I started collecting parts to make another rifle last summer. This is a pic of the original parts taken last fall taken after I put them together.

I apologize for the quality of the picture... I'll do a lot better.

The wood shown is take offs from a factory No. 1. I will re-shape them till I am happy with the lines and send them out to Charlie Grace so he can pre-carve the good wood.

The stock in the background is "Project two... Kyle's gun". I waited till I finished it before I started working on my own rifle. Also in the pic is the fore end for the blank below.

I bought this this blank from a friend for the .222. It is Turkish Circassian. The forearm blank isn't shown but this hunk of wood is big enough to make both stocks.

FWIW this piece of wood is a lot better than it looks here. (I added this later.) A couple of friends were over the other day and they all commented that the wood was a lot better than it appeared in this pic. ??????

I'm very anxious to get it back from Charlie Grace and to see just what I have.

This is the Kepplinger set trigger I got from Brownells for the .222. These are expensive little devils at nearly $300.00. Installation by a good gunsmith (recommended) will drive the cost up more. I have had enough problems with Ruger No. 1 triggers that, to me, one of these is necessary.

I will take it down to Kip Wood of Central Michigan Gunsmithing for installation. Kip is a former member of the ACGG and a very good stockmaker.

That and a .222 extracter will complete the metal work. When that is done we will test fire it a couple of times and check the fired cases very carefully. If there are any problems thia is the best time to find them.

The pattern stock for the fore end is nearly done. I added a block of wood to the front end of the take-off stock, shaped it and inletted it. This is a varmint rifle and will be, mostly, shot off the bench. I wanted more stock than I normally put on sporters.

This is 99% ready to go to Charlie. There are a couple of minor cavaties to fill but I'm tired and covered with wood and Bondo dust. I did this first... it's the easy part. Next comes the butt stock which needs a cheek piece which doesn't come on No. 1's. Lots more Bondo.

Dick.
I still have some of the oval shaped, trap door forend escutheons somewhere for the # 1 or # 3.
Pm me if interrested.

Jim Wisner

Jim,

I will. Does Charlie have to do anything special when he pre-carves the stock?

Dick

You inlet the escutcheon into the forearm and bondo around it.

The oval part is only 1/8" deep, with a section that goes down to make a flat bottom, the factory screw then goes thru the trapdoor at the factory angle.

Real neat when done with no screw hole showing, plus room to engrave.

PM me your email and I can send a picture in the wood and out of the wood.

J Wisner

Jim,

I sent the PM. I'm not very good at PM's so, if you don't get it, let me know and we will go to Plan B.

Thanks,

hey dick,
I have used a few of these on number ones and threes, it makes for a nice neat forend with no exposed holes.
max

Max,

I've been thinking about one of those but didn't know where to get it.

If this gun turns out the way I hope it will, I'd love to get it engraved... but I can't afford it and I'm too old to wait. The big flat side of the action just begs for engraving.

This is my pattern fore end about finished. It's probably a little bigger than the actual one will be when finished.

Stockmaking tip... you can get a really cheap ebony fore end tip... just go buy a good marking pen.

quote:

Originally posted by J Wisner:
You inlet the escutcheon into the forearm and bondo around it.

The oval part is only 1/8" deep, with a section that goes down to make a flat bottom, the factory screw then goes thru the trapdoor at the factory angle.

Real neat when done with no screw hole showing, plus room to engrave.

PM me your email and I can send a picture in the wood and out of the wood.

J Wisner

Jim,

PM sent. No reply. ???????

hi dick,

I have an extra one made by Dakota I believe,if you can not get in touch with mr wisner.

max

Max,

Escutcheon received. I sanded down the butt stock and it is getting a Bondo cheekpiece. Out to Charlie soon.

Thanks for everything.

The pattern stocks are now ready to send to Charlie Grace. I took pics of both sides to send to Charlie so he could tell me what I've done wrong so far.

This is the other side. It takes a lot of Bondo to build up a cheek piece. There's more wood here than I intend to end up with on a finished stock. Something I learned ages ago... it's easy to remove wood... Adding wood is a S.O.B.

This will be on it's way to Colorado soonish.

I like to shoot the gun just a little at this stage just to see what I've got before spending more money. This morning I shot a group at 50 yds. after sighting-in that will measure under 2/10". A subsequent 100 yd. group is just under 4/10".

The barrel is a new number two with a 14" twist from my friends at Douglas. The gun was originally a .458 which I have no interest in shooting... I shoot for fun, not pain. I used Douglas' match barrels for years in benchrest competition with excellent results.

This is not a stainless steel match barrel, just a #2 they had on the shelf... this gun will be rust blued when I get it done so stainless is out. Since, based on a lot of experience (my first two competition bench guns were .222's), I just put a few rounds together and shot it with no fine tuning, I think it performed extremely well. I did use Remington match bullets (How many guys are old enough to remember them?) that I had moly-coated.

This is now a .222 Rem with a 8X Unertl. I'm happy. It will probably be a long time before I shoot it again.

The pattern butt stock is now ready for a trip to Charlie in Colorado.

The other side of the butt stock. These patterns are less than elegant at this stage. I am looking forward to seeing what this shape looks like in good walnut.

There's too much wood here on purpose. My goal here is to make sure that I don't have to add wood... very difficult to do.

As varmint rifles go, this is quite small. It has a number two Douglas barrel and the Unertl is 1". It's surprisingly light to carry.

I am looking forward to seeing what's inside that chunk of walnut.

The rifle with the pattern stocks is now on it's way to Charlie Grace in Colorado so he can work his magic. Now I wait to see what's actually inside that Turkish blank, something I've never been very good at predicting.

anticipation is killing all of us. Love this project and the 222 is perfect.

Yesterday I had a visit from Michigan gunmaker, Winston Elrod. When he was up here a couple of weeks ago with a couple of friends (I think they met when all three were incarcerated) I mentioned that I needed a genuine Neidner butt plate to complete the parts for this project.

Winston gave me a very new Neidner yesterday. For once, I was speechless... Thanks, Winston! These butt plates haven't been made, the real ones, for many years and are getting very scarce. This one is 100% brand new.

Now I owe Winston big time. (That makes me nervous.) After his visit I did introduce him to Cops and Donuts, a famous Clare institution and the maker of the world's best pastries, and bought lunch. Since I am Type Two diabetic, this place will probably be the death of me.

While we were at Cops & Donuts, who should wander in but Bob Snapp, longtime member of the ACGG and past president. A most interesting discussion followed. Clare, Michigan, home of 30-06 semi-autos and high-over scopes seems like an odd place for three custom gun guys to get together.

Looking good Dick.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
It seems like it has been awhile, but I have seen photos of rifle stocks by Mr. Elrod and the impression was that he was an extremely accomplished stockmaker. Yet one does not seem to hear much about his work these days.

If it take a considerable amount of Bondo to make a cheekpiece - could you first glue on a piece of wood roughly shaped as a cheekpiece?

Looking forward to seeing it all done up and ready to go.

I just kept piling on the Bondo. I had enough left in the can to do the job and I probably won't be doing any more stocks for a while. Realistically this probably won't be done and ready to shoot till next spring at which time I will be eighty years old. Lord willing, I would like to shoot it in a few benchrest matches next year. The matches here small but there are good BR shooters with excellent equipment so I don't plan on winning anything... but, at my age, that's not the point.

I have a recent picture of Winston with his latest creation. I'll post it.

This is Winston with his latest creation, an M-2 Springfield in .22LR.

This is the other side of Winston's Springfield. Taken when he and two friends visited recently.

Re: reloading for this duece... I used Remington's load of 23-1/2 gr. of IMR 4895 with Rem. match bullets that I had moly coated. Back in the day when they shipped a 40X they would include a group that showed their load. Most of the targets showed that they used this load.

My first real competition BR gun was a Shilen DGA in .222. I found that as much 4895 as I could get in a case shot the best. As I recall, once the case is fired a couple of times, I could get around 25 gr. or a little more in without resorting to extreme measures. (I hate compressed loads.)

I am, very much, looking forward to the day when I can sit down at my bench and play with loads till I determine what shoots the best.

There's going to be a lot of wood whittlin' between now and that day.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
That is a really nice photo of Mr. Elrod. Now we have a face to put with all of those beautiful stocks he has made.

Thank you very much for posting it.

It's easy to find a picture of Winston... Check the post office wall.

Chuck Grace now has the gun in hand and we have talked about a few details. Ed Lundberg is planning on taking pictures of Charlie machining the stock. I'll post what he sends me.

Charlie is keeping the pattern stocks in case anyone else wants to do a No. 1. I highly recommend his work. There's enough wood on these patterns to make most anything you want. If you want a 7-1/2 lb. mountain rifle just put on a skinny barrel and take off more wood.

After being as sick as I was last winter, I am delighted to be able to work on guns again. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what's inside the chunk of Turkish Circassian. I will post pics when I get them back.

FWIW this is my little range just outside my office. I took this pic standing by my office door. Note the 50 and 100 yd. targets and my Wind Probe... an old benchrest shooter always uses windflags.

In the early '70's, 24 gr. of IMR 4895 with a 50 gr. Hornady SX was my go-to load for .222 varminting.

Beautiful 1922!

Clarence

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Wright:


This is the other side of Winston's Springfield. Taken when he and two friends visited recently.

Thanks, Dick, for the pic of that Springfield. I admire a fine .22 sporter above all other rifles, and that one is a beauty. And that .222 Ruger of yours seems to be coming along quite nicely as well!

I guess I love elegant guns but I'm basically a shooter. There were a couple of summers in my youth when I kept a hawk and tried to train him for falconry. I've got a picture around here someplace of me and my bird. Every day I took my bb gun back in the woods to get food for the hawk... frogs, small birds, whatever I could find. Nice memories.

I started shooting competitively right out of college and have been at it ever since. My true loves are accurate rifles and shooting them, preferrably in competition. Rimfires or varmint rifles, like the .222 will be, are the most fun to shoot.

quote:

Originally posted by ClaMar:
In the early '70's, 24 gr. of IMR 4895 with a 50 gr. Hornady SX was my go-to load for .222 varminting.

Beautiful 1922!

Clarence

Back in the day I hunted deer and antelope around Buffalo, Ten Sleep and Sheridan every fall. A couple of times we went to Montana right where the Powder River crosses the state line. We used to take our bench guns and shoot prairie dogs in the middle of the day. Burned up a lot of 4895.

That was back in the day when ranchers were grateful that you shot their prairie dogs. Now they're grateful and want $300.00 a day.

I just heard yesterday that Charlie will be coming to Michigan in later October and that he plans on bringing the Ruger with him. He will have machined the good wood by that time.

It will be good to see him. There was a time when he came down and stayed and we hunted deer together... probably in the early 80's.

Dick:
It took me awhile to recall but, I've talked to Chuck Grace a couple times. Never met. Am looking forward to seeing his work.

Good luck on this project, hope it comes thru as hoped.
George

Ed Lundberg went to Charlie's to watch the wood being machined and sent me a few pictures.

The other side of the stock. Charlie is wiping mineral spirits on the wood to give us a look at the grain. It looks like I have a lot of black streaks. I'll have this home by the 25th of this month.

Note the gazillion small wood chips. This needs to become an elegant rifle by spring which means I will have very little time to hang around bars this winter.

I didn't take enough pictures however this blank has strong contrast and the veining is "inky" black when properly viewed. Wonderful layout, should be beautiful!

I should have this in hand in a couple of weeks. I'm happy with what I can see of the wood so far... better than I expected. Ed says it should come out pretty dark when it's finished.

The blank for the butt stock was big enough that Charlie got the fore-end out of the same piece of wood. Shouldn't be any questions about the two stocks not matching.

Whilst I wait I need to clean out the deer blind and, generally, get ready for hunting season. The rut will start about the time I get the gun and I will be spending half my time whittling on wood and the other half out in the woods watching deers. Rifle season doesn't start here till 15 November. I will be taking time off from hunting to watch the Michigan - Ohio State game. It should be a war and the winner will, almost certainly, go to the playoffs.

I also have to shoot the .17 HMR with 20 gr. solids and adjust the tuner and crank down the scope. It's been set at 16X all summer for target shooting.

I have a friend (forgot his name) who is a well respected banker during the day and one of Michigan's most successful and technically advanced deer poachers at night. (He doesn't sleep much.) Anyway, he tells me that if you use solids and can shoot straight and know where to hit them, a .17 HMR will drop a deer in it's tracks. I do not intent to shoot any deer but I will have a small game license and, should Glorya want some squirrel stew, the solids won't mess up the meat too badly. You wouldn't believe what a .17 HMR with the plastic-tipped, highly-friable bullets does to a squirrel.