I don't do a lot of gunsmithing for other people anymore, but do occasionally take on work that no one else wants to do. In doing this, I am often reminded what a piece of cake it is to perform some of the precision rifle stuff; in comparison to some of the work which was a big part of my early career. Fitting a match barrel to a custom receiver is a straight forward machining task which is easily accomplished in two hours or less. By way of contrast, I am currently working on bringing back into service a Stevens Visible Loader; a pump action .22. Typical of a 90 year old 22 which has seen rough use, this had a bore which is black and pitted, with little visible rifling. It had parts which were worn, damaged or missing, a split stock, stove bolts in place of gun screws, and so on.
So far, I have relined the barrel and chambered it for 22LR, made a new firing pin, a new barrel retaining pin and screw, and a new cartridge lifter spring. I sleeved the barrel tenon and redrilled the receiver for a new retaining pin (the receiver had been damaged by some over zealous hammer use).
Fitting a precision rifle barrel is, as I said, a piece of cake. You set it up to run true bore and ream the chamber, thread it and Bob's your uncle. On this thing, I had to sleeve the tenon and turn it to a tight slip fit in the receiver (about .001" on the diameter). Then I had to cut the notch for the retaining pin. This was easily done in the mill, but I left it about 10 thou tight for fitting, which is done will file and stones. The notch is "U" shaped. It would have been a lot easier to make it square. The pin has to just fit because it is this fit which indexes the barrel as well. I must have slid that barrel on and off forty times before I had it right. The firing pin was a missing part and it took me two tries to get the dimensions right for the firing pin retractor (which does double duty as the cartridge cut off). The lifter spring was also missing and I'll have to see the one I made works. All in all, a challenging job which will pay poorly (it's for a kid; it was Grandpa's gun). When I do these kind of jobs, I understand why so many modern gunsmiths choose not to!
Coming up is a job of repurposing a1917 Enfield barrel and fitting it to a Model 95 Winchester, in 30/40 (.30 US). WH
So far, I have relined the barrel and chambered it for 22LR, made a new firing pin, a new barrel retaining pin and screw, and a new cartridge lifter spring. I sleeved the barrel tenon and redrilled the receiver for a new retaining pin (the receiver had been damaged by some over zealous hammer use).
Fitting a precision rifle barrel is, as I said, a piece of cake. You set it up to run true bore and ream the chamber, thread it and Bob's your uncle. On this thing, I had to sleeve the tenon and turn it to a tight slip fit in the receiver (about .001" on the diameter). Then I had to cut the notch for the retaining pin. This was easily done in the mill, but I left it about 10 thou tight for fitting, which is done will file and stones. The notch is "U" shaped. It would have been a lot easier to make it square. The pin has to just fit because it is this fit which indexes the barrel as well. I must have slid that barrel on and off forty times before I had it right. The firing pin was a missing part and it took me two tries to get the dimensions right for the firing pin retractor (which does double duty as the cartridge cut off). The lifter spring was also missing and I'll have to see the one I made works. All in all, a challenging job which will pay poorly (it's for a kid; it was Grandpa's gun). When I do these kind of jobs, I understand why so many modern gunsmiths choose not to!
Coming up is a job of repurposing a1917 Enfield barrel and fitting it to a Model 95 Winchester, in 30/40 (.30 US). WH
! ! " I had a person bring me a 9mm semi auto pistol that they forgot was in a cubby hole on their ATV and after about 6 months and a lot of washing the mud off the ATV they discovered it fully locked up. I removed the grips and started cleaning it in my ultra sonic cleaner and Coca Cola. Took a couple of weeks and some gentle persuasion but got it apart and back to functioning.
