The Ugly Gun Lives!

I had intended to make this project another tutorial. Unfortunately it took forever for me to get going on the project. Then a friend wanted a beater rifle to hunt with. You see the area we hunt was until this past year shotguns only. When they opened it to rifles, guys with shotguns stopped seeing deer within range. The deer got smart fast. He was in a big hurry to get it before his wife spent the tax return. I was going to rust blue the gun for practice. He wants a duracoat finish. I don't have access to an oven that big, so I left the metal as is.

The gun was priced at $100 when I bought it. I did some trading with the dealer and it only ended up sosting me about $60. I've told you in the past about swagbucks . Using swagbucks enabled me to get the stock and scope mount for free. Both were purchased off of Amazon using gift cards earned with swagbucks. The scope is a Tasco long eye relief pistol scope purchsed in a consignment shop for $20. The rings are Millets and at $30 break the low budget theme of this rifle. More about that later.

I can highly recomend the Fajen F34 stock  . This stock was nearly drop in and well worth the $65 price tag. It only required minor fitting. I used a dremel with a sanding drum on the lowest speed. It could also be easily accomplished with a four in hand file. There was only one minor hitch. After doing some minor relief work at the front action ring and along the sides of the sight base. The action still wouldn't  seat into stock. The hole for the front action screw had some heavy flash. This flash prevented the recoil lug of the action from mating with it's counterpart in the stock. A quick pass with my Dremel and everything dropped right in as it should.

The scope base install was uneventful after finding a little trick. The base came with no instructions. So, I just went online and read the instructions for similar units. You have to remove the leaf from the rear sight. There is a spring under the leaf that needs to be left in place. This spring is pretty strong. The problem is getting the holes lined up. Actually keeping them lined up. It takes both hands to compress the spring. You either need a second person to thread the screw through the hole or a third hand. I didn't have either. What I did was line the holes up then drop the shank of a jewelers screwdriver through the holes. Then I used two thin blocks of wood and a large C clamp to hold everything in place. Remove the screwdriver and install the screw. Be careful, the sight base is made of aluminum. It will be real easy to bugger up the threads.  I had trouble finding a set of rings that would drop right on to this base. The rings I did find while not outrageously expensive weren't the cheapest I could find. The slots on my base were slightly under size. This could be easily corrected with a fine file. Doing so will remove finish from the base.

The only other work done to this gun involved lapping the crown to correct some damage. I'm not a huge fan of the 8x57 cartridge. So, I decided to sell it rather than add another cartridge to the stable. Should another VZ24 action come my way I will probably buy it. The next one will be a little more involved.

Woods

Check out the guys at The Frugal Outdoorsman

I found this site a few days ago. I'm pretty sure anybody that enjoys this blog will enjoy it too.
http://www.castbullet.com/index.htm

Woods

The One Hour Gunsmith makes a score

Well my friends, the one hour gunsmith has another low budget project gun to play with. After many many years of being shotgun only, the state of new york has decided we can be trusted to hunt big game in certain areas of the southern zone with centerfire rifles. While I have a very nice Mannlicher style Interarms Mark X mauser in 7x57 to hunt with. I find myself shying away from taking it out in incliment weather. You see I was too young to purchase one when I first fell in love with that picture in the 1977 interarms catalog. So when one popped up on a local dealers shelf a couple years ago I grabbed it. The date code of 0477 stamped on the reciever sealed the deal for me. So after waiting so long to get it I don't want to abuse it. Add the fact that now the sidekick wants a rifle after shooting mine. And Pelenaka has decided she wants to hunt. So, we find ourselves needing a second rifle. A rifle I don't have to worry about. A gun that can be taken out in the rain, carried and possibly dropped by beginers. I set out calling around for a Handi Gun by New England Firearms. I found a few, but, with one exception all I found were in calibers more suited to varmints than big game. The one and only 30/30 I found was pretty overpriced for a second hand gun. On one call to my favorite dealer he suggested a cheap surplus mauser rifle. So, off to gunbroker.com to look around. Didn't find much for a reasonable price after adding shipping and FFL fees. Then I got an email. The dealer that suggested a surplus gun picked up a collection of them. In the lot was a poorly sporterized BRNO VZ24 in 8mm mauser. Well friends we did some haggling and did some trading. In the end he got some non gun stuff of mine and I walked away with the ugliest gun I've ever owned. When this gun was captured and put away after the war the guy doing the cosmoline held her about 3" from the end of the barrel. How do I know? Because the marks of his fingers are still there lightly rusted to the finish. But, he did a good job with that cosmoline job. The inside of the barrel and action are in near mint condition. So my friends we have a gun project. More to come!

Woods

Feedback please

Looking at the stats page it seems my most popular posts are the ones about amature gunsmithing. My most popular post is over two years old and is still visited daily. I've started the one hour gunsmith label and I am wondering how many of my followers would like it to become a regular feature. I intend to make these projects low budget is in under $100. Also as the title implies projects will be able to be completed in one hour, or be able to be broken down into one hour or less stages.

I will still continue my regular "How to's" and homestead life posts. I will just use the "One hour gunsmith" as a means of keeping the blog posts more frequent.

Also, go recrute me some followers people. I intend to do give aways at the 50 and 100 follower marks.

Woods

A Kudos for Thompson Center Arms

I have to give a hat's off to Thompson Center Arms. Several months ago I picked up a TC Renegade at a local gun show. The gun was represented to me as being unfired and it was still in it's original box. There were also some accessories included. The gun was priced around $200 and the dealer was willing to move on the price. Too willing to move on the price. I figured I could sell the extras for around $50 if I had to. The stock alone would bring $100+ at auction, so, I figured an offer of $170 was safe. He took it and I made a phone call to a friend. He had seen it the day before and informed me it was without a nipple when he saw it. He also informed me that someone had cross threaded and messed up the nipple hole. sure enough I got it home and got a nipple wrench out. Pulling the nipple confirmed it was the same gun. Still it was a pretty safe buy.

Some further inspection revealed an issue with the lock. Everything seemed fine until the barrel was on the gun. Then the the half cock was too far forward to be functional. A quick call to Thompson Center was made. They informed me the lock was under warranty and to send it in. They wanted $85 to replace the bolster which would have solved the nipple problem. I sent in the lock and bought myself a couple nipples with oversize thread diameters from Cains. The oversize nipple carefully forced into the damaged threads succeeded in chasing them out to funtionality. A week after sending in the lock, it was back with a new style hammer which solved that problem. At this point I was ready to put the gun up for sale in an attempt to make a profit. Which was my original intent. Then my 14 yr old stepdaughter out of the blue asks if she can deer hunt with me. Well, she would need a gun. Heck, I have the perfect gun right there waiting for her. So off to the range to get it sighted in. It liked Maxi Balls over round balls and it didn't like tripple seven or pyrodex. Real black powder in fffg granulation got the ignition right.

Saturday we went hunting. At lunch time I told her to shoot the gun and we would reload with fresh powder when we came back. Well sometime in the last 15 minutes we were in the woods the new hammer screw was lost and the new hammer with it. Today I called TC again and talked to Tim in the service dept. A ten minute phone call got us a new set of parts at no charge sent via fedex They should be here in time for the princess to be back in the woods this weekend.

Quite a few companies could take lessons in customer service from Thompson Center Arms.