Since I value your opinions…

[Bill K]

Looking forward to seeing it fully done and how well it shoots, along with a target showing such. Would be a interesting project.

Good idea on the serial numbers being brought out. As we all know the government is the only ones that believe in "Ghosts" and use them in naming some gun parts as such. Only a fool in government would believe in "Ghosts" and carry on about them.

[georgeld]

JD: Its amazing what fine shooters can come from the iron pile
full of rust.

I horse traded for an old barreled action from Detroit that had been
a parade rifle that shot blanks mostly and was never cleaned. The
guy said the bore was so bad it looked like a rusty water pipe so he
hacksawed 6" off. All I wanted was the action for another build.
The saw cut was crooked and hadn't even been cleaned up, sharp
edge etc. I fixed that part and put on an old take off stock I had. Let a
fellow at the range play with it all that summer. Shooting CMP match's
and cast bullets with Red Dot. Hell of a deal. Ole George Bloomers
won nearly every target and match at 200 yards with it.

The action has since been used to build a "cannon" that I have $4000 in and can't shoot either. Winner winner!

[JDHasty]

I was going to take the barreled action to the laser engraver to have the serial number engraved on it tomorrow, but forgot and did some minor bedding of the trigger guard tonight. It needs to cure 24 hours. So that is pushed back until next Thursday.

I will be taking it my buddy’s place Friday and we will set it up in the milling machine and spot face the front action screw and set the esteucheon, if the estucheon gets here tomorrow. It needs to be dead centered and perpendicular to the stock bolt.

He will weld up the heads on both action screws and recut the slots this weekend while I’m off shooting rockchucks. He’s got the screw slot cutting files to do it right, he’s a shotgun guy. The screw heads are a mess. I think we may make the heads a bit thicker than original, they are really quite fragile. I don’t want to update the look on this one in any way, but that will not be noticeable. The look I am after is a straight up 1950’s early 1960’s Varmint rifle that has been upgraded with a heavier barrel.

There is no reason my springs, pins and odds and ends (Trigger Adjustment Screw and Spring) will not be here by Monday. I am going to bed the action and barrel channel Friday before I leave town.

It may be ready to make a trip to the range next weekend, but I kind of doubt it. I think we are shooting for weekend after Memorial Day.

[JDHasty]

Well, I ended up shortening the fore end about two and a half inches.





Now it kind of reminds me of a Super Gooser



I have it all put together and the stock that was looking about as exciting as a fence post really came alive when I put this oil I got out of an outfit in Oregon on it. I usually use Tru Oil, but thought I would give this a try. I like it.

I have to drill the Weaver scope base to match the existing holes that were drilled and tapped in the receiver and have a Weaver K12 that I sent to El Paso and had rebuilt about 35 years ago. I think that will look "right" on this little fellow.

Privi brass that I had set aside a couple hundred brand new cases for this project sticks in the chamber. I switched it out for some RP that I had in my back stock. The RP goes through like crap through a goose. Privi is larger just ahead of the rim and I figured this might be an issue, but didn't know until I had the extractors on the bolt.

If a chamber will accept Privi, I prefer it. If not it isn't the end of the world. I think that maybe someday I will find someone who chambers a lot of 22 Hornet and has a worn out reamer and will have them run it into a piece of 7/8 X 14 threaded rod and make a die to make that a non issue in the future. I have a little do dad that clips into the ram on our Rock Chucker in place of a shell holder that will shove brass in all the way to the rim and use a rod to knock it back out.

[JDHasty]

It’s all together now and has the look I was after.





That is my old K12 on it. It took a trip to El Paso for a complete overhaul ~1992 and is a really nice scope that focuses to 50 ft. I’ll miss having it available for use on 22LR rifles. My other one was stolen, along with my 94/22M. It has a blemish about the size of a fifty cent piece from where I spilled orange juice on it many moons ago and it took the bluing off. I blended it with cold blue paste and it suits me fine the way it is.



It is pillar bedded and about two and a half inches of barrel are sitting in a thick bed of Devcon Steel. I was particularly careful to not have the much of the bedding compound exposed, but if you look for it you can see a fine line of it along the barrel and action. The rear of the action sits on Devcon Steel too, but I used brown Score High Pro Bed everywhere except those two locations.

The barrel is floated .02 to pipe wrap. Looks really nice. I have the sling swivel stud holes drilled, but was short a machine screw stud for the front so the studs are not installed yet. We do a lot of shooting off a Harris Bipod so that is the one place I went with an upgraded look.

I used a lighter trigger spring for a Model 69 that Out Back Gun Parts sells, and cut a couple turns off and the trigger breaks at a nice clean 2-1/2 lbs. It had a little too much preload to get the trigger down to 2-1/2 lbs and still have the adjustment screw engage a half dozen threads until I cut a couple turns off. The original had been cut real short and it would break at 2-1/2 lbs, but no longer allowed the trigger enough motion to remove the bolt w/o really pulling hard on it. This is much better.

I wanted this rifle to look 1960s. We just might get it to the range this weekend.