guns I built/customized

[frogomatic]

here's my 1911. Started with a plain jane RI Commander. I recrowned it, tweaked the sights and trigger, fit the beavertail, added the extended slide stop, smoothed out the feed ramp, checkered the grips, stripped of the parkerizing, and hot blued it. All in all I think it turned out very nice.

Here's the rifle I built on a Howa 1500. Went with a Shillen barrel. I chambered it for 35 Whelen, cut and crowned it to 20". Made the stock from american walnut, and used turkish walnut for the grip cap and forend tip. Finished the stock with velvet oil. Put a limbsaver recoil pad on, and added leupold bases, rings, and 3-9 Scope. The final touch was a silver inlay on the reciver markings. Sometime in the near future I'm going to go back and cut some checkering into the grip and forend.

Last is my baby, which is very near compeltion. I built this one on a 1916 Oberndorf reciever. Shillen barrel, 257 Roberts, cut & crowned to 26". Added Williams aperture sights. Lightend the double set trigger (when set it pulls cleanly at 10 oz., otherwise it's a 6lb. pull) Dropped it in a 95% laminate stock I picked up on the cheap. Again, did a silver inlay on the reciever markings. I even managed to salvage the original trigger gaurd and grip cap, which are both made of staghorn, and I'm in the process of fitting both to the new stock, and once that's done I just have to install the recoil pad and finish it with tru-oil.

I hope you all enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed building them.

 

[SsevenN]

Those are works of art.

You make me feel very passive in my firearms hobby.

What you do, is my dream.

 

[frogomatic]

it was my dream too, and I grew tired of not living out my dreams. so I went to school for it, and now I get to do what I love doing every single day. No decision in my life has ever been so rewarding.

And thank you for the compliment on the artistry, I greatly appreciate it.

 

[SsevenN]

That's just awsome.

I'm a young guy, who currently rents a small apt. For the moment I'm getting into reloading, I figure it's the next stepping stone. Eventually I would love to become an armorer, but it's a long road ahead.

Just curious, did you have a shop previously for wood/metalwork? Or were you commited enough to purchase the equipment? And did you take a face to face class, or buy a video series?

thanks,
7

 

[frogomatic]

Good work 7, reloading was one of my first steps into this buisness as well.

I did not have any shop/equiptment previously and I'm still working on getting all the stuff I need(I just graduated in October, and my wife is still in school so money is still pretty tight), but for the moment I have an arrangement with a machine shop in town. They let me come in and use their machinery in exchange for a cut of what I make on the job and/or doing work for them. As far as the schooling goes, I went to Colorado School of Trades(they have a website if you're interested), it's about 98% hands on training, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to be a gunsmith.

Don't let your dreams get away from you, I'm 31 now and I wish I had done this 10 years ago.

 

[BBQLS1]

I want to do one!