Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats At long last...

For some years I have posted threads (probably way too many threads) chronicling progress and setbacks on my longest running gunmaking project. It is a lefty Mauser in .280 Remington on which I was general contractor of the people doing metal work and also the stockmaker. I have gone dark on that project since last spring because of the latest twist and turn.



It turns out that when it was all said and done, the Gentry 3-position safety would not engage correctly unless I applied pressure down on the bolt shroud/safety assembly. It was just not safe and that was simply not acceptable. Taking it to my neighborhood rifle builder yielded the hypothesis that "tolerance stacking" between the sear, bolt, sloppy OEM firing pin, sloppy OEM cocking piece and the Gentry bolt shroud was the culprit. No single part was defective, but the combined tolerances between them was creating the problem. The proposed solution? Buy the much tighter fiting Granite Mountain firing pin and cocking piece and have Gentry refit them. So a month to get the Granite Mountain parts, six months to have Gentry fit the parts, a quick 10 days to send the parts to Glenrock Bluing for a hot dip. And now it works flawlessly.

It is kinda nice to have it back together again. Too bad my tags for this year are wrapped up.

Dibs ! ...

Seriously, beautiful rifle. Glad you got the last kink worked out.

Beautiful rifle! It's going to be a looooong year until next season!

IIRC, your "neighborhood rifle builder" is D'Arcy Echols.

I forget, did that start life as a Zastava?

wow, i'd say that turned out great...nice work, hopefully next year you get it bloody!

Beautiful

Wowza.

Lovely,simply lovely!

Gorgeous!!! Are those square bridge bases by Michael Scherz?

Very nice... well done!

Beauty!

Jim--your are right on both accounts. D'Arcy has been a most generous and patient mentor. And while it started out as a Zastava, there are only a handful of original parts left (bolt body, receiver, ejector/bolt stop assembly, firing pin spring--that is about it.) You can't achieve full blown French whorehouse if you only go half way.

Wow, nice!!

Those are Michael's bases. I am glad I have them because I think being a full time caregiver to his wife has pretty much forced him into retirement. I have another set for a 9.3x62 I am chipping away on. They are a pretty nice look.

Super nice! Well done Utah

Absolutely beautiful rifle!

It would look better next to a monster mule deer.

I'm not left handed but that might make me convert!

Very nice!

Very nicely executed!

Very tasteful rendition of a classic sporting rifle, the engraving is especially nice.

Nicely done and that piece of wood is causing me to drool on my keyboard. Very well executed piece and very tasteful.

What loads are you working up for it?

Bob

That will depend a lot on the hunt I am preparing for--an antelope load will of course be different than an elk load. But I rather think of this case as ideally matched with 150-160 grain bullets.

It was worth the wait. There isn't anything not to like on this one. I really like the floor plate. Are you planning on hunting with it? That first good ding is going to hurt.

Nice huh?

Classy!!


Mike

That is beautiful

Glad you got the kinks worked out. That is an exquisite rifle.

Beautiful rifle. Perfect execution in all respects. Very well done.

I got a set from a friend in Texas or Idaho!

That's an extremely nice looking rifle Utah. Well done!!!! If I ever started using left handed rifles, I'd be lucky to find one half as nice as that one. Do you still have your model 70's, or did you sell all of those to build this one?

Very nice rifle.

Dangby that is a beaut!

The wood is gorgeous!

Very nicely done. Beautiful.

Beautiful rifle Utah!

Work of art for sure. Very nice!

Just outstanding!

The fellow that laid out that blank knew what they were doing!

John

Wow what a gorgeous rifle I can’t wait to see it featured in some kill shots!

Kudos on the perseverance it sure looks to have been worth the wait!

From a fellow lefty, that has a secret preference for the traditional blued on wood, that's just really, really nice.

How about more info on the wood?

On the wood...

It is probably American grown English out of California. Shane Thompson had a career as a gunbuilder, but has largely left the trade to provide more financial security to his family. He lives about 2 hours north of me. I went through his collection of blanks and pulled out several. I like blanks where the figure arcs down to the toe of the butt--nothing structural, I just like that look. I also chose "left handed" blanks--where the better figure is on the left side where you can see it better because the detail of the cheekpiece is not competing with it. I think I ended up paying $1600 for four blanks, so they were not cheap by any means.

When I got to the point of having the blank duplicated off my pattern, I carried three different blanks out to D'Arcy, who was doing the work for me. At one stage in his career, he did a lot of stock duplicating for other gunsmiths to generate cash flow between his own projects. He has cut perhaps hundreds of blanks and can anticipate what the finished stock is likely to look like. Some blanks end up looking better than the outside appearance might indicate, and others not so much. He looked at the blank that became this stock and said "this one will punch above its weight." This is one of lucky Easter eggs, it appears.

It is the best piece of wood I have had the good fortune to build a stock from, and I will say that it made me nervous to work with because I did not want to ruin it.

You did well on that stock and the end result is an absolutely beautiful rifle. Congratulations on putting it together.

I love the complete story on this gun! Fantastic work and what is most important is that you saw the entire project to finish. That is a lot of rifle.

Man that sweetheart is easy on the eyes! Perfection!