Trail Rated

I filled them in with a slurry of epoxy and sawdust, but that turns black so now they’re a series of black dots instead of holes. Good enough for a 90-year-old single shot .22!

I’ve been following everyone’s projects with interest. Here’s my humble reclamation effort, a Shapleigh King Nitro .22 single shot (really a rebranded Stevens Springfield Model 15, very similar to the one I posted in another topic here) that I got at auction for $50. Someone had tacked something to the stock, or maybe was notching KIA squirrels like Dr. Hess above, but the stock was in bad shape. The metal was rusty, and I’m still figuring out the extractor, which doesn’t extract. Still, it looks a lot prettier than it did. The before & after:

Very nice!

This is my new-to-me Modelo 93. Just got it back from the gunsmith today after a lengthy stay for a barrel reset, receiver peep sight and front sight ramp adds, new firing pin, and rebluing (all of which cost more than I paid for the rifle). I refinished the stock myself. This replaces a different 93 that I had and loved but sold to someone who really, really wanted it. I took this one straight to the range and put five rounds down it at 25 yards — all good so far, no signs of keyholing etc. I forgot to bring an aperture for the rear sight so I didn’t try anything at 100 yds. Maybe this week. Note the calibers laser etched. I specifically wanted .275 Rigby on there in case this one goes overseas with me.

Here’s an update from a public land hunt in Texas yesterday evening. I also shot a spike with the old FN Mauser a couple of weeks ago.

I agree they probably meant the Springfield extractor. I have both a 1903 Sporter and a Spanish 1893, but unfortunately the 93 is in the shop so I can’t do a side-by-side comparison. If memory serves, though, the extractors are very similar in appearance. Incidentally, the 1893 is in the shop getting a Swede 1896 striker fitted to it because I broke the tip and couldn’t find a true replacement. So maybe the 1896 is another option for an extractor.

Agree, that looks great. I’m eager to read the hunt report.

The British SOE provided lots of Stens to resistance fighters during WWII because they were cheap and easy to use. But they weren’t particularly reliable. During the assassination of Heydrich in Prague, one of the Czech attackers’ Stens jammed and nearly caused the operation to fail: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Reinhard_Heydrich So not the greatest weapon, but if I were a partisan fighting Nazis, I probably would think it was beautiful.

A while back I posted about refinishing a cheap and badly sporterized Carcano, still in 6.5x52. I ended up liking it so much that I found another one to fix up. This one is an M38 made in 1941. Someone had cut and reshaped the stock to give it a kind of Schnäbel fore-end, but it was dinged up and covered in … something. A previous owner also had soldered a makeshift peep site to the fixed rear notch. I refinished the stock but decided to leave the metal alone, other than again building a taller front sight blade with some JB Weld artistry. I shot it today and was pleased to see it shoots cheap PPU ammo just as well as the scarce Norma stuff. I’m starting to really appreciate these as lightweight rifles for backpack hunts. The Carcano bolt is kind of unwieldy and the safety is a cruel joke, but they make a very handy and low-recoil stalking rifle, at a much lower price than a Mannlicher-Schönauer in the nearly identical 6.5x54. Carcanos seem to be the last of the cheapie milsurps, and no one wants the sporterized ones so they’re even cheaper.

I finally got this back from the shop after having the metal blued. It’s one of the mysterious R. Famage 1957 (not 1952) receivers with a new Husqvarna barrel. The receiver is stamped .30 with the half-moon cut in the receiver ring to accommodate cartridges on a stripper clip, although there is some speculation that the ones stamped 1957 were new builds and not revamped Model 24s etc. like the ones stamped 1952. Either way, it’s in excellent shape. It seems to have originated here: https://centerfiresystems.com/product/belgian-fn-1950-barreled-receiver I refinished the Fajen stock myself and chose the vintage Weaver K4 scope on high rings to match the rollover comb. The initial range trip proved its accuracy, but I may have to polish the feed ramp some — it didn’t really like loading less-spitzery 180-grain ammo. I’m also going to shape the flag safety to work around the scope. I have a replacement Buehler two-position safety if I need it, but I prefer keeping the original, assuming I can make it work. Then I plan to try it out on a hog hunt.

I think about my rifles like this when I see guys in the big-game hunting forums fawning over Highland Stalker rifles in “.275 Rigby” that sell for $15,000. I paid one-one hundredth of that for my first Oviedo Mauser, put a Lyman aperture sight on it, refinished the wood & metal, and took it hunting. As Dr Hess says, the barrels on these can be hit or miss (literally) but so far I’ve been lucky.

I shot the Carcano today, wanting to see if there was a difference in the PPU and Norma rounds I was able to find, see if I got the sights aligned OK, and generally whether the thing would shoot without blowing up. I stuck to the 25 yd range, and at first it was impacting a little low, but once I filed a little JB Weld off the front sight blade, it was good. I didn’t see much variance at that distance between the PPU and the heavier Norma bullets, but I’ll shoot it at 50 & 100 yds later this week. I’d like to concoct a way to put a peep sight on it. I thought about attaching one to the cocking piece, but it looks like it would be iffy to d&t since it also has the spring catch for the bolt cap. Epoxy might hold it, but it would be awkward to work the Carcano’s awful safety with the aperture right there. Maybe a side-mounted scope ... Here’s what it looks like with the buttpad and sling attached, along with some other refinished sporter milsurps.

A while back was was looking for a project to work on, so I picked up a (badly) sporterized Carcano 1891 TS and decided to see what I could make of it without too much expense. It looked like the buttstock had been cut down so that a kid or other small person could shoot it. The stock had some kind of awful finish on it, the metal had no blueing, and the front wood had been cut back exposing the channel in the stock inletting, which had been plugged with a chunk of particle board that rattled around loose. Worst of all, someone had done an amateur checkering job on it. I refinished the wood, sanding out the terrible checkering and filling in the channel patch, and I found a slip-on buttpad that would stay on the tiny stock remnant. I cold-blued the metal, which isn’t great but should suffice for now. Meanwhile I tore down the bolt and got it de-gunked and a little shinier. After boresighting I built up the fixed front sight blade with some JB Weld. And I added a barrel-mounted sling swivel since the forestock is so short. I’ll post a range report once I shoot it this weekend. Before-and-after photos:

I did as you suggested and found a collector who wanted the 88, so I sold it (and bought myself a Carcano project gun, but that’s a whole other story). When I bought the 88 at auction, no FFL or background check was required because it was considered a pre-1898 antique. It probably helped that 1890 was stamped prominently on the barrel shroud. When I mailed it to the buyer, I sent it directly to him without paperwork, C&R or FFL for the same reason.

I sold mine for $425 plus shipping. I thought it was priced kinda high based on prices I saw on gunbroker, but I sold it within three hours of posting. Shipping it direct to the buyer today. So now I need another project to work on.