Well, I bought this rifle off a fellow on one of these forums. Picked it up Monday night in Maine. The sole purpose was to convert it to a Take Down. I love riding motorcycles long distances and this fall I'll be riding to Mo and possibly Montana to do a bit of Whitetail hunting. This rifle will fit nicely in my painers.
Years ago I read an article in the NRA Gunsmith Digest on doing this to a Model 94. So with gun in hand, I had at it today.
Here's what I started with:
First order of business was to remove the barrel. This was very easy. They are not on very tight. Once the barrel was removed you need to remove the "ears" on the front of the receiver:
I used the milling machine to remove most of the material:
And then a fine file cleaned it up:
Here's what the front of the receiver looked like:
Next I had to layout the plate that will hold the barrel and forend. And bore the holes in the milling machine:
The finished piece ended up looking like this. I used 7075 Aluminum as I wanted to keep the weight down and this piece does nothing but stop the barrel from turning.
The barrel needed to visit Mr Lathe and have a shoulder cut the thickness of the attachment plate:
A very tight fit was the goal. The attachment plate was heated with a heat gun and using the action and a large washer, the attachment plate was press fit onto the barrel shank: