Last winter I purchased a used Lyman GPR from a member of this forum. The member had not been altogether honest in his description of the condition of the rifle before I bought it, as there was damage to the metal on the barrel and barrel rib when it arrived to me, but I used this as motivation to customize the rifle more to my liking.
I decided that I wanted to do several things to the rifle:
- file off the lettering on the barrel;
- straighten the tang and lengthen the wrist;
- narrow the width of the forearm and thin the area where the forearm meets the barrel channel;
- reshape the buttstock and beavertail and change the angle of the buttplate;
- remove the 'perch belly' from the underside of the buttstock;
- refinish the metal with a 'brown - rust blue' finish;
- replace the trigger assembly, the front sight and the rear sight.
This was my first time doing this kind of work, and I wanted to challenge myself by having to accomplish some of the tasks that I would have to do if I decided to undertake a more ambitious rifle build someday. I figured if I messed up along the way that I would still have a rifle that would be functional enough to hunt with - hopefully!
I made many, many mistakes along the way, primarily on the stock, because of choosing to work in poor lighting conditions sometimes (like, working by headlamp in the middle of the night because I was inspired!) and because I did not step back often enough to look at the work from all angles. I was also trying to work during a very difficult time due to the sudden death of my wife's dear mother, and although I found it comforting to work on the rifle as I grieved, I was definitely not at my best.
So, here is a little journey of the process. I hope it can be helpful to other newbies out there who may be contemplating doing the same thing.
Here are a couple of 'before' pictures of the GPR:
And now I file off the stamped lettering, which then led to draw-filing the entire barrel:
Boy that was a satisfying thing to do!
I then straightened the tang a bit to attain a more traditional angle and to facilitate the lengthening of the wrist. This required re-inletting the tang which actually fun to do:
I also reshaped the snail to make it look a little more like a snail:
Here I am starting to straighten the line of the bottom of the forestock, which came with a bit of a belly to it:
And here I begin to remove the perch belly on the buttstock:
Reshaping the beavertail and removing some of the bulk of the buttstock:
Changing the angle of the buttplate. And here is one place where I messed up, by changing the angle perhaps too much and removing too much of the bottom of the buttstock. You can see here how it reduced the buttstock by quite a bit. I thought I was doomed at this point but decided to continue - especially since buying another Lyman stock would have set me back $250!
Here is the beginning of reshaping the lock panels - another area where I got a little careless and removed too much material without check check checking along the way. The final product is not too terribly bad but does not have the rugged elegance I was aiming for:
After this point I went through a period of discouragement and did not documenting the process as much as I should have. I took a break for a few months and then slowly reapproached the work. I fit the buttplate to the buttstock, re-inlet the toeplate and trigger guard, and did final shaping of the stock.
I then sanded the stock to 320 grit sandpaper and refinished it with 6 coats of Chambers Traditional Oil Finish - I love this stuff! It revealed qualities to the wood that the factory finish did a great job of hiding.
I prepped the metal parts for browning by sanding to 180 grit paper. I knew I did not want a mirror-finish to the metal, but rather wanted something with more of a texture to it. I also wanted a color to the metal somewhere between a brown and a rust blue. I used Wahkon Bay Browning Solution and let the parts rust in a heated and very humid bathroom. I applied the solution and let it rust four times without carding. Then I carded the parts with a piece of denim, neutralized with ammonia, scrubbed them with Lava soap, and put all the parts in a bath of boiling water and let them sit until they started to darken. I removed the parts, lightly carded with a Scotchbrite pad, and oiled thoroughly with something called Corrosion-X.
And here are a few photos of the final product:
I really love the color and texture of the metal and feel fortunate that it came out this way.
My effort was far from perfect in many ways but I learned a lot and feel more prepared for my next project, which will be a Jim Chambers Isaac Haines flintlock - when funds allow!
Thanks for bearing with me and feel free to ask any questions.
I decided that I wanted to do several things to the rifle:
- file off the lettering on the barrel;
- straighten the tang and lengthen the wrist;
- narrow the width of the forearm and thin the area where the forearm meets the barrel channel;
- reshape the buttstock and beavertail and change the angle of the buttplate;
- remove the 'perch belly' from the underside of the buttstock;
- refinish the metal with a 'brown - rust blue' finish;
- replace the trigger assembly, the front sight and the rear sight.
This was my first time doing this kind of work, and I wanted to challenge myself by having to accomplish some of the tasks that I would have to do if I decided to undertake a more ambitious rifle build someday. I figured if I messed up along the way that I would still have a rifle that would be functional enough to hunt with - hopefully!
I made many, many mistakes along the way, primarily on the stock, because of choosing to work in poor lighting conditions sometimes (like, working by headlamp in the middle of the night because I was inspired!) and because I did not step back often enough to look at the work from all angles. I was also trying to work during a very difficult time due to the sudden death of my wife's dear mother, and although I found it comforting to work on the rifle as I grieved, I was definitely not at my best.
So, here is a little journey of the process. I hope it can be helpful to other newbies out there who may be contemplating doing the same thing.
Here are a couple of 'before' pictures of the GPR:
And now I file off the stamped lettering, which then led to draw-filing the entire barrel:
Boy that was a satisfying thing to do!
I then straightened the tang a bit to attain a more traditional angle and to facilitate the lengthening of the wrist. This required re-inletting the tang which actually fun to do:
I also reshaped the snail to make it look a little more like a snail:
Here I am starting to straighten the line of the bottom of the forestock, which came with a bit of a belly to it:
And here I begin to remove the perch belly on the buttstock:
Reshaping the beavertail and removing some of the bulk of the buttstock:
Changing the angle of the buttplate. And here is one place where I messed up, by changing the angle perhaps too much and removing too much of the bottom of the buttstock. You can see here how it reduced the buttstock by quite a bit. I thought I was doomed at this point but decided to continue - especially since buying another Lyman stock would have set me back $250!
Here is the beginning of reshaping the lock panels - another area where I got a little careless and removed too much material without check check checking along the way. The final product is not too terribly bad but does not have the rugged elegance I was aiming for:
After this point I went through a period of discouragement and did not documenting the process as much as I should have. I took a break for a few months and then slowly reapproached the work. I fit the buttplate to the buttstock, re-inlet the toeplate and trigger guard, and did final shaping of the stock.
I then sanded the stock to 320 grit sandpaper and refinished it with 6 coats of Chambers Traditional Oil Finish - I love this stuff! It revealed qualities to the wood that the factory finish did a great job of hiding.
I prepped the metal parts for browning by sanding to 180 grit paper. I knew I did not want a mirror-finish to the metal, but rather wanted something with more of a texture to it. I also wanted a color to the metal somewhere between a brown and a rust blue. I used Wahkon Bay Browning Solution and let the parts rust in a heated and very humid bathroom. I applied the solution and let it rust four times without carding. Then I carded the parts with a piece of denim, neutralized with ammonia, scrubbed them with Lava soap, and put all the parts in a bath of boiling water and let them sit until they started to darken. I removed the parts, lightly carded with a Scotchbrite pad, and oiled thoroughly with something called Corrosion-X.
And here are a few photos of the final product:
I really love the color and texture of the metal and feel fortunate that it came out this way.
My effort was far from perfect in many ways but I learned a lot and feel more prepared for my next project, which will be a Jim Chambers Isaac Haines flintlock - when funds allow!
Thanks for bearing with me and feel free to ask any questions.
