Re, Re, Re, Re, Re, Re,re,re!

[tinkerfive]

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.

[rustvyper]

That's awesome! I've never seen a GEW used for anything. Are you planning on redoing the metal finish?

[8uck5nort]

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

[jverduce]

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.