Ian
Notorious member
If chopping up a priceless, 99% original, pre-WWI rifle bothers you, fear not. While I'd love to just fix what's there, and have indeed tried, the sewer-pipe, magnetite bore and beat-up wood is just too bad.
While I'm at it, might as well make something I really like, so the replacement barrel will get threaded for a suppressor, profiled down to match the original, and be radiused up to to the thread shoulder at the muzzle end. I might shorten it down a little also, maybe to 18" or so.
The comb is far too low for my Injun cheek bones, especially with suppressor-height sights. The forearm is too narrow for my liking, and the straight angle of the profile bothers me, so I'm going to re-stock the thing and do some nice checkering. Since the original butt plate is broken into several pieces, and I like a crescent steel plate on a woods rifle, the plan is to buy a steel casting and fit it to the new stock.
Stock wood is still on the fence. I have some native, black cherrywood which makes a fabulous stock but is prone to chipping and may not be the best for the buttstock design of the 99, so I haven't settled on quite what to use yet.
Will do a boiled linseed oil finish on the wood and the barrel/trigger/screws/butt plate will be rust blued. Receiver should be rust-blued for durability, but I'm such a sucker for color case hardened receivers that I may do an acid color on it and the lever just for appearance. We'll see....
So here's the beginnings:
While I'm at it, might as well make something I really like, so the replacement barrel will get threaded for a suppressor, profiled down to match the original, and be radiused up to to the thread shoulder at the muzzle end. I might shorten it down a little also, maybe to 18" or so.
The comb is far too low for my Injun cheek bones, especially with suppressor-height sights. The forearm is too narrow for my liking, and the straight angle of the profile bothers me, so I'm going to re-stock the thing and do some nice checkering. Since the original butt plate is broken into several pieces, and I like a crescent steel plate on a woods rifle, the plan is to buy a steel casting and fit it to the new stock.
Stock wood is still on the fence. I have some native, black cherrywood which makes a fabulous stock but is prone to chipping and may not be the best for the buttstock design of the 99, so I haven't settled on quite what to use yet.
Will do a boiled linseed oil finish on the wood and the barrel/trigger/screws/butt plate will be rust blued. Receiver should be rust-blued for durability, but I'm such a sucker for color case hardened receivers that I may do an acid color on it and the lever just for appearance. We'll see....
So here's the beginnings: