tinkerfive Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 Hi all! It's been a while since I've written about what I've been doing. I got this gun back in Feb. from Gun Broker. The safety was one that I hadn't seen before, so that was my greatest motivation for buying this particular gun. There were brass screws through cracks in the stock so I knew that I was in for some stock REpair. How much REpair I didn't know. Once I got it, in addition to the gouge from the cocking piece I noticed that there was no place for my thumb and the grip felt too closed too. So I REshaped the grip area by REmoving 3/8" of the front of the bottom where your little finger goes and cut back the front of the comb so that I could get my thumb around. I also lowered the front of the comb by REshaping it down a 1/4" so that the cocking piece would clear. The front scope base screw hole was quite shallow so I REmoved the barrel and REdrilled and REtapped the hole. Then after I REassembeled the action I set about to REpair all the cracks in the stock. I first had it glued up with wood glue. I came back after the initial gluing to fill the brass screw holes with wood dowels. When driving in one of the dowels one of the glue joints opened up so I had to complete that split and start over again. I REmoved the wood glue with a wire brush which also REmoved a lot of wood so there were gaps. To glue it back together this time I turned to JB-Weld to fill the gaps. This left some noticeable grey streaks. The recoil lug was in 3 pieces so I intended to REinforce it with a steel cross bolt and bed the action with JB-Weld. The stock had to be REfinished anyway so stripped the remaining finish with a stripper that left the wood with a grey stain. So with grey streaks from the JB-Weld and grey stains from the stripper I chose the ebony stain. With the recoil lug area bedded then I had to bed the area between the trigger and rear action screw due to previous over-inletting. Now with the stock done and the action bedded I went to attach the scope so that I could take it to the range. The screws didn't tighten up. It was at this point that I realized that the existing screw holes were 8-40 and that shallow hole that I mentioned earlier now had a 6-48 bottom. So I had to order 8-40 taps because to this point I've only used 6-48. Guess what, when the set of 8-40 taps was delivered it had a taper and 2 plug taps instead of 1 each ( taper, plug , bottom ). Then I had to wait for them to send a 8-40 bottom tap because I didn't feel like either REmoving and REplacing the barrel or grinding down one of the plug taps to turn it into a bottom tap. So then finally with all the scope holes tapped to 8-40 I had to enlarge the screw holes in the bases. Thank goodness once I got to the range just 2 weeks before the season it grouped well. Oh I almost forgot I REmoved the old hard red recoil pad and REplaced it with a new black one. It also just occurred to me that you'd want to know that it is a GEW98 with a High Standard 30-06 Enfield barrel. Now that it has proven its' self all that remains is to REfinish the metal. I'm thinking something like black weapons-coat. The doe in the back of the trailer is my buddies. It took us 5 days of hunting to get these deer. I'll save my comment on the job that the Pennsylvania Game Commission is doing managing the deer heard for another time. Tinker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustvyper Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 That's awesome! I've never seen a GEW used for anything. Are you planning on redoing the metal finish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8uck5nort Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Remarkable job. Well done on the rifle and hunt. That is what it is all about. Good luck on your future hunts and rifle projects. Darin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jverduce Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Hi ya Tinker, it's been a while for both of us. Nice buck! Now that the season is winding down, (flintlock) I'll be gettiing back to it. Will be nice to talk with you guys again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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