Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Modifications to lever rifles - pic heavy

Fellow Campfire Members:
Hopefully it's OK that I put up a few photos of the modifications I like to do on lever actions that stay around and get used. The 94 has been used as a horse back and camping rifle all over BC and the 336 is slated to do similar duty now along side it's Winchester counterpart.

Please understand up front that these are only my ideas of what works well so far - and I know there are other ways that likely will work just as well or better.

What I'll cover mostly is what I do to the wood. The metal parts get a light polish on the bearing surfaces while it's all apart as well.

Anyway, the latest project rifle ended up at our house looking much like this. It's a 1977 vintage 336 in .30-30 with as perfect a bore as I'm able to see.


I start by stripping the rifle down to basic parts and then epoxy bed the butt stock for a perfect fit with the flats on the rear of the receiver and tang.

Divots drilled to anchor epoxy.


Top view


As I was refinishing the 336 anyway, I didn't bother taping up the wood, but the 94 on the right wasn't slated for a new coat of Tru-Oil so it got painter's tape. By coincidence it's a 1977 as well.


At some point I like to make sure that the magazine tube doesn't touch the barrel anywhere but at the front band. This 336 had quite a bit of contact, which I've never found to help accuracy any.

Some judicious relieving of metal.


Leads to just enough clearance.


View of the butt stocks after epoxy bedding from the front.
[img:center]http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x83/BC30cal/Amy1485_zps7fefdfb7.jpg[/img]

From the top.
[img:center]http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x83/BC30cal/Amy1486_zpsad9d42b5.jpg[/img]

I have actually added a "pillar" of sorts on a couple other jobs I've done, but decided not to on these ones. These ones actually had a pretty decent fit from the factory, but I've worked on a couple of newer Marlin Guide Guns that were only bearing on one side of the flat.

The stock was already cracked on one and likely would have on the other too if the situation hadn't been addressed.

Anyway, a nice even fit between the butt stock and rear of the receiver has so far proven to work quite well on two piece stocks for me.

While I neglected to get a good photo of the fore ends, the best results I've found is to have them only touch the barrel at the retaining barrel band and at the rear of the fore end where it fits into the front of the receiver.

I suppose one could bed that for a perfect fit too, which I've done on a Savage 99, a Browning 78 and a Ruger No 1 that I worked on, but I didn't on these two.

Here's a photo of the two finished rifles, the 94 with a more than 100 year old Lyman sight on it sighted for 135yds and a folding rear sight zeroed at 50yds. Oh, I added a warthog ivory insert into the front sight too. The 336 now has a 2� Leupold on it.
[img:center]http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x83/BC30cal/Amy1491_zps1362e87b.jpg[/img]

As mentioned above, I'll do a quick polish job on the parts so they work slicker than factory and I did a quick machine turning/ jeweling job on the bolt of the 336 too.

Hopefully that gave some of my fellow lever action enthusiasts some ideas when working on their rifles.

Good luck on your upcoming projects and thanks for looking.

Regards,
Dwayne

Very nice, Dwayne.

Out of curiosity, where did you get your warthog ivory to make the front sight bead?

I'm a sucker for lever guns, particularly Marlin straight stocked ones.

Ed

Looks great! Thanks for posting.

One question, how exactly do you machine the jeweling on a gun?

Wade

Wade;
Thanks for the reply and feedback, I appreciate it.

For jeweling I use my drill press and mount the bolt or part being done in a 5" cross slide 360� vice.

I use a brush from a Dremel tool kit in the drill press and use valve grinding compound in either grease or petroleum jelly.

To space the jeweling circles evenly, I turn the cross slide vice the same number of revolutions - or better said amount of a revolution - until I hit the end.

I must confess that I don't have an indexed jig to hold the parts, so I have to eyeball the next line of circles in and start all over again.

Part of the trick is keeping the same amount of grinding compound on the brush - more or less - and turning each mark for the same amount of time with an equal amount of down pressure.

Hopefully that made some sense? If not, please let me know and I'll try to explain a bit better.

Thanks again and all the best to you this weekend.

Regards,
Dwayne

Very nice work Dwayne. I like the idea of adding divots for the bedding. I'll incorporate your technique into my Savage 99 build as I was planning to bed the furniture on it.
Do you use divots on all your bedding jobs or just lever guns?
Jeff

Jeff;
Its always nice to hear from you sir, I hope this finds you all doing well and spring has sprung on the prairie.

The late friend of mine who taught me stock bedding always put divots in to anchor the epoxy. It struck me as a reasonable thing to do as it increases the shear resistance considerably.

Anyway Jeff, as I mentioned there are many ways to do things and that's only mine.

I've seen a few 99's over the years with cracked stocks, and typically the root cause appears to be that the recoil is absorbed more by the tangs than the flats - causing the stock to crack eventually.

I've even fooled a bit with SMLE stocks to make sure they fit perfectly into the socket. A couple of them really shot much better than they had any right to when we were done, though to be sure not all of them did.

Hopefully that made some sense and was helpful Jeff.

All the best to you and yours this weekend.

Dwayne

I bed all my lever gun stocks the same as you except I relieve the rear of the tangs slightly to make sure all recoil forces are distributed to the flats at the rear of the receiver.

Good evening Dwayne,
Spring has indeed finally sprung here in SE Alberta, I may have to mow the lawn this weekend unless I can find something more important to do....
Thanks for the informative post. Adding the divots makes perfect sense. The occ bedding job I have done has just been pretty basic. The few 99's that have come my way have all had a crack at the tang/stock surface. Seems to be a "signature" with the Savage. I suspect that careful bedding in that area will reduce if not eliminate the problem. The butt-stock I have acquired for my 99 action is both original and un-cracked!
I am also re-building my grandfathers Win 97. I will be bedding the stock on it as well.
Thanks again and best to you and your family for the weekend.
Jeff

Thanks Dwayne,

I think I understand what how you are jeweling. I will have to give it a try on some scrap metal. If I can get it down I have a old Savage 99 that I shoot that I might try it out on.

Wade

On your model 94, has the wood been exchanged from an older rifle? It appears to have long forend wood, and the stock looks like it has the old steel carbine buttplate.

I like them both though, and enjoy hunting with the lever guns quite a bit myself.

Crimson Tide;
You sir have a sharp eye for details!

I've had a few Winchester aficionados pick that rifle up, turn it over in their hands a couple times and then begin to chuckle.

Indeed I've built a different fore end for it and since I've always thought the older carbines with the longer fore end had a more "balanced" look to them, I left it a little longer than the original.

It took me years to find an original carbine butt plate that was either at a price I could afford or not rusted right through. This one was quite pitted when I got it, so I didn't feel too bad about cleaning it up and then rust bluing it. I just reshaped the original stock to fit the carbine butt plate and tried to mimic the lines of an '20's made original as best as I could.

As well, being a '77 vintage I had to drill and tap the tang for the Lyman tang sight. I used to have a Lyman receiver sight on that rifle and stuck the tang sight on it 'cause I liked the look of it on the rifle, but truthfully it gets in the way of my thumb and in some ways I miss the receiver sight.

Anyway sir, again kudos for a good eye for details.

All the best to you and yours this Memorial Day weekend sir.

Regards,
Dwayne

Let me congratulate you further for your work on that Winchester! Nice job.

Hope your weekend has been stellar,
Joel

Very nice work Dwayne.

I'm trying to figure-out who you are over on Marlin Owners. Tempted to link to this thread from over there to share it with everyone.

SCRooster;
Thank you for the kind words sir, I appreciate them.

I'm actually not on many other forums on your side of the medicine line and so am not currently on Marlin Owners.

Please do feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested in it.

As I've mentioned I'm not a formally trained 'smith by any stretch, only a serious student of firearms. Then too I'm quite aware that there are lots of ways to tune rifles and this certainly isn't the only way - it's just what's worked for me.

Thanks again and all the best to you this summer.

Regards,
Dwayne