NavyShooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- XMU Local .303
To go with my 1919A4, I went looking for a tripod.
The market place is pretty brutal for these right now. I was offered one here on CGN, but didn't have the $$ to pull the trigger on the purchase in time, so I went further afield. One of the distributors who sponsors CGN had one available, but the quoted price was $1100, plus tax, plus shipping....so basically $1350 or so by the time it landed on my doorstep. Not willing to drop that kind of coin on it...seemed pretty expensive.
So. A bit more research turned up IMA USA. They have a reproduction 1919A4 Tripod with T&E available for the "low low" price of $379.95, plus shipping, plus taxes. So, I snagged one. Landed to my door was just over $500. Saving $850 seemed like a good plan.
I opened the box when it got here, and found a solid, steel tripod, with a T&E. There was a bit of a rattle to things when it was all together, but I figured, hey, for $500, ya get what ya pay for.
So off I went to shoot it. GOOD FUN.
Alas, pieces fell off at the range. I had a much closer look when I put it all away that day, and found that the nyloc nuts that they used (not exactly historically accurate, but hey, c'est la vie) were not engaged with the threads...or at least the nylon part wasn't. So, longer bolts would fix that....
Then I realized that if I'm going to get longer bolts, I might as well see what all I really need, and fix it properly.
So, I examined the cause of the rattling a bit. Here's what I ended up finding.
Here's the start point.
Looking at the front leg, you can see the gap, letting things rattle about pretty good:
Here's the dimension of the front leg slot:
And here's the front leg....
So, .035" of slop....that was easy enough to bend in with a vise to snug it up. Problem solved, front leg is now not flopping about so much.
Next problem, the latch lever for the pintle was upside down.
Simple solution, flip it....
Or not, since it's keyed to fit one way!
Problem solved....knock the pin out, take the handle off the plunger, rotate, straighten the pin out, re-install.
Next step, the rear legs:
Observe the gap in this photo between the leg and the body....any wonder why there was some slop?
The leg was .867"
The gap on one side was .965" Almost .100 of freeboard!
Yowzers!
So, solution was to beat it with a hammer and break the welds, re-weld it.
The cheapie bolts have been replaced with some better ones, and castle nuts installed (a bit more old-school-ish)
Last thing to fix was the traversing bar....it had been installed upside down (and it was one of the bolts that hold it in place that had to be replaced initially to kick this off.)
So, I replaced the bolts, and installed the bar RIGHT SIDE UP (yes, it came installed upside down, the numbers were facing the ground....sigh) and now, here we are in all it's glory:
Summary.
I had about 2 hours of work to get this thing tidied up. If it had come with these issues resolved up front, I'd have been happier, but for the price, it's not a bad solution.
The T&E is still kind of loose-ish, but I don't have a proper T&E to compare it to. Snugging up the windage bolt helped a bit, but it's still kind of sloppy. I might investigate purchase of a US T&E to add in, but we'll see.
I'm pleased with the purchase, and would, if I had another .30 BMG to mount, consider buying another one of these, going in knowing that a couple of hours of work would make it a somewhat more refined/precise product.
NS
The market place is pretty brutal for these right now. I was offered one here on CGN, but didn't have the $$ to pull the trigger on the purchase in time, so I went further afield. One of the distributors who sponsors CGN had one available, but the quoted price was $1100, plus tax, plus shipping....so basically $1350 or so by the time it landed on my doorstep. Not willing to drop that kind of coin on it...seemed pretty expensive.
So. A bit more research turned up IMA USA. They have a reproduction 1919A4 Tripod with T&E available for the "low low" price of $379.95, plus shipping, plus taxes. So, I snagged one. Landed to my door was just over $500. Saving $850 seemed like a good plan.
I opened the box when it got here, and found a solid, steel tripod, with a T&E. There was a bit of a rattle to things when it was all together, but I figured, hey, for $500, ya get what ya pay for.
So off I went to shoot it. GOOD FUN.
Alas, pieces fell off at the range. I had a much closer look when I put it all away that day, and found that the nyloc nuts that they used (not exactly historically accurate, but hey, c'est la vie) were not engaged with the threads...or at least the nylon part wasn't. So, longer bolts would fix that....
Then I realized that if I'm going to get longer bolts, I might as well see what all I really need, and fix it properly.
So, I examined the cause of the rattling a bit. Here's what I ended up finding.
Here's the start point.
Looking at the front leg, you can see the gap, letting things rattle about pretty good:
Here's the dimension of the front leg slot:
And here's the front leg....
So, .035" of slop....that was easy enough to bend in with a vise to snug it up. Problem solved, front leg is now not flopping about so much.
Next problem, the latch lever for the pintle was upside down.
Simple solution, flip it....
Or not, since it's keyed to fit one way!
Problem solved....knock the pin out, take the handle off the plunger, rotate, straighten the pin out, re-install.
Next step, the rear legs:
Observe the gap in this photo between the leg and the body....any wonder why there was some slop?
The leg was .867"
The gap on one side was .965" Almost .100 of freeboard!
Yowzers!
So, solution was to beat it with a hammer and break the welds, re-weld it.
The cheapie bolts have been replaced with some better ones, and castle nuts installed (a bit more old-school-ish)
Last thing to fix was the traversing bar....it had been installed upside down (and it was one of the bolts that hold it in place that had to be replaced initially to kick this off.)
So, I replaced the bolts, and installed the bar RIGHT SIDE UP (yes, it came installed upside down, the numbers were facing the ground....sigh) and now, here we are in all it's glory:
Summary.
I had about 2 hours of work to get this thing tidied up. If it had come with these issues resolved up front, I'd have been happier, but for the price, it's not a bad solution.
The T&E is still kind of loose-ish, but I don't have a proper T&E to compare it to. Snugging up the windage bolt helped a bit, but it's still kind of sloppy. I might investigate purchase of a US T&E to add in, but we'll see.
I'm pleased with the purchase, and would, if I had another .30 BMG to mount, consider buying another one of these, going in knowing that a couple of hours of work would make it a somewhat more refined/precise product.
NS
