Winchester 52-B Solid Bottom Receiver

This rifle was missing the stock and the trigger. Finally found a trigger and a stock that worked. Put it all back together.

When people had to turn in their firearms in England, Mac Tilton purchased a number of containers. This rifle was found. The person that purchased it thought is was rather unusual. They found out it was owned by C.J. Hyde. It was discovered that he had won a number of World Championships with this rifle. I’ve attached an article. It has had three Eric Johnson barrels on it. I believe Winchester made this receiver. The shape of the numbers are very similar to the ones that Winchester uses. The way it’s stamp looks to be an experimental Winchester. This rifle is a real treasure and it’s a shame that it was lost from the English Shooting Community in this way.

The trigger that I found, I believe to be a Smith Trigger. I noticed that the wear patterns on the pervious trigger don’t match match. Possibly, the original trigger was a Wright Allen. I tried to bring this rifle back with the parts that I had to match the rifle’s time period. Every once in a while you get to work on something that intrigues you this much. It was a real thrill to work on an item of such historical importance. I’ve worked on a few modern World Championship rifles and to have worked on this one brings it all full circle.

If anyone can add anymore info to this, please let me know.

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Turkish Walnut for Benchrest Stock for a Fortner Action

Finally made a pattern for a Benchrest Stock!

Used that for the Turkish Walnut Stock.

Fortner Action are a little different to work with. You have to put a magazine well in the magazines with fit into the bottom of the stock. The trigger guard has to be fitted at an angle.

The pistol grip cap is bloodwood.

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Sometimes Bad Things Happen

I was sent this broken stock to repair. It’s an early stock of mine. I’m in the processes of putting it all back together. Here are some pictures before I finished and completed the work.

I glued it back together, inserted a new pin and put in the splines for a extra strength and added insurance.

This was shipped by a major shipper and broken during transport. It took a tremendous amount of force to make a break like this. I would not be inclined to use this shipper in the future. I’ve had other problem with this shipper, as well.

I’ve broken shovel handles like this by using it as a lever.

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Retrofitting Prone stocks for FTR

I’ve been catching up on a few smaller things in between the larger ones.

Retrofitting entails putting a rear bag slider at the appropriate angle and finding a piece of wood from my stash aka the scrap pile to put under the stock. The scrap pile has bits of English Walnut, Mango, Koa and Purple Heart… nothing goes to waste.

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I had a comment about stock height and recoil.

Here are two configurations of F-Class rifles, both shot in this year’s Western Wildcat Match.

This first rifle is Leo Cebula’s which is an Winchester 52E action. Leo was the original owner, he had the gun barreled by CP Hart. This was after Mike Walker left Hart Barrels. Later, Lenore Lepinski had if for a number of years. After Leo got the rifle back, I rebuilt the it and and added a custom Doan Trevor mango stock. I used the old Hart barrel and rechamberred it. This barrel could be approximately 50 years old.

Here is Jim Murphy’s rifle. It’s a Vudoo Action with a fiberglass stock. I reclaimed the stock as it was bedded for 2000 Anschutz. Filled in the bedding and then pillar bedded the Vudoo. Also, I cleaned up the finish and resprayed it.

In reply to the height of the stock causing recoil, it seems to be indeterminate. Both rifles performed well. Leo and Jim both said there is no problem with recoil.

Here is the trophy for the Western Wildcat Match. When I was assembling it, I realized that the names read like the Who’s Who in the Smallbore World.

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Congratulations, Trudie Fay!

Trudie went to South Africa with a rifle that I barrelled and is coming home with Shiny New Medals.

Congrats, Trudie you are a rock star!

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Turbo V1 Action with Claro Walnut Stock for F-Class

The pistol Grip Cap is Ebony and Bloodwood.

This one fancy piece of walnut.

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FINISHED: Smallbore Project – 52 Winchester

This is my own stock, I built for myself. It purple heart, maple and walnut.

 I added an extension to the bolt handle. The hole in the stock is to release the sear to get the bolt out. And offset scope blocks.Update from Last Spring: This is the 52 Winchester with Hart Barrel and Lilja tight chamber that I put together a few months ago. Finally had some time to shoot it in the usual Albuquerque winds. This was with non-selected ammo and me being a shaky old guy. I will shoot this at the Wildcat. I still will take my trusty old 37 Remington, though.

Here are the 3 post from the beginning of this project:

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One Last Southwest Nationals Post

John Friguglietti sent over some photos. One of the photos is the 2nd place team. John was top Palma Rifle and 2nd place overall in the individuals. I’ve done a few stocks John and he says this is his favorite. Congrats!

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More from Southwest Nationals

Here’s Luke with Sean Simmons from Nightforce. I wonder if they are gonna start the second generation of ZZ Top.

Here’s Stephen Bunde:

and John Friguglietti:

and another one of Luke Ramsay with the trophy:

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More from The Southwest Nationals

I participated at the Southwest Nationals. I survived.

I did though get to visit with some old friends. It’s been many years since I put these guys up on their pedestals.

Congrats to all that had their name added to them.

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UPDATE from Southwest Nationals

Congrats to Luke Ramsey, Steffen Bunde, John Friguglietti and anyone else out here shooting one of my rifles. Let me know who you are.

From Steffen:

I won the Southwest Nationals Palma individual sling match today. Another cold and windy day. At the 1000 yard line, the wind was 10-15mph. Made for some sporty shooting. This is a picture of me with Doan Trevor, a master artist at making gun stocks. Thanks to Berger bullets, Lapua brass and Vihtavuori powder for supporting the US Palma team.

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English Walnut F-Class for Borden Action

Currently working on this. Will finish soon.

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Finished Over Under African Rifle – “Restocking”

Finished this project! It was cool to do something a little different.

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American Walnut FTR Stock with a Stolle Panda Action

The stock is from an American Walnut tree that was living in Massachusetts.

Had some supervision on this one.

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Over Under African Rifle – “Restocking”

The rifle came to me with a broken stock. There’s a lot tedious work that goes into a project like this. Notice that amount of blacking on the towel. The stock is English Walnut and is Rosewood. This will be completely when I get the trigger guard.

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Finished “Reinventing” The Wheel

Now that this is mostly completed, bobbins and flyer to be done in the future, I can go back to my daily woodworking.

I did some hand carving on the pillar block and base.

I have a really unique piece of wood that I’m currently whittling away on. Pictures soon.

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In Progress – Spinning Wheel

From the previous post, you can see I was assembling the hub with the spokes. Once that was finished the hub goes into the jig that you see on the table saw. Two steps of radius cut into the spokes and the the spokes fit into the lip of the rim. Also, I inletted the base of the spinning wheel with rosewood. Legs have been turned as well. Will be making bobbins and a flyer in the future. Stock work calls.

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Reinventing The (Spinning) Wheel

Things have slowed down just a bit. I’ve been keeping busy by making another spinning wheel. Idle hands and all.

So, far I’ve gotten the wheel, the spokes and the hub made. Will be assembling the wheel in the next couple days.

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Making a Laminate Stock

These are fancy flat pieces of wood from stocks I’ve done. It’s a mix of English Walnut, American Walnut, Koa, Mango, North American Walnut. The piece that I put water on was part of the USNRT Raffle Rifle.

This is stock is available now. There’s not much of a wait list at this moment. It’s good time to put in an order.

I’ve also started on a Spinning Wheel.

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American Walnut Stock with a Remington Action for FTR

Three pillar bedding. Hart Rifle Barrel. Trued the action. Ebony Pistol Cap.

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Bastogne Walnut Stock with a Barnard Action

Another really nice piece of wood.

From duplication to finish product.

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USNRT Plaque Finds Home Next to Old Plaque

I put up my USNRT Plaque up next to my International Cycle Show 1st Place Best in Paint Plaque.

There was an interesting incident at the show. After, we won the all 9 sections cumulating in Best in Show, a rather famous handle-barred mustached guy (he ended up with a TV show) from Southern Tier of New York wanted to kick the crap outta us (my business partner and me). This man had biceps the size of my thigh… luckily, all that cross country running came in use. One of the the other lilliputians that put up a great defense was Al Warner.

This chopper has an Arlen Ness prototype front end. Arlen was concerned about whether the thin tubing could carry all the weight. It functioned without a problem. This was one of the first molded frame chopper to be shown at International Show Car shows. All the wiring was hidden in the frame, including the electronics.

Note the early S&S carburetor. In show judging you get extra points for fenders. I crafted a front fender and was able to attach it to the forks.

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Highly Figured Claro Walnut Stock with Stolle Panda Action

Finished up this Palma Rifle last week. This has a Border Barrel. Another happy friend.

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Spirit of America Match 2022

Congrats to Trudie for winning the Aggregate and the Senior Awards!

Thank you for the United State National Rifle Team for my plaque! It’s going to hang proudly in the workshop.

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