Thread: Self isolation gun projects

Gave the howa mini a wee paint job, was going to go Matt black but liked the grey primer coat so just gave it a few more. Just a subtle wee change from the stainless

Wouldn’t leave it just as primer,might need a clear coat over the top ,found my paint job on the sako rubbed off at the carry spots,oils from your hands affect the primer.I used a black etch primer on my stainless barrel and it hasn’t worn off where as camo top coats have.

I am going to leave as is and see how it goes, I did a 10/22 barrel couple years ago with this and was going to put a top coat bit ended up wanting to go shooting so left it and never went back to finish it and it has withstood really well. Be interesting to see as 10/22 was bead blasted first so better prep.worst case is it scratches/peels off and I'll have to redo at some stage.so your camo top coats wore off down to your etch primer or did you just have a etch primer on?

Decided to make a benchrest and used it today to check the sighting on that JW15. The butt rest is moveable to accommodate different length rifles.

Now discovered though that I need to angle cut those outside top corners of the butt rest as they dig into you.

Originally Posted by Mackattack

I am going to leave as is and see how it goes, I did a 10/22 barrel couple years ago with this and was going to put a top coat bit ended up wanting to go shooting so left it and never went back to finish it and it has withstood really well. Be interesting to see as 10/22 was bead blasted first so better prep.worst case is it scratches/peels off and I'll have to redo at some stage.so your camo top coats wore off down to your etch primer or did you just have a etch primer on?

The camo coats wore off but I carry my gun a bit funny so hands contact the barrel a fair bit,the black etch primer has held up,will post a photo tomorrow.camo coats were a product called rustoleum .

Finished this a while ago, but lockdown finally got me to post about it.
Decided I wanted some front and rear sights for a single shot rifle but didn’t have enough time to do it in the workshop, so modelled it with 5 minutes here and there and then printed it instead.
Ultimately these were to test the idea and adjust rather than a finished product, but they worked out really well. Great way to prototype stuff or just make something tough and lightweight quickly.


Front sight is a keyed insert so you can change it out as you want – the triangular profile was made to be filed down for testing but ended up not needing to file. Next version would be carbon fibre for rigidity and have a fibre optic insert for low light.


Rear sight is elevation adjustable with a through-drilled hex head screw and nut assembly. I pressed a disk onto the head of the screw to block the right a bit better. Printed the rail too just for fun – A carbon fibre rail would actually work quite well. In the future I’ll probably either make the rear sight a clamp-on unit or built it into the rail so it can fold away when not in use and not interfere with a scope.

Originally Posted by muzza

Changed scopes on my Norinco target rifle for the rimfire shoot out competition

Looks like I'm going to need to find a decent left handed .22 target rifle fast !

Made a foresight for my Italian slug pistol, attached it with JB Weld. (I’d made a rear sight and foresight a while ago but somehow lost the foresight)
Looks good - only I found out it shoots 8 inches high at 10 metres even with the rear sight at lowest setting

I guess the previous foresight was a tad higher…

Slightly envious of the guys for who lockdown gives them extra project time - no such luck here. Still, managed to pull this together on Sunday:





It's a jig for hollowpointing .22 target ammo into better subsonic hunting ammo. Not that I strictly needed one, but it occurred to me that I happened to already have almost everything I needed: collet block with ER25 6mm collet, mill/drill as a press, and a 60deg carbide dead centre. I turned up the stand/guide from 303 stainless. Assembly works like this:

1) Clamp the stand in the mill vise. The base is cut perpendicular and I already know my vise ways are flat and square, so it doesn't need further aligning.
2) Using a centre finder, centre the mill quill over top of the stand. Insert dead centre. Zero mill height readout with tip of centre touching top of stand, then retract out of the way.
3) Place .22 round in the recess in the top of the stand.
4) Lower collet block (collet adjusted loose) over top of the .22 round and the stand. The stand is turned to be a close slip fit for the bore of the collet block and it all self aligns before the bullet nose starts entering the collet. Snug collet by hand (witness marked to make it repeatable.) The tip of the bullet only slightly protrudes from the top of the collet so the bullet driving bands are fully supported.
5) Lower quill to desired depth; pressing the centre into the nose of the bullet.
6) Retract quill, slightly loosen collet, lift collet block off guide and remove modified round (drops free with a light tap of the fingers).
7) Repeat steps 3-6. Takes about 35s a round, but it would be quicker if I made up a hard depth stop instead of creeping up using the DRO.

I've made up 5 test rounds each of 2.0mm, 2.5mm and 3.0mm HP depth (2.5mm pictured) from the RWS Target Rifle 40gr my Voere likes. Looking forward to testing them for grouping after lockdown, but I'd be surprised if the accuracy suffered much. That 3.0mm HP sure looks nasty...

New Property. We're supposed to be building a shed and house but . . . bloody engineers

So today I attended to priorities - built a new backstop for the 22 range, we're pretty much surrounded by "reserve" so shooting a suppressed 22 is a luxury I like to indulge!



Will be able to shoot 50M from the new deck. 100M from within the property. Out to 240M with the goodwill of the grazier of the reserve - thats heaps for a 22!

Ran out of epoxy yesterday which has stalled my Tikka CF stock project, however I had this Marlin stock project that needed dremelling to inlet that I hadn't attacked for a while. Used a bit of Kevlar material in this stock. Quite different to work compared with CF.


Need to inlet the forend tomorrow. Thinking of making it a one piece unit with an incorporated CF feedtube.

One last burst in the workshop before I go back to work at level 3

A very custom scope mounting rail
Quite a lot of machining doing the top side
Tomorrow the barrel profile and taper to do on the bottom

Originally Posted by PaulNZ

Slightly envious of the guys for who lockdown gives them extra project time - no such luck here. Still, managed to pull this together on Sunday:





It's a jig for hollowpointing .22 target ammo into better subsonic hunting ammo. Not that I strictly needed one, but it occurred to me that I happened to already have almost everything I needed: collet block with ER25 6mm collet, mill/drill as a press, and a 60deg carbide dead centre. I turned up the stand/guide from 303 stainless. Assembly works like this:

1) Clamp the stand in the mill vise. The base is cut perpendicular and I already know my vise ways are flat and square, so it doesn't need further aligning.
2) Using a centre finder, centre the mill quill over top of the stand. Insert dead centre. Zero mill height readout with tip of centre touching top of stand, then retract out of the way.
3) Place .22 round in the recess in the top of the stand.
4) Lower collet block (collet adjusted loose) over top of the .22 round and the stand. The stand is turned to be a close slip fit for the bore of the collet block and it all self aligns before the bullet nose starts entering the collet. Snug collet by hand (witness marked to make it repeatable.) The tip of the bullet only slightly protrudes from the top of the collet so the bullet driving bands are fully supported.
5) Lower quill to desired depth; pressing the centre into the nose of the bullet.
6) Retract quill, slightly loosen collet, lift collet block off guide and remove modified round (drops free with a light tap of the fingers).
7) Repeat steps 3-6. Takes about 35s a round, but it would be quicker if I made up a hard depth stop instead of creeping up using the DRO.

I've made up 5 test rounds each of 2.0mm, 2.5mm and 3.0mm HP depth (2.5mm pictured) from the RWS Target Rifle 40gr my Voere likes. Looking forward to testing them for grouping after lockdown, but I'd be surprised if the accuracy suffered much. That 3.0mm HP sure looks nasty...

we did this crudely for years before powerpoint was made by winchester...it will make hollow point rounds stop inside body of hare or possum with chest shot 90% of the time,we gave up shooting possums in the head and simple chest shot them in the V of the throat patch....seldom exited between shoulder blades..... awesome job you have done,look forward to seeing how the preform.

Thanks, will put up a follow-up post after I've had a chance to test.

My portable shooting bench (takes down to "flat") worked pretty good but I'm always looking for improvements . . .

So in the past the shooter sat on a separate stool, but I got to thinking and looking at other designs that if the seat was connected to the bench the shooters weight could contribute to stability.

An afternoons work with some basic tools( poor old jigsaw which gave its last gasp for this job, I think my old Dad who has since passed gave me it as "very used" about 10 years ago), some ply that was lying about and a wee bit of swearing, produced this:



The seat adds considerable stability to the bench, I'd rate it about 95% of a concrete one now.