Elderly Lady Seeks Racy Younger Plaything - Caution May Cause Purists Offence

Ronin

Distinguished Member
Not with standing the title :)

I was supplied with a bag of parts and a stock at the beginning of the year, with the request, please make me a PRC out of this.

The action has a previous coating of ceracoat, in a rather lighter colour...and the stock was though I was told, "bedded for this action", I think maybe Stevie Wonder had a hand in that, as the rear tang was at least 6mm proud of the shut line, with some other issues which led me to think, the person who did it was having a bad day

Anyway, the L61 action once checked over was pretty good for its age, though some fittings were work worn or showed signs of being tinkered with ill fitting screwdrivers.

A Sassen Cut rifled, 8 twist barrel was ordered of similar profile to the stock forend (bearing in mind I have no original barrel to work from), and once it arrived, I set about making the old girl great again.

The Tenon was machined to the appropriate dimensions and the chamber cut using a variety of three flute carbide drills I have specifically for this work, final prep being boring the chamber to nominal diameter minus .030" so the finish reamer did not have to work very hard.

Chamber run out once done was measured at sub .0003" (three tenths)

The barrel was finished at 26" and threaded, protective cap created and sent to proof.

A month or so later the old lady returned having passed

I then took the barrelled action, associated small parts and floorplate - all a natty shade of gold from the original coating job, to my coaters (Liquid Steel Design) who did a superb job as usual finishing the painted lady in Satin Black

Once collected, I set about rectifying the original "bedding" which took the best part of 8 hrs to machine out and prep.

Unfortunately the original stock had been weakened when the pillars were fitted during the first "job", rather than machine these out and potentially cause further damage, I left them in.

The barrelled action was then set at the correct height in the stock and bedded in Devcon leaving 48 hrs to cure properly before breaking out of the stock and cleaning up.

Some may say the rifle should have been returned to 300 WM or 7 RM, the owner requested 6.5 PRC which is a lower recoiling highly efficient cartridge, which I think is the correct decision.

Some may say the action and barrel should be returned to a blacked finish

The Satin Black Ceracoat is designed to protect the working rifle and this one has had 35 plus years of use, Ceracoat being a wise choice in this instance I believe

Im looking forwards to seeing how the rifle shoots in a few weeks time.

In the meantime, I hope the owner likes the images

Bear in mind this is again a customers specification, who is out regularly killing deer, its isnt a cabinet queen that comes out for a polish every now and then 👍


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Only the original bedding was removed (no wood)

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That is a lovely rifle, and I had no idea Cerakote could look so good and "natural"(!): a great advert for it
 
Very sensible cartridge choice. Lets see if all the usual suspects come out to bag the customer’s choice for this build.

I am interested to hear - assuming that I’ve understood this correctly @Ronin - that the rifle hasn’t been range tested yet?

This rifle will have excellent reach, and is about as perfect an “old meets new” example of restomod as you can get.
 
Very sensible cartridge choice. Lets see if all the usual suspects come out to bag the customer’s choice for this build.

I am interested to hear - assuming that I’ve understood this correctly @Ronin - that the rifle hasn’t been range tested yet?

This rifle will have excellent reach, and is about as perfect an “old meets new” example of restomod as you can get.

Not been shot in anger yet beside proof rounds

I built a PRC on a T3 a few months ago that I converted to magnum bolt face - reports from the commissioner that it’s shooting small groups at long distances

I’d anticipate this old lady will be similar
 
Some may say more could have been done to disguise what is possibly the most boring piece of non-figured timber I’ve seen machined into a rifle stock.

K
 
I like it just fine in the original wood stock . I personally would rather have a kinda low sheen blue over cerakote on the action but to each his own, I assume the barrel is stainless if mine I’d have preferred to bead blast the barrel only for a matte look but again a personal preference . The cartridge does very well or it has so far for me .
 
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