Longbranch No. 4 Mk 1* |
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1187Shooter
Groupie Joined: March 16 2016 Location: Louisiana Status: Offline Points: 25 |
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Posted: March 19 2016 at 9:13pm |
I'm going to post pics here of my No. 4 Mk1* as I work on it and document the changes. I got it on a trade, already sporterized.
Whoever did this didn't do a bad job, but there are a few things I want to change. The stock is actually from a Browning Double Automatic Shotgun, according the buttplate, and although it isn't a perfect fit, they did a good job making it work. It's nice and solid and looks and feels good. The crown is in rough shape, but I'm going to be shortening the barrel anyways. The forend is a little loose, and presses on the right side of the barrel. I'll probably be replacing it. Still debating loosing the scope mount and replacing the rear sight. I'll be putting up pics as I go, and as I figure out how to upload from my phone.. It's going to be a fun project. Cheers. Dan |
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1187Shooter
Groupie Joined: March 16 2016 Location: Louisiana Status: Offline Points: 25 |
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I think all told I have less than $100 in this rifle, considering that it was an extra in a trade, so it's the perfect candidate for a project. I can see where a project like this might add up quickly for some folks, but I'm not too concerned about gunsmith costs, since I do most of my own work. The only thing currently that I'm not set up to do is turning a barrel, which I don't need for this right now, since I can cut and crown the barrel by hand just fine. I may have it threaded later, but not for a while. The bore is decent, needs a good cleaning but it doesn't look worn or pitted, so I won't be replacing it, unless I get a wild hair and decide to rechamber it to .444 Marlin, but that would be an unlikely future project.
The stock I'll probably keep, since whoever did it did a nice solid job and it looks pretty good. I'll probably put a 1" pad on it to increase the length of pull, and maybe add a cheek rest of some sort. I may build up the wrist area a little, to flush it up with the receiver, but probably not. The forend I am sure I can fix up with a bedding job. If not, ATI stock sets look decent and are inexpensive, as are Boyds, if I want to stick to wood. With the trigger guard off the forend lines up pretty good and is free floated nicely. The original sporter conversion was not too bad, just needs a little TLC, and my own personal touches.
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klr
Groupie Joined: October 01 2014 Location: Ohio Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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Chop it up and enjoy yourself. I'll be following along.
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1187Shooter
Groupie Joined: March 16 2016 Location: Louisiana Status: Offline Points: 25 |
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Figured I'd put a "before" pic up for posterity...
Not sure I like how the wood around the receiver has been lowered...might be a contributing factor to the forend misalignment, perhaps?
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W.R.Buchanan
Senior Member Joined: September 21 2014 Location: Ojai CA Status: Offline Points: 373 |
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Can we see a picture of the receiver including the scope mount, from the right and left sides, and a pic of the fore end band from the side.
That gun may be very close to where it needs to be as a good Shooter/Hunting rifle. My gun was Sporterized by Parker Hale back when, and looked like holy he!!. But it cleaned up nicely and is now one of my favorite shooters. I had no barrel band but the gun needed it so I found the parts and inlet the fore end and new handguard so as to have a tight fit.. The barrel still floats. In order to get the new handguard to work right the rear of the guard was shortened until the existing front was even with the front of the Fore end. There is a metal Reinforcing piece in there that you want to keep so you shorten it from the receiver end. This is all simple Square file work that takes a couple of hours but is easy to do. if the barrel band isn't "Inlayed" into the fore end it will pull off when the gun is carried with the sling. After I scraped the majority of the Varnish lookin' finish of this gun, I went after the wood on this gun with a Finish Sander with 60 grit paper on it and literally removed an 1/8" of wood all the way around to get under the majority of severe dings in the wood.(It was pretty beat up) I left a few of the really deep gouges in it for character . The result was nice looking Virgin Walnut which finished nicely with some French Red Stain and several coats of Birchwood Casey's Tru Oil. Your gun will turn out this way as well. They did mostly use good wood... the kicker is getting under all the mung and drool and dings that usually have accumulated on/in the wood on these guns for the last 70 or so years. Randy |
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It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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1187Shooter
Groupie Joined: March 16 2016 Location: Louisiana Status: Offline Points: 25 |
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Nice looking sporter, Randy. I like how the wood turned out.
I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the handguard or not, at this point. I have another project brewing that I may just incorporate this rifle into instead of the one I originally planned on. We'll see what I end up doing... |
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