M40 copy project

[Flint62a1]

I started my M40 copy project finally. got an adl stock off ebay, had the bottom metal already, Badger mount, I have achoice in glass either a Leupold greenie, or a redfield 3x9 with the correct reticle. I got a 700 308 varmint from Field and Stream.
So it begins stock is stripped and first sanding done, time to inlet the barrel,I need to inlet the bottom metal , finish sand and oil,then get the barrel cut to 24" and parkerized. For now I'll have to go with the cheesy plastic buttplate. Good thing my landlord is at Camp Perry, his garage is awash in rifle parts, sandpaper, and sawdust.

 

[pmclaine]

Stripping that original Remington RKW finish is no easy task.

If you took the time to do so you are certainly invested in your M40 project.

Regards your scopes......

The original Redding will provide you with a more authentic experience even if it is not green. If @tokiwartooth comes online and wants to take more anodizing work you may at some point in the future get to have your Redfield greened up.

but......

for plain shooting I prefer the Leupold replica.

I have set a solid 100 yard zero than use the mild dots for holdovers. No need to worry if the scope is repeatable because I dont move anything.

with 5 mils I have figured close to 700 yards of use. Recently I was going to bring my M40/Leupold combo to a 900 yard range but that got screwed up.

To go that distance I had intended to determine the magnification setting needed to double the value of my mil dots (plus or minus 4.5X) than use that setting to get up to 10 mils through the glass.

The Leupold scope with mil scale will be the most useful of the two scopes if you want to use the rifle as a regular shooter.

I just recently got my second M40esque rifle, this one chambered in .223 both it and its .308 brother wear Leupold greenies.

For a time I had a Weaver T10 on my .308 M40. Its a fantastic scope with some USMC useage (M40A1) but it just didnt give me the M40 experience I was looking for.

Keep us occupied with lots of pictures of your project.

 

[Flint62a1]

That is pretty much the plan as far as scopes go, I like the idea of using the old redfield
The greenie right now is on my 233 m40a1ish sortof. I like that combo.
First I need to get this current project up and running then I’ll figure out the glass
Yea I would love to get it anodized hopefully Toki is up and running soon

 

[Flint62a1]

And yes stripping that old Remington finish was not fun at all but we make do:

 

[Flint62a1]

Getting there... bottom metal is inletted, ( just don’t look too close ha

 

[deltawiskey]

This is a great project! Please keep us posted on your progress...
I did a similar build, but started out with an old police stock.
DW

 

[Flint62a1]

This is a great project! Please keep us posted on your progress...
I did a similar build, but started out with an old police stock.
DW

Thanks. This stock was on ebay just a plain ADL. Had to scrape of the old finish going to finish sand today .

 

[Flint62a1]

Finish sanding in progress but I couldn’t help myself

 

[pmclaine]

That's a nice fat stock. Good buy.

 

[Flint62a1]

That's a nice fat stock. Good buy.

Thanks, I got a good one. The first four coats of oil are on it. Tomorrow I’ll hit it again.

 

[Flint62a1]

This morning I started rubbing my wood....ahem. My apologies I could not let that go by unused
First coat of hand rubbed oil in place.
I likes me some boiled linseed oil!!

 

[deltawiskey]

Your wood looks great!
DW

 

[Flint62a1]

The wood now has about 8 coats on it. Four of which are hand rubbed.
It’s getting there, I’m going to put it out in the sun for a few hours.
Does anyone know where I can get sling swivels? This stock has none and I think it deserves a proper set of swivels
Thanks,
Kevin

 

[rigbone]

Nice job

 

[Flint62a1]

At long last it was range day.I went with the redfield scope, the Leupold greenie is staying on my 223 for now. I was not disappointed with the Redfield optics.
After putting it together I had to redo my inletting in the barrel channel, I had the stock in a leather pad in the vice. Poor choice of material, the leather drew the oil out of the stock leaving two ugly marks on the forend. I spent a couple days re-oiling my wood... Then I discovered the bottom metal was causing a hangup so that had to be fixed, more inletting- no leather this time!
I duracoated the barreled action, wasn't real happy with the results, looks s little on the shiny side. I got a metal buttplate off ebay but it was crooked going on and will need some serious work to fit. That's a project for later.
After a few warmup shots I tried some handloads. LC Match brass IMR 4895 168 smk's
I was pretty happy with the results. It's the first 20 or so shots from a new barrel, so I didn't expect much. The rifle will eventually be pillared and bedded.
Sure is fun to shoot though. I have wanted an M40 type rifle for a looong time, I plan on spending plenty of time behind it.

 

[pmclaine]

Sweet.

A 175 SMK and 42 grains of 4895 works really well in .308.

 

[Flint62a1]

Got a chance to shoot the rifle today, prone off sandbags at 200 yds

The load is 39.5 gr IMR 4895 LC Match brass and some old Sierra 168 matchkings
I need to stretch this thing out and see what it will do at 300 and 600

 

[Flint62a1]

Great job!

Looks like you still need the swivels, get them here:

Original M40 correct Remington 513 WWII era rear swivel (wood threaded) here, $10 each

at Numerich

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/83350A


Front fine threaded M40 swivel with nut available from Wichita Arms, phone 620-249-3959

Thank you for the link !!

 

[KGNickl]

That's a pretty cool project. Stock turned out really nice.

 

[Flint62a1]

That's a pretty cool project. Stock turned out really nice.

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

 

[jbell]

Very cool!

 

[sandwarrior]

I don't know how I missed this thread until now. Great build!

Also, any idea what timeframe that stock came from? I've never seen an ADL with no pressed in checkering. Boy, would that be a pain in the ass to take out!! 722's were plain, but they were long before the DuPont finish on all 700's I remember.

 

[FUNCTIONAL]

Love how it looks.

unfortunately...I think I have another build to add to the list now ...

 

[Flint62a1]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I have no idea when the stock was produced. I found on ebay, listed simply as an ADL stock. It has a plastic buttplate if that helps date it.
I can tell you at times it seemed like the finish was never going to come off!!

 

[pmclaine]

Thing about that stock that strikes me is - no ebony fore tip.

Most of the 700s had that dark wood nose cap.

Only non ebony stocks Ive seen, without searching, were mil or police stocks.

Yet those didnt have checkering and yours did...

 

[fe1]

Stripping that original Remington RKW finish is no easy task.

If you took the time to do so you are certainly invested in your M40 project.

Regards your scopes......

The original Redding will provide you with a more authentic experience even if it is not green. If @tokiwartooth comes online and wants to take more anodizing work you may at some point in the future get to have your Redfield greened up.

but......

for plain shooting I prefer the Leupold replica.

I have set a solid 100 yard zero than use the mild dots for holdovers. No need to worry if the scope is repeatable because I dont move anything.

with 5 mils I have figured close to 700 yards of use. Recently I was going to bring my M40/Leupold combo to a 900 yard range but that got screwed up.

To go that distance I had intended to determine the magnification setting needed to double the value of my mil dots (plus or minus 4.5X) than use that setting to get up to 10 mils through the glass.

The Leupold scope with mil scale will be the most useful of the two scopes if you want to use the rifle as a regular shooter.

I just recently got my second M40esque rifle, this one chambered in .223 both it and its .308 brother wear Leupold greenies.

For a time I had a Weaver T10 on my .308 M40. Its a fantastic scope with some USMC useage (M40A1) but it just didnt give me the M40 experience I was looking for.

Keep us occupied with lots of pictures of your project.

Where can the Leupold replicas be found? I’m not having any luck.

 

[pmclaine]

Where can the Leupold replicas be found? I’m not having any luck.

Patience they are out there.

Dont take this as a kick in the nuts, its not intended to be, but I have three.

1 - M40/.308
1 - M40/.223
1 - M70/30-06

Few years ago member on M40Rifle called Leupold and bought the last ten they had.

I have three of those ten.

Of course I didnt buy them all at once like I should have.

I thought I would be good with one......than I needed a second one........which begat a third.

 

[deltawiskey]

Where can the Leupold replicas be found? I’m not having any luck.

You have to be fast and beat pmclaine when one comes up for sale! : )
DW

 

[fe1]

Patience they are out there.

Dont take this as a kick in the nuts, its not intended to be, but I have three.

1 - M40/.308
1 - M40/.223
1 - M70/30-06

Few years ago member on M40Rifle called Leupold and bought the last ten they had.

I have three of those ten.

Of course I didnt buy them all at once like I should have.

I thought I would be good with one......than I needed a second one........which begat a third.

It’s been several years since I’ve been on these sites so I’m having to learn it all over again.A lot has changed and I’m slowly getting it figured out. lol
I sure would buy one if I could find one ??

 

[pmclaine]

Hmmmmm?

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/wts-3-9-redfield-hunting-scope-cheap.6961354/

Never know.

 

[Flint62a1]

I found my Redfield and my Leupold Greenie on Ebay.
The stock was also an ebay find, plain adl stock, no checkering and a blind magazine
That was what I put in as a search, rem 700 adl stock
Numrich had the rear sling swivels, I have not put it on yet. Someone sent me a link for thr front swivel, I cant find it right now. If I do I’ll post it

 

[Flint62a1]

Great job!

Looks like you still need the swivels, get them here:

Original M40 correct Remington 513 WWII era rear swivel (wood threaded) here, $10 each

at Numerich

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/83350A


Front fine threaded M40 swivel with nut available from Wichita Arms, phone 620-249-3959

I couldn’t find it because it was right here, duh...
Anyway I called Wichita a few weeks back, left a message but haven’t heard back from them

 

[sandwarrior]

Thing about that stock that strikes me is - no ebony fore tip.

Most of the 700s had that dark wood nose cap.

Only non ebony stocks Ive seen, without searching, were mil or police stocks.

Yet those didnt have checkering and yours did...

The ebony fore-end tip was found on the 721/722 deluxe then BDL. Yes, BDL's came before the 700. Also, later in production, but before the 700, was the 725 model. Even the 725 had variations on how embellished they came.

When the 700 series started, they had pressed checkering on ADL/BDL. But, the BDL had the ebony tip.

Come to think of it, the Classic series did not have pressed checkering, or fore-end ebony tip. That might be a Classic stock.

 

[fe1]

I couldn’t find it because it was right here, duh...
Anyway I called Wichita a few weeks back, left a message but haven’t heard back from them

Yes Sir I found those but fortunately I have the rear off a 40x. Thanks for your help I need all I can get ??

 

[fe1]

Hmmmmm?

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/wts-3-9-redfield-hunting-scope-cheap.6961354/

Never know.

Yeah I missed it. I have a lead on the proper RF Accurange but Thanks for the help

 

[Pvt. Joker]

Flint,
Your stock looks great ! Nice job !

Sounds like the "bug" has bitten you like it did me a while back.
Good luck on the next adventure !

Joker

 

[Flint62a1]

Flint,
Your stock looks great ! Nice job !

Sounds like the "bug" has bitten you like it did me a while back.
Good luck on the next adventure !

Joker

Thanks very much Joker, the next adventure is going to be getting this rifle out to 6-700 yards. Then maybe an 03 sniper, or a Snider, so many rifles so little time!