A build from last fall:
None of the following is highly impressive, but it was a fun project I did for a female.
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The build goal was:
An * ULTRA*-light, take-down, highly accurate, backpack survival rifle.
Starting with a stock Savage Rascal, single-shot.22, I pulled the barreled action out of the stock.
I stripped down the action, chucked it in a lathe, and turned the little barrel profile down to a slimmer profile still yet. = weight loss.
I then clamped the barreled action in a padded vice, and began slugging the barrel & lead lapping it until the bore diameter was uniform for the length of the barrel.
Beyond that, I lapped 90%+ of the tool marks out of the bore. The bore nearly looks as pristine as a hand-lapped premium barrel blank. There was one particularly deep Gun drill mark I was afraid to totally polish out, as that would have put me borderline or too big on bore diameter.
I pulled the little, already really good Accu-trigger apart and did some stoning of critical surfaces. The trigger pull is amazing.
I removed the two pillars the action screws thread into. I drilled and tapped these out, one size bigger, to accommodate "thumb screws" I sourced from Mc-Master-Carr, so the barreled action could be easily taken out of the stock to make a tidy package that will drop in even a very small backpack.
Coming from a life of various formats of competition shooting, the factory sights bugged me.
Oh, they are ok for shooting - but quite crude & floppy, & with no precise reference when it comes to adjusting the sights/zeroing the rifle.
So I went to work.
I ordered the tallest front sight I could get for the rifle.
This gave more visual clearance through/above the groove in the scope mount that is there, so you can still use the irons despite the scope rail.
The groove in the scope baser worked but looking through the irons and through the scope base groove, the iron sight picture was "visually crowded."
Installing the tallest front sight nicely eliminated this.
With some nice diamond Jeweler's files, I thinned the front sight blade and turned it into a partridge-style front sight.
The rear sight frame got drilled & tapped for two little #4-40 hex head SS screws.
Viola! Micrometer windage & elevation turrets on the rear sight.
Well, "micrometer" is a serious stretch, to say the least. I added fine reference scales also, so it can clearly be seen how far the rear sight is actually being moved.
Back to the scope base:
The cut in the scope base to provide clearance for the loading port in the action was minimal, leaving little room to actually load this single-shot rifle.
So into the milling machine the rail went. I opened up the loading port relief on the scope base until it is the full size of the loading port that Savage put in the action itself. Nice.
On the rail, I mounted a waterproof rechargeable red laser sight.
(Disclaimer: I strictly adhere to all hunting/game laws and will not hit the woods with anyone who does not.
However, being truly lost in big wilderness & legit starving is its own thing. As I have said for decades about such things: "If you're gonna force me to choose between arguing with a judge, or arguing with an undertaker, I'd rather try my luck with the judge.")
Where the customer frequents the outdoors- it's giant trackless forest in her area. And there are many, many beaver ponds scattered through that wilderness.
If one is helplessly lost, and truly in a life-or-death situation, where there are wild beaver ponds, it's easy to "make meat," especially at night. Hence the Lazer. & etc.
Atop the laser sight, I mounted a day-use small red dot sight, since the customer is a beginner when it comes to riflery. Life or death, lost in the woods, is an unforgiving environment to learn marksmanship. all the more with old school irons. I set her up for success, the best I could with a dot, clean, crisp trigger pull, and a phenomenally accurate barrel.
Both these electronic...for a last-ditch survival rifle? If one or both fail- the three clamping screws of the laser can be loosened with a coin, metal zipper pull, etc. and the laser & dot sight can be removed fast. The Irons are good to go.
Lastly, I wrapped it all in Kryptek camo vinyl wrap, which looked great for a time. But it's shrinking & trying to peel at the edges now. awful. Oh well. Easy fix later.
Oh yeah- the plastic molded stock has a hollow cavity in the buttstock section going all the way into the hollow pistol grip.
I plugged the pistol grip cavity with epoxy, making a sealed storage area in the hollow buttock.
In there, she has 80 rounds of ammo, a tiny bottle of gun oil, the small hex keys to adjust the electric sights, extra batteries for the dot sight, and the little cell phone-style charge cord for the laser.
The hilarious part- if I added up the labor hours on hand work, machine work, "man & machine" hours, range trips etc, it would be north of $800! On a $130 rifle, LOL +.
But this was a free gift, pay it forward & all that.
The little thing turned out to be mind-boggling accurate, with match-grade ammo & open sights.
I hope some day she'll pay to get it hydro-graphic dipped in camo, to make the overall package "right as rain."
God bless yall.
Tres
