Rainy Day bubba

I had a few parts laying around and finally decided to do something with them, in this picture you can see the lowly Avis 03 barrel In the next series I prepped the barrel by removing the rear sight base, which didn't go so well so I had to break out the secret piece of chain-link fence rail to get it off. ( that just happens to fit the rear of the collar when the barrel is removed. This one was a few degrees off index) And then do a little chamber scrubbing inspect the crown and then touch up Mr frosty[/ATTACH] do a little maintenance to old faithful and then hand tighten the barrel and action together to see how close the witness marks were apart which happened to be a little close so peening the barrel shoulder lightly was in order to get a touch more than a 1/4" draw[/ATTACH] You can do this on a one time basis and luckily my donor was not already beat to hell. Make the marks meet to about 40-60 ft. lbs of torque and then grab the fistful of bolts to find a winner for the already chambered barrel. I got lucky and had a number of bolts that were suitable not closing on the no go gauge but settled on a BF 42 03 replacement that was new old stock. Interestingly there were a couple of early SHT bolts that would and would not close and one that you could just feel slight resistance when it was almost home. Once all that was done I re-assembled the barreled action and function tested with some dummy cartridges filled with sand for extra weight. The last picture is of the dreadful coned breech that generates alot of discussion but you can see that the front of the extractor slot is right at the end of the breech in the extractor cut, wich is the thickest part of a case. There was a little radial play with the resized dummies but not enough to get all tore up about. Thanks to Stripper clip on the CMP forum who was kind enough to provide the barrel with both sight bases attached for a song. The only thing left is to marry the conglomeration up with a nice scant stock to ring old crusty out and lap the muzzle with my cordless drill that was not returned by number one son who is nowhere to be found with my stuff..... whoops 10 files, see coned breech on next one.

Coned Breech

Here it is. Something neat about the Avis Barrel is that the witness marks were substantially easier to see because they are longer than the SA barrels. The other thing is that finish machining was a little better well done than a High Standard. The last thing was that the machine work at the front of the chamber was more abrupt with a noticeable step in the profile for the front of the rear sight collar.Its also got all kinds of stamps all through it everywhere. It will be interesting to see how well it does on the range with that much frost at the muzzle, it gauged two+ on a cmp gauge but still has a smidgen of distinct rifling left that can be felt pretty easy with a dental pick.

Bubba gets Dressed Up

Picked up a scant stock that was milled out for a handgaurd ring and attached a stamped butt swivel. I thought I had a milled butt-plate that was for a 03 but turns out it was for a Krag so just grabbed a beat up stamped one for an A3. No markings on the stock but it fit well with no binding in the mag well and was generous at the tang mortise. A few worm holes here and there but fits the total ensemble well. A few coats of flax seed oil to suck up and then I can see how well it shoots. I got 195 dollars in it so far minus whatever the small bits cost me over time and a little less room in the storage area but loads of enjoyment. Maybe it will at least be pie plate accurate.

Not to bad I guess, this was the first three shots from prone @ 100yds. after the initial 3 round Bubba proof test and 100yd soccer ball bore sight. Before I actually tried the rifle there was some additional in-letting that had to be removed from the mortise at the front sight collar, the bedding surface behind the recoil lug and at the fore and aft part of the bottom metal contact area. When the action was placed into the stock there was a slight rocking motion from front to rear that needed attention. The rear stock ferrule was shortened to get the gap at the rear of the magazine box closed up leaving a tiny gap and the combined in-letting allowed for the front of the box to entirely meet at the front of the magazine well and the opposing machined surfaces. To much gap at the rear of the well will allow the follower to drag when loading without a stripper clip and can cause problems with it dragging when the last round is fed from the magazine. To little and accuracy can suffer over time with wood compression. It also allows the horseshoe shaped surface of the tang to get a good purchase for recoil management (Stock Splitting) The upper handgaurd also needed the bottom leveled to allow it to slide into the sight collar without causing any unnecessary binding and the upper radius relieved for the barrel taper with a barrel channel scraper. There is very little movement of the barrel at the nose of the stock and the barrel is free floated nearly its entire length. The rear of the sight collar and the flat at the recoil lug contact the stock at the same time. Considering the accumulated wear at the muzzle, it makes me wonder how many barrels have been tossed without making sure bedding was entirely corrected or just poorly fitted absent of key holing. The real test will be to get the barrel hot and note the changes to make sure it doesn't start stringing or blow the group entirely at longer ranges.

For a cobbled together rifle, it looks like she shoots OK.

Bubba comes in many shapes, sizes, and catastrophes.

Your Bubbaing skills are acceptable.

Thanks, I like working on old rifles, its a shame parts are getting so expensive. I found the Mk.I action with an A3 bolt that had the face opened up for a magnum and a Leonard Brownell handle fitted to it for 20 bucks at a flea Mkt. so I had to do something with it. Who ever did it actually did it right but I wont be building a magnum Springfield any time soon. Luckily they didn't get to grind on the feed ramps or mag rails before they quit the project.