Making a gun from scratch

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tark

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I know I am not the only person here who takes blocks of steel and turns them into firearms. I have finished five guns so far. The two rifles were covered a couple of years ago in a thread, so I won't discuss them at great length.

The three pistols are a 45 PITA, a 38 spl and a 22 magnum. The 45 uses a cut-down 45-70 case 1.25" long. The 38 spl will actually chamber and fire .357s without any trouble, although the barrel is marked "38 Spl" I "Proved" it with an entire box of Federal 357 ammo:what:so I feel safe shooting 38s in it.

I got the barrel blanks from Les and the guns are all copies of a rolling block, because it is a stupid simple action. Steel on the 45-70 is 1045 professionally heat treated to RC 40. The 06 is 4140 treated to the same hardness. The pistols all are unhardened steel, so contact and load bearing surfaces are quite large.

The 06 took me seven years to complete, after work, a little at a time, I made everything on the gun except the screws holding it together, the barrel and the rear sight. There is a certain satisfaction you get from making your own gun that can't be equaled. You have something unique, a one of a kind that no one else has. I believe that I have the world's only 30-06 rolling block rifle.

That makes me smile
 

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I find those firearms amazing!
Good on you for some fine design and gunsmithing!
 
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I love those single shot pistols! Nice work!

A quality single shot 22 pistol is something I'd buy in a heartbeat if I ever saw a nice one for sale.
 
Those are really cool. Your cat seems to like them too. Id love a single shot pistol in something like 7.62x39.
 
There is a certain satisfaction you get from making your own...

Absolutely and good looking work.

Did you design them yourself or work from any plans?
 
You do excellent work. My hat is off to you and I'm sorta green with envy. I always intended to build a single shot rifle along the Stevens Favorite design. I put quite a bit of time into study and designing how I was going to do it but that's as far as I made it. Something else always got in the way and now I've given up on it. I just don't have energy anymore.
 
You do excellent work and the cat looked like it was very pleased!
 
I know I am not the only person here who takes blocks of steel and turns them into firearms. I have finished five guns so far. The two rifles were covered a couple of years ago in a thread, so I won't discuss them at great length.

The three pistols are a 45 PITA, a 38 spl and a 22 magnum. The 45 uses a cut-down 45-70 case 1.25" long. The 38 spl will actually chamber and fire .357s without any trouble, although the barrel is marked "38 Spl" I "Proved" it with an entire box of Federal 357 ammo:what:so I feel safe shooting 38s in it.

I got the barrel blanks from Les and the guns are all copies of a rolling block, because it is a stupid simple action. Steel on the 45-70 is 1045 professionally heat treated to RC 40. The 06 is 4140 treated to the same hardness. The pistols all are unhardened steel, so contact and load bearing surfaces are quite large.

The 06 took me seven years to complete, after work, a little at a time, I made everything on the gun except the screws holding it together, the barrel and the rear sight. There is a certain satisfaction you get from making your own gun that can't be equaled. You have something unique, a one of a kind that no one else has. I believe that I have the world's only 30-06 rolling block rifle.

That makes me smile

Great post! Thank you.
 
Absolutely and good looking work.

Did you design them yourself or work from any plans?
Well, I am no machinist, that's for sure. Les Baer taught me everything I know, which isn't much. If you handed me a blueprint and told me to build that part to spec, I would be helpless. I had no plans, everything was on the fly, trial and error. The first barrel I ever threaded was on the 06 roller. I practiced with scraps until I got it right. The first chamber I ever cut was the same gun. I had only a finishing reamer so I went VERY slowly. But, like I said, a Rolling Block action is stupid simple, with very few parts. I just started milling away metal until it looked right. Trial and error, trial and error, trial and error....... Measure a half a dozen times, cut once. The most difficult thing of all was drilling the firing pin hole. Too easy to get it off center. I got it right on the 06 roller on the third try.

It was proved at 80,000 PSI with a German proof round that one of our German customers brought with him at my request. Don't know how he got it here, probably the same way he showed up with a box of Cohiba Churchills that had "HABANA" on the ring. The gun has fired about three hundred assorted rounds of 30-06 factory ammo. It has been magnifluxed for cracks which revealed none. The headspace is unchanged. Fired cases exhibit less than .001 expansion and no stretch. They can be full length resized with your little finger . If I point the muzzle at the sky and open the breech block, the empties fall out of their own weight, before the extractor even touches them.

I think my gun shows that a well made rolling block action can withstand a lot more pressure than most people think.
 
Well, I am no machinist, that's for sure. Les Baer taught me everything I know, which isn't much. If you handed me a blueprint and told me to build that part to spec, I would be helpless. I had no plans, everything was on the fly, trial and error. The first barrel I ever threaded was on the 06 roller. I practiced with scraps until I got it right. The first chamber I ever cut was the same gun. I had only a finishing reamer so I went VERY slowly. But, like I said, a Rolling Block action is stupid simple, with very few parts. I just started milling away metal until it looked right. Trial and error, trial and error, trial and error....... Measure a half a dozen times, cut once. The most difficult thing of all was drilling the firing pin hole. Too easy to get it off center. I got it right on the 06 roller on the third try.

It was proved at 80,000 PSI with a German proof round that one of our German customers brought with him at my request. Don't know how he got it here, probably the same way he showed up with a box of Cohiba Churchills that had "HABANA" on the ring. The gun has fired about three hundred assorted rounds of 30-06 factory ammo. It has been magnifluxed for cracks which revealed none. The headspace is unchanged. Fired cases exhibit less than .001 expansion and no stretch. They can be full length resized with your little finger . If I point the muzzle at the sky and open the breech block, the empties fall out of their own weight, before the extractor even touches them.

I think my gun shows that a well made rolling block action can withstand a lot more pressure than most people think.
Turk ...............Two Hands Clapping...................It is beautiful is it not....
 
tark

Impressive collection of home built guns! Love how authentic the rifles and pistols look, like they just came out of factory a century and a half ago!
 
Great work! I am impressed. Like others, I have long had the desire to build a gun from scratch, vs. a kit. The satisfaction must be truly awesome!
 
Very well done. I stand (sit, because I'm lazy) in awe of your ability to do such a thing. Reminds me of my neighbor. One day I was having a beer on his deck and his radio shot craps. The next day he had built a solar powered radio out of scratch from stuff in his garage. The speakers were even enclosed in cedar that he had milled on an 1800s style steam powered saw mill at the steam show.
 
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