Just for fun: What's the wackiest home gunsmithing project you've seen?

I've got a couple:

Years ago one of my hunting clients brought an old Remington 600 in 6.5 Mag. and I didn't notice until AFTER he CONNECTED on a 300 yard shot on a pig... that the rear scope base was RUBBER!!!! Not a shim of rubber or a rubber coating, but a huge block of black rubber under the thin base that the ring was mounted to. Probably 3/8" thick. The scope moved ALL OVER the place, I was speechless. He said one of his patients gave him the rifle. The client was a dentist that my wife worked for at the time so after the hunt I took the rifle home and mounted the right bases for him.

One that I didn't see in person, but heard the stories was from a respected long time local gunsmith. Someone brought in their grandfather's rifle and wanted a value for the estate. It had a crookedly mounted weaver scope base from a bad home drilling job. The stunning part was that the rifle was a SIDELOCK H&H big bore (I don't recall the caliber). The people had no clue what they had so the gunsmith did the right thing and put them in touch with H&H to see if it could be restored. That gunsmith is still working and in his eighties now, I've got to bug him to hear the story again sometime.

What crazy home brewed catastrophes have you seen?

At a trap shoot, a shooter didn't like the point of impact of his Model 12 Trap Grade. He put the barrel inbetween the bumper and the body of his car and "adjusted" it to suit his needs. It worked for him.

I know a guy who scoped his Tokarev rifle. He hacked the base out of a piece of angle iron, the scope rings are rubber lined hose clamps. I'm pretty sure the base is attached to rifle with JB Weld, either that or tack welded.

I remember a '98 Mauser, in Collectors Firearms (in Houston). That someone had converted to a LEVER action. Damned ugly, but it did work.

Keith

A guy brought me a barreled action and stock wanting additional action screw holes drilled and tapped into the barrel (because the existing holes in the stock did not line up with the tapped holes in the action????)

Turns out he had Rem 710 barreled action (which has no recoil lug, only a slot in the action to engage a lug embedded in the stock) and a Remington 798 / Mauser stock that he had inlet (with a dull cold chisel) to more or less fit the action. He left with the same barreled action and stock - and no holes drilled.

It's hard to put a finger on any one in particular. Three stand out foremost in my mind. One, a guy bedded his rifle using Window Caulk. On another, a guy who mounted a scope on an SMLE was having problems sighting it in. Turns out he had welded a piece of angle iron to the reciever as a base and used 2 "U" bolts to hold the scope.

A 3rd was a Vietnamese kid, 20 something, who brought his Remington shotgun by for me to put a pistol grip on it for him. When he pulled the 1100 from the box, I noticed that he had tried to do the job himself. He tried cutting the stock off in 3 different locations and each time he ran into metal. He finally gave up and sought professional help.

All three had the same out come. I laughed at all three while in the presence of the customers, and my wife got in my case for doing so. Sometimes you just gotta laugh! There's some funny stuff out there.

saw a 30 30 win converted to full auto and drum mag.

Wow. These are great. I never would have even guessed some of this stuff.

I seem to see a theme with angle iron and welding. The more welding certs I got the less I saw that it could be safely used on guns.

Several guides have told me about clients showings up with scopes mounted backward (think of the eye relief!!!) but that's one I've never seen. Has anybody seen that one?

A good friend (although self reliant to the point of being backward) did a great one. He got a used S&W m-19 that he thought had too much cylinder gap. Of course he didn't have a feeler gauge so this was all by eye. He took the gun down to his shop and took off the barrel in the vise (I have no idea how he didn't bend the frame). Then he literally sat at his kitchen table and hand filed off the barrel shoulder, shroud and forcing cone until he got another turn and the "correct" gap. AMAZINGLY it doesn't look too bad and shoots really well. But the topper was after he finished a considerable amount of filing (and despite one of his good friends being an accomplished gunsmith with a full machine shop) he said if he did it again.... he'd get a new FILE! Again I was speechless.

Keep the stories coming.

quote:

Originally posted by CRUSHER:
saw a 30 30 win converted to full auto and drum mag.

Reninds me of a magazine article about a merc involved in the "BAY of PIGS". He needed something full auto. So, he took a '92 Win, a snail drum from a Luger, and made himself a 9m/m sub gun,

Keith

It just goes to show you some people should stop and think if they should before they think if the CAN.
Put down the tools and step away from the bench!!!

Not mine
3/8 bolt used as a bolt handle

no screws on the action, guy used electrical tape

winchester 670 receiver recut with pipe thread tools, as the guy had a pipe threading machine for the barrel .. and chambered in the same, by hand

mine
any time i try to make a double rifle

Duct tape and hose clamps .

Sure makes a sound secure action attachment too a stock !.

I actually hunted with this fellow and watched him shoot a deer . At camp one evening I inquired as to the

condition of his Rifle . With a slightly elevated macho response he says what's wrong with my Rifle ?.

Not a thing as I saw it in action , was simply curious as to why the colorful accessories ?.

Oh I busted the stock about 6-7 years ago had to tape er up was his reply .

I said it must have been a pretty bad break to require hose clamps . No ; the hose clamps keeps the

barrel and trigger from leaving the stock !.

Apparently the action was missing it's screws in addition too it being broken !!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Each to their own !.

I knew a guy who ground the top off of a Springfield safety lever so it would clear the scope. Not being able to operate said safety then, he brazed an Allen wrench onto the back of it so the short end of the wrench stuck out behind the scope. Remote control safety, which actually worked quite nicely but was pretty bizarre. It was actually a stop-gap measure so he could use the rifle 'til the new safety arrived, but that was 40 years ago and the present owner is still using it that way. How do I know? The perpetrator was my Dad, and my nephew now has the gun. I even gave him the proper safety for it when he got it after Pop passed away. He says it reminds him of his grandfather's ingenuity. I tell him it reminds me of Bubba. Then we laugh.

As a matter of fact I just saw one this morning!!!! A .700 Nitro Express on a Savage model 210, 12 ga bolt action. Someone had welded on the bolt head (locking lugs) and then reshaped it with a Dremel. The stock was wood, and the inletting looked to have been done with a chainsaw. It scared the hell out of me to just look at it!

With this being the age of digital photography I would hope that some of you are documenting these "projects".

i hunted with a guy in nova scotia that hunted deer with a single shot coey 22 it had a shingle nail bent at a right angle for a front sight taped on with electrical tape. the rear sight was a hex nut wired on for a peep sight the stock and action was taped together. he used 22 stingers and was sucessful. i think thats a tough one to beat.

I was helping out one year at the gun club ,at an open sight in right before deer season.An asian gentleman found his gun was hitting a bit to the side,so he got up and smacked the barrel against the post holding up the roof,gun still loaded.

quote:

Originally posted by Hog Killer:

quote:

Originally posted by CRUSHER:
saw a 30 30 win converted to full auto and drum mag.

Reninds me of a magazine article about a merc involved in the "BAY of PIGS". He needed something full auto. So, he took a '92 Win, a snail drum from a Luger, and made himself a 9m/m sub gun,

Keith

a copy of same. it was crazy

M96 Swede long rifle. Bubba hack sawed the barrel to 22 inches about 10 degrees off perpendicular w/no crown. Duffle-cut the stock. Drilled scope mounts off-center. One hole in the upper locking lug seat face. He didn't like the look of the rear sight base and instead of heating it and tapping it off, he clamped the action in a pipe vise on the bumper of his plumbing truck and used a pipe wrench to unscrew the barrel a half turn. Then he inlet the sight base into the stock. He brought the gun in because it was rupturing cases and couldn't figure out why.

Here is an interesting project:

http://www.surplusrifleforum.c...=82&t=89103&start=30

When I lived in texas I was in a small town outside of San Antonio, my friends uncle pulled out a 12ga single shot H&R or something and the recoil pad had been cut off and lost or something so it had the thickest ugliest shag carpet stapled around the stock 2-3" down each side. I guess it worked for him, I bet its still that way today.

A taxidermist I know is a damn good shot with a shotgun and he will take a shotgun 870 pump or something cheap and drag it behind is pickup down dirt roads until its visually destroyed, make sure it still functions and works, Then goes to local compitions like turkey shoots, and shoots in the comps for money with these guns that are beat to shit and goes up against guys with fancy trap guns I guess just to see their faces when he pulls out the gun and it actually fires. Its not a mechanical mod, but strange, and I dont know why.

A guy brought me a single shot 12 stevens, H&R or something that the block of metal that the ejector catches on broke off or wore down on the magnesium or aluminum receiver, so he drilled a hole through the side with a hand drill and tapped it NOT WITH A TAP just a 1/2 bolt and a wrench until it twisted in to provide a tab for the ejector to catch on, it works but if you break it open all the way the bbl falls off, this he tells me happened because when he was a kid he use to pack as much powder as possible into shotgun shells NO measureing just packing. After I talked with him about reloading he cant believe he didnt blow himself up.

Not near as good as rubber bases,hose clamps, anle iron and Arc welding, but still mind boggling

These stories are great and Jason is right, photos would be terrific.

I really like the idea of a going to a money shoot with a "distressed" gun. That's hilarious. I've got an old SxS Rem. with exposed hammers, broken stock, no bluing etc. that is super ugly. But that's just how my grandfather hunted with it so I want to leave it that way. My grandfather was a high school shop teacher and had his students put a bunch of wood screws and some copper plating along the head of the broken stock (how times have changed on acceptable projects for kids!). Briley tighted up the action and tell me its safe to shoot. Its my main bird hunting gun. I've always thought it would be great to show up at a money shoot with that old scary looking double. The problem is no matter how much I practice with it I can only hit about 60% as many targets with it as my K-80. So the joke would be on me.



I grin even more like an idiot than usual when I'm hunting with that old gun.

I inherited, among others, a Remington 740 in 30-06 when my grandfather passed away. He was a short guy, only about 5'-6" or so. To make his guns fit him, he cut an inch or two off of the stock and fitted a variety of makeshift recoil pads in place on the shortened stock. The 740 was particularly ingenius in that it had what appeared to be a piece of cut up car tire for a recoil pad held in place by some kind of brown rubber tape.

Grandaddy was a Bubba!

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
These stories are great and Jason is right, photos would be terrific.

I really like the idea of a going to a money shoot with a "distressed" gun. That's hilarious. I've got an old SxS Rem. with exposed hammers, broken stock, no bluing etc. that is super ugly. But that's just how my grandfather hunted with it so I want to leave it that way. My grandfather was a high school shop teacher and had his students put a bunch of wood screws and some copper plating along the head of the broken stock (how times have changed on acceptable projects for kids!). Briley tighted up the action and tell me its safe to shoot. Its my main bird hunting gun. I've always thought it would be great to show up at a money shoot with that old scary looking double. The problem is no matter how much I practice with it I can only hit about 60% as many targets with it as my K-80. So the joke would be on me.

I grin even more like an idiot than usual when I'm hunting with that old gun.

That's a great story, and I'd classify the work as a labor of love rather than a laughable disaster(of which I have direct experience). The gun certainly goes back aways to easier times, and it's still in use.

This is a great thread. Easy way for everybody to admit what they have done without saying that they did it.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
This is a great thread. Easy way for everybody to admit what they have done without saying that they did it.

That was a relief!

When I saw your name as the most recent post I thought that you had nominated my stock.