Happy Friday everyone!
This is a short post, but since I was breaking this build up into the different parts, I figured the barrel needed its own post.
I am sure many who are reading this are wondering why I didn't pony up the dough for an aftermarket bull barrel. I did actually shop around and found that Green Mountain Barrels has the best bargain (great quality with decent prices). A Green Mountain bull barrel would have set us back $150-$200 (depending on options), which could be 1/2 our entire budget.
So instead I chose a factory one. Besides changing barrels on the 10/22 is easy and we can always upgrade later. In addition many shooters have been able to get great accuracy/precision from the factory barrels.
The barrel is a standard 18.5" factory Ruger stainless barrel, 1 in 16 right hand twist rifling.
It did not have a rear sight when I got it, but thankfully I have an extra one that came off my 10/22 Spencer Carbine project
The barrel will get a full polish, the rear sight installed and then installed on the receiver.
Here is the barrel before, it has a "brushed" finish, which looks OK, but I want Ava to shine.
We started with 400 grit sand paper sanding in both lengthwise and shoe shine fashion. I then went through 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 grit papers before finishing with Crocus Cloth.
And after polishing
I then installed the rear sight and set it aside while I finish up the the other parts. I'll give it another once over before final installation
Another Rifle build by a local forum member. Tom (who goes by the screen name (cruffler) built this beautiful Mauser sporter a few years back when he lived in Hawaii.
He started with a bare 1908 Brazilian Mauser action (he tells me that no original military rifles were harmed in the making of this sporter rifle...).
He purchased a barrel (chambered in 6.5 x 55mm) from Midway USA as well as the Fajen stock.
The stock was semi-inletted, so Tom had to fit it to the barreled action.
He had some help with the bolt work (bending/welding the handle).
There was of course the task of installing the barrel & checking the head space.
Drill and tap for the rear peep sight, install the front sight band.
Then there was the metal, to clean up the action he used a flat diamond stone. As you can see he did an outstanding job, the roll marks and stamps appear as new.
Then he had to rust blue all the metal parts and finish the stock in a gorgeous satin finish.
The pictures tell the story, see them below, remember to click on them for larger versions (you can see the originals here)
Some of the pictures above were found freely on the world wide web
and are used under the guidelines of Fair Use, per Title 17 of the U.S.
Code. Where possible the source has been credited.
If you own the copyright to any of these images and wish them to be credited or removed, please contact me immediately.
I bought this generic rimfire scope (nearly identical to my Tasco scope I installed on my Savage Model 93 Varmint Sniper Project).
It has a lighted recticle that lights up in red or green, a 50mm objective and 6-24 power adjustable magnification.
While I was at it I bought this sun shade for a few bucks
I didn't want a black scope on my white and silver rifle, but the silver version of this scope was nearly double the price, so I decided to buy the black one and paint it silver myself.
For the paint I chose Rustoleum Silver Metallic. Based on this guy's tests, it seemed like a decent paint and it was affordable at just $3.95 a can.
One thing you have to consider when painting a scope is what to do about the letters and numbers. On this scope the stampings are pretty shallow, so color filling the standard way (paint the area and wipe the high spots, leaving the low spots filled with paint) may not work.
I removed the sun shade and end trim along with the turret covers. I then taped up the lenses and the other parts I didn't want painted. This scope (as many of the newer ones are) is coated in some sort of teflon like, non-stick coating.....the tape didn't want to stick to it.
After a few light coats I removed the tape and re-assembled the scope
I then turned my attention to the aluminum and stainless scope mounts, before:
and after:
After looking at the scope I decided against attempting to fill the letters in with color, I can read the numbers just fine.
Also just a side note.....when I opened the scope mount packaging I noticed there were only four of the eight
screws needed to hold down the upper clamps. I sent an email off to
Weaver. They sent four more screws right away without question.
This is my 300th blog post, hard to believe that we have published 300 different posts in the last 3+ years. Anyway as long as people continue to enjoy reading it and I enjoy publishing them we will keep this train rolling.
I am introducing a new segment here on the blog....this is a collection of random, yet interesting photos involving firearms.
U.S. Soldiers discover a cache of SKS rifles buried in a Vietnam Jungle
....Somewhere in Russia....The Blessing of the Kalashnikovs
Sailors aboard the USS Alliance (note the sail rigging) show off their new Gatling Gun. I am guessing this picture was taken just before or during the Spanish American War (1898 or so)
German soldiers wearing gas-masks, manning a light anti-aircraft gun
during the First World War. The gun is the Maxim Flak M14, a version of
the 37-mm Maxim-Nordenfelt gun. Check out the drum magazine...
A cache of AK rifles found in Afghanistan
1892 Coffeyville, KS, The Dalton Gang posing postmortem, following their failed raid
A young nurse in Vietnam poses with a borrowed M1 Carbine
1950's U.S. Army's Nuclear, Biological, Chemical survival gear
German Olympic Shooting Team, Sweden 1912
Her name was Simone Segouin, also known by her nom de guerre Nicole
Minet. When this photo was taken she was 18 years old. The girl had
killed two Germans in the Paris fighting two days previously and also
had assisted in capturing 25 German POWs during the fall of Chartres.
She was member the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans group (French for “free
shooters”), the group named themselves after the French irregular light
infantry and saboteurs who fought the Germans during the Franco-Prussian
War.
Women inspecting Colt .45 parts, at Colt's Patent Fire Arms Plant in Hartford. (Photo: Library of Congress)
Early belt fed version of the AR-10 rifle
Members of the Volkspolizei, the East German national police, check an
elderly man's papers at the Berlin Wall, 11th September 1961. Only those
whose houses are adjacent to the wall are allowed within 100 meters of
it. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Notice the PPSH-41 submachine guns slung over their shoulders.
This 4-story (12 meters) behemoth stood 20 feet wide (7 meters) and 140
feet long (47 meters). Its 500 man crew, commanded by a Major-General,
needed nearly three full days (54 hours, to be exact) to set it up and
prep for firing. With a maximum elevation of 48 degrees, the Gustav
shell could fire shells weighing seven tons to a range of 47 kilometers
(29 miles). The caliber was 80 cm (31.4 "), and Gustav could fire 1 round every
30 to 45 minutes.
This is a picture of a very unassuming man and his small collection of rifles.
What you may not know is that this man
was once one of the most feared men by the Russian Army, he was known as
the "White Death".
His name is Simo Hayha, he is credited with the most confirmed kills of any sniper in the history of war (505).
The picture was taken after WWII, in his home, in Finland.
I don't know if any of the rifles on display were used by him during the Winter War, but we can wonder..
You may recognize this picture from my post If these Guns Could Talk
References
NZ History
Gun Runner Hell
Ibiblio
Flickr
Rare Historical Photos
Historical Firearms
Vintag
