A thread with links to suitable donor rifles?

[USMCSGT0331]

I was wondering if you guys wanted to start a few threads (separate threads for M40's, Mk13's, M24's, etc.) that have links to suitable donor rifles that are currently available. Or maybe just do an M40 donor rifle thread since that's the most popular sniper rifle clone to build. People are always contacting me asking if I've seen any 6 digit receivers or whatever other receivers for their clone builds. Maybe it would be helpful if we could have a few donor rifle threads for each major type of clone rifle and we can help each other find receivers in specific serial number ranges. No discussion or anything, just a hot link to the donor rifle that's available online, and a description of what it is. It can either be a detailed description or a brief description.

Since this is an M40 donor thread, at minimum every single rifle posted here must be a Remington Model 700 short action chambered in a caliber that has a .470" bolt face which is required for the 7.62x51mm ammo. Other calibers can be posted here, but they need to have the correct bolt face diameter. Long action receivers and calibers with a different bolt face diameter are not allowed in this thread.

To the moderators, this is not a sales thread, this is just a way to spread information between members here. There's lots of people building clones of military sniper rifles, and a bottleneck for most people is finding a suitable receiver. The purpose of this thread is to show fellow Sniper's Hide members what suitable donor rifles are currently available around the internet. Nothing is bought, sold and/or traded in this thread. If any Sniper's Hide members want to engage in buying/selling/trading with other forum members, please follow the forum rules and do these activities in the forum's Post Exchange section.

Here's an example of a detailed description for an avaliable M40 donor rifle:

- Remington Model 700 BDL, circa 1966
- Serial number 324175, which is close to the USMC M40 322xxx range
- Short action which is correct for M40's
- .242 Winchester caliber, which has the correct .470" bolt face diameter needed for M40 clones chambered in 7.62x51
- M40 clone usable parts include the receiver, bolt with short shroud, trigger with split sear and tall safety lever, smooth aluminum gray anodized bottom metal, and 16601 aluminum buttplate

https://www.proxibid.com/Guns-Milit...e-with-Scope/lotInformation/82579615#topoflot

And here's an example of a brief description for an available M40xx donor rifle:

-Remington 700, serial number G6828964 (close to the USMC G681xxxx M40A3/5/6), .308 caliber

https://www.proxibid.com/Guns-Milit...-VTR-308-Win/lotInformation/82778370#topoflot

What do you guys think about this? This thread would be for M40xx donor rifles only, it's not for optics or any other parts/accessories. I completely understand if you guys hate the idea of posting active auction links on the forum. I'm sharing this stuff with people regardless if there's a thread or not, I was just thinking about making things easy for our fellow forum members to find suitable M40xx donor rifles. We can use this thread as the discussion thread to see if we want to actually set up threads like these. If that's what we want to do, then I can start a new donor rifle thread that will be for the links only, no discussion to jam things up. So, please voice your opinion here!

 

[Jrb572]

I think it is a great idea and a bad one at the same time.

It would help people so that they know where to find one and be correct for their build. But I think it would drive prices up because multiple people would be bidding and someone would buy it to sell later as a clone project.

 

[USMCSGT0331]

I thought about that too, but there's tons of good 6 digit donor rifles out there. Way more than cloners could ever possibly use. So, as long as people keep in mind that there will always be another rifle available, that might keep people from fighting each other over the donor rifles.

The only donor rifles that will bring a ton of money are the 221xxx, 224xxx, 322xxx, and E676xxxx. The USMC serial number range donor rifles, literally 221xxx, 224xxx, 322xxx serial numbers, usually sell for $3k to $4k on Gunbroker. The E676xxxx will bring a premium, maybe selling for around $2k if there's a few guys bidding on them. If any of these actual USMC range donor rifles pop up for sale, I doubt anyone will go out of their way to post it in this thread, lol.

 

[John L]

There are a couple nice ones on GB right now. I did get a bit of grief from a member for posting a link to a Unertl for sale so there will be some grumbling.

 

[Redmanss]

I thought about that too, but there's tons of good 6 digit donor rifles out there. Way more than cloners could ever possibly use. So, as long as people keep in mind that there will always be another rifle available, that might keep people from fighting each other over the donor rifles.

The only donor rifles that will bring a ton of money are the 221xxx, 224xxx, 322xxx, and E676xxxx. The USMC serial number range donor rifles, literally 221xxx, 224xxx, 322xxx serial numbers, usually sell for $3k to $4k on Gunbroker. The E676xxxx will bring a premium, maybe selling for around $2k if there's a few guys bidding on them. If any of these actual USMC range donor rifles pop up for sale, I doubt anyone will go out of their way to post it in this thread, lol.

Don't forget 168xxx range. I have an action in that segment, that's less than 200 off of one of my issued rifles.

 

[RIGREG]

I belong to a Coleman Lantern Collectors forum that forbids postings of live auctions to protect bidders from price runs and to prevent lurkers from profiteering from legitimate collectors. Sometimes there's a misrepresented item flying under the radar. Some of us have creative search techniques. That's their position on it. Their forum, their rules. I can understand the logic.

I also realize that not every guy looking to build a clone has the time and search savvy to find a decent donor. I'm fortunate to have the time and internet access to do deep searches. Even still, I've stalked a few rifles online and was in correspondence with the seller and missed out while doing due diligence. "He who hesitates is lost," I accept that.

Suppose, rather than post the links for public consumption, we just post the rifle's vital stats? Then, any interested member could PM the poster for the link. This would alleviate outside competition and keep the information within the SH community.

Greg