CurtInAtl

That's why I am not working on anything that I couldn't bring myself to toss in the scrap box. Thanks for the encouragement.

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.

Thanks, I will get one ordered. Hard to beat $59 for a stock, handguard, and bands even if I have to do a bit of fitting.

One of my 1916 short rifles came with these holes in the right side of the receiver ring. So far I have not been able to ID what would fit this pattern. The general consensus seems to be that it was probably an aperture sight that was designed to mount in the bridge of an '03. The holes are not are not on the same plane. I don't know if that was intentional or not but you can tell that whatever it was had been mounted and probably for some time. Unfortunately the same rifle had been refinished with some sort of urethane over the top of a large ugly vice jaw mark on either side just under the rear sight.

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.

Will a Spanish '93 action fit in Chilean '95 stock?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Be sure to dispute the charge with you CC company within 60 days of when the statement came that first showed the charge.

Have you checked the length of the barrel yourself? I am pretty sure that they had a 17.5 or so inch barrel.

Headspace on a .303 is an entirely different animal then rimless rounds. Has nothing to do with the shape or size of the cast itself, all that matters is the space between the bolt face and groove at the mouth of the chamber where the rim sits. I have 7 LE's so neck sizing is really not practical I just keep the loads down towards starting weights and ease off on the sizer die a couple of thousands. Lee Enfield chambers were not cut to SAAMI specs so there is no sense in over working the brass. I have some really nice once fired HXP brass I can send you if you want to try them out. They seem to out last commercial brass.

Thanks, I wasn't sure if the rear of the '96 receiver was the same.

They say they can cut these for up to a 22" barrel. I'm going to get an economy or standard grade stock because I would hate to trash an expensive stock but you gotta learn on something. I had an old military stock I was going to use but I found out why you don't sand a stock and carry on a conversation at the same time. One side of the forend next to the barrel down towards the muzzle in now about 1/8" thick. It can still be used but it will have to be alot shorter than I want. I am at the point now where I am just fooling around a bit to see what I can do and see if this is something I want to get more serious with. I want to be sure before I sink a small fortune into tools and equipment. I am just about finished with the barrel. The first couple of inches in from the muzzle were pretty much a smooth bore and it had that "surface of Mars" look to it. I cut it down to 16.5" and have removed the steps and most of the pits with a file, grinder, and sander belts cut and used in a shoe shine motion. Before it gets hot enough to where it's uncomfortable to hold in a bare hand I stop and let it air cool. It is amazing how much metal you can remove by hand with 80 grit sanding belts. Periodically I use a really large sharpie and a sheet of sandpaper flat on the bench to show where the high spots are. I think a set of Remington 700 sights will work and the the hole from the rear sight base pin is in about the right spot to tap and use to mount the rear sight. I have a friend with a drill press and I can use the existing hole to align the barrel in the vice to drill the front hole. I am planning on replacing the barrel eventually but in the mean time I am having a good time working with this one.

I am looking for 1" mounts for a 1916 small ring action, something of a vintage style that would look good with a Mannlicher stock and a Weaver V-3. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I went by Harbor Freight today and looked at their 10" lathe. The spindle bore was quite a bit larger than what will go thru the chuck. I would need to make a chuck and spider like Les did on his. I am assuming that those can be made on the lathe. After looking at the 10" lathe I have decided that 14" is going to be about minimum. The 10" would be OK if I had to face off a deep chambered barrel or that sort of thing but you would be hard pressed to fit a reamer between the barrel and the tailstock. I don't mind spending $1000 or so on a lathe and tooling, I spend that much eating out in 3 months, but it has got to be light enough to use on a workbench that is sitting on a regular wooden floor. If I had known that I was going to be doing this sort of thing I would have beefed up the floor when I framed in the carport and brought the floor up to house level 19 years ago. That was probably the best improvement I have ever done to a house. I have all of my loading, gunsmith, camping, etc stuff out here plus I have a window AC unit so I can close the door and the HVAC vents and keep all the stinky stuff from stinking up the rest of the house. A man-cave for me and the cats.

I really enjoyed his post on making a stock from a blank. The man is definitely an artist.

Well, I think I am going to go ahead and give this a try. Les Brooks is building rifles out of his RV with a 7"x12" mini lathe. It is slow and under powered but it can be done. This is going to be a hobby for me, not production. I am a systems engineer and I completed my Cisco CCNP at 51, I can sure as hell learn how to run a lathe. And this way I can do it without having to buy a new house. I have an 18 year old son who is as in to rifles as I am so we can learn together. I am going to go ahead and get the wrench and vice I have been looking at, if I run into one that I can't break loose there are several gunsmiths in town who can do it for me. I can also pay one of them to go over my work the first couple of times. I am not afraid to stop and seek help. Anyway you look at it, it's still cheaper than golf.

Thanks for all the reply's. I would love to buy a decent sized lathe, etc. but before that I would have to find a new house or pour a slab and put up a garage in the back yard. That is going to cost way more than I can justify in order to have a bit of enjoyment doing something that I haven't done before. I will probably stick to wood & metal refinishing and trying master stock checkering which has always fascinated me and hand loading. I'm sure that I will be back with questions from time to time. There are things that I can do without a ton of machine tools like converting my RRA 20" Hbar to a 24" 6.5 Grendel. You just got to love a round that has been documented putting 1.198" groups down at 660yds.

How big of a lathe does it take? Will one of the 10" or 12" ones work if the spindle bore is large enough for a barrel to fit through? I don't have the room or the floor for a thousand pound lathe. These are the receiver wrench and barrel vice I am looking at. Barrel vice Receiver wrench