Garage built bench rifle

[Cadillac Jeff]

OK I didn't want to take over an other thread, so I will try this.

This is a bench rifle that I had built a few years back.
First I bought a model 1917 enfield as a doner but it was an eddystone & my old school gunsmith would not use it, but a buddy had this old hacked up remington or Winchester I don't remember which but the bolt it the other...if ya get it ...Remchester.....
Anyway I bought the barrel blank in the raw,never turned down & polished full 30 inch.....I tried to find the paper on it but can't remember where I stashed it....maker was from ....ahhh he'll idontremember..some where in the south west??

George...my gunny..done the put the barrel on the action part test fired & I found the stock on ebay..
It was all ready for an enfield so not much had to be fitted, it has no floorplate meaning only a single shot.
I have only shot 10 jacket bullets out of it . Not even enough to even know what it'll do..


I have a 12 gr of unique with a lyman 311 334?? I think shoots very good if I do my part...I don't always tho..

It was just something I wanted to do, didn't put much money into it, & it ain't perty but it is perty cool !!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

That barrel, looks like one Im fitting to my Savage 340/Hornet! Its almost 1 1/4" @ chamber and just about a inch out at 25".

How do she shoot?

CW

 

[Cadillac Jeff]

Better than I do !

Honestly I just got lucky with the bullet & load I mentioned...
I am going to play with it this summer, work on picking up the speed some.

 

[Ian]

If you want to really see what it can do, try breech seating plain-base cast bullets.

 

[RicinYakima]

Want to look at another garage built (ing) one I've been working on for 30 years?

 

[Cadillac Jeff]

Yes!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Want to look at another garage built (ing) one I've been working on for 30 years?

SURE!

Might give me motivation ta finish my 340.

 

[RicinYakima]

In the late 1980's I was shooting NRA Hi-Power and got an invitation to go to Fort Lewis and shoot a 1000 yard match with my 1903 Springfield. Had a good time but decided I needed a better rifle than my 1937 NM '03.

A fan of Harold Vaughn, I decided about 1990 to build one from scratch with his ideas. Found a WW2 Remington with good steel and straight receiver. Had it annealed and a solid bottom fitted and then rehardened.





More coming later today.

 

[RicinYakima]

Part two: No pictures, rifle is put away in the shop safe for the winter.

Barrel is a 26 inch Douglas 1/12 heavy sporter made in 1989 and air gauged XX. It only had about 100 rounds of jacketed bullets through it before I was injured on a fire and that was the end of my shooting prone ever again. It had been in a NM "C" stock just opened up for the barrel channel and no hardware on the front. There it sat until 2017.

Spring of that year I found it in the closet in the shop and decided to do something with it. Finishing out the action was straight forward except for the bolt and scope mount base. The bolt issue was solved by finding a 1930’s Springfield Armory National Match rifle bolt that had had the handle cut off and an aftermarket one welded on. Since it had no value for a restoration, I reworked the handle to fit under modern scope objective lens. This bolt is a remarkably close fit to the bolt way and prevents the bolt from tilting when the firing pin is behind the sear. Now that the action was stiff on the bottom, the top was fitted with a Redfield Junior base that was annealed, closely fitted, and screwed and glued on the top. I found Loctite 620 was used to hold shotgun barrels into mono-blocks and has an adhesive strength of 10,000 pounds per square inch. I am hoping that it will stiffen the top of the action. The trigger is a Huber Concepts ball bearing job, set for 20 ounces.

Scope is a Vortex 30 MM 6X24 50MM and has been excellent since I put it one the rifle. The 30 MM tube allows plenty of adjustment for my 1450 f/s loads out to 300 yards, the farthest I can shoot at my range. Stock is just pieced together and is the main problem, the barrel is free floated and I'm still experimenting with technics on shooting it. Some times it shoots great, and some times just so so.


The above target is about average. The one below is the best five shot group.

 

[Ben]

WOW !!!!!!!!!!
Love the looks of the bottom target.
Great Shooting !

Ben

 

[RicinYakima]

Thanks Ben, but that is one out of 50 groups, and it is only 5 shots.

Below is a jacketed bullet group that I shot with ABC match bullets and a good load. It should be about half that size, so still working with the stock issue. It's the journey not the destination. If it shot good all the time, I would not shoot it anymore.

 

[Ben]

You're right.
If we could shoot " 1 hole groups " all the time, we'd loose interest pretty quickly.

Ben

 

[fiver]

putting some vertical in the groups i see.
it could be as simple as the firing pin spring.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Part two: No pictures, rifle is put away in the shop safe for the winter.

Barrel is a 26 inch Douglas 1/12 heavy sporter made in 1989 and air gauged XX. It only had about 100 rounds of jacketed bullets through it before I was injured on a fire and that was the end of my shooting prone ever again. It had been in a NM "C" stock just opened up for the barrel channel and no hardware on the front. There it sat until 2017.

Spring of that year I found it in the closet in the shop and decided to do something with it. Finishing out the action was straight forward except for the bolt and scope mount base. The bolt issue was solved by finding a 1930’s Springfield Armory National Match rifle bolt that had had the handle cut off and an aftermarket one welded on. Since it had no value for a restoration, I reworked the handle to fit under modern scope objective lens. This bolt is a remarkably close fit to the bolt way and prevents the bolt from tilting when the firing pin is behind the sear. Now that the action was stiff on the bottom, the top was fitted with a Redfield Junior base that was annealed, closely fitted, and screwed and glued on the top. I found Loctite 620 was used to hold shotgun barrels into mono-blocks and has an adhesive strength of 10,000 pounds per square inch. I am hoping that it will stiffen the top of the action. The trigger is a Huber Concepts ball bearing job, set for 20 ounces.

Scope is a Vortex 30 MM 6X24 50MM and has been excellent since I put it one the rifle. The 30 MM tube allows plenty of adjustment for my 1450 f/s loads out to 300 yards, the farthest I can shoot at my range. Stock is just pieced together and is the main problem, the barrel is free floated and I'm still experimenting with technics on shooting it. Some times it shoots great, and some times just so so.
View attachment 38570

The above target is about average. The one below is the best five shot group.
View attachment 38571

Yup awesome groups!!

My '03 has given me the best Cast bullet group I ever shot. It was 5 shots @ 100 Yards with a 1-4.5 Bushnell scope with a post reticle.
I used a RCBS 30-180 fn bullet and 2400 powder. When I looked I could hardly believe my eyes.



I just re scoped this rifle yesterday. It now wears a Nikon 3-9.

 

[RicinYakima]

That bullet is on the schedule for next year.

 

[Ian]

Try IMR 4064 and Berger 150s seated .010" off the ball seat. When you get that one figured out I'll send you my Mossberg MVP to sort out. It shoots cast lead and cast lead free alloy as poorly as it shoots the best jacketed bullets and loads, about 1.5" groups at 100 yards. Never produced a single ten-shot group under an inch out of 5-600 tries. I even built a machine rest for it, totally re-bedded it the two-step way, stress-free, with steel pillars, use in-line dies, new brass, re-crowned it (only thing that helped), now it's a safe queen. Probably ought to go ahead and buy a 300 BLK reamer and start looking for a barrel.

 

[RicinYakima]

putting some vertical in the groups i see.
it could be as simple as the firing pin spring.

It has a "speed" firing pin spring (two more coils) and the silly '03's have the highest mass of any bolt action firing system, except the 7.7 Jap.

 

[RicinYakima]

Try IMR 4064 and Berger 150s seated .010" off the ball seat. When you get that one figured out I'll send you my Mossberg MVP to sort out. It shoots cast lead and cast lead free alloy as poorly as it shoots the best jacketed bullets and loads, about 1.5" groups at 100 yards. Never produced a single ten-shot group under an inch out of 5-600 tries. I even built a machine rest for it, totally re-bedded it the two-step way, stress-free, with steel pillars, use in-line dies, new brass, re-crowned it (only thing that helped), now it's a safe queen. Probably ought to go ahead and buy a 300 BLK reamer and start looking for a barrel.

I haven't been able to buy IMR 4064 in over 10 years. Only match bullets I have left are a couple of hundred Sierra 168 HPBT and maybe 50 Hornady 125 Match bullets. My notes say that the ABC bullets were seated .005" off the seat, my normal position.

Something to consider, if you rebarrel the Mossberg, chase the threads in the action for depth and straightness. Then have a good machinist thread the barrel for no crush threads. That is the reason I only work with actions that have square threads and no "V" threads.

 

[fiver]

exactly what i mean.
the heavier firing pin hits can start the barrel vibrations that begin the whip.

 

[RicinYakima]

exactly what i mean.
the heavier firing pin hits can start the barrel vibrations that begin the whip.

Hummm. Think I may have an extra National Match spring and firing pin to the spares box. Rated at 24 pounds instead of 27 pounds and doesn't have the re-cocking knob on the back.