Buckshot
09-13-2011, 03:08 AM
.............When our grandfather was disbursing great grandpa's guns to us boys I got a nice old Wm Moore dbl bbl 12 ga ML percussion shotgun, 2 cans of Laflin & Rand BP and a M1903 NRA Springfield Sporter. My middle brother (Eric) got a 1893 Marlin 30-30, and the youngest (Brian) got a 1862 Colt Police revolter.
Now Eric likes guns, is a full believer in the 2nd Amendment but he's just not in our class of 'Gun Guys' :-) However he did give each of his 3 boys and one girl a 30-30 lever action, a M19 S&W 357, and a 12 ga pump shotgun on their 18th birthdays. In the meantime I had the 1893 in my possesion for 10-12 years. It was the standard rifle, cresent butt, 26" tapered octagon bbl. The best thing was while it was in great shape that thing would SHOOT! Didn't matter cast or jacketed, and while I had it I would use it sometimes in our club's monthly silhuette match, but in the casual class. They called it 'Cowboy' but this was before SASS and all that. That rifle would flat clang the rams at 200 meters no problem.
Finally came the day when he asked me if on our next trip over to Arizona to visit if I'd please bring great grandpa's 30-30 so he could give it to his oldest son. RATS! I thought he'd forgotten all about it. I looked high and low for another like it, but due to my situation at the time there wasn't a one I could afford. In desperation I ended up buying one like it that I could afford. This meant the barrel was trashed and the buttstock was cracked. Time passed (years) and one night at work I was fooling around on the Numrich website and found they had some NOS Marlin 36-RC 20" round barrels in 30-30 (Ballard rifling) for 40 some bucks. I bought one. More time passed and I realized that NO ONE offeres Marlin forends except for octagon bbls. I finally ordered one without bbl inletting from Gunstocks.com.
It was disappointing in it's roughness, and the mag tube hole was too small in OD. I set it aside. Again more years passed. In the meantime I'd screwed the barrel on and it was a few degrees past perfection.
http://www.fototime.com/5C4B7E6F89987B7/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/40AAE633F1DD54E/standard.jpg
So I turned a spacer for it and got the barrel clocked. I actually bought a box of R-P factory ammo and fired 10 rounds. All was well.
http://www.fototime.com/E63EAA8DB98FAF1/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F3888BA52E0786F/standard.jpg
The new 36-RC bbl had 2 well placed dovetails on the underside. I used the one closest to the action face to anchor the mag tube, via cutting the tube down with a tubeing cutter. As it turns out I think the farthest was supposed to be the anchor for the mag tube and the one closet to the action was to be for the forend hanger? Anyway, thats what I did.
http://www.fototime.com/44C96957E81EEFB/standard.jpg
So this is what it looked like for a considerable amount of time. Several times I vowed to get after it but was always stymied by that too small mag tube hole. Truth be told I really don't get a whole lot of pleasure working on stocks. In any event it kicked around from place to place. I finally decided I was tired of it being in the way.
http://www.fototime.com/C0FF07F79792AFD/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/8C5F5ECADAA328B/standard.jpg
I figured I needed to make myself a shell reamer for that mag tube hole, so I did. Now the higher forms of math are for sure not my strong suit. Trying to figure depths of cut, clearance, and relief with a 60º dovetail cutter around 360º and have them come out even and all, was giving me a headache. Somehow I figured 18º per tooth would work. I turned the piece on the lathe with the reduced nose to ride in the existing hole. Then drilled and reamed it .375". I used a 16" long piece of 9/16" 1018, turned the end down to .375" and threaded it 3/8-24 for a nut to retain the reamer. The reamer wasn't pretty, and my mistake was not having larger flutes, as it was more like a file then a reamer! I could only feed it about an inch before she'd clog up. However the deal got done. Next thing to do was to cut a new dovetail for the forend hanger. That came a few days later.
http://www.fototime.com/27D2E4214A86399/standard.jpg
This is what she looks like now. It's a kind of a carbine deal now and the crescent buttstocks only came on rifles, and since this is an 'OHMYGOD' thing it really shouldn't matter. However the buttstock IS cracked, and I DO have a Marlin "S" type buttplate. Apparently the S type buttplate was used on both carbines and rifles so I think I'll order a buttstock and send it to Waksupi and let him deal with the fitting of the buttplate. The barrel has 2 holes D&T'd for a ramp type front sight, which I personally don't care for on a levergun. But I guess I'll have to cobble somethng to utilize those holes and live with it.
...............Buckshot
Now Eric likes guns, is a full believer in the 2nd Amendment but he's just not in our class of 'Gun Guys' :-) However he did give each of his 3 boys and one girl a 30-30 lever action, a M19 S&W 357, and a 12 ga pump shotgun on their 18th birthdays. In the meantime I had the 1893 in my possesion for 10-12 years. It was the standard rifle, cresent butt, 26" tapered octagon bbl. The best thing was while it was in great shape that thing would SHOOT! Didn't matter cast or jacketed, and while I had it I would use it sometimes in our club's monthly silhuette match, but in the casual class. They called it 'Cowboy' but this was before SASS and all that. That rifle would flat clang the rams at 200 meters no problem.
Finally came the day when he asked me if on our next trip over to Arizona to visit if I'd please bring great grandpa's 30-30 so he could give it to his oldest son. RATS! I thought he'd forgotten all about it. I looked high and low for another like it, but due to my situation at the time there wasn't a one I could afford. In desperation I ended up buying one like it that I could afford. This meant the barrel was trashed and the buttstock was cracked. Time passed (years) and one night at work I was fooling around on the Numrich website and found they had some NOS Marlin 36-RC 20" round barrels in 30-30 (Ballard rifling) for 40 some bucks. I bought one. More time passed and I realized that NO ONE offeres Marlin forends except for octagon bbls. I finally ordered one without bbl inletting from Gunstocks.com.
It was disappointing in it's roughness, and the mag tube hole was too small in OD. I set it aside. Again more years passed. In the meantime I'd screwed the barrel on and it was a few degrees past perfection.
http://www.fototime.com/5C4B7E6F89987B7/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/40AAE633F1DD54E/standard.jpg
So I turned a spacer for it and got the barrel clocked. I actually bought a box of R-P factory ammo and fired 10 rounds. All was well.
http://www.fototime.com/E63EAA8DB98FAF1/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F3888BA52E0786F/standard.jpg
The new 36-RC bbl had 2 well placed dovetails on the underside. I used the one closest to the action face to anchor the mag tube, via cutting the tube down with a tubeing cutter. As it turns out I think the farthest was supposed to be the anchor for the mag tube and the one closet to the action was to be for the forend hanger? Anyway, thats what I did.
http://www.fototime.com/44C96957E81EEFB/standard.jpg
So this is what it looked like for a considerable amount of time. Several times I vowed to get after it but was always stymied by that too small mag tube hole. Truth be told I really don't get a whole lot of pleasure working on stocks. In any event it kicked around from place to place. I finally decided I was tired of it being in the way.
http://www.fototime.com/C0FF07F79792AFD/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/8C5F5ECADAA328B/standard.jpg
I figured I needed to make myself a shell reamer for that mag tube hole, so I did. Now the higher forms of math are for sure not my strong suit. Trying to figure depths of cut, clearance, and relief with a 60º dovetail cutter around 360º and have them come out even and all, was giving me a headache. Somehow I figured 18º per tooth would work. I turned the piece on the lathe with the reduced nose to ride in the existing hole. Then drilled and reamed it .375". I used a 16" long piece of 9/16" 1018, turned the end down to .375" and threaded it 3/8-24 for a nut to retain the reamer. The reamer wasn't pretty, and my mistake was not having larger flutes, as it was more like a file then a reamer! I could only feed it about an inch before she'd clog up. However the deal got done. Next thing to do was to cut a new dovetail for the forend hanger. That came a few days later.
http://www.fototime.com/27D2E4214A86399/standard.jpg
This is what she looks like now. It's a kind of a carbine deal now and the crescent buttstocks only came on rifles, and since this is an 'OHMYGOD' thing it really shouldn't matter. However the buttstock IS cracked, and I DO have a Marlin "S" type buttplate. Apparently the S type buttplate was used on both carbines and rifles so I think I'll order a buttstock and send it to Waksupi and let him deal with the fitting of the buttplate. The barrel has 2 holes D&T'd for a ramp type front sight, which I personally don't care for on a levergun. But I guess I'll have to cobble somethng to utilize those holes and live with it.
...............Buckshot