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.
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.