My Gunsmithing Project Impossible???

[JDinFbg]

After waiting the requisite 24 hours for the epoxy steel to set up after doing the bedding job, I was able to do the unveiling. The first good sign was that the left over epoxy in the mixing cup was hard as a rock and no soft spots or indications that it did not cure properly. With a few taps of a hammer on the guide pins screwed into the action/barrel mounting holes, the action and barrel came out of the stock nicely. This also alleviated my fear that maybe I missed getting release agent (Kiwi neutral shoe polish) on some part the epoxy contacted and glued the thing together permanently. I did find I forgot to plug one hole in the bottom of the action and it got some epoxy in it, but I had dosed everything up with enough release agent that it was easy to remove the epoxy from the hole. After getting the action and barrel out of the stock, all indications were that the bedding job was a success with all intended areas fully filled and a solid bedding platform established (picture with the tape and plumber's putty still in place). After some careful work with a utility knife, small wood chisel, and a Dremel tool, the bedding cleaned up nicely (second picture). Digging the plumber's putty out of all the crevasses in the stock was probably the most time consuming. So, now on to relieving the barrel channel to assure the barrel in front of the front bedding pad is fully floated and will not have barrel/stock contact during firing. The final pay-off will come when I can actually take this thing out to the range to see if my time was well spent.

 

[BBBBill]

When a Gander Mountain store opened me me some years back, I was surprised to see ten boxes of 25-20 Winchester factory 87 gr JFPs. They wanted $49.95 for a box of fifty.

Stupid pricing. That's why they end up closing stores. The one in my home town was only open about a year.

 

[Sarge7402]

Think a long time ago I read an article about using a taut string in the barrel to determine if it was straight

 

[4v50 Gary]

nice patch up job. The only reason why I'd glue it back together is to use it as a pattern for a new stock.

 

[JDinFbg]

nice patch up job. The only reason why I'd glue it back together is to use it as a pattern for a new stock.

I think the repaired stock will hold up nicely, particularly since many of the split points were reinforced with some fairly significant volume of epoxy steel bedding material. Further, the 218 Bee round this Model 43 shoots is not a heavy recoil round. I think I could have purchased a replacement stock from Numerich Arms, but wanted to see what I could do with what I had and not invest a lot more until I can see how this thing will perform at the range. I can always buy a replacement stock in the future if I somehow deem that necessary.

 

[doubleh]

I think the repaired stock will hold up nicely, particularly since many of the split points were reinforced with some fairly significant volume of epoxy steel bedding material. Further, the 218 Bee round this Model 43 shoots is not a heavy recoil round. I think I could have purchased a replacement stock from Numerich Arms, but wanted to see what I could do with what I had and not invest a lot more until I can see how this thing will perform at the range. I can always buy a replacement stock in the future if I somehow deem that necessary.

I like your thinking. Too many people care nothing about repairing and restoring things. Just throw it away and buy something new is their thinking. Personally I enjoy the challenge of taking something like your project and returning it to service and making it look good to boot.

 

[boom boom]

Think a long time ago I read an article about using a taut string in the barrel to determine if it was straight

If you can get your eye up to it in using a backlight or in bright sunlight, it is pretty easy to tell if a barrel is significantly bent. Look for concentric rings

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/how-do-you-tell-if-an-ar-barrel-is-bent.535531/
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-9829.html

 

[JDinFbg]

Well, a tad over 2 months after starting this post, my project to rebuild my Model 43 Winchester in 218 Bee is now complete! The next step is to laser bore site this thing in the back yard, then take it to the range to find out exactly what I got from all my effort. The test ammo is all loaded, so now I just need it to quit raining and find a free day when I can go shoot. More to follow whether it be good, bad, or indifferent.

 

[JDinFbg]

The results are in. I finally had a chance to take my rebuilt rifle to the range to see how it would shoot. For my tests I put together some loads using 2 different powders and 3 different bullets, with the powder charges selected midway between the starting and max listed in resources I consulted and no attempt to optimize bullet seating depth:

POWDER________________________BULLET
Hercules 2400 - 11.5 gr._____________Sierra .224 Dia. 40 gr. Hornet
Accurate 1680 - 14.0 gr._____________Hornady 40 gr. V-MAX
________________________________Berger 40 gr. Varmint

The temperature was in the mid-70's with light winds during my testing at 100 yd. targets. I used an old Weaver K-6 scope (1960's vintage) for the test since I had it on hand. I loaded enough ammo to shoot two, 5-shot record targets with each powder/bullet combination, so I shot a total of 12 record targets. The results were acceptable, and surprisingly good for what I started with, but I'm not going to win any benchrest matches with this thing. I discovered at the end of my testing that my scope rings had come lose from the scope bases, so some of the results may have been affected by this. I discovered I also have to work on my scope alignment since I was at the maximum right windage adjustment on the scope.

The general observations were that the Accurate 1680 powder gave smaller and more consistent groups than the Hercules 2400 (from one of the last batches made by Hercules before being bought by Alliant). Further, the group sizes with the Sierra and Berger bullets seemed to be more consistent than the groups I got with the Hornady bullets. The smallest group obtained was with the 1680-Sierra combination, and the largest group was with the 2400-Hornady combination. However, one group with the 1680-Hornady combination looked decent if I ignore the one flyer. I've posted below a couple of target photos and the test results summary. With some more trials with powder weight variations and resolving my scope mount issues, I am hopefull I can significantly improve over my initial test results, and can make this thing a shooter.