Thread: Classics corner and vintage rifle reviews

Originally Posted by akaroa1

No
But we split a lot of dry firewood blocks

Thats just 'splitting Hares' !

After a long slow restoration this Stevens 44 1/2 22 Hornet is fully functional again
Typical vintage rifle.
You fix an obvious thing and find the next thing to fix and on it goes
But totally worth the effort

Now I have done a proof of concept hunt I still need to sand and oil the stock I made, replace some screws, blue the checkered steel butt plate, sweat on the barrel band sling mount I made and find a rear sling mount that fits the style

6x Malcolm scope has limited field of view but it's shooting about 20mm at 100m with factory Hornady 45 grainers

The longest projects are the best!! Nice.

Originally Posted by muzza

thats a nice wee rifle right there

It certainly is a joy to look at and shoots well as a bonus

Now I have a Stevens 044 1/2 and two 1885s to get on to finishing and they all started in far worse condition than the 44 1/2

Though I had better finish the 44 1/2 before I mess up the woodwork

10 coats of oil
Rust browned the new checkered steel butt plate to about the same patina as the barrel
Sweated on the new barrel band sling mount

Only job left to do is find and for a butt sling mount and swap out one random screw

That's a beautiful thing you've given another life!

Do you do all this restoration for the love of it or do you do client work as well?

Do any of these restoration jobs ever find their way to the homes of those who appreciate them but don't have the facilities, skills or experience to do it themselves?

With all this wet weather in Canterbury I'm getting good hours in the workshop

So a change of plan with the Stevens 044 1/2 restoration
Instead of re chambering a worn and pitted 32 rimfire to 32-20 which also need the breech block to be converted to centerfire !
I decided to put a 22 RF barrel on it and turn it off center to get the case rim under the firing pin
So 3 dummy barrel stubs later it's fully nutted out


One is concentric
One is offset 1.1mm and only just gets hit on the edge by the firing pin
Third is perfect with 1.5mm offset


Then I fitted an old worn extractor and milled out the slot for it in the barrel stub
It's a fraction short at the moment
But intend turning the proper barrel about .2mm further off center to get the firing pin in an even better spot
So this extractor should be perfect


Barrel is in taranaki at the moment
So sorted for when it arrives

Now I need to find some 44 1/2 parts for another project
I did track down an action in the forum for sale but it went cold
They are great rifles but need a lot of work to bring them back to life so you can't afford to pay too much for the parts

And here's a martini 218 Bee known to a few forum members that I made a custom scope rail for
Tricky bit of machining for the taper in the barrel just in front of the reciever
And fitted a vintage leupold Alaskan 4x scope

Very enjoyable read Akaroa1 and great admiration for your skills and machine work.
KH

Originally Posted by muzza

I think you should make a quarter rib for my Martini Cadet 218 Bee too. I would at least send you some ammo so you could try it out ........

@muzza to be fair he's been under a bit of pressure lately
And we are all getting older and forgetting stuff

I am not forgetting - its just buried in a container that has to be tidied up (and truth to tell I don't actually recall packing it and there are two chocka 42l ammo tubs)

Originally Posted by Tentman

I am not forgetting - its just buried in a container that has to be tidied up (and truth to tell I don't actually recall packing it and there are two chocka 42l ammo tubs)

No my friend. The forgetting is me !
I have so many projects started if I don't document them I loose track of where it's heading

I will bring this post back to the top for those members wanting a special collectors thread

This is my new 150 year old Alexander Henry side lock falling block rifle
500-450 no2 Musket

Elegance and simplicity, it's certainly less decorated than other Henry's I've seen but looks in excellent condition. As a shooter how does that compare with a Hollis 500 BPE for example groupwise?

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Elegance and simplicity, it's certainly less decorated than other Henry's I've seen but looks in excellent condition. As a shooter how does that compare with a Hollis 500 BPE for example groupwise?

Yes it's a bit of an enigma of an AH
It's in the AH ledger as a Best Rifle.
Has some best rifle features.
But also has some 3rd grade features.

I think it's in the ledger wrongly.
And is really a special order that was strictly a Jungle Rifle. What we would call a Bush Rifle.
I points and shoots like a fine shotgun.

7 pounds even so a very nice thing to carry and shoulder.