1903 Home Build

[Doco Overboard]

Heres a few pics for those who are interested in a 03 home build. The stock is a CMP retro as well as the barrel. The stock is relatively decent with no end grain in the wrist but arrived with a light strike in the cartouche. It needed some extra wood removed from the receiver protrusion and the front of the recoil lug mortise. The action will be a Remington model that has a rougher front lug so some additional fitting was warranted. The comb of the stock near the nose has a dip in it that will need some extra work and the fore-end will need some slimming to meet the handgaurd. There is plenty of wood for the girth of the stock but the final shaping process left it slim at the receiver rails and ring radius. There are no abnormal gaps along the action that will give a poorly fit appearance. The stock came equipped with a brass ferrule that will be tossed for an original piece of steel tubing. Minor in-letting allowed the receiver to sit tight to the barrel channel and recoil mortise and the in-letting for the sight collar is sharp and tight. The CBI barrel clocks to nearly a quarter inch at the index mark when hand tight and needed the park polished off to allow the rear sight collar to be driven home and pinned before the barrel is installed. The bottom metal will be next, the barrel torqued and the chamber finish reamed till the bolt will close on a HXP round and the rest of the furniture installed later on.

 

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BARREL INSTALL

Found the bottom metal will need more attention to detail so installed barrel and sight collar tonight instead. Make sure you dont hit the threads or drill through the rear collar when following the old hole that was started by the factory,(the reciever end) some just drill a new hole but I used the old one. The front pin will be installed later when I find some more wire. I seated the collar with a piece of pipe reduced and convexed to fit the front of the sight base and used an extension to drive it on. Index marks were nearly spot on for level with the front base dead nuts. There was luck there so I will have to be careful drilling the transverse pin so not to wind up with to many windage points if the collar moves. Extractor slot was good and having the right tools to handle the installation makes it go easier. Dont forget to not lean on the receiver heal with your hand when pulling the parts together. I lightly polished the reciever face with a drill purpose barrel stub and some engine turning grit to avoid gauling for when the witness marks hit. Some pictures of the progression with the barrelled action placed in the stock.

 

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FINISH REAM THE BARREL

Here you can see a pull through reamer with my head space gauge. Use a liberal amount of cutting fluid and turn the reamer clockwise from the muzzle. Make sure not to reverse the reamer when it is in the chamber which will quickly dull an expensive tool, or worse mar the chamber. The barrel was advertised as being .006 short and was finished in about 24 to 30 or so turns I guess. Advance the reamer slowly and gently keep the bolt face against the bushing supplied from PTG. Stop and clean often absolutely making sure the cuttings are completely removed from the chamber, bolt raceway, extractor slot and on the face of the bolt lugs. If it gets sticky stop and clean and let the reamer do the work, no hurry here. When the bolt knob drops your done.... which will be great with a SAMMI loaded round. For HXP or de-linked or whatever you shoot you will need a few more turns with a alternative bushing that PTG will grind for you or a steel shim to get the extra points like.0005 that fits in the bolt face in tandem with the supplied bushing to get the surplus round to allow the bolt to almost completely close which is where I like to stop to-let the bolt lugs seat when test fired with a lubed round or so. Keep it clean, take your time with no distractions and clamp your work to a cradle so you can work horizontal which is what I did or a vise with padded jaws. Have clean rags, some brake cleaner and air hose with a few acid brushes to clean the reamer and coat it with fluid. For myself I find that the difference between an HXP round and a SAMMI go Gauge is roughly equivalent to the difference between SAMMI go and no-go when monitoring bolt position with either gauge in place. The bolt will not come close to dropping on a SAMMI no-go gauge. I think (know) if you may only do one or two rifles the cost of the tooling is not worth it but what better excuse to have some fun. For bolt rifles its easier with just a hand turned reamer from the rear after you get the feel but what I used here is okay for a semi as well. If you use a HS gauge similar to mine, do it with a stripped bolt and a dummy round, which should be happening anyway.

 

[Doco Overboard]

WORKING THE STOCK

After I close fit the bottom metal and action using candle black from an ordinary candle I used a home made scraper to make sure everything was flat and bedded evenly. Use a rubber mallet to transfer the soot to the wood and re-tighten the stock bolts with a small spanner made from a screwdriver with your barreled action in place. Here you can see where the excess wood was removed with a 10" half round rasp, the comb leveled out and high spots and waves left from the palm sander leveled. I used a smooth cut file to clean up after the rasp and then various grades of sand-cloth on wood blocks to follow up. Afterwards, a mix of stain and tung oil is sanded into the wood to fill the grain. The more attention to detail and the quality of your stain and patience will pay off for final appearance. This is a mix-master representation of a period combat rifle and not a full stock Pennsylvania rifle from a hand select cherry blank but will be fit better than a commercial offering. This is where you can see what needs to be revisited when the shaping was done. Work the sloppy mess over until you are satisfied with the results and then set it down to dry while you go bow-hunting.

Come back later, fit your final stock parts, install the rear ferrule and make sure the magazine box is not trapped by the stock and has a gap at the top where it meets the receiver. Make sure every rag in your shop that has tung oil or BLO on it gets gone and in the fire barrel when your in the stand!

 

[dist1646]

Excellent post!

 

[Doco Overboard]

READY FOR TRIALS

Here's a likeness of what you should have when your done. I wound up using a milled trigger guard and a new faux 1903 bolt fabricated from a X marked S/C example with the undercutting smoothed over and the third lug re-contoured to the lightened profile. I do not like to use A3 bolts in 03 rifles because of the undercutting but I liked the swept handle and preferred the appearance and the way it ran with different fire control parts over the R-8 that I started with. All my other bolts are SHT and I'll save them for other projects. Plus, this is a shooter and not an all correct low number sales rifle. The front sight was reamed and pinned into place using an 03a3 key which is just a little shorter than what is on a 03. The only difference is a gap that would be left in the front and rear of the band slot and the need to drill and ream the key and band for a tight fit and then dress the ends of the pin to a concave contour. No big deal, tight and straight is what we want. The stock rubbed out great and is still drinking BLO. The picture isn't much but when its filled up with oil and cured some Ill wet sand with BLO- tung oil mix thinned with turpentine. Part of the fun for building shooting collecting rifles of this pattern is swapping parts, picking up bits checking whats out there on the parts suppliers, research etc. I was able to bore sight at 100yds from some bags and a half inflated volleyball that filled the bore and have 0 windage points and a six o'clock hold with the ladder in the raised position at the 200yd graduation which is confidence inspiring but will change more than likely once everything settles in. All in all the products that I received from the CMP were shipped and packaged nicely, were easy to fit and finish, exhibited good workmanship and were value priced. Satisfaction and the self accomplishment are well worth the cost of parts equipment for me even if you only do one or two products. Soon I'll test fire, measure inspect brass for irregularities and hopefully not have to adjust barrel channel or handgaurds to much when targeting .

 

[scrub buck]

Old School Cool...

 

[rdc]

Nice

 

[Doco Overboard]

Initial Targeting and Break in

[/ATTACH] Finally let some other home brew projects sit and took advantage of the weather to begin on settling everything in. Before heading out the bore was thoroughly cleaned and patched dry. Action screws were tightened as well as the stock cross bolts to make sure nothing would fly apart or break and the rear tang checked again for a slight amount of clearance. Three rounds of lightly oiled cartridges were used that were loaded with a 200gr Lapua spitzer and 53 gr. of H4350 which is a fairly stout pill and then expended into the ditch using PPE and from the hip. The bolt lift was examined for drag, the brass visually examined for irregularities and then the bore cleaned with solvent and jb bore paste allowing time for the barrel to cool, revisit the stock and have a look at the bolt and confirm all mechanical functions of the rifle were the way they should be. Five rounds of 165 gr. Hornady spitzers were selected to determine the bore sight from a prone position from 100 yds. You can see from the target picture which is rotated left the first shot a high flyer that was certainly from lighting the rig off from in front of my face with my nose firmly planted against an 80+ year old striker rod that I dug out of my junk bin. The other 4 shots not to bad but was hoping for better. Everything was checked again with the action screws getting a little twist and the stock bolts the same. A couple things were, the CMP timber seems soft and I could have continued to get a few degrees of rotation on the stock bolts. The front site needs the top edge squared with a stone and then blackened. The lower band needs replaced because its at the end of its travel for being tight and had become canted. Trigger pull was good at about 5 pounds or so but the second stage became soft a little bit before final sear release and judicial parts swapping will more than likely solve. The barrel loaded with copper fouling rapidly, more than likely from being sharp and needing more break in. A3 sights are easier to use. There's nothing like going from standing to prone on a stock that you just fit. Home projects are in the realm of everybody and are satisfying, rewarding and could be even more enjoyable between a few people to get the tools together, collect the parts and put a few together for the hell of it.

 

[iH8DemLibz]

Drawing little circles on paper and then shooting holes straight through them.

That's one fine looking and accurate target rifle.

 

[Doco Overboard]

There were five more from standing at 200 that were more widely dispersed before I left! A 16 inch circle with a spray can would have been more appropriate for them.