dirtyjim

i did buy some oddball parker hale stuff from him in the past but i wouldn't touch any of his actions. didn't he also have some of the kimber actions where the front ring was cracked in half & he had in the description that any competent gunsmith could repair them?

the spindle bore on the 7x12 & 9x20 can be reamed out to around .812" i have the reamer if anyone wants to ream theirs out. i had to ream mine to fit the a&b .375 blank in enough to thread & chamber & i still had quite a bit of the barrelticking out of the spindle. if you don't plan on running a bull or big bore barrels you should be ok but if you do plan on running them i would look for a lathe with at least a 1" spindle bore

i use a grizzly 9x20 that i picked up on craigslist for $450, they are close to a grand new

from what i've read the sks action was based off an anti-tank rifle & is plenty strong but that may have been internet stupidity. norinco actually made the sks in .223 so it has been done. i think the 6mm or 6.5 ppc would be neat in a sks

i have a 9x20 & its plenty long enough for action & barrel work. the only real problem is the spindle bore. i reamed mine out to .814.

i have a set of them from klein tools that have around an 8" handle. you may be able to find them in the electrical area at the home depot, if not you should be able to find them on line. if your doing a tie strap every three inches you might try one of the tie strap tools that tightens & snips the end off at the same time, one of my friends is in the communications buissiness and swears by them, but he may have more room to work in than you do.

i put 15 rounds down range regulating the sights today. it shoots, feeds, extracts and ejects very nice. the sights centered up real nice too, the only concern i had with using an a&b barrel was the sights being way over to one side but it shoots straight so that wasn't a problem. brenden, i used the b-square jig to put the crossbolt in but i think it wound be just as easy to put an angle plate on the drill press to install it. i also bedded the front receiver ring & recoil lug area. i think between the bedding and the cross bolt the stock should be fine.

416 rigby would be nice, how about a 550 magnum? i have a nice lilja .416 octagon barrel waiting on the right project to come along

i mounted the scope and made a new bolt handle. i think i'm going to cut the handle off and make another one thats slightly thinner. this one was made from 1/2" square stock that i tapered the corners off at an angle. i think it would look better if it was mafe from 3/8" stock now that its on the gun. i still have to machine the bolt knob, it will be made from 3/4"aluminum

i tried the scope out on my ar-15 and it worked great, i'm going to order one for it pretty soon. i'm still up in the air on what caliber to make it. i've been thinking about doing a 7x54r since i can cut the chamber with my 6.5vostock reamer then buy a 7mm neck & throat reamer to finish it, but i'm also thinking about doing it in 7mm-08 or 7x57 just to make it even weirder. i'll do the bolt handle this weekend, it will be very similar to the finn tkiv-85 sniper rifle bolt handle.

i think i have the scope mounts figured out. i have a short secttion of picatinny rail that i'm going the mount to the front ring and i'll mount a burris ar-15 cantilever type mount backwards on it. the pictures are just a mock up with the mount being held on with a top secret fastening device.

nice find. what are you going to do with it?

the lop is right at 15". it feels right so thats were i'm going to leave it at. the cross bolt shouldn't be to hard to install, i'll find out in a day or two.

its just about ready to shoot. i'll put the front sight insert in & start regulating the sights next weekend. the feed rails still need a little bit of work but they are very close. all thats left is to install the cross bolt, install the ebony tip, regulate the sights, install the rear sling swivel base, finigsh the stock then rustblue the metal. so far i have right at $1100 in it and almost half of that is in the bottom metal & sights

i'll take it. i have a nice bolt stop on one of my argies that needs to be changed out to the correct type. pm me your address & i'll get the bolt stop in the mail

the g33/40 is a small ring 98 and will not fit in a vz-24 stock. original g33/40 stocks do come up on gunbroker & ebay from time to time but they are pricey

the rings are buehler. looks like a decent action.

bob, i'm still working on the feedramp and rails. as soon as i have them finished i'll post a couple pictures. since i don't have a mill yet i had to be a little creative opening up the action. i used a drill press with an x-y table and a carbide burr to open up the bottom of the action. it actually worked better than i thought it would. i'm still tweaking the rails and ramp a little at a time. the ramp is very close but the right side rail still needs a little work then i'll focus on the left side rail.

its inletted into the stock now, i'm going to order most of the parts to finish it next week. i still need to order the rear sight, front sight insert, banded sling swivel, silvers pad & a grip cap. i also need to figure out the dimensions for my banded rear sight base so i can have it made. i was going to use one from recknagel but all of theirs are slightly to big or slightly to small. the stock has a lot of mineral streaks that should come out when i finish it. right now the forearm is 7 1/2 inches long in the short british style. it may end up being just a tad longer when i install the ebony tip. the exact lenght of the forearm depends on the rear sight base that i haven't had made yet. i still need to sand some of the file marks off the bolt handle. i realy like the look of this big fat bottom metal

brenden, i tack the handle where i want it with my mig then have a local shop tig weld it on. i've done them with a stick, mig & flux core wire and untill i get a tig i'll keep tacking it in place and have the local guy finish it with a tig. i did a springfield bolt handle with a stick once and it came out good but wasn't worth the time i had in it. i started inletting the stock and so far the only problem i've ran into is the rear tang area was cut about .200 to deep so it will have to be bedded. i guess that was one of the reasons it was in the bargain bin

Brenden, i've had three stocks from great american and they were all from their bargain bin. the inletting on them has always been usable. in the action area and barrel channel they all requred quite a bit a material to be removed and they were slightly deep in the bottom metal area. on one of them i wanted a trim german style rifle so i just shortened and slightly angled the magwell and front pillar to work with the deeper inletting. on the other i had to shim the bottom metal up about 1/8" then bed it in place. hopefully this one will be better. Roger, its a a&b barrel. i know they get a bad rap but i also know several people who have had great luck on big bores with them. this rifle will mainly be shot offhand at 25 yards & i'm not looking for extreme accuaracy. i have one more chamber to cut then i'm going to donate the reamer to the co-op

the circus is in town so i needed something in case one of those pesky elephants escapes. the action in a rail marked oberndorf, bottom metal & bolt handle are from sound metal products & the stock is a british express rifle classic from great americans bargain bin. i started working on it a few months ago and finally had time to thread the barrel and chamber it today, hopefully next weekend i'll have time to inlet it into the stock. i still need to finish opening up the rails, finish shaping the bolt handle, get the barrel band sling swivel, silvers pad & a metal grip cap. for the rear sight i'll probably use a necg island base with a two leaf sight but i may run a banded rear sight base. i'm going to try to have it finished by october, if its not finished it will at least be shooting by then. a pic of the parts before i got the smp bottom metal smp bottom metal & square shank bolt handle barrel mounted another pic of the action & bottom metal i need a bigger lathe smp bottom metal next to argie 1909 bottom metal for comparison

i assume since its going to be a full stock rifle that it will also have a european style swept back grip& slightly longer wrist. with a swept back grip & wrist you'll need to add at least another inch of lop over an american style stock. i would order it with a 13 1/2" lop then shorten it to fit.

the finn 27-66 had a receiver sights but the rifle was severly modified to work with it. lyman also made a version of their #36 swing away sight for the mosin but those are very hard to find and expensive when you do find one. i would suggest taking a look at the finn 27-66 and copying what they did.

nice find. a .416 alaskan would be neat or a .375/303 to keep it british.