There's an awful lot of talent and knowledge here, and I thought it might be nice for you guys to show off some of your work that you're proudest of. What are your favoritemost guns you've worked on or made up for yourself or others?
Mine was a #3 Ruger. I cut off the barrel just behind that ugly 10/22 front sight and recrowned it, then cut the butt off just ahead of that dinky plastic butt plate, and added a 1" Pachmyr black 752B Decelerator recoil pad. This left a little hole at the heel of the stock where that plastic butt had been, and to fill it, I mixed some very fine walnut dust in some Accra-Glass, and then some black shoe and leather dye, adn filled it completely. When dry, I sanded the pad and epoxy insert together, rounding out the stock contours and generally thinning the whole butt, and grip section, so it felt good in my hands. The grip was slightly pear shaped with the larger girth at top to take up recoil a bit better, and the slightly thinner part at bottom so as to provide a slightly better tactile index of deflection.
Then I laid in on the forearm and slenderized it, eliminating the barrel band and giving it a slight schnabble at the fore. When I was done, this little carbine felt like a classic double "bird gun" in the hands, and I was VERY impressed with my handiwork and decisions. Sometimes even a blind pig finds an acorn if he just keeps rootin'! Seriously, this is the best #3 I've ever had my hands on, and I foolishly let a friend talk me out of it. He later moved to Chicago, and that gun was stolen in a burglary, so if you see one like that, please check it for stolen! I haven't found another one to modify like this, but if I ever do, it'll accompany me home if I can get it for anything near a reasonable price. It'd make a really awesome hunting rifle in my neck of the woods.
Another was done by a friend. He loaned an acquaintence some money and the guy left him his Savage 311 12 ga. as security. He was never able to repay the loan, and told my buddy the gun was his permanently. He wasn't a double gun fan, and just said, "Oh well," and put the gun in his safe where it stayed, until one day when he looked at it, and wondered how it'd shoot slugs. His great passion was hunting hogs in the Savannah River Swamp, amid the palmettos and tangles of brush and vines and heavy woods there. He tried some Foster slugs, and sure enough, they cross fired. However, in his disappointment, he noted how the barrels converged as they stretched toward the muzzle, and he thought to himself, "I wonder .... ." So when he got home, he cut 2" off the barrels with a hacksaw, and filed the muzzles visibly straight and square, and did a very good job of that. He took it back out, and sure enough, the slugs printed closer than before, but no brass ring yet. He judged by the incremental move that another inch off might make them print closer still, so he got his hacksay out, and cut again, and filed the muzzles off nicely and neatly. This time, the barrels printed still closer together. "Aha!" he thought, "I'm really onto something here!" And he WAS, too! This time they printed even closer together, and he continued until he wound up at 22.5", IIRC, where the gun printed nice round groups from both barrels at 75 yds. - exactly what he wanted. So, now he had a very short, light "double rifle" that he could hit with reliably out to significant range, AND he could grip it at the receiver balance point and literally run, with his long legs, through the mud and tangles and palmettos at top speed, and intercept and kill an awful lot of hawgeaus in the swamps. That ain't no small thing where and how he hunts them, either! He's as happy as a lark with the gun, and polished out the muzzles, had it reblued completely, and added a recoil pad to the butt to fit his tall frame a bit better. To date, it's his favorite huntin' gun, and he's got a passel of them. And all growing from a loan he very reluctantly made to a guy he knew! Sometimes, luck CAN work out fot the best!
Now you guys please show off some of your skills here, pix please. I don't have them of the two guns I outline above, unfortunately, and much to my regret, but there's nothing that quite stirs a real shooter's soul like pics of a really nice gun, especially if it's got nice looking wood on it. Here's your chance to show off your skills, so share what you have done with the rest of us.