Some rifles I have stocked or built

[nztimb]

This one was a full custom in every sense of the word. The 6.5 Grendel-Max was a cartridge I developed from the standard Grendel cartridge as I felt there was more to be gained from it but I still wanted it to be house in one of the small Mini Mausers. I felt that if the shoulders were moved forward and the OAL was lengthened I would gain case capacity and considering that I was going to be using a bolt action rather than a semi auto, felt that it was a very workable challenge to see what I could make this little powerhouse do.
I wanted to be able to use the standard loading dies and having a liking for the Wilson straight line BR dies from previous BR loading for the 20VT and 7x57, I got a set to do the neck sizing and the loading and a Forster FLS die for the forming. It was going to require a little different approach to brass forming and loading but I thought that if it was as successfull as I imagined then it would be good for others without having to go to custom loading dies and fortunately that is how it turned out. I bought some brass and made what I intended to be the go guage for chambering the 6.5 barrel I bought.
First step was to increase neck dia with a 30 cal expander button
Because I needed to have the shoulder moved forward by .05 I made a .05 spacer for the top of the shell holder and epoxied it in place. The (white) .006 shim was for when I formed the rest of the cases so it would leave them with a .006 crush fit in the chamber for fireforming

When the case was lifted into the FLS die it would leave the shoulder long by .05 but because this was to be the go guage I wanted the remainder of the neck formed out to the correct shoulder so I then fitted a spent primer filled the case to half the neck height, made a tight fitting rod and used hydrolic pressure to form the full case shoulder through the top of the FLS die. I then was able to load a 123gn A Max so the start of the heel was right at the new shoulder - neck junction. The cartridge was now 2.405 OAL compared to the 2.225 for the standard case and a 10% capacity advantage

In light of this I drew up the reamer specs I wanted and sent them off to Mansons.

While I was waiting for that bought an Interarms Mark X mini mauser action.

The tiny little bolt handle was never going to be exceptable for me so it was cut off and I made a replacement one from a piece of 7/8 bolt. A drill locked in the vise served for a lathe and files for lathe tools.

With that done I cut the rear off the mag box and made a dummy extension to check function with the longer cartridge.This removed the attachment screw location that holds the mag box in place but I figured it was unnecessary anyway and this proved to be the case.

I had to do a little rail work as the action had originally been for the smaller 223 case but it worked so I sent it to the GS to have this extension done and the barrel fitted. He used my dummy case as go guage and with a piece of tape on the base of the case for a no go guage.
Now all I needed was a stock to carry this little gem.

 

[nztimb]

The stock was to be a laminated stock as I had had such a good result from the 20 VarTarg stock with its 3 layer laminate but this time I wanted a much slimmer stock for a light hill rifle so I started with a 5/8 in central core and did some shaping of that to reflect the outside shape of the finished stock. Then two lighter 3/64 laminates were glued up either side of the shaped core. The cuts accross the clamping boards allow them to bend and press the outer laminates tightly to the central core. This allows the finished shape to leave the outer laminate largely untouched on the sides so it retains full strength rather than the cut through laminates of the standard offering.

Lightness being the order of the day I used a jandle/flipflop to ad a bit of grip to the butt

I originally mounted a suppressor but found it lengthened the lively little 21 1/2 in barrel too much so replaced it with a barrel weight in place of it to maintain the balance and fitted a 4-16 Nikon for testing. Almost all my hill shooting is off hand and the slight muzzle bias is an aid to a steady hold.

For testing to see if this grand experiment had been worth the effort I set up a 200 yd target and set about some ladder tests with numerous bullets. A 10 charge weight incremental test gives a great deal of information and is the cheapest way to find the best bullet for this barrel. Fortunately one of the outlets here sells a 15 bullet sample pack so this was a good way to go. I tested a range of powders and bullets from the 100gn ttsx to the 130gn sierra but the 123gn A Max was the stunning outright winner with CFE 223 powder and CCI mag primers. I have since gone to the SST with the same results.

The best by far was the A Max although I have now gone to the SST with the same results and being a slightly less fragile bullet will work very well on deer as well as the goats which is its primary target.
This was the best grouping for the 200yd testing and with 2700fps average it is a good step above the 2500fps average for the standard Grendel.

It has worked so well that a friend who is a pest animal shooter bought the reamer off me and has chambered his third barrel for it and as he has shot thousands of animals so far he expects to continue suing this grand wee cartridge.
I have since replaced the heavier 4-16 Nikon with a much lighter 2.5-8 Leopold and have what I consider the ultimate hill rifle for the high country with weight right at 6lb including ammo.

 

[nztimb]

Euan is a friend of mine and is mentioned as he has been a source of parts and often in trade for stockwork on a number of his rifles. He has a number of genuine Lee Speeds in his collection so I had some hands on "feel" of them to base my patterns on. I believe that every Kiwi should have a representative rifle in 303 and it had been a while since one was in the gun cabinet so I bought one at auction with a reasonable action. I much prefer the MLE over the later SMLE models so this one was a 1900 BSA&Co Mk 1*.

The barrel was not replaced with a good smle barrel and a stock blank was bought from NZ Walnut where I have bought all my stock blanks from

I like the checkered butt plates and this one was set with cast and a little cant with 1 1/2 degree negative pitch to suit my shooting style. Interestingly Euans needs 2 degrees positive as he leans much further into his rifle than my more upright stance.

I dont like the exposed pins so I epoxy a hidden threaded rod to help secure the rear of the forestock against splitting

I initially used Jarrah for the fore end tip and grip cap

It was while while I was doing some work on one Of Euans and a restock on another that I decided to revamp my one as I wanted to slim it down through the grip and forestock areas and change out the jarah accents for buffalo horn.

 

[nztimb]

The one I was doing for Euan needed an ebony tip so I did it at the same time as the buff on mine

I ended up trading into a very nice 5 shot magazine to compliment the rifle

This was another stock I did for Euan

 

[Standard Velocity]

Von Gruff,

Your work is outstanding. These rifles are really beautiful. I like the clever techniques you have implemented.

The stock on your improved Grendle (very cool cartridge design) is intriguing. I like the benefits of a laminate but prefer the aesthetics of a solid wood stock. It looks like you split the difference. How well do the two halves meet up? From the pictures it looks like a solid one-piece stock. Have you made other stocks in the same way? Have you been happy with them?

Please keep the pictures coming.

 

[nztimb]

Von Gruff,

Your work is outstanding. These rifles are really beautiful. I like the clever techniques you have implemented.

The stock on your improved Grendle (very cool cartridge design) is intriguing. I like the benefits of a laminate but prefer the aesthetics of a solid wood stock. It looks like you split the difference. How well do the two halves meet up? From the pictures it looks like a solid one-piece stock. Have you made other stocks in the same way? Have you been happy with them?

Please keep the pictures coming.

The use of similar woods in the laminates and having the outside laminates either thick enough so shaping dose not show the laminates underneath or having the core shaped so the outside thinner laminates are not cut through reduces the obvious laminate visual. These rifles have been in use for well over 10 years and have never changed P O I so they have been a success in that regard. There was a US company who first showed a 3 piece laminate with a narrow 1/2 in or 5/8 inch central core so that fancy woods that might otherwise be unusable because of grain structure could be used .
I did do another stock for the 7x57 I posted earlier after I lent it to a friend for a hunt and he used it as a walking stick on the hill and there were big gouges in the wood inside the skeleton butt plate (I did re-set the butt plate slightly deeper to remove the gouges) so I made a laminate as a very light alternative for when I needed to loan it out. I wasn't as fussy about matching the woods so the shaped central core and is very obvious. You can clearly see the narrowing of the core from the action through to the fore end tip and back from the action through the wrist into the butt. Another advantage is that I can skeletonise the cores in the butt area and even cut the majority of the action shape into the relevant area just leaving a connecting strip top and bottom so that when it comes time to do the inletting I simply need to break through the top and bottom and the bulk of the inlet is done.

 

[Standard Velocity]

Thank you for the additional explanation and pictures.

Really top notch work.

 

[HuntingGold]

Love the work and thanks for posting. I hope to finally complete a stock project over the next few months.

 

[nztimb]

A 400 Lee Speed is what I have called this one. I is another BSA&Co Magazine Lee Enfield and because I had sold on the 404 Jeffery I wanted another 40 cal so decided this would be an ideal platform for it if I could get it all to come together as I imagined it would be.

There were going to be a few challenges with this one but the first thing I did was to make and fit a piece of steel into the recess the where the aperture sight had been and where I would later use the screw holes to fit a hunting style of aperture sight I had made for the 303 Lee Speed in a previous post.

I like to reshape the rear of the action to make a more slimmed wrist. This is similar to the actual Lee Speed commercial actioned wrists As this project started to come together, Euan asked me to do one of his MLE actions so he could make a 375-303 so this is my action and his before I started on reshaping his action although I had done some of the stockwork when I took this pic as I sent him the compar ison to see if he wanted his action reshaped as well.

 

[nztimb]

I bought a short chambered 405 Win Barrel and a reamer to lengthen the chamber. I had had to shorten the 405 cas a little to have the 320gn cast bullet seated correctly and fit in the magazine so with .2 removed from the case I had a case to sue as chambering guide.

Then an extractor notch had to be filed in

and the chamber mouth "broken"

 

[nztimb]

With the barrel screwed in the magazine needed attention as it needed to be single stack to work with the larger front of the cartridge compared to the 303. I took the 22 LR as an example of the shape needed to successfully hold the cases at the proper angle and to release with bolt travel at the right time.
A section from an old vehicle roof rack would serve as a follower and while I havent shown it I needed to sit a wedge between the base of the mag insert (riveted to the mag through the drain hole) and the spring base to sit the rear of the cartridge up high enough to give correct orientation for delivery into the chamber.

 

[nztimb]

Then it was the simple stockwork to bring this all to completion with Euans 375-303 being done in tandem

The finished 375-303 as a plain working rifle. He case his own 375 bullet in a trimmed 223 case for a devestating bullet that has killed a lot of animals in his profession as pest animal control

and the 400 Lee Speed with ebony accents

 

[Uncle Sauce]

very nice Von! I am hoping to do a stock project someday and these provide great info. I only hope mine turns out in a somewhat shape of a rifle stock

 

[bruce moulds]

von gruff,
you are a man of taste with wood.
lovely grain etc, but not lairy and tasteless.
bruce.

 

[nztimb]

von gruff,
you are a man of taste with wood.
lovely grain etc, but not lairy and tasteless.
bruce.

Thanks Bruce. I have always been inspired by the rifles of the 20's and 30's where there was great design and good wood without the ostentation that is so evident in some of the modern customs. I have tried to emulate these traits and designs in the stocks I have made for myself and have been fortunate in many of those I have done for Euan and others have been in the same style. There are a couple that I will post later that fall outside of this ideal but it was a challenge to present the stock as the customer wanted it to be.

 

[nztimb]

There were many different builders of rifles on the Lee Speed actions and many different stock shapes and as they were generally custom builds this is understandable although there were "factory standards" from BSA in the sporting rifle in the same way there were officer models in the military configuration.
This one was sent to me from a friend in the US to have buff horn added to the forestock and grip cap so I though I would add a few pics of how that was/is done. I had instructions not to be concerned about the necessary sanding on the checkering as it was going to be re-cut.

 

[nztimb]

 

[nztimb]

At the same time he asked me to make a pattern stock to use as on a replication machine so this is how they are made by hand. You can see the start of a sporting martini which I will show next
I haven't show the stock blank so will start from the forestock inlet to save repeating pics and as this was a simple rimu blank there is nothing nice about the wood

 

[bruce moulds]

just love the smell of buff horn when you work it.
bruce.

 

[nztimb]

As I said in the previous post I would add the making of an very early English sporting martini. Euan had this bent blank with some nice grain so it was selected for the stock.