stencollector
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- shilo MB, the armpit of Canada
I purchased this rifle about 4 years back. It came with a demilled barrel, and a Kreiger 50 cal partly finished barrel blank. I ran it out to a gunsmith a couple provinces over who does a lot of work with 50s, and picked it up again about 9 months later. To my disatisfaction, the barrel was straight like a telephone pole, lacking the curves and tapers that make this a ###y looking rifle. The barrel was so heavy, that the gun wanted to fall forward from it's bipod when in the prone position. I fired it at last years Battle of the Bulge. The gun would not accept rounds from the magazine, or from the top of the rifle, so that was another problem I was going to have to work out.
This is a photo of three antitank rifles during last years Battle of the Bulge match. Mine is the one to the far right wearing it's action covers. The other two are a PTRD and a Boys mk2, with the flat version of the muzzle brake and the later bipod.
I had a local gunsmith remove the barrel for me a few months back. The smith who did the work mentioned he had used red loctite on the threads, and that heat would be required to remove the barrel. A propane torch warmed up the receiver, and the barrel was off in no time.
I just completed an evening course of basic lathe operation, so decided to give the tapering of the barrel a shot myself. My lathe has a 40" bed, and it was a tight fit getting the barrel on there in an area where my taper attachment could do it's work.
Above is a photo of the end of the barrels. The groove seen at the top does not seem to serve any purpose other than for style. These I had to hand cut.
Above is the turned barrel next to the demilled barrel. Some of the overall measurements are a bit out, but overall it looks good. I cleaned up the remaining loctite off the threads, and found that when I hand threaded the barrel on to the receiver, it went slightly further than it was supposed to, and the extractor would foul into the barrel. So I toyed with some verious shims, and found that a 1-1/2 thou shim resulted in a reasonable amount of torque to align the barrel.
Barrel about to go on. Loctite has been installed onto the threads, and the brass shim I made can be seen in the photo.
Installation of the barrel onto the upper receiver
There was a bit of an alignment problem as well with the trunnion onto the keyway grooves cut into the barrel. The grooves seemed to be a touch out of plane, and I had to file the inner edges of the trunnion to make sure the gun would go back into battery.
In the above photo you can see where the dummy 50 cal round wouldn't fit into the chamber, as it got caught up on some ribs inside the receiver. The 50 is a touch longer than the .55 cal boys ammo. A few seconds with a dremel fixed that problem, and the bullet feeds fine from the magazine now.
Above photo shows the receiver with a small amount removed to allow feeding of the 50 cal round.
This photo is a bit dark, but it shows the underside of the rifle. You have to pry the buffer spring before you can bolt the upper and lower receivers together.
Here is the completed rifle, along with some of it's accessories. There is the chest of magazines (I only have 6.....I still need to find 2 more to fill the chest), the muzzle covers, and the action cover. There is also a 55 drill round and a .22 sub cal round.
I'll host up a couple more photos tommorrow. My photobucket account seems to have jammed up on me.
This is a photo of three antitank rifles during last years Battle of the Bulge match. Mine is the one to the far right wearing it's action covers. The other two are a PTRD and a Boys mk2, with the flat version of the muzzle brake and the later bipod.
I had a local gunsmith remove the barrel for me a few months back. The smith who did the work mentioned he had used red loctite on the threads, and that heat would be required to remove the barrel. A propane torch warmed up the receiver, and the barrel was off in no time.
I just completed an evening course of basic lathe operation, so decided to give the tapering of the barrel a shot myself. My lathe has a 40" bed, and it was a tight fit getting the barrel on there in an area where my taper attachment could do it's work.
Above is a photo of the end of the barrels. The groove seen at the top does not seem to serve any purpose other than for style. These I had to hand cut.
Above is the turned barrel next to the demilled barrel. Some of the overall measurements are a bit out, but overall it looks good. I cleaned up the remaining loctite off the threads, and found that when I hand threaded the barrel on to the receiver, it went slightly further than it was supposed to, and the extractor would foul into the barrel. So I toyed with some verious shims, and found that a 1-1/2 thou shim resulted in a reasonable amount of torque to align the barrel.
Barrel about to go on. Loctite has been installed onto the threads, and the brass shim I made can be seen in the photo.
Installation of the barrel onto the upper receiver
There was a bit of an alignment problem as well with the trunnion onto the keyway grooves cut into the barrel. The grooves seemed to be a touch out of plane, and I had to file the inner edges of the trunnion to make sure the gun would go back into battery.
In the above photo you can see where the dummy 50 cal round wouldn't fit into the chamber, as it got caught up on some ribs inside the receiver. The 50 is a touch longer than the .55 cal boys ammo. A few seconds with a dremel fixed that problem, and the bullet feeds fine from the magazine now.
Above photo shows the receiver with a small amount removed to allow feeding of the 50 cal round.
This photo is a bit dark, but it shows the underside of the rifle. You have to pry the buffer spring before you can bolt the upper and lower receivers together.
Here is the completed rifle, along with some of it's accessories. There is the chest of magazines (I only have 6.....I still need to find 2 more to fill the chest), the muzzle covers, and the action cover. There is also a 55 drill round and a .22 sub cal round.
I'll host up a couple more photos tommorrow. My photobucket account seems to have jammed up on me.
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