Scope on a cooey 75...???

mikeystew

mikeystew

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I picked up a cooey 75 recently that has the most canted sights ever. i want to refinish it because the wood is beautiful, although a little warped which is cool... cause it fits me better.

So im thinking of... (gasp) cutting the end of the barrel off just behind the front sight and D&Ting it for a scope, and putting a filler screw in the rear leaf screw hole, smoothing it to the barrel and re-bluing the lot.

My question is has anyone put a scope on a 75... and what bases did you use.

Any thoughts on the project otherwise? i just thought it might be neat to have a super accurate cooey with the sightless barrel profile.

Has anyone ever cut their own dovetails with triangular files before? that is plan B. Plan C is leave it and move on... but it's calling me.
 
To clarify I will be doing ALL the work myself... don't worry, im not sinking $200 into a $60 gun. And is it worth it? yes. It shot a sub 1" group with it's slanty sights the other day at 50m, which i think is pretty darn good for a super old beater looking piece.
 
mikeystew said:
Has anyone ever cut their own dovetails with triangular files before?
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Did it once on a 16 guage break action single, and coincidently, it was model 75 sights that I put on it. It took me awhile, and I was as carefull as I could be to make sure that everything was square to the action.

I understand there are jigs you can purchase for this job to make sure everything is straight, but gathering from what I've read, this kind of purchase isn't going to be part of this project.

Almost anything can be done if one puts their mind to it, and wants to do it bad enough.
 
If you're going to cut the barrel down, you might as well cut it to just above the legal minimum length. If you are going to use a scope, sight radius is not even an issue.

I cut mine to about 19 inches, at that length, the tapering on the barrel is almost unnoticeable and the barrel has a straight, bull-barrel look to it. I think that will improve the look of your "sightless barrel profile".

Another benefit is the rifle will be less front-heavy and balances much better.
 
Both interesting perspectives... I think i can make a jig for cutting the dovetails, and honestly that job may be easier than tapping for scope bases, Which I have done several times and is a job I don't particularly enjoy. Especially when the tap breaks. At least with filing you just go slow, checking for fit constantly until it's done. Maybe this would be a good time to get the dovetail experience out of the way.

But I still want to scope it also...

As for cutting it back... I actually want to leave it fairly long for it's natural sound supression qualities. A 26" barrel is much quieter than an 18" barrel. Especially with standard or subsonics. I was shooting this gun with CCI standard beside a guy shooting a savage with federal bulk recently, and mine sounded like a pellet gun in comparison. Perfect for inconspicuous small gaming.

I don't know... I guess I'll think about it for a while yet before doing anything serious.
 
I had a scope mounted on my 75 but it had to be a scout mount because of the lack of material in the action. So you may be limited for seperate mounts. Actually your choice whether to drill rear of the chamber as the barrel has much thicker walls.
 
Winnipeg Toymaker said:
I had a scope mounted on my 75 but it had to be a scout mount because of the lack of material in the action. So you may be limited for seperate mounts. Actually your choice whether to drill rear of the chamber as the barrel has much thicker walls.
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I thought of that also, or maybe a weaver side mount... That way I could avoid the chamber and the barrel all together.
 
I will get ragged for this bubba solution, but here goes. I bought a picatinny rail for my 75. It's an aluminum rail, so I radiused it to match the receiver on the 75, using sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. When you remove the rear sight, you'll see that it is held in place with a screw through a wedge that sits in the dovetail slot. I installed a screw through the rail into the wedge. Then, I drilled one hole at the rear of the rail, into the receiver. I don't have the proper flat bottomed taps, so i drilled it far enough back that it was near where the bolt enters the receiver, so it didn't matter if I drilled through. Those 2 screws hold the scope just fine, and I mounted the scope using standard Weaver rings.
 
The newer scope mounts from cabelas are a 2 piece mount, kinda clumbersome but handle the 1 inch scopes. If you could find an original mount for the smaller diameter scopes and put one of those on. They can be found in 4x and 3-7 variables.
 
I have seen one piece scope base used but, it got "notched" over the receiver so fingers could fit inside to load. I didn't do it...

In the Cooey makeover thread theres a few scoped 75's too...I inquired about one and, I guess it was JB Weld for that one.

I have a couple of 75's and, they are probably the most accurate rifles in the safe! Optics would only help for the "long reaching" shots.

Regardless of process, please snap some pics of your work/progress.
 
camster said:
I have seen one piece scope base used but, it got "notched" over the receiver so fingers could fit inside to load. I didn't do it...

In the Cooey makeover thread theres a few scoped 75's too...I inquired about one and, I guess it was JB Weld for that one.

I have a couple of 75's and, they are probably the most accurate rifles in the safe! Optics would only help for the "long reaching" shots.

Regardless of process, please snap some pics of your work/progress.
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The fix I used has the picatinny rail ending ahead of the shell opening. If I get a chance, I'll post a pic of it. So far, seems rock solid.
 
Papaclaude said:
The fix I used has the picatinny rail ending ahead of the shell opening. If I get a chance, I'll post a pic of it. So far, seems rock solid.
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Yeah, I'd like to see that.
I'm not too keen on jb welding my bases on but had considered it. Also the rear sight screw is so canted I'd deem it unusable for scope base use.

If I go the scoped route I'm not going to fcuk around, I think I'll use a one piece rail with holes marked to tap threads over the chamber and at the actions rear. Then I'll cut the rail to make two piece bases and duracoat them.

Right now though I'm fixated on attempting a re-cut of the dovetails. I figure if I screw up that job I can then go the scoped route. I'll keep a photo diary, but I don't plan to start it for a few weeks now. Thanks for the brainstorming session guys. Always helps.
 
mikeystew said:
Right now though I'm fixated on attempting a re-cut of the dovetails. I figure if I screw up that job I can then go the scoped route.
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Then you probably don't need to cut the barrel, at least not yet. Just fill the current notch with JB weld, then try to file it straight and centered.
 
AManWithAGun said:
Then you probably don't need to cut the barrel, at least not yet. Just fill the current notch with JB weld, then try to file it straight and centered.
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Only trouble with that is the small patch of jb weld will not take bluing. I'm about to just leave it and move on to another gun honestly. It's just too much work involved to sand the forestock straight, refinish, cut new dovetails, strip and re blue the metal... Maybe someday. I'm getting discouraged at the volume of repairs. I like refinishing wood and metal. But I've done enough repairs on old guns to know just what I'm getting into and don't yet know if I want to invest the time and hassle on this old lemon...
 
I guess i do! I just finished the new front dovetail and adjusted the rear sight to match. Next I'll cut and crown, then off tho the refinishing dept.
 
Any photos? I'm getting a Cooey 75 very soon, and feel pretty confident that scoping it will be a priority. Been reading a bit about the Weaver 60A Cantilever mount. Tempted to go that route, looks very clean.
 
I have savage 110 weaver mounts on mine. It is drilled and tapped for two screws each for a total of four mounting screws. I used the two piece bases because it made loading alot easier for my meathooks! It was a real simple thing to do and I used JB weld underneath as well. My 75 is a beater, so it was no big risk. It can hang pretty well at 50m with any rifle, but the poor trigger rears its ugly head at 100m. I am working on that project as we speak!
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