The elves and I worked feverishly to get this done in time to place under the ladie's Christmas tree. The saddle floorplate, trigger guard, and sling studs are shop made. The stock is Bastogne. It weighs 7 lbs even.
That rifle is very nice. Did you use a cnc machine to mill that floor plate or do it on a Bridgeport type? Did you make a fixture to hold it when you cut the bottom?
My son did the machining on our CNC. He cut the inside of the floorplate first, then turned it over and held it in aluminum vise jaws that were cut to the outside shape of the floorplate. The bottom of the floorplate was then shaped and contoured.
He designed the trigger guard, made it first on a 3D printer until I was happy with the shape, then CNC'd it. It fits factory inletting.
I see how that would work. I just finished it with a bullnose end mill and it came out pretty smooth, minimal handwork. If I was making a bunch of them the lathe sounds like the way to go.
The customer originally wanted the whole action color-cased, but Turnbull said they would not case the receiver due to its metalurgy, so customer agreed to do as much as we could. That is why the receiver is rust blued and the rest is colored.
That's a gorgeous rifle. Is that a Pre 64 action? Someone once told me those actions didn't make "that nice" of a rifle. I beg to differ. I love the color case hardening!!
Posts: 606 | Location: Texas, USA | Registered: 10 March 2017
