I wanted to get a squirrel sniper rifle for my son to use that had more significance to him than an off the shelf rifle. OK, I really wanted to have a project to work on but that doesn't sound as good.
I've been trying to make this thread for a while but realized if I don't just post it up I'll never get it complete. It is still a work in progress.
I bought the rifle on INGO several years ago as a cheap project gun. The trigger was not in safe working order and there was no rear sight.
I fixed the trigger without too much problem and got it polished into a smooth action. This type of simple cheap gun really doesn't have much of a trigger mechanism to work on. The notch that catches the firing pin mechanism had worn down to where it was no longer holding. When the gun was cocked it would sometimes release (FIRE) without any provocation. When it did hold it just took a slight breeze to fire the gun. I reestablished an incline to allow it to catch and polished everything. The trigger was still pretty grainy. I used a magic marker to indicate where the pieces of metal rolled over each other. I'd coat the polished surfaces with black marker, work the trigger and the shiny parts represented where the metal actually came into contact. At first it was a line with divots in the path that wandered side to side. I got it to be straight and smooth. It was like the difference between a smooth verses rough ball bearing rolling over a surface. Then I made some subtle changes to the angled bends in the metal that resulted in a more natural progression of uptake pressure. Due to the simplistic design of the mechanism it was pretty much all done by feel. I'll have to upload the pics of this process later.
I bought a rear peep sight off of Gunbroker thinking it would be a better precision sight than an open "V" on a ladder. This got taken apart and thoroughly cleaned.
The sight before cleaning:
I bought a cheap stock off of Gunbroker also so I could cut it shorter and basically mess it up without ruining something of value. I cut the stock down, reduced a lot of weight and sized it up for my son. I also used pressure indicating materials to show all the points the barrel touched the wood and cleaned it up to effectively bead the stock. (Like adjusting sore spots on a denture.) The wood contacts metal a couple inches in front of the screw with even pressure all the way to the very back but is free floating in the front once "torqued" down. I didn't spend a lot of time doing this, it was mostly out of necessity since the barrel didn't fit in it that great at first.
The project then sat for years while I tried to stumble upon a screw that had the correct thread pitch to fit in the threaded hole where the rear sight once sat. The screw that holds the stock to the barrel has the same thread pitch/diameter so it was easy to take just the screw to EVERY hardware store in central Indiana. It was to no avail. Only smaller diameter screws had the same pitch, I never found anything close. Only recently did I figure out that a rotary (dremel) mandrel had a screw in it that fit
! I was back in business.
The screw holds the sight down but only from one point. Ideally I needed to drill and tap a second hole to place a second screw. Not having the tools or experience I went with what I know how to do. Using my dental handpiece (drill) I was able to make a very accurate but not standardized hole in both the barrel and sight that resulted in a pressure fit with a pin. For a pin I knew I would need a very hard metal so I made one out of a small section of a hex wrench thereby allowing me to press fit (tap) a hex peg in a round hole.
Finished:
As you can see I still need to reduce the length of the screw that holds the sight in place so I can eliminate the need for the washers. It would also clean it up a bit to grind the hex pin so it is flush.
I finally got the gun to the range to actually shoot it. This would have been a disaster if I'd spent all this time on a gun that was not accurate enough to warrant the attention. I failed to get pics but had a great time plinking away and sighting it in. I was able to easily get all shots within a 1" square at 50 yards and I could hit a pop can >50% of the time at 100yards on a rather breezy day using Remington 22 Golden bullet 550 high Velocity, Winchester Xpert HV and Eley sport ammunition.
Now I have to decide if the cosmetic improvement of shortening the sight screw and grinding the set pin warrants the risk of vibrating the sight loose. It seems solid as a tank now but a little high frequency vibration grinding on the pin and removing and replacing the screw may change that. Oh, well, only one way to find out.
Now that I know it is an adequate shooter I wanted to experiment with bedding the stock.
After removing wood to allow for space I placed wax to block out the areas I don't want filled in. I placed a strip of wax along the bottom of the barrel to give the acrylic some hydraulic pressure in hopes it will flow up and around the barrel better.
Mixed the powder liquid in the red flexible cup and poured it in the stock. The space created along the sides of the barrel were mostly filled in with acrylic from the initial mix but a lot had to be added as it setup.
Immediately upon trying to separate the barrel from the stock I realized I failed to place a separating medium (usually just Vaseline) on the barrel so the front contact area stuck to the barrel rather than the stock.
And then the trimming, lots of trimming.
Like I said, the thread and rifle is a work in progress. I've taken it to the range by myself, and with my son. It is a GREAT shooter! I've made a cocking tool since he has a tough time pinching the rear pin tight enough to pull it back. I'll update as I can. Fun project!
I've been trying to make this thread for a while but realized if I don't just post it up I'll never get it complete. It is still a work in progress.
I bought the rifle on INGO several years ago as a cheap project gun. The trigger was not in safe working order and there was no rear sight.
I fixed the trigger without too much problem and got it polished into a smooth action. This type of simple cheap gun really doesn't have much of a trigger mechanism to work on. The notch that catches the firing pin mechanism had worn down to where it was no longer holding. When the gun was cocked it would sometimes release (FIRE) without any provocation. When it did hold it just took a slight breeze to fire the gun. I reestablished an incline to allow it to catch and polished everything. The trigger was still pretty grainy. I used a magic marker to indicate where the pieces of metal rolled over each other. I'd coat the polished surfaces with black marker, work the trigger and the shiny parts represented where the metal actually came into contact. At first it was a line with divots in the path that wandered side to side. I got it to be straight and smooth. It was like the difference between a smooth verses rough ball bearing rolling over a surface. Then I made some subtle changes to the angled bends in the metal that resulted in a more natural progression of uptake pressure. Due to the simplistic design of the mechanism it was pretty much all done by feel. I'll have to upload the pics of this process later.
I bought a rear peep sight off of Gunbroker thinking it would be a better precision sight than an open "V" on a ladder. This got taken apart and thoroughly cleaned.
The sight before cleaning:
I bought a cheap stock off of Gunbroker also so I could cut it shorter and basically mess it up without ruining something of value. I cut the stock down, reduced a lot of weight and sized it up for my son. I also used pressure indicating materials to show all the points the barrel touched the wood and cleaned it up to effectively bead the stock. (Like adjusting sore spots on a denture.) The wood contacts metal a couple inches in front of the screw with even pressure all the way to the very back but is free floating in the front once "torqued" down. I didn't spend a lot of time doing this, it was mostly out of necessity since the barrel didn't fit in it that great at first.
The project then sat for years while I tried to stumble upon a screw that had the correct thread pitch to fit in the threaded hole where the rear sight once sat. The screw that holds the stock to the barrel has the same thread pitch/diameter so it was easy to take just the screw to EVERY hardware store in central Indiana. It was to no avail. Only smaller diameter screws had the same pitch, I never found anything close. Only recently did I figure out that a rotary (dremel) mandrel had a screw in it that fit
! I was back in business.The screw holds the sight down but only from one point. Ideally I needed to drill and tap a second hole to place a second screw. Not having the tools or experience I went with what I know how to do. Using my dental handpiece (drill) I was able to make a very accurate but not standardized hole in both the barrel and sight that resulted in a pressure fit with a pin. For a pin I knew I would need a very hard metal so I made one out of a small section of a hex wrench thereby allowing me to press fit (tap) a hex peg in a round hole.
Finished:
As you can see I still need to reduce the length of the screw that holds the sight in place so I can eliminate the need for the washers. It would also clean it up a bit to grind the hex pin so it is flush.
I finally got the gun to the range to actually shoot it. This would have been a disaster if I'd spent all this time on a gun that was not accurate enough to warrant the attention. I failed to get pics but had a great time plinking away and sighting it in. I was able to easily get all shots within a 1" square at 50 yards and I could hit a pop can >50% of the time at 100yards on a rather breezy day using Remington 22 Golden bullet 550 high Velocity, Winchester Xpert HV and Eley sport ammunition.
Now I have to decide if the cosmetic improvement of shortening the sight screw and grinding the set pin warrants the risk of vibrating the sight loose. It seems solid as a tank now but a little high frequency vibration grinding on the pin and removing and replacing the screw may change that. Oh, well, only one way to find out.
Now that I know it is an adequate shooter I wanted to experiment with bedding the stock.
After removing wood to allow for space I placed wax to block out the areas I don't want filled in. I placed a strip of wax along the bottom of the barrel to give the acrylic some hydraulic pressure in hopes it will flow up and around the barrel better.
Mixed the powder liquid in the red flexible cup and poured it in the stock. The space created along the sides of the barrel were mostly filled in with acrylic from the initial mix but a lot had to be added as it setup.
Immediately upon trying to separate the barrel from the stock I realized I failed to place a separating medium (usually just Vaseline) on the barrel so the front contact area stuck to the barrel rather than the stock.
And then the trimming, lots of trimming.
Like I said, the thread and rifle is a work in progress. I've taken it to the range by myself, and with my son. It is a GREAT shooter! I've made a cocking tool since he has a tough time pinching the rear pin tight enough to pull it back. I'll update as I can. Fun project!
Excellent!
