Remington 597 HB project

gcdavidson

gcdavidson

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Hey fellas, here's a thread about my 597 project. I purchased this gun last year when it was on sale at LeBaron's. With my club card, I think it came in pretty close to $200. I had wanted to get a Ruger 10/22 VLEH model, but they were nowhere to be found, and even if they were, the sticker price was significantly higher than the 597 HB.

I've wanted to personalize this rifle and the tactical look is something that I find appealing. This project was basically going to be me showing how I painted a wood stock for the first time, but a little bit of mission creep set in. Keeping in mind the good value of the 597, I didn't want to go nuts with the budget. I'm not sure of the total cost, as some of the items were bartered for , or received as trades

As of today, I'm still in the process of gathering all the parts. Here's what I've got so far:

597 HB with 1/2x28 threaded bbl
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Unfinished wood laminate stock:
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NC Star scope. Max is 6x, and even at max magnification it's nice & clear.
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Other bolt-ons - accushot monopod (this serves double duty on a Savage Mk II), some low scope rings, a custom bolt handle from johnnyc14 here on CGN, a couple swivels, some plastic washers for the stock (Remington has a insert set specially designed for wood stocks, but try finding them), cheapy bi-pod, and a choate cheek riser:
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I'm going to paint using the British Desert DPM as a guide.

First step was to find some patterns and print them out. These will be used as a guide, or maybe even as a template for the painting to follow. I've tried to keep the scale of the pattern at 1:1.
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And some rattle cans. Hi-build primer as I don't want any wood grain showing through. The brown and tan are decent approximations of the Desert DPM colour. And some matt spray since the colour coats are satin. I plan to paint the bbl & receiver of the 597 too. Rustoleum is decent paint, but nowhere near as durable as some of the 2-part finishes. The plus to this is that it can be stripped off with laquer thinner.
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There a couple ways I figure I can make the painting masks. The first is to trace the pattern on to the roll of mactac drawer liner. Never tried this before so I don't know how well it will stop the paint from creeping through. I'll do a trial run on some scrap before spraying the rifle. The other way is by laying out strips of painters tape, slightly overlapping, on to some wax paper. Trace the pattern on to the tape, cut out with x-acto, and then apply to the rifle.

The sponges are to make the small dabs of brown that appear adjacent to some of the larger brown areas. Bag of sponges $1 at the Dollarama...easier than cleaning a small paint brush.

Cold weld is for the cheek riser - the profile of the riser does not match the stock, and I wanted a gap free installation.
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Awesome, I'm looking for a stock as well. My bolt handle from johnnyc14 should be in the mail this week. I'm running a compact NC Star scope on one of my 597's and find the cross hairs kinda thick and the eye relief touchy, is it easy to quickly acquire thew target with that model?
 
Hey Squirrel, I'm fussy about eye relief too. I think my eyes are kinda messed up - on my C7, I have to get in so close my helmet is contacting the C79. Its like that with a lot of my optics too, like 2"-3" of eye relief. As for target acquisition, I'm shooting at static paper and gongs, so I can't really comment. The crosshairs have a thin and a thick portion. The thin portion at the intersection and the hash marks are pretty thin, around the same as my Millett TRS-1.

I'm not wild about the built in sunshade. I might saw that off and install scope caps.

A couple other goodies arrived: DIP picatinny scope rail and a noname 2-point sling. VQ extractor also showed up, but I'll wait until the OEM one needs replacing before installing:

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I'll have to have a look around and see if I can't try one out. I've got a Leaper's on one of mine (similar price to NC Star) and works great. I use the VQ extractor and the VQ hammer in both of my 597's and they are fantastic. The hammer was a night and day difference. I got mine from Sylvestre sports.
 
I have heard nothing but good things about the VQ hammer. I'll need to check the 597 stickies over at RFC to see if I can DIY anything for the trigger group. There goes that mission creep again...
 
I just google image searched "British Desert DPM" and printed them out on regular paper. There are vinyl stencils available for the 4-colour DPM which could be adapted.
 
small update - scope mod

I was never a fan of the angled integrated shade on the NCStar scope, plus it was likely going to interfere with fitting the scope caps I'm planning on adding.

To prep for its removal, I wrapped some masking tape around the circumference as a guide / no-go line. It's not a perfect 90* cut (looks to be around 88.74 degrees according to my Mk I eyeball), but once the scope cap is fitted it will be OK. I also taped off the glass with a couple layers of masking tape 'just in case'.

My dremel is hooked up to a sewing machine pedal to control the speed, so I can't say what RPM I cut at, but with the dremel faster speed & less pressure seems to work for me. Two cutting disks later and it was off. Finished off with a file, some 180g, 320g, 600g. I also polished it using a dremel buffer just because.
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Nice! I really hate the angled front on these scopes as well.... I've considered the cheaper scopes once in a while myself for my rimfires, but the angled objective has always been a deal breaker! Now that i've seen what you did here I just may look at one for my new 10/22 Marauder build!

Good idea, and good job!!

ginnz
 
Cheers fellas. Ginnz - I really liked your Marauder build.

Got a little more done when I found the scope mod took less time than I thought.

Here's the DIP picatinny rail. A couple drops of oil, a soft hammer (required), blue locktite, #15 torx bit and maybe 5 mins time. I put the screws in after the photo, but the rail is on there so tight, the screws are pretty much just filling holes in the receiver.

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Next up was modifying the stock. It was a tad long to accept a barrel shroud I might be adding, plus I like the lines of the Remington stock. Quick measure & cut...or so I thought. My mitre saw won't turn on...might need new brushes or something...it's never easy. So I eyeballed it with a hand held circular saw. I'll round off the edge a bit next.

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Choate cheek riser install

This low mount cheek riser gives me a near perfect cheek weld when used with the low mount scope rings.

The inner contour of the riser did not match the profile of the comb, so I filled the gap with JB. This is the JB putty that comes in a stick you knead together. Gives maybe 5 mins working time. Prior to applying the JB, I scored the contact area of the riser with multiple cuts from an xacto. This helps give the JB something to stick too.

I rolled out some thin sausages of JB and pressed them into the riser, and then pressed the riser into the stock. I ended up sliding the riser back a few mm before tightening down the riser screw, but there is not a lot of time to fiddle about once its in position. Tightening the screw squeezed the excess putty out which first removed with the xacto and then rough leveled with a micro chisel. I also filled the screw hole with JB. A couple hours later and I sanded with some 120g.

Hopefully when its under a couple coats of primer, it will have a good integrated look.

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Underside gap:
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Rear gap (front is pretty much the same)
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Primer on

Put around 8 coats of high-build primer on the stock. There's a few drips which will have to be sanded out before the colour coat is applied in 7 days once the primer is fully cured. It looks to have filled any of the wood grain, which was the point behind so many coats. You can also see I've rounded off the edge of the stock where I made the angled cut earlier.

The other parts got 2 light coats (scope rings too, but not in the photo). This priming will also help the colour coats look the same whether they are on wood, metal, or plastic.
As you can see, I went with a different scope - this is a redfield 18x with side focus + sunshade, and I decided on a 5" AR type flash hider (cheers to TDC on Canadian Gun Nutz), which really changes the look of the gun. Bi-pod also got some primer, but I've masked off the springs and the rubber feet as they will stay black. Paint would likely flake off pretty quickly from those areas.

The wires are there to hang the parts while they dry.

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