First a little story to go with the pics. I bought an old beater .22 Remmy 512 Sportmaster with some serious issues. It was missing the stock, but someone stuck it in an old Cooey model 600 stock (it actually didn't fit bad 
). It also had a tendency for the firing pin to drop when closing the bolt, it didn't fire the chambered round when it did (not that its safe either way) but it had a "trigger job" done at some point that caused that malfunction. Other than that it was a cool old rifle, but no bluing left on it.
So, I decided to have a little fun. I was lucky enough to find another 512 for parts; stock, bolt, receiver and internals, but missing the barrel so the price was right. The stock was beaten and abused but no cracks or modifications. I stripped the stock, which has some interesting grain patterns on it, used the old Iron and a soaking wet towel trick to remove the multitude of handling marks, followed by a very light sand.
Then, I added the white spacer between the butt plate and stock, and repaired a chip missing from the top of the butt Plate. A little Walnut stain and poly sealer and she looks pretty good, if I don't say so myself.
But the fun doesn't end there.... This was going to be for my Wife and Daughter to shoot, and a 24" barrel was a bit hard to control. So I shortened the barrel to 18" and re-crowned, along with chopping the magazine tube to the corresponding length. I have reduced magazine capacity to 12 in doing this, but I find that is a small price to pay for the faster and easier handling rifle.
I wonder how many here would have noticed it is cut down 6" If I hadn't said anything...hmmm.
Anyways, Now with the barrel shorter and the ugly front sight gone, time to do something with the rear sight. The rear sight was held on with 2 screws from the factory, so I thought, "easy fix", just put in 2 set screws and done. Except that when I removed the 2 screws and the sight.... it was dovetailed right between the screws!! Dammit.
Then I had a brain wave, the rear sight leaf was built to cover the dovetail in the first place, so I chopped the rear end of it off and shaped it just like the front and screwed it back on. Not to shabby I thought.
So I re-blued the barrel magazine tube and receiver, re-assembled with the clean, un-modified internals from the parts gun, and she shoots like a dream!
Only problem was, without sights of any kind it was tough to hit things, so, off to the smithy for a drill and tap on the receiver, and some weaver bases. I topped it off with a Bushnell Dusk N Dawn 4-12x40AO scope and some weaver tip off rings.
Before flaming me for chopping and drilling a 60+ year old gun... I look at it this way. It was not in collectible condition, and it will get used and enjoyed for many years this way. It is easier to aim and point with a scope and shorter barrel, also, it is now a unique piece. The action is silky smooth and the trigger is decent at about 4.5 lbs
It cost about $300 before the scope, for the both guns and the drill and tap, roughly the price of a Cheaper .22 bolt gun and I find it much nicer to look at than most newer models and it will likely out shoot them too.
The finished product is pictured below and she shoots under a 25 cent sized group at 30M with Winchester 333s. (only ammo I tried thus far)
So, what do you guys think? I like it. *edit* after a few days .. I think I may love it now. LOL
). It also had a tendency for the firing pin to drop when closing the bolt, it didn't fire the chambered round when it did (not that its safe either way) but it had a "trigger job" done at some point that caused that malfunction. Other than that it was a cool old rifle, but no bluing left on it.So, I decided to have a little fun. I was lucky enough to find another 512 for parts; stock, bolt, receiver and internals, but missing the barrel so the price was right. The stock was beaten and abused but no cracks or modifications. I stripped the stock, which has some interesting grain patterns on it, used the old Iron and a soaking wet towel trick to remove the multitude of handling marks, followed by a very light sand.
Then, I added the white spacer between the butt plate and stock, and repaired a chip missing from the top of the butt Plate. A little Walnut stain and poly sealer and she looks pretty good, if I don't say so myself.
But the fun doesn't end there.... This was going to be for my Wife and Daughter to shoot, and a 24" barrel was a bit hard to control. So I shortened the barrel to 18" and re-crowned, along with chopping the magazine tube to the corresponding length. I have reduced magazine capacity to 12 in doing this, but I find that is a small price to pay for the faster and easier handling rifle.
I wonder how many here would have noticed it is cut down 6" If I hadn't said anything...hmmm.
Anyways, Now with the barrel shorter and the ugly front sight gone, time to do something with the rear sight. The rear sight was held on with 2 screws from the factory, so I thought, "easy fix", just put in 2 set screws and done. Except that when I removed the 2 screws and the sight.... it was dovetailed right between the screws!! Dammit.
Then I had a brain wave, the rear sight leaf was built to cover the dovetail in the first place, so I chopped the rear end of it off and shaped it just like the front and screwed it back on. Not to shabby I thought.
So I re-blued the barrel magazine tube and receiver, re-assembled with the clean, un-modified internals from the parts gun, and she shoots like a dream!
Only problem was, without sights of any kind it was tough to hit things, so, off to the smithy for a drill and tap on the receiver, and some weaver bases. I topped it off with a Bushnell Dusk N Dawn 4-12x40AO scope and some weaver tip off rings.
Before flaming me for chopping and drilling a 60+ year old gun... I look at it this way. It was not in collectible condition, and it will get used and enjoyed for many years this way. It is easier to aim and point with a scope and shorter barrel, also, it is now a unique piece. The action is silky smooth and the trigger is decent at about 4.5 lbs
It cost about $300 before the scope, for the both guns and the drill and tap, roughly the price of a Cheaper .22 bolt gun and I find it much nicer to look at than most newer models and it will likely out shoot them too.
The finished product is pictured below and she shoots under a 25 cent sized group at 30M with Winchester 333s. (only ammo I tried thus far)
So, what do you guys think? I like it. *edit* after a few days .. I think I may love it now. LOL
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