Lee Loader

I love old guns!
The older the better as long as they are fireable.
Hate wall hangers

If you are perusing the web sometime go to IMA-USA.com and in their Militaria section look for untouched original antique guns.
They have some of the most honest advertisement I have ever run across and do not pull the punches when describing these old relics.
The weapons I chose came from the Nepal Cache and after reading up on them decided to purchase two(2) Gahendra Martini Henrys in 577/450 and two(2) gahendra parts rifles hoping to get enough good material to get 2 shootable rifles
Remember I said their advertisement was the best I have ever seen?
At the time I felt I had received a large box of floor sweepings.
Basically this is what I received After a couple of weeks with penetrating oil and a trip through the electrolysis tanks shown in my previous post I wound up with this The original furniture was toast (you could crumble it in your hand) I made new furniture out of Bannister grade Maple, stained it with ferric nitrate and finished it using a system my Grandfather taught me as a child using a mixture of linseed oil and shellac.
Using white shellac gives a lighter finish and amber shellac will age with time giving a much nicer warmer finish.
Anyway the completed gahendras looked like That left me with a junk box full of various Gahendra parts and I decided to make something with them.
Using 71/84 Mauser barrels I built 2 Martini Mausers.
One of them is in the military look and the other is a sporter Again all furniture is home made with no power tools except a saber saw to cut the original shape.
On the sporter I made a rear sight using the rear sight from a 303 enfield jungle carbine.
It is good to 300 yards.A gentleman named buckshot over on Cast Boolits gave me permission to copy his sight
I have since changed to a standard BP long range sight that was given to me and I now can get out to 855 yards with a BP charge of 70 grains FFG and a.449 340 grain cast grease groove bullet or a 390 grain .449 paper patched bullet The main downfall of all these rifles is the 18 pound trigger pull.
It is so basic there is no way to change it.
The Nepalese that carried them were some kind of special in my book

Agreed IMA had a reality show for a short while loved it.
Great work.

Again amazing work on those stocks !!! And the restoration of the receivers and barrels are great too.

You have a real gift for this work! The largest mix into that gift must be patience!

Doing this kind of work (all by hand ) is my frustration outlet.
With my wifes health problems I needed something to get rid of excess energy and frustrations.
Going out in the garage and beating and banging on metal and rasping or chiseling wood does that for me.
As a plus I have learned stockmaking and a whole bunch about gunsmithing.

Just as an aside the actions on all of the Gahendras were Magnafluxed and die penetrant tested to ensure they were safe.
Was in the industry for some time and still have friends there so they kindly helped me and tested them.
Could not do X-rays as their isotope was out on a job.
All tested good but were a little softer than I wanted.
Do not have or know anyone that does color case hardening so went with what I had.
I inspect them after each range trip for any signs of weakness but so far (knock on wood ) have found none.

The one thing that amazes me about these old rifles is they were made in the local Mom and Pop shop to the same blueprint but each ones own determination of prints making each a one- Off and they all are works of art considering the were made over 150 years ago considering what machining procedures must have been back then!


beekeeper

Great job Beekeeper. I am impressed. Thanks for sharing with us.

Amazing thread and thank you so much for sharing.

You sir, have skills I would die for! Great job.

The only problem is you always have the itch to do another one!

When you are my age and have 3 safes full of guns you have to stop and think about what the heck you are going to do with all of them.
Collector wise they have no value (only to me) as they are not 100% original .
So unless you find someone that wants that specific weapon you are stuck with a lot of gun junk (or so I am told by some collectors).

Thanks for the complements on them tho as it helps my oversize ego (not).


beekeeper

beekeeper wrote:The only problem is you always have the itch to do another one!
When you are my age and have 3 safes full of guns you have to stop and think about what the heck you are going to do with all of them.
Collector wise they have no value (only to me) as they are not 100% original .
So unless you find someone that wants that specific weapon you are stuck with a lot of gun junk (or so I am told by some collectors).
Thanks for the complements on them tho as it helps my oversize ego (not).beekeeper

Heck figuring out what to do with them isn't my problem. I should have a room full of guns but all I've got is 20 left in that room. The other get "borrowed" by my Sons and S-N-L. Same thing goes for reloading presses and tools, and just about everything else accumulated over the last 50 years.

But I'm not complaining as that's how I got started with my dad's help. I'm VERY PROUD of my family. I got every one of my 5 Grandsons a Henry Lever Action Youth Model .22 rifle.
I just LOVE being a grandpa.