He had heard that I needed dirt moved and asked me if I'd "fix up" his hunting rifle in exchange for moving the dirt.

I showed him the hilltop from which I wanted to take the dirt and where I wanted it to be in my yard.....all in all about 700 yards of dirt to be moved!

He showed up the next day with a 3 yard scraper and a 140 horse John deere and started moving dirt.

By noon he came in with another 100 horse John Deere with a front end blade and started to level it off. Three days later he was done.

Then he hands me his hunting rifle.....which seemed to be a Mauser but it was camo painted....metal and stock so it was hard to tell what I was dealing with.

I stripped the paint, sanded the stock, added a decelerator pad, walnut PG cap, Walnut FE tip, Talley supergrade swivel bases, finished the stock and sent it to Ahlmans for Carol to checker.

On the metal I removed the barrel and sanded it in the lathe.....added Williams streamlined sights, added a Kobe safety, re crowned the muzzle, contoured the original bottom metal which was retained, polished all the parts and shipped it off to Toomany Tools for bluing! (beautiful job BTW)

Here's what was under that camo paint!!!!!

Wow! I think both of you won on this deal. You got a pot of earth moved and the farmer got a member of the family to be proud of.

Nice work on a hidden treasure!

VD! You sir are an artist.

Many would think the wood is a maple and maybe it is. An old sycamore stock I once had looked a lot like that. Care to share? roger

Come on Vapo, I want to hear what the Farmer had to say when you showed him his piece. What did he think of it?

And by the way, what make of Mauser did it turn out to be?

quote:

Care to share?

The photos don't show it clearly but it's birdseye maple!

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
Come on Vapo, I want to hear what the Farmer had to say when you showed him his piece. What did he think of it?

And by the way, what make of Mauser did it turn out to be?

The farmer hasn't seen it yet!!!

I believe it's a '98 Husqvarna as it had a left hand safety originally on it. Mstarling now owns it!

Nice job! I'm sure he'll be very pleased.



Terry

VapoDog ; Ditto nice work he should be very pleased .

The first thing I noticed is the Birds Eye Maple !.

Then what wood guy doesn't !.

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dr.K:
VapoDog ; Ditto nice work he should be very pleased .

The first thing I noticed is the Birds Eye Maple !.

Then what wood guy doesn't !.QUOTE]

Me I guess! roger

I'm not sure how much the work is worth but around here it is currently well over $3/yard to move dirt (just got a current quote today 5/1 to haul some sand in for foundation pad....$10/yd....yikes) unless you're just pushing it around with a dozer. I think you did okay.

Friends-

I like the skip-line checkering; it "works" on this particular rifle. Vapo, was that your idea or the person doing the checkering; great touch.!!!!

Great job vapodog!! I bet it looks even better in person!

Vapo,

You need any more dirt moved???
WOW. That rifle is magnificent.
Kudos to you for the outstanding job of making a beautiful rifle out of that camo job you got to begin with.
I'd pay money to see the look on the guy's face when you hand it to him.

Don

Here's the dirtwork I got done.....the dirt was moved from the rear about 120 yards distant towards the front to level the ground for future use. Severl folks have asked about it in PMs



30CalMagFan it was I that spec'd the skipline checkering as he had seen some of mine and liked it!

The farmer picked up his gun yesterday and looked at it.......and then looked at it again.......and a slight smile came across his face and he said: "I see you'll need some clean dirt for your garden and I can bring you a truckload of composted cow manure dirt that will grow stuff like mad. By the way, I have an old Mossberg .22 rifle that I'd like spruced up. Can we work out another trade?"

Vapo,

That's the kinda response I'd have expected!

Vapo,

Wow!

I got a coupla donor rifles that require "Upgrades".

I can also steal one of the next door neighbor's Children's Sandbox Bucket & Spade Sets - can we work a Deal?