Parker hale m82-m87-C3-C3A1 Rifles

I'm getting a PH 1200C in 7mm Rem Mag next tuesday! I'm going to rebarrel it in 300WM and put it in my wood stock. Overall the rifle is going to look pretty much like a C3/C3a1 with wooden stock. Can't wait to start this project!

Here is a little question, can I take C3a1 magazines and retrofit them to work with 300 Win mag amunition. The ones I've seen have a spacer at the back of the follower which can probably be removed somehow to get longer COAL?

Any help appreciated,
Frank
 
I wonder who bought the C3 package off of the EE in the last day or so?
Can anyone confirm whether or not it was an original C3 rifle? Something just seemed a little off about the rifle and not sure what it is. I hope it was though.
Maybe our resident C3 guru will chime in. TPS50701 where are you at?
 
FrankCJ7 said:
I'm getting a PH 1200C in 7mm Rem Mag next tuesday! I'm going to rebarrel it in 300WM and put it in my wood stock. Overall the rifle is going to look pretty much like a C3/C3a1 with wooden stock. Can't wait to start this project!

Here is a little question, can I take C3a1 magazines and retrofit them to work with 300 Win mag amunition. The ones I've seen have a spacer at the back of the follower which can probably be removed somehow to get longer COAL?

Any help appreciated,
Frank
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Frank,

Just did some measuring for you!

Here's the lowdown:

300WM with a COAL of 3.34" is pushing it mighty close for the C3A1 mag - which is 3.35" without the spacer in place:

3.35 - 3.34 = 0.01" wiggle room - you'd have to seat them precisely at 3.34 to safely use them without hanging up in the mag.


But with a .308W you have oodles of space for seating out further:

308W - 2.800 COAL, with the spacer in the mag at 3.04"

3.04 - 2.80 = 0.24" of play for seating out bullet to extreme limits


So it's up to you if you can live with an occasional snag/hold up in feeding.

Hope this helps dude!

All the best, Carl
 
delta1 said:
I wonder who bought the C3 package off of the EE in the last day or so?
Can anyone confirm whether or not it was an original C3 rifle? Something just seemed a little off about the rifle and not sure what it is. I hope it was though.
Maybe our resident C3 guru will chime in. TPS50701 where are you at?
Click to expand...

Hey Tim,

Long time no talk! I haven't been around all that much as of late - just keeping to myself and family - as my dad passed away since we last spoke - so this place has usually been furthest from my mind.

Didn't see the rifle in question - is it still up on the EE or has it been erased?

I can tell you that very few C3's ever made it into the hands of civilians - most were destroyed or gifted to other "friendly" nations for their use.

All the best, Carl
 
delta1 said:
Carl:
My condolences to you and the family. Really sorry to hear that.
It is good to hear from you though.
The C3 in question is in the Mil rifle EE seller is 6167 the rifle is SPF.
Stay safe
Regards Tim
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Thanks Tim!

Just had a look at the rifle in question and right off the bat the barrel is the wrong profile - we used the standard PH profile with a stepped barrel primary torque shoulder - not straight taper like on the rifle in the EE.

Definitely not a Canadian rifle or even an Australian/Commonwealth country - every example of an M82 that I've ever handled had the very same barrel profile that I spoke of for the Canadian rifles.

You'd be further ahead finding a 1200 TX and playing around with that to make a clone - just make sure that the flat of the bolt knob is on the bottom and not round or on top like most PH 1200's are.

As a friend of mine in REME once told me - the M82's are rarer than rocking horse $hit to find in civilian hands - LOL!

All the best, Carl
 
tps50701 said:
Frank,

Just did some measuring for you!

Here's the lowdown:

300WM with a COAL of 3.34" is pushing it mighty close for the C3A1 mag - which is 3.35" without the spacer in place:

3.35 - 3.34 = 0.01" wiggle room - you'd have to seat them precisely at 3.34 to safely use them without hanging up in the mag.


But with a .308W you have oodles of space for seating out further:

308W - 2.800 COAL, with the spacer in the mag at 3.04"

3.04 - 2.80 = 0.24" of play for seating out bullet to extreme limits


So it's up to you if you can live with an occasional snag/hold up in feeding.

Hope this helps dude!

All the best, Carl
Click to expand...

Frank,

Just had an after thought as well:

Why not use .300WSM with a COAL of 2.860" - would easily fit in the mag and might work out better for you in the long run seeing as it still utilizes .308 bullets and you would still have room to play with seating distance.

Cheers, Carl
 
tps50701 said:
Frank,

Just had an after thought as well:

Why not use .300WSM with a COAL of 2.860" - would easily fit in the mag and might work out better for you in the long run seeing as it still utilizes .308 bullets and you would still have room to play with seating distance.

Cheers, Carl
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Carl,

Thanks for your valuable imput! I just got back from the store and measured the original MAGNUM magazine : mag follower is 3.340'' and magazine inside walls are 3.410 appart. Seems there is a little more space than the magazine you measured, I'll have to go compare to the ones I have where I work...:D I would not be surprised if there was a lot of variation in the C3a1 magazines.

Frank
 
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Uhmmmm!!! another question, what is PH M82/M7 wood???? Beech??? , Euro Walnut??? Need to reproduce buttstock spacers because they were damaged water/humidity.
 
FrankCJ7 said:
Uhmmmm!!! another question, what is PH M82/M7 wood???? Beech??? , Euro Walnut??? Need to reproduce buttstock spacers because they were damaged water/humidity.
Click to expand...

Walnut was what we had - although I can say that it was the lightest shade of walnut that I've ever seen.

When I had to repair cracked stocks by the rear action screw, I used a BLR'd(Beyond Local Repair) stock that was destined for the garbage as my donor wood.

Got them as close as I could, then restained the whole stock to make them uniform - just more pleasing to me(my OCD was always on when I worked on C3/C3A1's - LOL) - and pride in my work.

Make 4 spacers and when you get them where they look good, stamp them with a number so you know where they go and in what order - the way we did them.

All the best, Carl
 
Hi Carl,

I'm going to restain the stock and I was guessing which stain should be used. Also, I think Linseed Oil is what was used on finishing, am I wrong? The finish on the 2 C3a1 I can get a hold on for comparison seem to have a really hard semi-gloss surface. My stock was never finished and looks soft and porous.

Also, I started initial action fitting and found out that it already sits low in the inletting. Were the original wood stocks already inletted with the intention of bedding them?

Frank
 
FrankCJ7 said:
Hi Carl,

I'm going to restain the stock and I was guessing which stain should be used. Also, I think Linseed Oil is what was used on finishing, am I wrong? The finish on the 2 C3a1 I can get a hold on for comparison seem to have a really hard semi-gloss surface. My stock was never finished and looks soft and porous.

Also, I started initial action fitting and found out that it already sits low in the inletting. Were the original wood stocks already inletted with the intention of bedding them?

Frank
Click to expand...

Frank,

When I had to redo or touch up wood stocks, we had numerous things at our disposal. I primarily used linseed oil and used Birchwood Casey Tru-oil, as they were readily available to us. As for staining - I used to use a darker alcohol based stain sometimes, as I wanted to keep it as toned down as possible - camouflage thinking - LOL!

Also, I personally liked the darker wood look to set off from the metal surfaces - nothing like the traditional look of wood and steel!

The replacement stocks were usually good to go, but had to have recesses made for the bedding material to adhear to. If you rebedding an old one, then for sure you had to make recesses in the old stock, by carving out as much of the old bedding as you could.

Just make sure you get positive contact between the recoil bar in the stock and the recoil shoulder on the receiver.

Devcon steel is the choice of bedding compound as well.

Hope this helps, Carl
 
c3

Time for another clone

parts so far

c3002.jpg
 
What weight of bullet (I understand it's 168grain) and velocity is the ZF69 cammed for?

What was the barrel length of the original C3 ? my manual seemed to list 24"

The manual says "...enfield pattern barrel..." which implies 27-1/2" to me.
 
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I've got the C3 barrel specification and have given them out a few times. The correct original length is 26". I have seen 22 and 24" however no confirmation in the offical literature. I'm sure Carl can add to this. Ron
 
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