Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
I wouldn’t pick it up if I found it in the road...or something like that.
Very nice work..... were there ejection problems aka brass clearing that housing ?
I’m a fan of tools that work and my TRW receiver M1A’s have traveled with me . I took one to desert storm aka first gulf war just due the ranges I was expecting. Nothing sweeter at the time than a TRW M1A with a McBros Supermatch stock and a Brookfield scope mount filled with a Leupold Ultra 10X with mildots. Had a hart barrel on it and used it for leg and high power matches at the whittington center at Raton NM without the scope for many years. The combination of good glass and the stable mounts brookfield made and accuracy tweeks on the M1A made it the perfect desert rig for my needs . Still does on coyotes and prairie dogs and feral hogs today here in Texas.
M118 Special ball or Federal Match 168gr BTHP is the fodder it prefers and gets.
Only other caliber M4gery I own is a 6.5 Grendel that I put together to do Col Coopers Apollo challenge of 20 Shots, 20 seconds, 20 inch group at a 1000 yards. I went through thousands of rounds and days of range time trying to walk first cold shots up to 20 into that 20 inch circle. Couldn’t do it. Even when I “primed” the action with two fast magazines and then went prone to shoot for score it was tough. I did get close and it improved my scores to minute of torso at 1000 but the man that owns DPMS or is CEO of it Dave something.... finally did it in front of witnesses for record.
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33816
Oh well ....good days at the range and reloading fodder is always better than work.....:o)
Stay safe !
Everything worked flawlessly, if not quite as smooth as I would have liked.
I woke up today with the notion that the strange grouping may be due to bedding problems with the stock. Except you can't "bed" this stock like a wood or plastic one where you open up the action area, slap in a bunch of epoxy, and mold it to the action. Instead, there are four setscrews in the bottom that have to be backed out enough to contact the trigger mechanism and apply the proper uniform pressure.
I think I can use some of that window caulk roll to check how things are compressing, and see if everything is uniform. After that, then see how much more the screws need adjusting to provide the proper pressure for closing the trigger guard.
Evening Win-Mag : nice target, especially the 10Xs. Very scientific analysis and expressed well in terms that even us caplock shooters can understand. Appreciate it. The 10Xs simply eluded me, I must have shot up my match quota in practice instead of during the scoring shoot.
That's because I'm usually not under some sort of scoring pressure. The last pressure-filled range session was over 30 years ago, when I was worried about freezing to death in -20F weather while qualifying with the unit's M1D. All of the battalion's designated marksmen rode up in an Army van with the OIC, with the temperature starting at zero, and dropping quickly the further north we went.
Nobody in their right mind was at the Camp Grayling range that day, but there we were, huddled in our warm van, trying to figure out how to get the job done without risking frostbite, despite our winter gear. I noticed a bunch of silhouette targets still standing on the 100m line, and asked if we could use them, thus sparing us a freezing trip down to the target line.
The MAJ clamped his spotting scope to the side window, and said that all the targets had hits in the body. I asked about the head area, and he said there were no hits there. I took a deep breath, ran out, slammed in one clip, and rapped off all eight rounds offhand, using the antique scope that came with that antique weapon. Then I ran back into the van, and prayed that the sensation of freezing eyeballs would go away quickly.
He announced that eight-for-eight in the head area was good enough qualification for him, and I was done. He also mentioned that the others could try that on other targets if they wanted. Everybody else went out into the snow to fire from the prone position, although one guy was prepared enough to bring his shelter half to put on the ground. I admire their determination to tough-out the cold, but I felt that, for me, expedience was the better part of valor, and marksmanship.
Evening Win-Mag ; now that’s nice shooting. 8 for 8. Great story.
Looks like it’s supposed to dip into the 30’s later on this week. I’d better start bringing the houseplants in.
Think I’ll wash and wax thecar tomorrow...that’s sure to bring the rain, right?
I saw that about the temps. Looks like we will have to turn the boiler on pretty soon. With the newwindows the house is staying much warmer, but the 30’s are pushing it.
With it being as dry as it is, we have lost a bunch of plants. Don’t know if they’ll come back next year or not. OB has been a little too busy to add moving sprinklers to his list of chores :)
The pups love romping in the back yard which hasn’t helped the vegetation, but sure is fun to watch. The acupuncture and chiropratic adjustment really helped Strider’s back, he goes in tomorrow for a little follow-up care.
My follow-up is “stay the course and come back in a month”. I whined but it did no good. Should I mention I am slowly going crazy?
Sue
I’m back from running errands....Home Despot, likker store, Petco, and grocery store.
The plan was to re-seed the lawns this fall. I’ve been watering the front yard some - not the recommended twice a day routine. I think all I’ve managed to do is perk the weeds up.
Heh...teh kittehs romp in the back yard and come in all dusty.
Hang in there!
Strider had a summer cut when we got him, except for a really bushy tail (he looked so handsome). Well, that tail is a huge leaf magnet. He comes in wagging his tail and leaves go everywhere!
We had planned to do the whole recommended re-seeding thing this fall, the water bill would have been awlful, so there's that.
OB went to the range this afternoon.
I’m ironing, but it’s okay. Beats my other current options!
I’m catching up on some housework and doing some laundry while UNC is playing Miami.
Looks like I picked a good weekend to go to the likker store.
There is no bad weekend to go the likker store!
Not that I spent three continuous weeks on it, but for such a "small" project, it sure seemed like it would stretch out forever, or until I worked up the determination to wrap it up.
When I bought that unfired Colt 1903, the oil had oxidized over the past 80+ years, and the parts seemed almost rusted together. I needed something extremely thin and penetrating to get things moving again.
I rummaged through the back of my supply/potions cabinet, and found an ancient spray can of Gibbs lubricant. I bought it ages ago at a gun show, and used it on rare occasions. It was sold as some magical form of snake oil.
The stuff was thinner than water, and freed up the parts. It also left behind a gummy residue (strange for something so thin and slippery), which, when I rubber a rag against it, showed it to be a mixture of rust and whatever was left after the chemical did its job. It turned out there was a fine film of almost invisible rust on top of that pristine blue. Well, now the blue is pristine again, just a bit paler with the intermixed rust gone.
That, in turn, gave me an idea when I gathered enough ambition to give my dad's P38 a detail teardown, probably the only one it has even had since it left the Mauser factory in 1944. I tried a bit of Gibbs on the outside of a magazine. The one on the left is an "after", on the right, "before".
That gooey mess on the right is a mixture of Gibbs remnants, and rust. Wearing gloves (I went through a couple dozen pairs of cheap food-handlers gloves), I washed the glop off with Hoppe's, then alcohol, then Barricade antirust oil, and then repeated the process again. The final results, on the right, shows a clean magazine (it's even harder cleaning out the inside) that is now really a pale, thin blue, but with no rust (or "plum", if we were talking about antiques).
With much further ado, and a lot of procrastination, I tore down the weapon and blasted everything.
It looked and felt disgusting, but after a couple of iterations, all the parts were clean, dry, rust-free, and a lot paler than I ever remembered things. There was no way I was going to just slap things back together after all that work, so I ordered new Wolff springs for the magazines, and as much of the internals as they made springs for. A few of the really tiny springs are only available as surplus parts, so I bought them online from Numrich (and their supply of P38 parts is drying up, too). Finally, a new-style top slide cover (the original has a habit of flying off while you're firing, and hitting you in the forehead), and a couple of spare firing pins, and it was ready to put back together.
I think I fired this about twenty years ago, so this was the first time in a long time it had rounds put through it. With everything as revitalized as I could make it, it performed better than my humble handgun skills.
With the rust gone, I can see that the front half of the slide is almost all bare steel, probably from holster wear. Underneath the grips, and anywhere that was kept out of the light, and moisture, much of the original black "blue" still remains. Also, the elimination of the final fit-and-finish of peacetime production is obvious, with lots of rough machine work now visible. But it also runs smoother than ever before, because I worked-in each part with Nanolube while fitting things together during reassembly.
After studying it, and firing it, I realize now that this is truly the great-great-grandfather of all the current DA/SA autoloaders. It's pretty crude compared to my Sig P229, but Walther led the way with this design, so it has almost as much claim to fame as Browning's M1911.
I didn’t get the daffodils planted....washed and waxed thecar instead. It got an extra=special buffing in some spots with medium-haired cat butt.
Is that something available in ordinary car-supply stores? Or is it the self-propelled kind? :)
The self-propelled kind found in suburbia.
Nicely done Win-Mag. “Miracle Polish” plus attention detail oriented handwork never fails to impress. Congrats. I’ve seen similar booths at gun and/or trade shows, glad to know at one of the “1-2-3 EZ Steps” worked out for someone.
Good day at therange today: shooting, bs-ing, and coffee drinking.
LOL, wonderful imagery there, something any cat owner can appreciate. Hmmm. It gives us an idea it does. :-)
NANO? Anyone? Working on a steampunk story here.
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