Major Sights
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Westlock, AB
So I was going through my Dad's gun closet the other day, and I noticed something in the back corner.
An old non serial numbered Cooey Ranger! It needs some TLC though. So I started on it today.
(Sorry no pics of it before all assembled, but you can guess)
As you can see it is highly corroded, however the barrel is SPOTLESS! Also, the rear sight is missing.
I completely disassembled it minus the barrel from the receiver and the bolt apart (if I could figure out how to do it I would...). The steel wool with mineral oil was up next. After an hour of that I was happy to move on. The bolt got rough polished and removed the old tool marks on the bolt face.
After that I was curious of what kind of wood was under that hideous stain and what seemed like dried up grease. Out came the random orbital.
Turns out its a diamond in the rough!
I found a set of Ruger iron sights that should be able to make fit in the Ranger.
Should be a sweet little partridge gun when I'm done!
___________________________________________________________
Well today I was back at it.
First step was to fit the rifle with its new Ruger Sights.
After some filing, cursing, more filing, and then tapping things into place it all came together.
Next thing on the list was a trigger guard. I remembered that several years ago (ok ok, about 10) I made a wooden gun for a Halloween costume (Marine sniper ) and that I salvaged a trigger guard of some old gun that is long since scrap metal now. I "liberated" it from my toy rifle, and gave the rifle to a friend for his young son to play with.
(Said toy gun after I harvested the trigger guard)
NOTE- These pictures are deceiving as the trigger guard was reworked after these pics were taken and no longer looks like this.
After reworking the trigger guard, I got out the chisel and started to clean out a space to fit the guard in flush instead of being on top.
My attention then went back to the stock. I gave it a quick light coat of Cherry 325 and let it dry, then it was started with 2 coats of tung oil, many of those left to do.
As that was drying I went back to look at the gun its self. It seems that a nut was missing for the internal "bolt" that holds the tube magazine attached to the bolt action. Also, a ugly nut with a washer had been used to hold the barreled action to the stock. I wanted to change that. Sadly, I didn't have any bolts in the shop that matched that threading, and because it is an odd threading ( 15/32" bolt with 32 thread) and no hardware store within an hours drive of where I was had any (I called...) I decided to just used a larger bolt with larger threads. I tapped the hole and the new bolt. Then I got a few matching nuts (one for the internal application and 1 for the external), and took one and ground it down and gave it some grip to be used as the external nut that holds the action to the stock. Then they (the bolt and the nut) got put to the torch till glowing red, and dipped in oil. BLUED!
Next several days will just be tung oil coats, and then I can reassemble.
Not gonna re-blue the barrel, action, or the tube mag just yet. I want to shoot next Friday with it and that can wait till later.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Well, other then the bluing it is finished! It does a palm size group @ 40yards with my new irons.
An old non serial numbered Cooey Ranger! It needs some TLC though. So I started on it today.
(Sorry no pics of it before all assembled, but you can guess)
As you can see it is highly corroded, however the barrel is SPOTLESS! Also, the rear sight is missing.
I completely disassembled it minus the barrel from the receiver and the bolt apart (if I could figure out how to do it I would...). The steel wool with mineral oil was up next. After an hour of that I was happy to move on. The bolt got rough polished and removed the old tool marks on the bolt face.
After that I was curious of what kind of wood was under that hideous stain and what seemed like dried up grease. Out came the random orbital.
Turns out its a diamond in the rough!
I found a set of Ruger iron sights that should be able to make fit in the Ranger.
Should be a sweet little partridge gun when I'm done!
___________________________________________________________
Well today I was back at it.
First step was to fit the rifle with its new Ruger Sights.
After some filing, cursing, more filing, and then tapping things into place it all came together.
Next thing on the list was a trigger guard. I remembered that several years ago (ok ok, about 10) I made a wooden gun for a Halloween costume (Marine sniper
) and that I salvaged a trigger guard of some old gun that is long since scrap metal now. I "liberated" it from my toy rifle, and gave the rifle to a friend for his young son to play with. (Said toy gun after I harvested the trigger guard)
NOTE- These pictures are deceiving as the trigger guard was reworked after these pics were taken and no longer looks like this.
After reworking the trigger guard, I got out the chisel and started to clean out a space to fit the guard in flush instead of being on top.
My attention then went back to the stock. I gave it a quick light coat of Cherry 325 and let it dry, then it was started with 2 coats of tung oil, many of those left to do.
As that was drying I went back to look at the gun its self. It seems that a nut was missing for the internal "bolt" that holds the tube magazine attached to the bolt action. Also, a ugly nut with a washer had been used to hold the barreled action to the stock. I wanted to change that. Sadly, I didn't have any bolts in the shop that matched that threading, and because it is an odd threading ( 15/32" bolt with 32 thread) and no hardware store within an hours drive of where I was had any (I called...) I decided to just used a larger bolt with larger threads. I tapped the hole and the new bolt. Then I got a few matching nuts (one for the internal application and 1 for the external), and took one and ground it down and gave it some grip to be used as the external nut that holds the action to the stock. Then they (the bolt and the nut) got put to the torch till glowing red, and dipped in oil. BLUED!
Next several days will just be tung oil coats, and then I can reassemble.
Not gonna re-blue the barrel, action, or the tube mag just yet. I want to shoot next Friday with it and that can wait till later.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Well, other then the bluing it is finished! It does a palm size group @ 40yards with my new irons.
Last edited:
