Building a Classic Sporting rifle

Ardent said:
Your rib is gonna be a beauty, I’d have saved the barrel for a rebore (had Bob Jury rebore the same Mauser barrel for me) but I respect the craft and plan. Next tool I need is a TIG.
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Funny you say that, potashminer used to own this barrel and he sent it to Bob for a rebore. Bob reamed it out and then decided there wasn't enough meat left to rifle it. Then potashminer sold it to jimharrison for a project, he held it for a while then offered it to me when I was talking about buying or making a rib. So I got it for maybe 60$ and it was a smooth 8mm bore.

I know it was a nice Mauser barrel but for the price and the fact it couldn't be re rifled again short of being a 22rf it didn't have much use.


I've been really looking at tig welders lately. I may just grab a cheap ac/dc tig off Amazon for 800$ to try it out.i was a cwb welder for a few years in-between machining jobs. Welding fulltime as a job is too dirty lol.

If one wanted to try just dc tig welding some of the 350$ machines out of China have good reviews for what they are.
 
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Yes, I did at one time have that barrel with that rib, but was a previous owner to me that said he had Bob Jury ream to .350", and then decided it was too slim to rifle. I still have the receiver and stock, and have since purchased a "deep chambered" 257 Roberts barrel for it - by McGowen - too chicken, so far, to figure out how to add wood slabs to that slim fore-end - the new-to-me barrel is fatter in the chamber area, than that stock is. Can see in Evanguy's pictures - the chamber area on the original barrel was whittled down to an Octagon shape - very slim compared to fully round Mauser barrel, in that area. Also, no guts to attempt to inlet that widow's peak butt plate into a "new" stock, and about "zero" chance that I would get the butt plate screw slots to line up to each other - so is all on a shelf waiting for "inspiration"...
 
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buckbrush said:
I have found the #1B.S.A. sporters (the model with the rib soldered on the barrel) do not handle as well as the # 2 and 3 models which do not have the rib.
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That's interesting to hear. I do believe it though as I like my lighter profile 20-22" barreled rifles as far as handling goes. But I also have a Merkel sxs shotgun that handles like its an extension of me with 28" barrels with an upper and lower rib so I'm not sure if it's the barrel or the Ballance of the rifle it self.

The barrel I'm using is 19" and a very slender profile it's 13mm at the muzzle so the rib would add a similar amount of weight as a regular SMLE or profile barrel would be and still lighter then a 20" mlm/mle barrel would be

Decker9 after messaging me way back on HBC to helping me go over my goat hunting plan and sending me the pics and all that, also the day I left the woods you asked how it went I definitely hold you to a high regard. If you get a mill or lathe and need any info or help at all I'd gladly help in anyway I can.
 
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I figured out what im going to do with the rear sight. I ended up buying a little piece of a lee speed rear sight thanks to Gaff tipping me off about it.

I'll use the ladder from the lee speed sight and then the NECG express sight I have in combination in the rib.

I ended up milling the express sight quite a bit smaller, the parts I milled were

-the over all height of the sight is lowered 2mm by milling off the bottom
-the width was mill down by 3mm (1.5mm per side)
-the ramp was lowered 2.5mm and the face of the ramp was cut back 3mm
-I milled a V grove into the ramp and a leading line into the face of the ramp, as well as took the vertical edges off
-I thinned out the ramp even more buy cutting away the back side with a ball nose endmill so I'm able to easily flip down the first leaf and i used a ball nose so it didn't leave a ledge.


I still need cut the V into the leaf's but ill do that after shooting it, and I still need to file little angles on the backs of the leaf's edges so im able to flip them up easily, (to get my finger nail under) since I milled them the exact same width as the sight.

and it needs some polishing done to it as well, those machining marks you can see in the pics look big but you cant feel them


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gaff said:
That’s coming along nicely. On the one I restored I silver soldered the two bases together on a thin piece to make one base.
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Interesting you say that, that is what I was thinking of doing. Although my thought was to make a base about 2mm thick and as wide as the ladder sight ( it's wider then the express sight by a mm) then cutting two shallow dove tails in that spacing the two sights about 2mm apart.

Then cutting the base plate at 60* each end to install in a 60* ~70mm dove tail in the rib. And depending on the angle in relation to the bore I cut each dove tail (base plate and rib) that would give me some adjustment on each parts elevation to be sighted at 100m with the fixed leaf on the express sight.
 
This thread is 1000000% not over. I've been thinking about this rifle a lot, I've been slacking on my end. Being a husband and father of 4 aged 6-17 and working a live on site property management job with my wife as the other manager keeps me way to busy.

I still need to mail the stock oval to Wayne and then he will have the stock done.

Then it's engraving and metal finish and the rifles finished.

I honestly can't wait. I have 100 brass now, new Dies for it, 250 6.5 bullets, a few K primers and a few pounds of H4895 and irm3031 to try.
 
I'm excited for it! Wish I had jumped on the lee speed bandwagon when they were more affordable.

I'm really digging 6.5 cartridges and I love lee speeds. I have a nicely sportered 1899 MLE (.303 obviously)with nice checkering and marbles sights. It carries and points so well. Funny, the chamber is rough, but the barrel and throat are like new. Only load to 2200fps to keep my brass in better shape.

May keep it with me in the yard blind this deer season.
 
Evanguy said:
This thread is 1000000% not over. I've been thinking about this rifle a lot, I've been slacking on my end. Being a husband and father of 4 aged 6-17 and working a live on site property management job with my wife as the other manager keeps me way to busy.

I still need to mail the stock oval to Wayne and then he will have the stock done.

Then it's engraving and metal finish and the rifles finished.

I honestly can't wait. I have 100 brass now, new Dies for it, 250 6.5 bullets, a few K primers and a few pounds of H4895 and irm3031 to try.
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did not want to put any pressure on you of course.

thank you for the update.
 
That’s a real beauty, every time I think about putting a synthetic stock on something a gun like yours comes along and puts a stop to that dirty thought.
 
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