Today was a nice day for the range - 70? and sunny with about a 10mph wind. After bore-sighting and scope zero, I shot some targets from 100 yards on a rickety rifle rest to see what weight round the rifle likes and if my Bubba crown job was good enough.

The first group was shot with 150gr Remington and was mostly high - probably due to lack of bullet weight and a sloppy shooter:



The second group was shot with 165gr Remington - much better, but still sloppy with one flyer at 7 o'clock:



The third group was shot with 180gr Remington - as expected with this weight, 4 low in a fair group, but still one flyer at 10 o'clock:



It looked like the rifle liked 165gr best, so I shot the last group with that. I had to admit to myself that I was beginning to flinch and made an effort to steady the rifle better in the rest, with my left fist between the butt and my teeth - the results were pretty good for a Bubba crown, eh, Curtis?:



I'm convinced the rifle is worthy of completion to a quality finish - and I might even spring for a crown cutter to see just how good it can be.

Frank

Took it apart after shooting, reapplied some black and found that the barrel channel was still not fully relieved - touching in several places - which might have caused some inaccuracy. I relieved those spots and then decided to fully bed the barrel, thinking that a hunting rifle might be better fully bedded so trash can't get between the stock and a free-floated barrel. I guess in hunting, it's the first shot that counts most of the time. If it doesn't shoot well, I can always recut the barrel channel and free float it.

Did the final shaping and sanding and began the finish. After 4 hand rubbed coats, it looks pretty good - still need a few more coats, but I'll take it back to the range tomorrow and see if accuracy has improved any:









I think this time, I'll use sandbags instead of that bench rest and see what happens.

Frank

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />
I always enjoy these updates. Makes me feel soooooo lazy though. I have about 30 probjects around here...can't get motivated to start ANY of them. bleh.

Stony, I'm too busy to be doing this and there have been many times I wished I hadn't started this project. I can promise that any $800 factory rifle is a bargain.

I do like this rifle, though. It fits me very well. It's on the heavy side, but it now feels really good to handle - much better balanced than before. What I really like is how it looks - like an old, no-nonsense field rifle with a lot of character. I purposefully left a couple of small dings and dents in the stock to fool me into thinking I've owned it for years. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Frank

Fact: A 1903 does NOT like to have its barrel fully bedded. The best it would do was a 2" group at 100 yards. While bedding it, I also discovered that while I "thought" I had previously free-floated the barrel, it was touching the stock in several places when I shot the last targets. So, I ground out all of the barrel bedding, put 2 layers of electrical tape on the barrel and re-bedded it. Now, it's definitely free - I can slide a bill between the barrel and stock all the way to the barrel lug area. The money shot:



The bottom metal had lost most of its finish, so I removed the old finish, mixed up a witches brew over the camp stove and zinc phospate parkerized the trigger guard/magazine and the magazine floor plate, then hand-rubbed 3-in-1 oil into the finish:



If I can find something to use as a vat to re-parkerize the barrel and receiver, I might do that after sanding out the milling marks on the barrel. Maybe a pipe will work as a vat.

I also gave in to the siren call of the white spacers - still not sure I like them:



Now, I need to put a few more coats of finish on the stock, install sling swivels and a sling - then see if it shoots any better.

Frank

I like it! My grandpa had several rifles with the white spacers...just looks "right" to me. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

After re-bedding the barrel, it didn't shoot any better, so I decided to find a smith to cut an 11? target crown.

Before I took it to him, I re-parkerized the barrel and receiver, using a cut off drive shaft for a vat and two propane torches for a heat source. The result was good, but I decided I wanted to see what it looked like with black metal - so I grabbed a can of Rust-O-Leum satin black and went to work.

Then I installed Butler Creek lens covers and Uncle Mike's QD sling swivels. Next, had Ron Brown make a very nice M1907 replica sling and rubbed about 6 coats of bear grease into it.

I like the black and the sling, but those dinky swivels are going real soon - to be replaced by inletted, original M1903 milled swivels. Then I'll sand blast all the metal and parkerize it again - black - with manganese dioxide. But first, I'll take it to the range and see how it shoots with the new crown:







This rifle might be ready by deer season. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Frank

It's awful pretty. I'm not sure I'd let the deer use it...

I'm determined to find another animal that will be sorrier than me that I ever found this rifle. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Frank

Yesterday, about 80 rounds were fired at 4 targets in less than 2 hours. I can promise that doing that without a recoil pad and in a t-shirt at a bench where the rifle doesn't fully seat in the shoulder pocket will cause some next-day remorse.

On 3 of the targets, I was playing with the scope adjustment... but finally left it alone on this target as I realized I was chasing small inaccuracies resulting from a hot barrel - actually, it was quite hot from shooting at that rate of fire.

This target includes 2 different brands of ammunition - Remington Core-Lokt and Fusion - both 165gr. The rifle seemed to like the Fusion ammunition slightly better.

4 of the shot holes are covered because they were the last 4 rounds fired and I fliched badly on every one of them.

More than 25 rounds were fired at this target at 100 yards and resulted in a maximum of 2.5" C/C (excluding the 4 jerked shots). Most of the target center was shot out. I think that's pretty good with a very hot barrel, but I want to try again to see what happens if I let it cool between every shot.



Frank