bruce drake
04-07-2016, 10:45 PM
I received this pile of parts from fellow forum member Dragonrider last fall after he decided he had way too many projects in the fire and this one had been stalled too long. He had disassembled a 1868 Trapdoor Springfield in 50/70 that had a very rough/rotten stock and some heavy rust issues. He had gotten all the parts sandblasted clean and had 86'ed the rotten stock and then the project had sat until he decided to let me take a shot at it.165652 So this was the pile of parts plus a barreled reciever that came in the mail last fall.
And then I found a crappy old Springfield stock with no buttplate in a Ebay auction this winter and put everything together in the white to see it the rifle could safely be fired. It definitely fired and was a shooter. I was using 36gr of Pyrodex over a 50 caliber sabot and a 240gr .45 caliber bullet at the time and it shot a 4" group at 50 yards in that crappy stock. If it could fire that well with an oddball loading, I think it will shoot a lot better when its stoked with a properly loaded bullet and powder load.
And then Waksupi posted on this forum about his recent completely custom rebuild of a Springfield Trapdoor in the Special Projects forum (If you haven't read the thread, you really should go find and it commission him to do the same quality work for you) from a movie prop gun that he had rescued sometime in the past. It had been converted into a fake Juzeil-styled rifle with brass barrel-bands and a Arabesque buttstock and with age it had lost its gold painted curlique decorations on the buttstock.
165653
I quickly reached to him to see if he thought the now discarded stock was reasonable for a project piece such as mine. He said it was rough and ugly but serviceable. So with that, I told him, I wanted serviceable first and after that, I'd get it to look pretty enough... to kill a deer...(I know I'll never match Waksupi's work with my own at this point)
And with a internet handshake, we sent payment and stock into the US mail. He sent the stock last week and the day after he put the stock in the mail from Montana, I was able to put payment in the mail from Indiana. The envelope and package crossed each other in the mail system. I got the stock on Saturday morning and he got the payment on Monday. Honor of course dictated that I not touch Waksupi's stock until the payment arrived and it rested in the workshop over the weekend with the rest of the bare metal parts.
Monday night I proceeded to strip down the old finish and paintwork from the propmaster's assistant from the Gunga Din movie of 1939... and started the cold-bluing process on the metal work that Dragonrider sent me last fall...I learned that the stock before it became an Arab fighter's wet dream was an 1886 Trapdoor stock with the very clean cartouche stamp of 1889 and the Springfield Arms Inspector's initials of the time SWP - Samuel W. Porter, the Master Inspector of the Armory. Tuesday night, I proceeded to start the process of restaining the stock to the original walnut color.
And tonight I put her all together. Before I put her together, I knew that my barrel was 27" in length which means at one time it had been shortened due to a bulged barrel and the front sight had been brazed back onto the shorter barrel...So with that, out came the coping saw and sharpened blades to cut back and thin down the front of the stock to fit the cast-iron end cap on Tuesday prior to the staining.
And now its all together. first coat of stain and first coat of cold-blue but the more the better over time.
165663
Next on the list is a trip to the range to see how it shoots as well as cutting, trimming and shaping a replacement brass barrel band, indian-style copper round-head nail decorations and a new front sling swivel in the manner of the old Mosin-Nagant 91/30s
Bruce
And then I found a crappy old Springfield stock with no buttplate in a Ebay auction this winter and put everything together in the white to see it the rifle could safely be fired. It definitely fired and was a shooter. I was using 36gr of Pyrodex over a 50 caliber sabot and a 240gr .45 caliber bullet at the time and it shot a 4" group at 50 yards in that crappy stock. If it could fire that well with an oddball loading, I think it will shoot a lot better when its stoked with a properly loaded bullet and powder load.
And then Waksupi posted on this forum about his recent completely custom rebuild of a Springfield Trapdoor in the Special Projects forum (If you haven't read the thread, you really should go find and it commission him to do the same quality work for you) from a movie prop gun that he had rescued sometime in the past. It had been converted into a fake Juzeil-styled rifle with brass barrel-bands and a Arabesque buttstock and with age it had lost its gold painted curlique decorations on the buttstock.
165653
I quickly reached to him to see if he thought the now discarded stock was reasonable for a project piece such as mine. He said it was rough and ugly but serviceable. So with that, I told him, I wanted serviceable first and after that, I'd get it to look pretty enough... to kill a deer...(I know I'll never match Waksupi's work with my own at this point)
And with a internet handshake, we sent payment and stock into the US mail. He sent the stock last week and the day after he put the stock in the mail from Montana, I was able to put payment in the mail from Indiana. The envelope and package crossed each other in the mail system. I got the stock on Saturday morning and he got the payment on Monday. Honor of course dictated that I not touch Waksupi's stock until the payment arrived and it rested in the workshop over the weekend with the rest of the bare metal parts.
Monday night I proceeded to strip down the old finish and paintwork from the propmaster's assistant from the Gunga Din movie of 1939... and started the cold-bluing process on the metal work that Dragonrider sent me last fall...I learned that the stock before it became an Arab fighter's wet dream was an 1886 Trapdoor stock with the very clean cartouche stamp of 1889 and the Springfield Arms Inspector's initials of the time SWP - Samuel W. Porter, the Master Inspector of the Armory. Tuesday night, I proceeded to start the process of restaining the stock to the original walnut color.
And tonight I put her all together. Before I put her together, I knew that my barrel was 27" in length which means at one time it had been shortened due to a bulged barrel and the front sight had been brazed back onto the shorter barrel...So with that, out came the coping saw and sharpened blades to cut back and thin down the front of the stock to fit the cast-iron end cap on Tuesday prior to the staining.
And now its all together. first coat of stain and first coat of cold-blue but the more the better over time.
165663
Next on the list is a trip to the range to see how it shoots as well as cutting, trimming and shaping a replacement brass barrel band, indian-style copper round-head nail decorations and a new front sling swivel in the manner of the old Mosin-Nagant 91/30s
Bruce