xtriggerman

Amen! I used to do hot bluing for years and the biggest issue with it was how to get rid of the dead salts that float to the top. Brownell's has a neutralizing process that's more intensive than the bluing its self! If any of you guys remember an outfit called Numrich Arms, they had to dissolve the company on paper and open it by a new name The Gun Parts store because they polluted about 7 homes water wells with dead bluing salts that were located near the store. It was a legal maneuver to shake the damage law suit. That nitre blue reminds me of the perfect nitre blue you used to find on those Swedish 96 Mauser rear sights. You can do the same thing with a oxy/accet torch on small parts. Just remember if the part is hardened, going over 500 deg F will start to degrade the hardness. Generaly, 500F is the stress relief heat treat number on hardened parts that require it. You can slightly harden soft metal parts by bringing them up to gold and cold quench.

Thanks for your comments folks, its very satisfying to take a neat old gun in sad shape and put the jump back in them. I'v never used any Aguila but if their Colibri 22 is primer fired, I want some! I only have about 200 rds of CCI left. Many years ago I used to have the RWS CB's with the egg corn head stamp. Taught my son how to shoot on those when he was little. As a matter of fact that was nearly 20 years ago as seen here... Once bonded, How many of you know this feeling?

Something about these little 100 plus year old wheel guns that is intriguing. With a working one in my hand, I often think it may well have been assembled by an old Civil War vet. Well anyway, I picked this up on GB about a year ago for about a hundred bucks. Last month I did a similar rebuild on a little 22 short called a Captain Jack. The Ranger is a good choice for a rebuild since it uses coil springs for the cylinder latch lever and cylinder locking lug. Also the hand is sprung very nicely with a strong spring arm pined into the hammer. Many of these early mouse guns used tiny leaf springs that would be a real pain to fab up since they are usually shot. As with a lot of these, I had to beat the cylinder pin out of the gun. The cylinder had about .016" end shake so the picture shows the building up of weld that will extend the length of the cylinder and I will turn the weld into a thicker bushing face. The original diameter over the cylinder pin was very thin allowing the hammer to beat the cylinder forward over the many firings. Heres the turned cylinder with a new pin made from oil hardened drill rod. Once the cylinder is fit into the frame with virtually no forward to back play, The barrel face is turned back and drilled out to .250". Then a new 22 sleeve is turned to fit and epoxied into the barrel. most any of these early guns will have the hammer and or the trigger sear wiped out as seen here. The fix is once again a build up of weld and recutting the hammer sear notches. Reshaped and the trigger spring was trimmed to lighten it up to a far more comfortable let off. After the trigger is re-timed with the action, I simply hardened it with Kasenite. The front sight was missing so I soldered in a new blade and trimmed it down to POA. The target is a 7 round cylinder string fired off hand at 6 feet. The only rounds that I would say is safe to fire in a well functioning BP mouse gun are CCI #0026 22 SHORT CB rounds. These round have no powder in them. only a primer charge. I'm always on the look out for those CCI #0026 rounds. I use them in an old Belgian Flobert type rolling block I have. You gotta love putting life back into these grand old guns! I sure do

My hopes are the Hillary/Sanders types will devour them selves without dragging too many others with them over time. Yup the knuckleheads are all over. One example comes to mind.... Once upon a time in a full state Prison mess hall, a blue shirt puts an inmate on the wall for a pat down. The guy didn't like the way the inmate was coming off about it so he stands there giving the walled inmate wegdies in full view of the pop sitting there. That was a whole new standard of stupid! You cant make this stuff up. Just one of many reasons why I finished out my 25 on Perimeter Patrol.

My take on this is you have an easy fix since the crack is open on the end of the hand guard. The only concern with any gun stock crack is has oil and or dirt gotten into it. If so the crack would need to be cleaned or ground out slightly from the inside leaving the visible side alone. In your case, its always best to try and find a way to clamp the crack "evenly" together for best result but not absolutely necessary in your case. Get your self some G-Flex epoxy. It is relatively fluid like, like honey once mixed and has some of the best "soak in" qualities in a 2 part epoxy. It is an epoxy specially formulated to have expansion/contraction qualities so it can move with the wood during temperature swings and is 100 percent water proof. It's used in acoustic guitar manufacturing. Do not use wood workers glue such as elmers since few of them are waterproof. I used to use Tight Bond exterior but have long since gone to epoxies. In your case where there is no wood missing, the G Flex is the best choice. Clean the crack as best you can with an air blow gun if u have a compressor and spread the crack a bit to press the epoxy hard into the very end of the crack with your finger. once you get the epoxy all threw the crack, put a wide piece of tap over in on the bottom side, wipe off all excess off the top and use electrical tape over the top like stiches to make sure the crack pulls together as best it can without clamps. The bottom piece of tape will keep epoxy from falling away from any slight gaps. I have never heard of drilling a hole in wood to stop the growth of a crack. All though it is a common practice on structural metal, wood is a different animal. The major issue with fixing wood cracks is getting the epoxy into the very end of the crack with out disturbing the visible surface. I have a hydraulic injection process explained in one of the "Gun Smithing Kinks" books published by Brownell's that is one of the most effective way of doing it. Good Luck

Thanks guys. Im the worst at keeping track of hours spent. And being picky about visual things kicks up the clock considerably. Sometimes I only get an hour or 2 at it with a few days off at a time so it has dragged on since January. At first, kit sight unseen, I said I would build it for nothing but after I saw all the raw parts, I about bit my tongue! I thought it would be like a TC or CVA kit of old..... not! Well, The owner realized what we had in front of us and made me take 200 for the work. So, I chalk it up as a learning experience on how to keep ones mouth shut next time asked to build something I hadn't seen yet. He should be picking it up tonight. He's the History professor at Roan State CC here in town. First time I met him, he had a 4.5" repro Civil War mountain Howitzer apart in the bed of his pick up. I knew right then & there we were gonna hit it off just fine!

This is a Rifle Shop kit that is one of the most rare BP rifles out there. The kit comes with a finished barrel and breech screw. Most all the rest of the parts including the brass all come in raw dropped out of the mold condition with pour sprues sticking out. If you ever order one of their kits, spend the extra $100 and have them put the lock together. That way they will fit, finish and harden the springs and related parts. They did nice color case hardening on the frizen and other hardened parts but the rest of the lock will still need to be resurfaced from the sand blasted cast surface. The first pictures shows how I lined up the barrel wedge loops with the drill, then slip the stock on the chucked up barrel so there is an accurate guide hole drilled in the wood for the 3 barrel wedge holes. Im not a big wood work guy but I struck up a friendship with they guy I bought my home from and agreed to build this gun for him. I installed a TC touch hole liner for practical reasons. [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060808_zpsdtlkt04d.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060809_zpsqrtdw3xi.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060810_zpslhku6wca.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060811_zpsdgohd2sq.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060890_zpsphjkozu8.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060891_zpsagblwqtk.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060892_zpssfqbphex.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060893_zpsybjq0igo.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060894_zps4zfu7kha.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s635.photobucket.com/user/xtriggerman/media/BLACK%20POWDER/P1060897_zpscqbiaxtp.jpg.html][/URL]

 The last Yugo I cut to 17", I ended up drilling the gas port out to .157, a #22 drill I think. The Yugo has the possibility of gas loss in a various condition gas block and many times slight pitting in the piston cylinder. So yes, the OP is correct in drilling out the gas port .005-6 thousandths at a time until you get a good consistent minimum ejection of 6 feet from standing shoulder firing. I use a brass rod in the bore to drill a port (protect of over drilling) and a tiny dymond ball dremil type cutting tip to chamfer the inner bur away. Good Luck with it.

   They made them in 35 Whelen for a while but those guns are way up there in price these days. GB has a few up for bid.

 Just got this forward and it checks out true. Ya gotta love that 45ACP !    http://worldwarwings.com/bailed-out-and-shot-at-this-pilot-made-a-historical-kill

    Im with ya on the 45-70! Iv got an old Marlin model 17 (fixed barrel) that's still slated for a Springfield load 45-70 conversion. Love a challenge

Iv never owned a 760 series but I'v had at least a dozen or so across my bench for scoping or cleaning or sighting in. Unlike the semi auto counterpart, the 7600 is an outstanding design. Its very smooth and incredibly reliable. Once I cleaned one that was never cleaned since bought new. some 30 plus years of hard hunting on it. Dropping the FCG, bits of pine cone, grass seeds, tree bark, sticks... you name it, it was in there and the action still functioned just fine. The only real weak spot is the extractors. When a chamber picks up any pitting or hot reloads fired, that's when the extractors can give it up most of the time.  As far as accuracy, they run the gamit. One time I had the opportunity to sight in a brand new 76 in 30-06. The cheaply finished 76 had just came out and looking at it I didn't expect much. I bore sight before I do a range run and then shoot for group before any adjusting. Well, that nasty looking thing printed a 100 yd 3 rnd clover leaf that had all three holes dam near touching! Surprised the hell out of me with a factory box. If I were to look for one that shoots like a bolt more or less, it would be an old carbine in 243. They keep the 30 cal barrel profile minimizing barrel whip. Now they only make em in 06, 308 and 270. Up in PA they cant hunt with semi's and the 760's rule as meat guns there. If your ever up there on I-78, stop in the Cabela's there in Hamburg, they all ways have at least 15 of them on the floor rack to paw over. I think as the price of them shot up over the years to the now $915 retail, I can see why the market is what it is.  

Great Westerns have really shot up in value over the past few years. Iv never heard about the Atomic story. No doubt the Atomic is a hot find. If you ever wondered why you see a red blue on some guns, its due to the fact that the item was made from the lost wax casting process. As the molten steel is injected into the glass mold, trace silicon is absorbed into the steel's surface that makes contact with the mold. That frame may well have been a normal blue out of the tanks but turned red within a matter of weeks. These days there is an additive to blueing salts to retard this odd oxidation from happening. I'v read that John Wayne had invested in Great Western at some early point. Nice find!

If anything good ever came out of the NY restrictive SAFE act, I'd have to say here it is! I did a lot of work on a guys guns over the years and when the SAFE act hit the law books in NY he decided to give me this little carbine instead of sending it to his sister's home in FL. When he first got this 22 I installed a bolt hold open and a barrel hand guard locking button that would lock the hand guard in the fully tight position since its the hand guard that tightens the barrel assembly onto the receiver. This uses the fine steel 30 round mags found in the Thompson A3 22. I know how much he liked this little guy and told him that I would give it back to him if he ever moved to a non registering, non hi cap ban state. That's been nearly 2 years ago. It sure is a neat plinker!

Being a refugee from upstate NY my self. There are 2 things that the south is missing out big time on. Those are Pizza and good old fashioned Greek Dinners. A real large Pizza is 18 inches in diameter with a hand tossed crust that is nothing like the crapola you find in Caesars, the Hut, Brothers ect, ect. all garbage. The only joint that comes close is Empire Pizza on Kingston Pike in Knoxville. Get a fresh baked per order Garlic knots and large pie there and you will know what I'm talking about. There are some OK Cafe's here but they all close at 2 or 3pm ! Yankee private dinners have huge menues and stay open to at least 9pm. Cracker B has nothing on these joints. Now that rant is over, Every single other aspect of life is way better here than the Liberal North period. I thought to retire in NH up in Thornton township on 92 acres I had up against the White Mountain NF. Then I found out what my property tax was going to be with 1.5 acres taken out of "Current Use". Live Free or die is a joke. Property tax there is WORSE than where I was in NY! The Schools in NH are totally funded by property tax. The Massaholes have over run NH and are pushing out the original Conservative base. Most Tennesseans have no idea how bad life can get under Libs. One year a City Lib got elected town supervisor and wanted to pass a law that you can't mow your grass on the week ends because the NY City folks that have week end homes complained about all the noise. And the Safe Act that was supposed to make you pay for a NICS check for a box of ammo. So yeah, I'm a Dam X Yankee that will be Dammed if I don't do everything humanly possible to stop that Liberal poison from creeping into TN. Maybe just let a few True Italian Pizza n Pasta joints in...... Maybe.

That's a lot of old world hand fit craftsmanship for sure! And I like your choice of optic. That low power Kahles is perfect for a dangerous game gun like that. Just about see the western & eastern horizons in the same picture. Good Luck with her!

Ok, I stand corrected once again. But there is a story that goes with it. Many years ago a range instructor at a large state prison I worked at had built a S&W 64 357 while he was at S&W armorer's school. Talking to him about the gun, I was under the impression it had a bored 64 cylinder. Obviously now with cylinder length differences being what they are, he must have put a 65 cylinder in the 64 frame while at the school. Why.... he wanted a personal marked 38 that may handle 357 due to state peace officer issue/carry regulations. God rest him, Richy died of cancer 6 months before he was eligible to retire. He's probably laughing now sayin, "I fooled ya"!

Very nice configuration! You can shave nearly 9 oz off by swapping in a DSA alloy lower. Looks great!

I think the biggest consideration here between the 2 properly assembled designs is the gas system. The gas impingement family of AR's are generaly "over gassed" from the factory with barrel gas ports of up to .086 or larger. This over gassing of the action is primarily a stop gap answer to the wide variety of factory loaded pressures found on the civilian market. In a light recoiling semi auto 5.56, over gassing is not a big deal aside from launching your brass into the next county. Now when you apply the same theory of overgassing a 7.62 x 51 in the light weight alloy of the AR, I'm not so sure there may not be issues down the road. The AR10T I mentioned earlier had come to me after it was already back to Armalite for fail to eject issues. LC ammo failed to eject every 3-4th round. The only ammo that would run threw it was some old FNM I had. The gas port was properly aligned threw the gas block and the action was smoothly finished threw out the captured gas flow route. It was just a turd. Maybe the DPMS has designed its alloy components to withstand a constant hammering of the hot NATO spec pressures since they have a long standing good reputation but due to a lack of history, I have to say "maybe". As with the many crappy FAL builds out there, it looks like folks are rushing to build AR10's like the 15 market. Those home builds may end up giving the AR 10 family of guns a rep that will hurt the well made DPMS. No matter how badly Century or others slapped together FAL parts, its reputation will stand unblemished as a first rate battle rifle design.

I have a Springfield SAR 48 FAL bought new in about 1985. Its pretty much a flawless running gun that has pretty decent accuracy especially with reloads. A friend of mine bought a AR 308T years ago and it was nothing but trouble. Very finicky with ejection. I told him to buy a FAL with adjustable gas but he didn't listen. Then sold it at a loss. That said, out of the box, I would venture to say the AR would be the more accurate in general due to fewer parts over the barrel providing better barrel harmonics. The AR breech lock up is also superior in strength and a better base control of the barrel harmonic. On the other hand, The FAL is a time tested design with plenty of surplus parts available. And in a SHTF situation, the adjustable gas is a feature I would rather not be without. I would stick with your FAL..... no question about it judging from your criteria.

"Using WD40 to CLEAN a gun is fine. I have used the method I described hundreds of times and never had an issue. I can assure you squirting some into the trigger mechanism then blowing it out is easier than disassembling and reassembling most guns." If that works for you as a quicky clean, great. Personally, I would use your same process minus the 10 minute wait and substitute Engine Starting Fluid instead of the water displacing solvent. That cuts oily grime like nothing else off the shelf and you end up with a totally dry mechanism once your done blowing it out. A case of apples to oranges.... that's all! That CZ is a fine pistol and probably the first and last issue you would ever have with it. I nearly bought one 2 years ago.

Firing the gun will jar the trigger hard against the trigger stop. something you cant do with snap caps. The stop screw is your first step before shooting as suggested. But I do respectfully disagree with ever putting WD40 into any firearm mechanism. Its lubricating properties are temporary and over time, as it evaporates, it leaves a waxy film. High pressure air may well clear most of it out, but why bother. Just clean & lube with gun oil or if in a semi auto that see's a lot of fouling on the internals, I suggest Ezox oil. Its a dry lube that works great. The CZ has a wrap around (magazine) trigger bar. If the stop screw dosent fix it, get the trigger into its bound up condition and see if removing the mag releases the trigger. If the trigger releases, you may have an out of shape trigger bar or a mag with a swollen body. Not likely but that's the next on the list before a tear down.

+1 As a rider for 40 years now, you can never know when its your time to unexpectedly part ways with your wheels while in motion. Its just not a good idea to pack permitless on a bike.

You can make a 20 out of a 30 fairly easy if you buy this $4.00 floor plate. Says its for 10 rounders but its pretty stout plastic. https://www.czechpoint-usa.com/vz-58-parts-and-accessories?l=5 I made up a couple shorter mags. I cut them to length and mill a slot on each side for the plastic rails. You could use a hack saw/dremil for the slots if u are careful. These mags are the best design for the X39 cal. None better. The clear window is a nice feature. Might have to get one or 2. The fiver hides inside the butt stock.

The AMT fluted chambers were not the answer as you found out. The way to keep them running is to brush & swab clean the barrel after every box or 2. Each one has its own "chamber dirt limit" before FTE happens. That and aside from the loose barrels, I never bought one but I did buy a Grendle P30 just because it has an over the limit Clinton ban Hi Cap magazine capacity. Back then, if Clinton wanted to ban it, I wanted one! That P30 ran well for about 5 or 600 rnds until FTE issues found its way into its fluted chamber also. Just what RIA is doing to make a reliable 22mag, Iv not read. The 22 mag IMO, is a wheel gun cartridge. Plain & simple. It will always need to be cleaned much more often than any other semi auto due to the cartridge design. CZ makes a nice rifle in the 22mag that appeared to be the most reliable fluted chamber 22mag available but they are not cheap.