Lockdown Project

[Heym SR20]

Fantastic work - pretty daunting task to take on!
Something wrong with your bolt though. Best sort that before you get too far

Nope - nothing wrong with my bolt. But there is something fundamentally wrong with 98% of all bolt actions ever made.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Really enjoying this thread. And it's got somewhat more to do with deerstalking than my project unless you consider crawling on hands & knees to lay speaker cable and solder spade connectors exelent practice in the art of final approach.

K

 

[NP435]

I found this little film very useful - all the secrets of draw filing. Saves a huge amount of time getting a decent and accurate fit and finish

This project is the stuff I dream of, old school classic rifles with no damn plastic to be found. I have one rifle with the same basic scope as seen on the inspiration photo, still clear and those external turrets always work if only I had the skills and time....................

 

[Heym SR20]

Not a lot of visible progress over the last while. Been diverted by Mrs Heym onto painting and decorating, but now served my time.

Triggers. My Rem has the XMark Pro trigger, which I find perfectly adequate. Or I did. I put the trigger mechanism back in to do a bit of final fitting. But when checking the trigger would not release under pressure with safety on the blade broke(


So trotted off to the most Famous Firearms emporium in Edinburgh. Rather getting a new Timney, Ed produced the remains of another Remington trigger from the spares box.

A couple of hours later I had a new trigger blade installed. WARNING - do not attempt this unless you have very good eyesight and a hermatically sealed clean room. There are little springs and circlips under tension and half the time is spent trying to find these!!!

A fiddly job but got me looking very closely at Trigger mechanisms and safeties.

To keep safety engaged you are relying on an over centre coil spring. Which if this breaks / corrodes etc means safety will easily disengage.




When safety is applied it blocks both the sear and the trigger. The sear is being pushed downwards by the forward pressure of the firing pin which works against the sear at the point of pencil. Its the 1mm of shiny bit at the top


and its the left hand end of the firing pin that engages.

Here is how it looks when in position - The bolt is a couple of mm higher so you can see the sear engagement. In the rifle its a bit lower.

 

[Heym SR20]

Triggers - Part 2

And when you disengage the safety, the top of the trigger blade stops the sear from falling - in the little you can see the two engaged. Looks like a nuclear symbol!





My take on this:

1) It would nt require much force on the end of the firing pin to cause the rifle to fire even with safety engaged. I suspect a sharp blow on the back of the firing pin would break the sear and cause the rifle to fire.
Of course in real life I am not going to take a lump hammer to my rifle - but what if it falls. A strap can break and rife hits a rock.

2) I much prefer safeties that block the firing pin with a big lug - not relying on a small interference with a sear that can fall.

3) only put a round in the chamber when the rifle is fully in your control and you are about to take a shot.

 

[Otto68]

I have a spare Remington 700 trigger here if you are needing one, right hand, but might help you?

 

[Heym SR20]

I have a spare Remington 700 trigger here if you are needing one, right hand, but might help you?

Thank you, but all sorted now.

 

[Heym SR20]

Sun is shining, Mrs and Miss Heym are out, cricket is on and now the exciting bit.

First a sharp plane - one of life’s real pleasures



then a bit of marking ouT and then use of a big wood

 

[Heym SR20]

 

[Heym SR20]

Roughed out forend shape and started over the action. Large wood rasp is very fast, bastard file the rest. At thos stage still 2mm oversize - i can always remove but you can’t put it back.

 

[takbok]

It's looking fantastic. Very well done!

 

[petesv]

You sir are a man after my own heart you will become attached to this rifle because of all the work you have put in very well done .

 

[aquarius11]

Fantastic project, looking forward to the next set of pictures and work report.

 

[Heym SR20]

Ok it’s been a while. To be honest have not been in the right mood for fine work, but going again 10 days ago. Action is now glass bedded with Aluminium Pillars. That was a lot of looking - no will do it in a few days time, get back to it and no will do it in a few days.

Still it’s now bedded and this afternoon let in the bolt handle. It now all works - can load it up and test fire it.

 

[Heym SR20]

And here is the bedding, and magazine box, follower, spring and three dummy rounds loaded to check for feeding - no problems there. Just pop the scope on and off to the range.

it is essential work methinks.

 

[76thirty]

Brilliant work!

 

[kripton]

Splendid article - looking forward to seeing the final result (with checkering etc)
I have gone through the same process several times but a gentle suggestion/tip - if you find yourself getting impatient, becoming fed up with the process or tending to hurry, leave it for however long it takes for the enthusiasm to return. For me this can take a day, a week or month or even longer (especially when tempted to hurry trying to finish checkering a panel) but better than risk spoiling a special project. If stocking commercially then of course time pressures create different problems.

 

[bowji john]

Simply exquisite work

j

 

[Heym SR20]

Forends. Should the top taper in a straight line say from 3mm the reciever, to 3mm out from barrel at end of forend or should it follow barrel contour.

 

[kripton]

Forends. Should the top taper in a straight line say from 3mm the reciever, to 3mm out from barrel at end of forend or should it follow barrel contour.

I am only a "hobby" restocker but I always follow the barrel contour as I think it looks better - when finishing the free-floating area (usually commencing about an inch from the front of the receiver) I slide a narrow (about half inch in width) piece of paper under the barrel rearwards from the front of the forend - this jams at any point where the forend may still need to be relieved and can allow minimum gap between the forend and the barrel (less than 1mm) - having said this most shooters want a larger gap to allow for movement in the wood which might otherwise contact the barrel.