling and tapping, will bed the barreled action it into a Richard's fancy black walnut stock, and will checker the stock. On this project, I'm particularly looking forward to learning how to checker as I've always admired the hand checkering found on custom rifle stocks. The bolt handle, however, will still be sent out to someone to have a new handle welded on. I don't see myself TIG welding any time in the foreseeable future as I can't seem to justify the cost of the TIG welding equipment plus the amount of time it would take to to learn how to use the equipment for the few guns that I will build as a hobbiest gunsmith.
  10. Thanks for your help guys. I didn't know that there was a screw under the sight blade but I see now and will give it a go again tomorrow.
  11. A few months ago, I purchased 2 VZ24 u-fix-ums from Century and a Brazilian Mauser from Classic Arms, all were 7MM Mauser. My plan was to salvage just the actions for future builds from the VZ24's and to make a sporter with the Brazilian using the military barrel. After disassembling all three, I found deep pitting on the top of the Brazilian barrel under the hand guard. Taking a closer look at the VZ24's, I found one to have a fairly good barrel that cleaned up with bright sharp lands so I've now decided that the VZ24 would be my 7MM sporter. I plan to replace the military sights with commercial iron sights and to drill and tap for a take off scope mount of some type. My problem is that I can't seem to get the front sight band off the VZ24. I've tried heating the sight band with a propane torch to loosen the solder but it still wont budge when tapped with a hammer. Some of the solder did seem to bubble up, however. In addition to the solder, are the front sight ramps on VZ24's press fitted?
  12. Tinker, I Goggled EVAPO-RUST and went to the company's website. It sounds like an excellent product that will meet my needs. The solution is neither acidic nor alkaline and is biodegradable. As a bonus, I found that it is available from Harbor Freight. There is a store on my way home from work so I can stop in tomorrow evening and pick some up. The only thing that I have to be careful with is the outside of the barrel. According to the EVAPO-RUST website, it does remove bluing. Should I end up removing some bluing around the muzzle, I'll cold blue the area affected and do the best I can at matching the current bluing. At the least, I'll have a usable muzzle loader again. Thanks for the EVAPO-RUST recommendation. Ron
  13. After 30 years of none use, I extracted my TC 54 caliber Renegade from its gun case only to find a heavy layer of rust in the bore. There is one heavy rust spot on the outside that I can clean up, although, I am sure it will leave slight pitting. I would appreciate advice as to how to save this barrel. There is no breach plug that I can see so any rust removal treatment will probably have to be done from the muzzle. If the group's conclusion is that such damage is irreparable, then I will consider replacing the barrel. Is there a distributor or barrel manufacturer that deals in TC hooked breach barrels?
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