Anschutz Model 1409 rescue story

[tacfoley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddXPYYh1yuw

This old Anschutz target rifle was languishing in a corner safe in our old premises in Oundle town for many years until I discovered it a few years back. I'd never seen it before, and the log showed that it had last been out and used back in 1982. It was covered with a very fine layer of 'dusty' rust, and much of the varnish had peeled off the stock. It was going to be scrapped and the money, if any, going towards a couple of CZ rifles for the club's noobies to practice on.

It was not far off the saddest thing I'd ever seen, gun-wise, in my life.

Just for a laff, I pushed a rod up the barrel, only to find it as bright as a new pin from one end to the other. I put my spare set of Anschutz sights on it and fired five shots into the same hole at 25m, and with that in mind, I made an offer to the club treasurer and having a spare 'slot' on my FAC, I paid up and took it home to work on.

The exposed metal was, as noted, covered with what looked like paprika powder, and using a Birchwood-Casey lead removal cloth [identical in every way to the far cheaper Kleeneeze wonder cloth] I carefully worked over a small part of the rusty metal. SUCCESS!! It took me three weeks and another two cloths to clean it up. The stock required a total strip-down to the bare wood, taking care to retain the complex carved shapes around the thumb-hole - every sharp corner is still a sharp corner. The deep cuts on the cheek-piece were too deep to be redeemed, so I had to leave them. They were signs that the rifle had been caught on the edge of the heavy safe door either getting it out or putting it away - shame, eh? The refinish is fifteen coats of satin-finish Min-Wax.

The spiffy-looking butt-piece was made to look almost new by the liberal application of 'Mother's metal polish' That sucker took a LOT of hard work, but I think it was worth it.

The scope is one of two I bought from a guy on MT, now gone, and the doodad on the muzzle is a barrel harmoniser - I'm at the stage where anything I can try to improve my shooting is going to get tried.

I'm truly sorry you can't comment on the YT movie- I still haven't un-jumbled the semantic screw-ups that are the new rules governing whether or not a post is fit for children to see. If anybody here can point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful.

 

[grauhanen]

The video is unavailable ("This video is private.")

There often can be no small measure of satisfaction from rejuvenating an old, neglected rifle.

Does your rifle have a stock that looks like the one in the first image below (ignore the front plate between the rifle and the rest) or was it more like the second?

 

[tacfoley]

Apologies, I've just figured out that it will become public at 00:00 East Coast time.

The stock is unlike either, being a heavy thumb-hole with an alloy butt-piece that slides up and down.

 

[grauhanen]

Apologies, I've just figured out that it will become public at 00:00 East Coast time.

The stock is unlike either, being a heavy thumb-hole with an alloy butt-piece that slides up and down.

A thumbhole stock with a butt-piece as you describe would be a 1409 or a 1410 (if that model was available in 1967). The 1410 would have a longer, heavier 69cm barrel, while the 1407 has a 66cm barrel.

Below is a 1409, made in 1967.



If the length of pull (LOP) is adjustable and it has provision for a palm rest on the pistol grip, then the rifle would be a 1413 and it would have a heavy 69cm barrel.

 

[tacfoley]

A thumbhole stock with a butt-piece as you describe would be a 1409 or a 1410 (if that model was available in 1967). The 1410 would have a longer, heavier 69cm barrel, while the 1407 has a 66cm barrel.

Below is a 1409, made in 1967.



If the length of pull (LOP) is adjustable and it has provision for a palm rest on the pistol grip, then the rifle would be a 1413 and it would have a heavy 69cm barrel.

The bottom rifle is it, and thank you for the correction - the model stamp is very thin, but the Ulm PH stamp of '67 is clear. The butt-plate is smaller and has an extending section operating off a thumb-wheel. The movie is up now, BTW, if you care to take a look. BTW, where did you get the flat-plate attachment?

 

[grauhanen]

The bottom rifle is it, and thank you for the correction - the model stamp is very thin, but the Ulm PH stamp of '67 is clear. The butt-plate is smaller and has an extending section operating off a thumb-wheel. The movie is up now, BTW, if you care to take a look. BTW, where did you get the flat-plate attachment?

It's doubtful that Anschutz stamped a model number on a 54 match rifle as late as 1967. I believe that they no longer did that after 1964.

That particular BR plate was bought from Brownell's. I ordered it from the US but it seems there is a Brownell's UK (assuming that's where you are located at this time going by your comment that your FAC have a spare slot). See h t t p s ://www.brownells.co.uk/BENCHREST-ADAPTERS-Sinclair-Benchrest-Forend-Rail-Adapter-SINCLAIR-INTERNATIONAL-Rest-Accessories-749011468

I watched your youtube video. The refinishing job is very good. Here's an image from your video showing the hardware on the butt stock.



I'm not very familiar with the design history of the thumbhole stocks. The butt stock doesn't seem to have had a provision (mounting screw holes or bracket) for a palm rest, but the butt hardware certainly is adjustable for length of pull, which is a characteristic of the 1413 model. The butt hook is absent but there may be provision for one to be screwed in the bottom of the hardware, or it is a prone butt plate. Your barreled action has the longer, heavy 69cm barrel so it too suggests it is a 1413. If the stock is original to your rifle it is either a 1410 (the heavy barreled brother of the 1409) or a 1413, depending on whether a 1967-made 1413 had an adjustable cheek piece or not. Later 1413 models certainly had an adjustable cheek piece like the 1413 stock below.



Below is an ad ostensibly from 1964 showing the 1413 which doesn't have an adjustable cheek piece. Yours may be a 1413 -- it certainly has the heavy barreled action -- but it seems to be missing the palm rest mounting bracket, and its also missing an additional piece of butt plate hardware that goes between the rear-most part and the wood stock itself. Perhaps it is has a 1409 stock (also used with the heavy barreled Model 1410) that has had it's butt plate changed.

 

[tacfoley]

Great information, Sir, many thanks. As the rifle had been semi-forgotten for so long, there was no supporting documentation to show if it had had a change of stock. Given the HUGE cost of this brand here in UK, I think that's unlikely in the extreme, as three-position stocks like that on the Model 1413 are VERY rare hereabouts. The UK branch of Brownells is a comparative new-comer, with certainly less than ten years presence, and I obtained the rifle in 2008 when it had already been forgotten for twenty-six years.

When I think about it, it was very strange to think that it had been somehow overlooked for so long. Here in UK EVERY legal firearm is registered, and that rifle HAD to be entered on the club's own register as a club gun, and yet.....a lucky break for me, eh?