Practicing gun smithing at home.

[Guest FIST]

A friend of mine gave me an old Savage model 6A 22 rifle that didn't work. He said he didn't want it back even if I got it running. So, I had a broken rifle for free and too much time on my hands.

At some point in its life it went under Bubba's knife. The barrel had been threaded for a homemade suppressor, the iron sights had been cut off and ground down. There was a sorry attempt at bedding the stock and a picatinny rail was mounted on the receiver.

I stripped the rifle down and tweaked a few springs and did some minor fitting. The rifle would now shoot semi auto but jammed real bad with 22 shorts. I mounted a scope and had mixed results accuracy wise and noticed a small ding on the crown that may/may not have caused this. I figured there was nothing to lose so I decided to try my hand at cutting the barrel down and re-crowning. Again, this thing was already nasty and wasn't worth $50 bucks so. Here it is today.....

[IMG]http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg537/FISTER029/image-40.jpg[/IMG]
The silver around the crown has no burrs or defects that I can find. We'll find out on Thursday

[IMG]http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg537/FISTER029/image-39.jpg[/IMG]
Side view.


[IMG]http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg537/FISTER029/image-38.jpg[/IMG]
Camo job.

[IMG]http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg537/FISTER029/image-37.jpg[/IMG]
In all it's glory!

I used a dremmel with a cutting wheel to cut the bulk of the barrel. I then went to town with files to even it up and make it bearable to look at. I used the brass screw method for the crown and finished the rest of the metal with high heat paint. The stock was sanded and camo'd courtesy of krylon.

Wish me luck. If it doesn't turn out well I might post it in the classifieds for free to any aspiring gun smiths.

[RED333]

Now if that did trun out nice, get running, do a PIF for a kid to get into shooting.

[Guest FIST]

[quote name='RED333' timestamp='1352758209' post='844464']
Now if that did trun out nice, get running, do a PIF for a kid to get into shooting.
[/quote]

At the risk of showing my stupidity, what's PIF? Donation maybe? Edited November 12, 2012 by FIST

[Spots]

If it don't work out, shoot me a pm. Ill pay you some for your time, and will handle the transport to this side of the state. Good looking work so far.

[pops572]

PIF. Pay it forward

[Guest FIST]

Got it. I'm slow, still learning the language of the net. Edited November 12, 2012 by FIST

[Clod Stomper]

Yeah, I didn't know PIF either.

As for the crown, if it doesn't shoot well now, try evening it like this....

Chuck a small, slotted round-head brass screw in a hand drill. Apply some grinding compound to the screw head. Press the screw head to the muzzle and run the drill at relatively slow speed. Move the drill body in small circles as the head turns.

Start with coarser compound first to get some depth, then clean it all out of the bore and screw head and use some fine compound to clean it up.

If your crown is square with the bore, this will give you an even, angled crown that will be harder to damage. I've done it to some dinged and recut crowns with decent results.

Edit: I just re-read your post. You already did the brass screw method. My bad.

If you have a friend with a lathe, it shouldn't take him more than a few minutes to set up and [u]perfectly[/u] square the muzzle to the bore. Then redo the brass screw muzzle treatment. If the barrel has any accuracy in it, that should bring it out. Edited November 13, 2012 by Clod Stomper

[Guest FIST]

**Range Report**

Rifle: Savage Model 6A Mark F(FIST)
Distance: 25 yards
Ammo: All were 40 grain. Remington Target, Federal Target Grade Bulk, Aquilla Match Rifle, Federal Target, CCI Stingrs, and Federal Bulk
Results: I started with the 2 lots of bulk ammo. The first round had feeding issues 60% of the time. I attribute this to the tube magazines weak spring. No jams after the first round of any iteration. Goups were in the 1-1 1/2 inch range.

I handed it over to another member of our group to try out. He starts shooting and the rifle fired several "2 round bursts" on him. To see if this was a malfunction or an unintentional bump fire I had our other 2 guys shoot several rounds. No one else experienced the "burst" while shooting. I can't say 100% that it wasn't the rifle but all signs point to his trigger pull as the source.

When using target grade ammo the groups dropped to an inch. The scope was a cheapo red dot and may have contributed to the size of the groups.

Final word: The home crown and cut worked! It doesn't look pretty but it was effective. May replace the magazine spring to fix the minor feed issue. I'm replacing the red dot with a variable power scope and will see if the results change much. I'm probably lucky it turned out well and once it's 100% known for fact safe and reliable I'll look into donating it to someone that needs a 22 for their kid. If anyone knows of a kid in need please PM and we can figure out the details. I hope to have it ready in 2 weeks.

FIST

[graycrait]

If you ever wondered if taking a hack saw to cutting a barrel and a drill with a brass screw to crown would actually work, I can report it really does. That little Savage that FIST fixed shoots straight - I saw it and shot it today.

[RED333]

That is great you got it running as well as you did, congrats.
On the tube spring, try pulling it out a bit, pull the far end, the end away from the
bolt. Just use your fingers to pull the coils out a bit, add about 1 to 2 inches to it.