A Forgery Put Together Rifle

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  • Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    This morning on another thread the discussion was about reduced loads-plinking rounds for turn-bolt rifles.
    Probably for a couple years I had a re-pop M82 and cheap base/rings laying around and an A3 rifle.

    So anyhow, I finally decided to put it all together after reading this morning. I'm going to order a scant stock then grind the wood for bolt handle clearance. The stock on this rifle is still pretty good so I don't want to destroy it. Its all ready bad enough drilling the action but its not like these are very rare. Stocks are harder to get a hold of, at least as far as I can tell.

    The bolt, I have already from a de-sporterized rifle that I can grind off where it turns over and then draw file out along the stem to mimic a real one.
    I also put a new two groove barrel on the reciever some time ago when they were cheap.
    I worked on a real A4 one time and the front base hole was drilled all the way through the top bolt lug. I didn't do that on this one because the carbide bits I had were # 28. The thread tap will grab the very last bit of top material and could snap if its not annealed or ground away so a spot drill with a little clearance helps with that sort of thing.

    The exterior of these rifles is hard as rock. Even the rear site base. The front screw hole is only about 6=7 threads deep. Also needed was two .005 steel shims at the front of the base to get the post elevation correct.
    The little drill jig was a big help because of the surface hardness for keeping the bit from walking but some extra lay out was needed to get them located.
    The arm for drilling doesn't match for drilling and the bases are too high to relocate it very easily from front to back.
    Hopefully it will shoot ok when done, the base and threads are straight and strong as 25 over yonders.
    We'll see about the scope later on.

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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Hardened Windage Screws

    I remembered this afternoon I had some hardened screws out of a GI wrapper.
    They were the same thread and pitch as the soft ones that were with the base.
    There was a time when Redfield Jr bases were all over the place.
    Not so much anymore.
    Hopefully these will help out. The repop base is pretty soft, so every little bit counts.
    I used Brownells screws for the base out of a jobber pack. I'm not so sure they're not very well made either. I chopped up some torx cap 8-40's to start off with.
    Ill use some of the filister cap screws when all the fitting is done.
    The good ones are on top.

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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Took a chance on a GPC un-issued scant stock.
    The one with the damage at the nose and rusty stock bolts. It came in split but with all the cracks relatively clean and not hard to manage.
    I repaired them with a couple of toothpicks to spread the stock just enough and some acra gel with black dye.

    Force it in there and clamp it up. Make sure when you fix a crack, that you test run your rigging to hold it together.
    Nothing worse than trying to figure that sort of thing out when the glass is beginning to flash over.
    Or even worse, when your done the crack has been allowed to set not completely closed up.

    Make the excess off with a chisel, then scrape the rest off with a razor blade. Tape off everything you don't want glass on. Force enough in till it squeezes out and lumps up so you know you have maximum tension/bonding.
    Work that blue tape off with your chisel when you get down to bare bones.
    Should come out just like it was never there.

    When done, I'm going to tint the wood with the secret Zurich firearms museum conservation formula that not many people know about for walnut.
    It's clean the wood, 30 % pure linseed oil, 30% turpentine 30% fruit (red) wine vinegar and 10% bee's wax warmed together in a bottle suspended in boiling water then fed into the wood till built up.
    For beech,45% denatured alcohol-95 percent, 45% shellac flakes, 10% paraffin both rubbed in with a cloth.
    Guisan's secret recipe. :o

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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Mixed up some linseed oil, turps and red wine vinegar with beeswax.
    Because I'm not a very good cook I didn't realize the vinegar would separate form the oil just like at the salad bar.
    Once all was combined and wiped on to the stock it sucked it right up. At one point the wood was turning white like a blown head gasket in radiator water.

    Because I went through the trouble to warm it all up together there was no going back.
    So true to form, WTF I just pasted it on till it wouldn't take anymore, left it sit then wiped it off to dry some.
    Looks a little red to me already, maybe some a little? just what I was after. Ill put it out in the sun tomorrow to evaporate the turps then keep flooding it with oil every so often until it gets built up some. It-ll be redder in about 6 months after it gets some red lithium grease and STP with dirt worn into it.

    Also I ground a bolt into a reasonable facsimile of a real one and mimicked the bolt cut reasonably well by memory.
    Try as I might without killing myself the handle turned out ok but looks like a weird cross between a real one and a Leonard Brownell classic but kinda A4 without an oversize knob though.
    I'm not going all Joseph Manton or Larry Potterfield with this one. Also blackened a couple parts like the bolt, butt plate, rear sling swivel and scope base /mounts for some extra pizazz.

    The wood actually has some nice figure in it with a couple nice black stripes here and there. I think its an American bowling pin and Billiard stock, no marks or any K in the cut off and its pretty rough finished like most of the scant stocks. I just scraped it and the HG with a dull razor and slopped some dressing on it not trying to fool anyone with it anyway.



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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Rough as a cobb bolt handle and notch, added in black SC bolt shroud and striker.
    Notice its a little rough on the right side of the bolt stem. That what you get for being in a hurry or not checking your work.
    Went through a couple of sears and found one that didn't move the striker back on second pull off. Second stage is full stop no grit or mush and then there it is back on target hold your breath and then slightly more pressure, BLAM! it's off.

    Quick word on fitting safeties. When I swapped over to the black bolt shroud I had to move a safety over to it. What I do is capture the square threads of the shroud to hold it steady in between two blocks of wood. Lever the safety over and then onto a small flattened piece of steel to depress the plunger as the safety is rotated. As the safety is rotated just pull clear from the groove of the shroud rearwards, reverse installation on second shroud and so on.

    Every once in a while, because of tolerance stacking, you'll find a safety that once installed on new shroud/mated to striker it's hard to rotate to disassembly or safety position. The first train of thought is usually the tolerances between the grooves of the safety lever and striker are mismatched or need fitting.

    Whats really going on is the coils of the striker spring have prevented the striker from being moved rearwards because of the total length of the spring being collapsed on itself.
    Just very slightly grind the flattened portion of the spring to allow that little bit of additional movement that's needed. Leave the milled surfaces of the shroud and safety alone until you make sure the spring is the correct number of turns and diameter.
    Your safety, striker and trigger pull gauge will thank you.


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    When your done, you should have something that looks like this or nearly as close to a A4 as you can get.

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    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,168
    Sun City West, AZ
    Everything looks good...my only suggestion would be to get a full pistol grip C-stock. The "warthog" stocks never looked right and the C-stock will give a superior purchase on the rifle and better coil control.

    And yes...those receivers are very hard.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Everything looks good...my only suggestion would be to get a full pistol grip C-stock. The "warthog" stocks never looked right and the C-stock will give a superior purchase on the rifle and better coil control.

    And yes...those receivers are very hard.

    Yeah I get it, C stocks are better looking but scants are like an ugly girlfriend that nobody ever sees.
    You really don't mind riding one when nobody's looking but you never bring it out where someone else will see it!:lol:





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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I was able to get some quick and dirty 200 yard targeting yesterday just before the rain set in.
    I used Lc 69 hand-loads with 4895 and 150 H fmj projies to 2700 fps.
    Six o'clock hold, 1/2 moa turret adjustments, post reticle is self centering.
    Stock needed re- tightening guard afterwards then band screws touched up slightly.
    I used new rebuild bolt and extractor, some break in needed there but no problems with ftf fte, just not smoothed out yet.
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    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,168
    Sun City West, AZ
    Not bad at all for a break-in shoot. You have to keep in mind those are combat sights...not target sights. Minute-of-enemy-helmet is good enough for the intended purpose. The military should have proscribed slightly thicker front sight blade to make it easier to see but I guess they were still stuck in target shooting thought mode...plus the '03 and '03A3 were going to be primarily secondary arms.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Cheating with a bag here, little rainy and slightly breezy today, right elbow a little slippy on the mat with the old sweatshirt.
    Target is @300 yds and 7moa.
    I think with a little more magnification it would be a little easier to make hits.
    Shooting these old rifles with a scope is pretty fun. If I run across a 1903 action I'm going to build another one with one of those Hi-lux scopes.


     

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