A Rifles Worst Nightmare?

[anapex]

What's the worst nightmare a rifle of yours could have? For mine it's being in a condition where I can't make it any worse and especially if I didn't spend a lot of money on it in the first place. Example one is a Krag that I picked up around Christmas. Shown earlier here http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=120555&highlight=krag .

Here are some maybe somewhat better pictures of it after I worked on it a little bit. The varnish on the stock was sanded off along with the very very light checkering that was cut in to it. I couldn't quite get rid of the crack that was formed by the pistol grip grafting though. I also ended up having to cut off about 4 to 4.5 inches off the front of the stock due to a ton of bad cracking. The stocked was finished with a couple coats of boiled linseed oil and some new swivel sling mounts added. I also used some cold blue to try and redo the metal, it got a little darker but it's not the best refinish in the world. Anyway here are the pictures.







Now example 2 is a Stevens Favorite copy made by Western Arms. My Dad had bought the receiver, barrel, and forearm at an auction for $35 but it didn't come with a stock. In addition to a missing stock it had a ton of rust to take care of. To make things worse, my Dad said he'd like me to work on it but he didn't want me spending "a lot of money", he didn't even want me buying a $30 walnut stock for it. So first off the barrel, receiver, and forearm got a good cleaning. I then tried some of the cold blue I had left from the Krag but it wasn't taking for some reason. So I used what I had left, OD Green bake on finish from Brownells. Then I went hunting for a cheap stock. I found one on a cheap pine pop gun from Bass Pro. So it took some chopping and cutting and fitting and some badly applied walnut stain to get to the point in this picture.



Anyway those are the kind of nightmares my rifles have, what about yours?

 

[Kamicosmos]

where's the site that has the PILES and PILES of miniguns, fals, tommy guns, AKs, ARs, etc etc etc, just rusting away. I think it was some army base in the UK or maybe over in Asia somewhere.

That is just sad.

 

[DMK]

What's the worst nightmare a rifle of yours could have? For mine it's being in a condition where I can't make it any worse and especially if I didn't spend a lot of money on it in the first place.

This poor abused thing. I'm still not sure how I'm going to fix the front sight since the lugs have been ground off, but I've got a brand new stock set and most of the parts collected to restore it. Although I must admit to y'all, I'm having trouble fighting a strong urge to make it into a Jungle Carbine clone .

 

[Zeke Menuar]

I don't know about nightmares per se. I just bought a neglected US M1917 sporter. Just needs a bit of TLC. fine tuning and refinishing. Oh yeah, it needs recrowning too. For only $100 worth of tools I can do it at home. Think of all the money I'll save?

Went to a local gunstore and saw some of Bubba's handiwork. A No4 Mk1 that has been scoped with the mandatory stock cutdown and various grinder marks here and there. My inner-voice tell sme that "You can cut down the barrel, restock and refinish and your good to go".
I am not going to buy another reclaimation project!

Gotta stop listening to the voices in my head, they're clogging up the safe.

Good luck with your projects,
ZM

 

[cracked butt]

A local Gander mountain store has 2 or 3 krags butchered worse than the one shown, they want prices up to $1200 for them I'd fork over $1200 for a good example of a Krag that hasn't been butchered, but for one that has been chopped in someone's garage

To add to the nighmare, they also seem to have at least one example of an 1903 springfield and a few enfields that are chopped.

 

[mfree]

We've got an Arisaka in the store that has had the forend cut short, rounded over with a wood rasp and smoothed with a pocket knife (or so it looks), and a "sling" attached..... with a wood screw.

It's just sorry looking, though if the price drops much I might take it *if* I look it over and find no bubba'ing of the metal parts, no absurd wear, and stocks available inexpensively...

 

[Lonestar.45]

"What's the worst nightmare a rifle of yours could have"

Falling into the hands of a lib/anti relative after I die and being given away in a gun buy back program to be melted down.

 

[Malamute]

DMK and Zeke, I put a front sight assy from a P-14 or 1917 on a cut down No 4 Enfield. Looks better than the issue front sight if it's sitting out there all by itself. Just had the 'smith turn the barrel to the correct diameter and sweat it on. It's apparently only a tiny bit too tall to sight in as-is, so a little file work and it should be good to go for elevation. Was hitting about a foot low @ 300 yards with either the battle sight aperture or the leaf sight set to 300 yards.

I had the No 4 cleaned up at 19" and moved the stock band back 2", then rounded the forend similar to a Krag carbine's profile. It had already been Bubba'ed.