What gunsmithing or repairs have you done today

I worked on a 1909 Argentine Mauser. Took it out of the stock and removed all moving parts from the receiver. Getting ready to remove barrel and re-barrel to 30-06. Don't worry, it was bubba'd a looonnnnnng time ago. It was reamed for 30-06 probably 70 years ago. The bore is .311 so that would have never worked. I have an "in-the-white" 24in. 1 in 10 twist barrel to work with.

Removing factory sights from a Win Model94S and installing Skinner sights in their place. Much fine filing is required to sneak up on the fit. All worked out very well. Off to the range.

Nothing really to speak of. I just ordered a 1/4" 22 tpi whit worth die to start making my own action screws for my Mauser builds. I found one for sale on amazon. I'm also ordered some 1/4" screw blanks from Brownels. I'm tired of trying to find screws for my builds that don't fit to my liking for my sporter builds. Since I'm not restoring it. I'll just make my own.

I have heard and even done it myself in a cracked action that I can't use to see if it was possible using 1/4" 20 NC tpi and jamming it into the action screw lugs. It does work but I just don't like the results. It's just not the same. Whit Worth threads have 55* taper and NSC and NSF threads have a 60* taper.

I have also been reading my copy of Gunsmith Kinks 4 an I found a section in it completely dedicated to bolt forging and welding. It is a pretty interesting read so far. There are lots of ideas for jigs and other home made tools in it with rudimentary blue prints in some cases.

EMC45 said:

I worked on a 1909 Argentine Mauser. Took it out of the stock and removed all moving parts from the receiver. Getting ready to remove barrel and re-barrel to 30-06. Don't worry, it was bubba'd a looonnnnnng time ago. It was reamed for 30-06 probably 70 years ago. The bore is .311 so that would have never worked. I have an "in-the-white" 24in. 1 in 10 twist barrel to work with.

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Also another thing about this rifle (the suck part) is that it is all numbers matching....The bolt handle was bent however.

Been sanding stocks mostly and oatiently waiting for my leupold mount to arrive from midway. Hopefully be here tomorrow.

I forgot to mention the other day I got my hands on some ebony piano keys that I plan on gluing together later on to make a fore-end blank. I also got my hands on some more walnut scraps and a piece of maple. I have no idea what I'll do with that. I'm also looking into buying a table top band saw.

My Dan Wesson 15-2 started slowing up on DA, so I bought a new Wolff spring kit and then opened it up. I found old grease had gummed up badly under the cylinder and some rust had started to form under the Hogue grip and on some surfaces inside the gun. (I guess moisture in the air got trapped when it was reinstalled and the surface rust started forming.) Uncool!



The biggest headache was the grip retention screw was stuck in the hammer spring cup-screw (one fits in the other) so the cup-screw got stuck down inside the grip. I had to clamp the cup-screw with needlenose vise grips to unscrew the grip retention screw from it.

After pulling the innards i used a q tip to coat the insides with oil, then after the oil sat for an hour or so I removed most of it and left a very light coat to prevent future surface rust. This is as it was sitting.



I replaced the springs, lubed where appropriate, put a dab of blue loctite on the hammer spring cup-screw to hold it in place and reassembled. All is functioning as expected and the trigger pull is even smoother than it was before.



Stay safe.

Well, I've been afraid that something would go wrong when I replaced the front sight on my S&W 617 with a new fiber optic sight for my LPA rear. I've done this operation before without problems but for some reason I was hesitant.

My fears came through, I had purchased some #54 drill bits for the operation and after setting the gun in my gig with the new sight installed I took to the hand drill. My drill press is absent without leave.

Everything was going well until the drill bit broke. I'll work on trying to get it out but for now it's stuck in there solid so I put some Blue Loctite on the hole and I'm hoping it holds.

It's a shame because I had extra pins to hold the sight in and they've been hard to come by lately. Hopefully the sight will stay on and I'll be good to go. It just doesn't look as good as it would when done correctly.

Riomouse911 said:

My Dan Wesson 15-2 started slowing up on DA, so I... opened it up. I found old grease had gummed up badly under the cylinder and some rust had started to form under the Hogue grip and on some surfaces inside the gun. (I guess moisture in the air got trapped when it was reinstalled and the surface rust started forming.) Uncool!

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I've seen that happen a lot, even on stainless guns. The rubber grips are the worst offenders although it will happen under wood, too.

My neighbor brought me his Glenfield Mod 75 to check out and a good cleaning. It was his sons gun that he gave him back in the 60's. His son passed away earlier this year and he found this at a pawn shop, several months later. Found that someone had put a 22LR in backwards and it was jammed up. All the screws were loose and the screw hole in the front band is stripped. Still have to do a detail inspection to see if there are any other problems that needs addressed.

It will take 9 ebony piano keys it will take to make the fore-end for the build I am currently working on and 3 to make a grip cap. Now I just need to glue the pieces together and get the band saw to cut the pieces into the appropriate dimensions. I know that I made the other fore-end from the walnut and birch I just think that the ebony would just look better. I'll post pictures of the progress later this week.

I stripped down the Glenfield Mod 75 for a detail cleaning and inspection. Lots of fouling to remove. Found a few things that I fixed. The cartridge feed tube dove tail was so loose you could pull the tube off the barrel, without removing the retaining pin. The retainer pin was not fully seated, just barely engaged. The firing pin was binding up in the channel, bent, straightened and stoned the rough stamped edges. Back together and ready for test fire.

I've had a busy weekend,, on Saturday after work and my errand running I went to Walton where AL and I drilled and tapped my LA Coruna 280 ai as leupold one piece base arrived while I was at work. We also put a slight champher on the rear of the chamber because Mt cartridges weren't feeding well. It seemed to not be rising up under the extractor properly. After champhering the chamber it fed properly. Then we ground my 2 Pachmar 1/2" thick recoil pads to fit the 280's new stock and my 6.5x55se bishop stock, so both pads are installed.

The mount on my 280 ai didn't look level and it wasn't due to the rear reciever bridge being taller than the front bridge, so I removed the scope and base and started filing the rear of the base for a better fit which worked out fairly well but might need to shim the front of the base some to be perfectly level. That created another problem, since the rear was lowered the rear screw ended up too long and wouldn't allow the bolt to go in or come out of the reciever, so I took a file and shortened the screw until the bolt slid in and out without interference from the scope mount screws.

I also happened to see a problem with the muzzle and crown ony 6.5 sweede this morning looks to my eyes like the muzzle isn't square, and the crown is off center. Not too big a deal just more time to square it off and redrawn. Will post pics tomorrow as I haven't been home long.

A friend of mine asked how I come up with some of the stuff that I do when it comes to Smithing. I told him that I have to be resourceful and think outside the box most of the time and a lot of reading. For example sourcing the ebony everyday someone is throwing away an old piano. If it isn't worth restoring I say why not use the ebony and ivory keys. Especially when comparing the cost of brand new raw materials and ivory being heavily regulated. Besides I have always wanted to work with some exotic materials. I thought that I'd share how I source some of my materials to keep my beer budget.
Mentioning this reminds me that I still haven't located the 4 1/2 pounds of silver solder that I smelted into bars from costume jewelry, silver platters and other dinner wares using Lee molds to make the bars. Getting old sucks! I have been afflicted with CRS and a case of CFS. Go figure.

Cant remember stuff.
Cant find stuff.

Last outing with the 43X, I checked the new sights alignment to make sure POA was matching POI. Nope, so I drifted the rear sight to the left a few hairs as it was hitting the left when aimed center mass. Will double check again and bring the pusher out with me next time, so until that happens I'm carrying my S&W Shield again.

Shortened the barrels on my son's Sauer SxS he will be getting (as soon as he returns my truck to me) to 20" trued them up, and now just need to put a bead on it. Got it all set up on the drill press, just need time to do it.

I am still boggling over the idea of sawing off a J.P. Sauer; except maybe to salvage one with damaged barrels.

Worked on the mauser.......Broke my bench vise, a pair of vise grips and bent 2 pipe wrenches. The receiver was nestled snugly in the wrench I made, but the barrel won't budge.


The vise was about 100 years old too....

Here are the pics from Saturday and my 6.5 muzzle. I'm sure that it will clean up and redrawn it without too much trouble.

EMC45 said:

Worked on the mauser.......Broke my bench vise, a pair of vise grips and bent 2 pipe wrenches. The receiver was nestled snugly in the wrench I made, but the barrel won't budge.


The vise was about 100 years old too....

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Yeah it happens to the best of us. Have beer and walk away from it for a day or 2. Soak the action in some Kroil for at least as long. While you're waiting for the Kroil to do its job you'll have time to cool off and take an analytical approach to removing the action from the barrel. In the mean time lets see some pictures.

Mauser fan said:

Yeah it happens to the best of us. Have beer and walk away from it for a day or 2. Soak the action in some Kroil for at least as long. While you're waiting for the Kroil to do its job you'll have time to cool off and take an analytical approach to removing the action from the barrel. In the mean time lets see some pictures.

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^^ life lesson advice right there, IMO.

Test fired the Glenfield Mod 75 today. After 3 rounds it was jam amatic. It appears the feed lifter is lifting the round too high, nose up too high.

I finished making the ebony fore-end tip blank from the piano keys I salvaged and got the 1/4" 22 tpi die in the mail.