Or, mein ersatz Vorkriegsdeutsches Sportgewehr by R. J. Renner. Some folks on the original thread for these asked me to report back about this so here you go. Read the details or skip to the pictures and captions.

Before going further a big shout out to Roger, the R of R.J. Renner. He is a great guy to work with, very friendly and helpful and loves to talk about guns. He knows a lot about this subject and is an excellent craftsman. He suggested a few things here and there for authenticity and also saved me a good bit of money by modifying the existing metal finish on my rifle when I was going to have it completely reblued. In the past I’ve worked with cantankerous gunsmiths and stockmakers that sometimes weren’t as good as they said they were but Roger is top notch in my book.

He didn’t ask me to post this, btw, but here’s his website.
http://www.rjrenner.com/about-us.html
If any of you have looked before he’s added some more options and pictures of different rifles besides Rugers he works on. He can even turn a Remington Model 700 into something that looks like an old time Jaeger might have used.

Basically the whole idea is to turn your modern Model 77 or other rifle into something that looks like a new pre-war Mauser Sporter that was stored away for 90-100 years. Since I never have been able to find those LH original Mausers at gunshows this appealed to me quite a lot.

The end result is extremely pleasing to my eye but it’s not just cosmetic, not by a long shot. Those pre-war German Sporters were slender and lively rifles and Roger tries to capture that in his work. The subtle changes in dimensions really make a big difference in handling. That can’t be shown in pictures but with the reshaped stock the rifle has a lithe and lively feel that, well, you just have to feel it to see.

Details:
Stock Ruger Model 77 Hawkeye .30-06
Timney trigger I installed for a crisp 2 pound pull.
Factory slotted screws replaced with hex head screws (free from Ruger)
R. J. Renner "pre-war 77“ treatment:
- Reshape the forend to a short, slim schnabel and rechecker.
- Add a barrel mounted sling swivel stud dovetailed and soldered in place.
- Thin and recontour the stock around the action leaving the raised panels.
- Lower and shorten the nose of the comb, recontour and slim the pistol grip and recut factory checkering.
- Lightly polish the bolt to remove the dull factory gray and give it an "in the white“ look.
We added a couple of extra touches, a steel grip cap and his "vintage“ finish. The rifle came with a 1“ black recoil pad but the stock had not been cut so I got a red pad factory replacement from Ruger (again for free, thanks Ruger!) which was installed to a factory LOP of 13 ½“.
NECG ghost ring rear peep with their Masterpiece banded ramp front sight.
Unloaded weight with sights before reshaping was 7 lbs 7.5 ounces, after reshaping it comes in at 7 lbs 3 oz.



The longer story:

Back in February Cigar posted a thread here titled "Have you seen this?“ and linked to Roger’s website, showing how he converts Ruger #1’s, 3’s and 77’s into "faux“ Rigby stalking rifles and Mauser styled pre-war German sporters. I thought that was too cool for school and contacted Roger about building one for me. I requested a work order in late February to reserve my place in line and Roger emailed the first week of May that he was ready to start work on this. I shipped it off to him on May 6th with a deposit and it arrived back here on June 17th. It’s worth noting that the rifle was shipped the same day as my final payment arrived, in fact according to tracking the payment arrived at 11:30 AM and the rifle was sent priority mail around 2:30 that afternoon.

The original plan called for converting a LH Model 70 but after a few false starts with three different rifles whose stock dimensions were incorrect or unsuitable for one reason or another I found the perfect candidate in the Classifieds here for a very reasonable price – a LH Ruger 77 Hawkeye with very decent factory wood in my most favoritest all time caliber, .30-06, and as a bonus it had an NECG Masterpiece banded ramp front sight already installed. I didn’t have time to do any load workup but tested some "loads that work“ from other rifles. Initial results show this to be a typical recent manufacture Ruger, definitely sub-moa for four shots with the best group at 5/8“ so far. More load workup may shave that some but honestly I'd be happy as is. The rifle is to be used with peep sights so even if 5/8" is the best it will do that's fine with me, I couldn't shoot a group that tight with a peep anyway.

Normally you can do a nice trigger job on Ruger 77’s but since this was going to be something special I sprang for a new Timney trigger. Took a while to file down the safety tab but it fits perfectly now and has a very clean break at 2 pounds with just enough overtravel for reliability. I may adjust it a bit heavier but will leave it there for now while I do more load workup. The safety goes on and off very smoothly but the trigger absolutely does not move when it is applied.

Same idea about it being something special went toward a couple of extra cost options in having Roger acquire and install a steel grip cap and apply his vintage finish instead of a standard hunter finish. As I understand it the vintage finish is a custom blend for each rifle that is feathered in darker toward the metal to simulate the darkening of wood from oil. Same with the metal finish – he can do a "faux rust blue“ but my rifle had the older rough matte finish Ruger put on their rifles for a couple of years, the one that scratches so easily. Roger has a "secret and proprietary“ method he uses to turn that into a more durable satin looking finish like rust blue. I know what the method is but have been sworn to secrecy on pain of death. wink

Turn around time for this project including shipping was just at six weeks and I understand it would have been closer to one month but the guy who does his checkering had been on vacation and had to work through a backlog.


I’m no great photographer but have tried to capture the rifle as well as I can. You really have to see it up close to notice some of the finer touches such as the subtle darkening of the finish in the corners of the stock sculpturing and the sharp ridge centered on the schnabel tip that blends perfectly into the round forearm. The wood on the factory stock is pretty nice, that was a lucky find. Not XX fancy or anything but with a very nice grain. The new finish on it gives it a more natural wood color and really shows off the grain as much as possible.

However, before this gets started, a question. When you take your brand newly refinished rifle out for pictures the day after you get it, what’s the very first thing you do?


































That’s right, you put a big *&@#*#% scratch in it right on the nicest side of the wood! cry

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Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery.
Hit the target, all else is twaddle!