Thread: DIY Gunsmithing mistakes

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

or so im told.

Told by @Marty Henry ?

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Told by @Marty Henry ?

Experience is a good teacher in my case.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Experience is a good teacher in my case.

Ahh experience, that thing you get just after you needed it.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

When bedding a rifle, its quite important to make sure you get release agent onto all the metalwork and if there are little cutouts and things in the reciever to fill them flush with plasticine or similar before bedding, or so im told.

also if you are using a bedding kit that takes 24hours to dry and you live somewhere cold like Christchurch in winter leave it an extra day
othewise looks like you used bubble gum to bed it and it goes everywhere

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

When bedding a rifle, its quite important to make sure you get release agent onto all the metalwork and if there are little cutouts and things in the reciever to fill them flush with plasticine or similar before bedding, or so im told.

It's also a good idea to check the shape of the action so you don't create a mechanical lock when the compound sets.

also dont try open your unwanted 243 suppressor up to 30cal with a drill free hand

shit iv got quite a few of these haha

I once snapped a Manners stock at the wrist trying to get the action/barrel out. While a curse at the time it was actually a blessing as it motivated me to do my first carbon fibre repair which led me to making my own stocks.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Ok pictures
But me fixing someone else's DIY

I recently acquired a Parker Hale Whitworth after a long search
It's a very nice Whitworth and was set up for long range competition shooting
And has been glass bedded for the first 300mm

So I get it home and after a few weeks I think I will strip it down and clean it all and sort a few minor things
Shock horror it's epoxy bedded permanently into to stock
Now I'm thinking this was intended because he was shooting it long range

I parked it for a few months to consider this unexpected problem

Then after some good advise I took a huge chunk of alloy
Milled a channel to exactly match the barrel profile at the epoxy bedded area but not deep enough to touch the stock wood
Placed a cloths iron on it for around 15 minutes to get it evenly hot
Lightly lifted to barrel at the muzzle and there was a small click and it lifted out

Confirmed my original suspicion that this was no accident
There was not a trace of releasing agent
But it was a good bedding job and the rifle is showing good accuracy potential

It's close to being resuscitated



Sticky tape is to avoid DIY mistakes with room for thumb to cock hammer in mock up

Here's some more DIY from person unknown who decided they wanted a pistol grip 1885 from a straight grip frame
Sadly their ambition was great and their skills very low



Done with a blow torch and mauled by a vice

I do not know if this qualifies as a gunsmithing error but I certainly learnt from the experience....

I was at the range sighting in two rifles of the same brand and calibre....(Mosin Nagants in 7.62x54R)
I had that nagging feeling that something was not right...you know the one where you triple check EVERYTHING then check it again because something does not feel right but cannot find anything wrong.....

I checked each rifle thad its own bolt and not another one.
I checked the ammo was correctly loaded (Both were using factory Barnaul so no mixed ammo)
I lined up on the target and squeezed off the first round....

BOOM!!!!!





In a concrete walled bunker style range with a concrete roof and floor and open at the front and back I IMMEDIATELY noticed the earmuffs were ON my head but not ON my ears.....you know when you put them up to talk on the phone or to someone so you rears are clear then drop them back onto your ears after...I did not do the last bit....I stood there for about 10 seconds like a stunned mullet, I then tenderly checked if my ears were bleeding because, damn they were ringing....

At that point I learnt TWO very important things.....earmuffs are a must if I want to continue hearing....and two; that was one round. So I can only imagine what it would have been like for a soldier on the line in WW! or WW2 with that noise being continuous and ever present.....No wonder they returned deaf and numbed to life...even without the carnage they would have witnessed or been part of, the noise alone would easily be enough to destroy most snowflakes today...

Originally Posted by timattalon

I do not know if this qualifies as a gunsmithing error but I certainly learnt from the experience....

I was at the range sighting in two rifles of the same brand and calibre....(Mosin Nagants in 7.62x54R)
I had that nagging feeling that something was not right...you know the one where you triple check EVERYTHING then check it again because something does not feel right but cannot find anything wrong.....

I checked each rifle thad its own bolt and not another one.
I checked the ammo was correctly loaded (Both were using factory Barnaul so no mixed ammo)
I lined up on the target and squeezed off the first round....

BOOM!!!!!





In a concrete walled bunker style range with a concrete roof and floor and open at the front and back I IMMEDIATELY noticed the earmuffs were ON my head but not ON my ears.....you know when you put them up to talk on the phone or to someone so you rears are clear then drop them back onto your ears after...I did not do the last bit....I stood there for about 10 seconds like a stunned mullet, I then tenderly checked if my ears were bleeding because, damn they were ringing....

At that point I learnt TWO very important things.....earmuffs are a must if I want to continue hearing....and two; that was one round. So I can only imagine what it would have been like for a soldier on the line in WW! or WW2 with that noise being continuous and ever present.....No wonder they returned deaf and numbed to life...even without the carnage they would have witnessed or been part of, the noise alone would easily be enough to destroy most snowflakes today...

was that the handloaders/deerstalkers range in CHCH
ear plugs alone wernt enough with my braked 7RM
concussive each time you pulled the trigger

Originally Posted by Bill999

was that the handloaders/deerstalkers range in CHCH
ear plugs alone wernt enough with my braked 7RM
concussive each time you pulled the trigger

@Bill999 Sure was NZHA.....

Mosins are interesting to compare. These were the 20" carbines circa mid 50s. The older 26 inch one I had was a very different beast to use. The only physical difference was the 6 inch longer barrel...for that 6 inches I got almost no muzzle flash and a rifle that shot more like a 303 with little recoil and was really quite tame. The carbines had a similar stock and were simply 6 inches shorter. For that I got a muzzle flash you could spotlight with, a boom that would wake the whole city and recoil that made you wonder if you had a recoil fetish.....That extra 6 inches meant the powder had burnt properly and the reduced noise certainly appeared to reduce the perceived recoil. (Actual push back was probably the same but with the noise reduced the brain says to itself" that was quieter so must be softer.......")

Originally Posted by timattalon

BOOM!!!!!

I once shot a cow in a high cattle yards well railed with 6x2s using a 303. Much the same experience.