I like building firearms with hand tools and fixtures. I can be careful and precise in setting dimensions and fit and the end result isn’t a rifle sitting on top of a big time invoices from an outsourced gunsmith’s machining efforts. And when that rifle is together and can’t shoot 5 MOA, I can insult the guy who put it together with great insight and authority. And if that rifle shoots 1/4 MOA… I can enjoy the success and my wife will tell me I did a good job.
Just like the recent AR build, this is a background project that will be scheduled based on available time, as well as on the arrival of parts I initially forgot to order, or needed when I changed direction for some reason. I’ll document what I think will be useful and not too boring. In fact, if I still lived in California and sipped wine on the weekends, this could almost be a record of my journey to further gun building awareness, a self teaching and self actualizing moment… God, I hate that state.
Always preface assembly with disassembly
All of these projects involve abrasive material, metal chips and cutting oil. Each and all will end up in even the smallest opening or crevice, no matter how much care is exercised taping and plugging. Then, when the rifle is complete, shiny and something of anticipated pride, it will weep grinding compound all over smooth precision surfaces and blow it down that perfect bore, doing irreparable damage. Complete disassembly is essential.
I take pictures of every assembly before disassembly, so I don’t have to be shamed by a trip to a more skilled person with a box of loose parts, after the project has been put on hold for six months and lots of pieces look unfamiliar. I also bag, tag and tape associated parts together for the same reason. Pull those pins out of that trigger and the sear will pop up like a jack in the box and a small return spring will roll out across the table and fall on the carpeted floor and disappear… forever.
Gadgets are good, as anyone who works on race cars or is a skilled DIY enthusiast can attest. Good gadgets make life easy and they can cause women to pretend they are impressed. That tool latched onto the Remington’s bolt shroud and firing in is a Brownells 749-004-116WB Sinclair Firing Pin Removal Tool for Remington rifles. $29.99. No more chewed up bench edges or unintentionally pieced body parts.
With three hands, or six fingers on each of two, it is easy to depress the plunger ejector and drive out its retaining pin. Telling it sad stories about lost puppies will often work. For me, Brownells #749-003-541WB Sinclair Remington Ejector Spring Tool $26.99 does the trick when working solo acapella.
The bolt is pushed through the tool until a plunger in the tool depresses the ejector, then the bolt is rotated, which locks it into the tool. Put the bolt, with the ejector removal tool in place, in a bench vise and thump on an appropriate size punch, 1/16″ I believe, to drive the pin out.
If your aim is good, and your cause is just, you will eventually liberate the ejector, ejector spring and the retainer pin. Easing the bolt out of the tool assures the ejector will not take off for parts unknown.
And then I idiomatically ran off the road and into a ditch….
One of the clean up steps will face the bolt and make it square to the receiver barrel threads and, hopefully, the barrel bore. In order for the Brownells # 513-000-012WB Magnum Facing Burr $84.99 to its job, the Remington extractor (arrow) needs to be removed, unfortunately, I did not have a replacement rivet or a backup extractor on hand.
The pieces will be in within a few days and, in the mean time, I can decide if the stock pieces will be replaced or if I will mill a slot in the bolt and install a Sako type extractor. I know, the project is like watching grass grow, but I have high hopes we will finish all of the action truing in the next segment.
Either a 338 Ultra Mag… or a Nifty Paperweight Part 1
Either a 338 Ultra Mag… or a Nifty Paperweight Part 2
Either a 338 Ultra Mag… or a Nifty Paperweight Part 3
Either a 338 Ultra Mag… or a Nifty Paperweight Part 4
Email Notification