Range Report--1st trip for

[dmills]

My impulse buy Lyman GPR .54 percussion arrived yesterday. I stripped it down, inspected the barrel, cleaned and reassembled. The only noticable problem with fit was that the wedge keys were very tight.

Finish is in very good, almost excellent condition.

The only blemish on the stock is at the rear escutcheon plate:

where you can see a couple of hick-ups where the stock was struck during reinsertion of the tight wedge key or maybe damaged with one of those key removal tools. Will these blemishes steam out?

Made a quick trip to the range today with some Speer swaged balls in .530, some Goex fffg, and teflon patch strips in .020. Started and stayed with 70 gr. Shooting at 25 yds on sandbags. No wind. About 95 degrees or so. Swabbing between shots.

The first shot out of the barrel was at 9 o'clock in the 8 ring. Then the next four grouped at 11 o'clock in the 7 & 6 rings.

Maybe too soon some would say, but I lowered the rear sight for the next 5 shots:

About that time, three 18-20 year olds arrived at the 100 yard tables with their assault rifle with a 100 round cylinder of some sort and proceeded to spray bullets into the ground, over the rear bank, and across shooting lanes. I was watching this and listening to the range officer sorting it out, when I decided to entertain myself by loading a ball without powder. :cursing:

After I shot that out, I tapped the front sight left about 1/16" and shot 5 more.

About that time a guy joined me at the 25 yard table and commenced asking me questions about his Remington xxx that he had just bought and mounted some scope on. I managed to keep loading and shot three more to finish out the 6-bull target.

I know this was quick and not very scientific. Usually, I would not start moving the sights until I had a more established baseline. And I overadjusted the front sight. But overall I am very pleased with this one.

 

[Slake]

IMHO a tight wedge pin is a good wedge pin...enjoy

 

[***Sean***]

Looks pretty good. The 54 puts a nice easy to see hole in a target. Which one are you going to bring to Brady? How did the Green Mountain work out in your TC?

Sean

 

[dmills]

Well, I'll bring both. The .45 GM barrel is working out fine. But I am still having problems matching the Bo-Mar rear sights (I thought I needed) with the front sight. I am fixin' that problem and will report soon.

 

[Zonie]

Ya gotta love em young fellers with thar super-duper machinegun things. Especially when they run out of ammunition and look over at your target and say things like "Holy Cripes! That guy has blown the center right out of his target with that old gun!!!"

:grin: :rotf: :grin:

 

[***Sean***]

Any luck getting those dings out? They were hard to see in your pic. I am having pretty good results with a Winchester Model 97 today. Had a wrinkled coat of varnish on it. Plus a couple nasty digs. They are looking better but not perfect. Striped the varnish and steamed the stock.. Going to hit it with some steal wool and steam again.

Sean

 

[paulvallandigham]

'Sean: Soak the wood and steam it, but save the steel wool to lightly remove the whiskers only before refinishing the gun. Don't be impatient about steaming. This process takes time. I spent more than a week steaming the dents and dinks out of a Win. model 52 target rifle stock that was saved from Ft. Leonard Wood when it sold off its old rifles. The first steaming got out most of the dents. The dinks took many repeated efforts over days before they finally surrendered. I just had to convince them I wasn't going away!

 

[dmills]

Sean, I haven't even thought about that for a while. I've read about steaming out dents like that but don't really know the procedure yet. Good luck with yours.

 

[***Sean***]

Ill give it week. I just used a pan of boiling water on the stove. Ill wet it down today and steam it some more.

 

[walruskid1]

i've removed dents by laying a wet rag on the stock and using the mrs.'s iron. may or may not work for your dents. nice shootin' by the way. :hatsoff:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Walruskid: Good addition. I had a very deep dent in a stock that took days of steaming, and then a wet rag layed on the stock over the dent for hours, and use of a steam iron every 15 minutes or so. After steaming with the iron to get the wood hot to the touch, I would stop, resoak the rag, put it back on the stock and wait another 15 minutes. I didn't see any apparent progress until about 5 hours later, and it took most of a full day with the wet rag, steaming, and rewetting the wood before the dent lifted out sufficiently to refinish. As it was, there was grey crud in the edge of the dent- dirt I expect- that would not come out, so that if you look closely, you could see where the dent had been. This was an old piece of American Walnut, and the dent was in some white, " cambian" growth they got away with selling to the military. The area would not take stain, so I ended up " painting" the wood with some stain, letting it sit, and then carefully refinishing the stock so that my oil finish did not bleed the stain, or expose the white wood. The owner of the gun was shocked when he saw the stock, because he could not recognize it easily. He "third-degreed" me on how I stained and finished the stock, as he considered himself a fine wood refinisher( and he did outstanding work). The stock looked so good, the parkerized finish looked absolutely terrible, so I had the metal parts refinished in black chrome, with the bolt, and the chamber and bore white chromed. It was worth all the labor and trouble steaming out the dents, and the one gouge, and then refinishing the wood. Every time that gun comes out of its case, now, it draws a crowd at the range. The owner liked it so much, he added globe front sight, a new Aperture sight, a New Target scope, hook buttplate, palmrest, and sling. He told me that the chrome-plating of the chamber tighted up the chamber enough that he no longer had blowback stains on his casings when they were fired in the new chamber. Even with the scope, the gun was more accurate than he could hold it.

 

[***Sean***]

Can you over do it? To much steam? Or get them to wet? Mine cracked!! Makes me sick. It was made in 1925. Looks like im shopping for a replacement. :cursing:

 

[captgary]

Was at the range the other day and went to the 100 yarder after doing my usual 40 shots at the 50 yard range. Young fella with assault type rifle and what looked like a 50 power scope said I could shoot at one of his 6 targets set up down range, the bottom right one. So with the old GPR ,open sights and 59 year old eyes I aimed a little high and shot. Smoke cleared and I put my regular glasses on and looked down range, couldent see anything, Kid with the scoped rifle looked at me and wanted to know how the h--- I could hit the bulls eye with that ancient looking thing. Guess everyone gets lucky once in a while.. Packed my stuff and left after the one shot. Kid was still shaking his head, and it made my day :rotf:

 

[dmills]

Was at the range the other day and went to the 100 yarder after doing my usual 40 shots at the 50 yard range. Young fella with assault type rifle and what looked like a 50 power scope said I could shoot at one of his 6 targets set up down range, the bottom right one. So with the old GPR ,open sights and 59 year old eyes I aimed a little high and shot. Smoke cleared and I put my regular glasses on and looked down range, couldent see anything, Kid with the scoped rifle looked at me and wanted to know how the h--- I could hit the bulls eye with that ancient looking thing. Guess everyone gets lucky once in a while.. Packed my stuff and left after the one shot. Kid was still shaking his head, and it made my day :rotf:

Yeah, those quys crack me up. Of course, many of them do not know or care about proper range conduct and make me ..........ah .........nervous.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You don't say what ' cracked' but I must assume you are talking about the stock. If a stock has a hidden flaw, it can crack during th build or 50 years later. Don't blame yourself. Since the steam can only penetrate the surface of the wood, I don't see how there can be " too much " steam applied. Hard woods are just not going to go mushy on you because of a little steam. Now, if you bury the stock at the bottom of a lake for 50 years, where pressure and time both combine to make the water penetrate the wood, along with bacteria eating into the pores, you will get a lot of rotted wood. But this is the not problem associated with using steam to lift dents. Sorry about that old stock cracking. If it has sentimental value, it might be worth using epoxy glues injected with a syringe into the cracks to close it and restore the strength of the stock. You won't be able to hide the break line, but you will be able to save an old stock. A lot of old guns show signs of past repairs. The other thing to consider doing is to send the stock to a stock maker, like Dick Greensides at Pecatonica, and ask him to use it as a pattern to make a new stock.

 

[***Sean***]

paulvallandigham,
just may try to glue it. Still can buy new ones...
If it cracks again when I shoot it I might just replace it.

 

[rabbit03]

Well Pilgrim, looks like you come a long way since I seen you last! Looks good buddy, hope to see you again in a few weeks.

Rabbit03