NRA Lifetime Membership $300.00 till March!

Tom Gresham of Gun Talk Radio started this drive a few months ago, and it was a great idea that has gotten lots of gun owners to "pull the trigger" on making a greater, willing contribution (unlike forced taxation) to the strongest voice of defense for our Constitution's 2nd Amendment in OUR Bill of Rights, the NRA. I adjure you to join this effort, as defense under tyrannical regime assaults is expensive, as we now have first-hand evidence of, and our pockets take repeated hits to support the very regime that seeks to disarm us. It is a classic vicious cycle of destruction, the Obama regime, consuming all productivity and liberty in an all-out assault, making the cost of production of every single thing rise through oppressive regulation while at the same time deflating the value of the dollar. This is what we are defending ourselves against, personified:

 http://www.guntalk.com/site.php
call 888-678-7894 to enlist, 24/7, until March 1st, at which time Life Membership in the NRA goes back up to $1000.00.

It was a great incentive idea, Mr. Gresham, and I applaud you, and join you.
And know that all the while this president and his Progressive Degeneratives are agitating us, right in our faces all the time, per their goal of making us submit to them, they are stealing money from us behind our backs in taxes, fees, regulations, the denial of production of energy in particular, and the denial of freedom through control of every aspect of our lives through "healthcare" and now "gun control". This abusive evil has walked the face of the earth since the beginning of man. We must stand, and they shall fall.

Sako Receiver: Tapered Integral Scope Mounts

After thirty or more likely fourty years the entirely unnecessary scope mounts on the Sako were almost melded with the receiver. In the photo I've dispatched the parasitic front mount with penetrating oil, time, gravity and, finally, the small Wheeler mallet and brass driver. In the photo (you can left mouse-click the photo to enlarge it) clearly the backward tapering of the front, integral Weaver/Picattiny type-dovetail mount can be seen. This basic tapered format has not changed with Sako in at least fifty years, as this rifle is at least fifty years old and today's Sako has the same integral mounting on the receiver. It's neat and Finnish-efficient. The rear mount with its windage screw mount was more stubborn. More time and gravity sealed its fate, thankfully. Unless I'm missing something here, to my observation the windage screw attachment of a scope ring, as above, is not strong and stable enough for enduring the shock of a rifle shot over time and handling without moving. The scope ring practically fell off with no pressure from its windage screw anchors.
     Importantly regarding scope mounts, so far, a scope's internal windage adjustment has been more than adequate for proper reticle alignment, provided the scope is mounted properly in the first place, with lapping and decent line-of-sight leveling at the get-go. I welcome and would love input if you've any contrary observational, functional opinion here!
     Taking care thorughout the dis-mount process not to stress things, age finally yielded and gave up the ghost:

You can see the slotted, tapered integral mounts here, one with the receiver. The backward taper is designed to absorb the effect of recoil when a cartridge is fired, ensuring no forward movement of the rings and scope due to shock. Ingenious Finns! Question: why isn't this tapered design used by other makers? Seems logical, practical.
Here's the front:

And the rear, now freed of oppression:

Importantly, the bolt was removed during this entire banging process and, one is not to use an impact device "harder" than the metal of the object one is working on to prevent damage to it. the brass driver I used did not damage the old mounts, which I discarded anyway. But I do believe that if I'd hammered away long enough and hard enough I nontheless would have dented and dinged the steel minorly. I did slightly bend my brass impact driver. Lesson learned! The photos are post-Hoppe's solvent and Birchwood-Casey Blue touch-up (I like using Q-tips to spot-apply it) which was needed to cover tiny abrasion marks from the original mounts.

Sako Forester: Finnish Nail-Driving Beauty, Restored!

     The 4X scope's reticle's intersecting lines, the crosshairs, cover an area about the size of a softball at 200 yards and I, as a 17 year old senior in high school would consistently get baseball-sized groups within this softball-sized area firing 100 grain factory Remington loads at this range.  To say she was limited by her myopic optics is an understatement. I killed my last whitetail deer with her some thirty years ago, cleaned her, and put her in my father's gun cabinet where she has sat undistubed ever since.
     Until now. Time to make her live to her full potential.
     This is a picture of her in mid break-down, and after a basic wipe-down with an oiled, cotton cloth. She was worse-off than she looks and I have now dealt with her issues and will address them as I conquered them. Yes, I wrote, "conquered" as I feel I am a conquistador of my own ineptitude, my former inability to comprehend ancient yet logical Finnish machinations now. And I realize how well-built this rifle is, and was. Yes. I am a conqueror. Of self.
Here, look at her. Look at her! For shame!:

I did not take many pictures of her in her disheveled state, but instead went right to work. She deserved her dignity. I did not, nor do I now, agree with post-mortem type graphics of her condition, as she is a lady. A warrior lady.

Remington 700 Accurized, Part II.

     On the rifle herself I ditched the ancient Redfield one-piece mount I'd put on thirty years ago (stripped two Allen head screws' heads in the proccess, met the local gunsmith and watched him work the drill press and screw extractor) and shopped around for something more.....solid and less restricting on access to the breech and magazine. I stopped at Leupold Mark IV bases on Midway's site and clicked, "buy", along with their compatible scope rings and an "extra" pair of "PRW" scope rings in case.
     I got over my fear of steel wool, and used OOO triple-ought to remove oxidation that resulted after thirty years despite keeping her wiped down with Remoil and Hoppes. This was critical in bringing back a beautiful finish! After sanding the bottom of the bases for perfect fitting to the receiver, and checking for scope accomodation, I screwed them in to the recommended 22 lbs. torque with the Wheeler fat wrench and checked everything out for fit:

     I "lapped" the rings with the Wheeler lapping and alligning kit, and was impressed with the difference in the allignment of the scope itself, and the added grip of the rings to the scope. It was especially important to allign the rings on these mounts, which are Picatinny/Weaver style mounts, as there is NO WINDAGE adjustment screw. Getting them even with each other reduces the amount of windage manipulation needed, thank God! Bore-sighting has not been a problem out to 100 yards, at least, adn the scope's internal adjustment should be adequate for longer shots. Of note, the Leupold Mark IVs also have a 20 Minute of Angle that you can see, a "downward" angle of the scope along the barrel to allow compensation for raising the barrel way high for turbo-distance shots way out there. Just picture Drew Breeze (or the great Dan Pastorini, who had a rocket arm) cocking his whole body back at an angle for a 60-plus yarder, and you'll get the idea.
     On the scope itself priority Number One was eye relief, the proper distance for full-focus through the scope's rear optic, along with the safety of distance from the shooter's actual eye. Have you met a member of the "Ringers Club"???? You have, if you've seen a man with "the crescent moon" around his shootin' eye. I do not wish to join this exclusive club. I've seen a member as he was being created and it was ugly. I wish I'd realized what was about to happen in time, so that I could have stopped it.
      4-5" of eye relief worked with the old, Leupold Vari-II 4X12 with 50 mm front optic. The "Medium" height PRW rings gave plenty of clearance for this front optic, and, with some 5 mm of clearance,  should provide enough clearance for even the 56 mm front optic of a future scope, provided I can place the large front objective casing in front of the bullet chamber's slope, which seems to be the most restrictive area for scope accomodation. This is good to know, as I love light-gathering optics for night hunting the piggies! I've been very pleased with the old Leupold (1989 model) in this regard, having adequate light for the taking of several boar under the light of the full moon periods, and even three-quarter full moon light. This is what the rifle is made for!

     So now all I've left to do is take her to a range and shoot her? Of course not. Something new will occur and I'll have another "project" but for now, yes, she's bore-sighted and range-ready:

Accurizing a Remington 700

     "Accurizing": a new word to me, a verb that this hunter of wild pigs and lobber of blazing lead projectiles finds fascinating of late. I wonder if my Brit friends would spell it "Accurising" with an "s" in the fashion they spell "defense" with a "c"???? Sorry about that interruption..
     Nonetheless it starts with something good and not mucking it up but instead solidifying any "looseness" anywhere behind the cartridge inside the chamber, and allowing the barrel in front of it to "free float" with no contact on the stock, anywhere. That's what I've read, anyway, and it makes sense: lock the cartridge and bullet inside the chamber like an iron glove and, upon firing it, have nothing interfere with the flight of the bullet down the barrel. So I chose a Remington 700 action and barrel in .280 that I've had in another less functional stock for thirty years, a sporter 22" barrel and no super 26" Howitzer launcher just yet, but one with which I've managed to drop an antelope at a guide-estimated 600-700 yards in its previous incarnation and know it to be consistent, which is what this whole game is about in the first place: know exactly where your bullet is at ALL times, from box to flight to zero velocity, dead-stop downrange. To do this, it's necessary to memorize the ballistic chart of the bullet you're shooting. There really is no substitute for that and it is proven when one misses a shot by an inch or whatever distance for no other reason than what was printed in black on white right there, on the chart.
     I'm still working on that myself but it's true.
     Here's a shot of the rifle in mid-metamorphosis in her Bell and Carlson Mountain synthetic stock of Kevlar and fiberglass and other non-warpable things, after a lot of shaping and tinkering, just to get a feel for things coming together...

Onward to beginnings, to what cradles this "baby," the stock:

After holding a standard Remington synthetic stock, which I liked, I wanted something with a different texture and I definitely wanted Aluminum Pillars in the stock to connect to the receiver or an entire bed of aluminum, for both solidity and stability, that one-piece unit feel. The Bell and Carlson had these pillars already installed, and after browsing and selecting, Midway zipped one out to me within a week.  All that was needed was a little sanding to get everything to meet up smoothly and tightly for a custom fit, and a lot of sanding on the barrel channel to allow for a free float of the heavier Sporter barrel I have (the B and C stock was currently only available for the skinnier, "lightweight" barrel and I was not feeling patient that day, I can tell you--I was hot to get on this project). This is simply a good feeling stock. And it would feel even better, soon, after I further customized her to my rifle's action and barrel...

Onward to the real adventure of potential disaster, the "Glass Bedding" of the stock, to form-fit the stock to the whole gun, specifically the receiver and barrel chamber areas, and all the way back down along to the tail of her, the "tang" area, where the back-most screw tightens things together.

The most important area, I've been told, is the receiver and chamber area, where solidity is paramount. Here it is, after I've done the epoxy treatment for a form-fit, using Miles Gilbert Bedrock, also from Midway (it took me three epoxy application sessions to get it really smooth back-to-front, as it was my very first time to try this and I went cautious).

You can see the receiver screw hole, the hole for the forward trigger screw (It's an ADL), and the slot for the all-important lug stop, the bar on the barrel that puts the brakes on everything inside the stock when you set off that small, progressive explosion that sends the bullet down the barrel. This forms an almost air-tight seal and I really like the final feel. (Note: the entire receiver/action area is glass-bedded in the photo--see the "slick" portion? That's the epoxy "glass". The third and final epoxy session was without the included black dye because I'd tossed the messy little tube of it after the first session).
     On first handling this "Bell and Carlson Mountain Stock with Aluminum pillars and Lightweight barrel channel, black",  and checking her for compatibility, everything fit fairly snugly except for the thick, sporter barrel, which of course rode a little high, but she would have bolted right in and a lazier man would've stopped with that and probably have been satisfied.
     The only digging and routing necessary was for the barrel channel. The stock's shallow channel for the "lightweight" Remington 700 barrel was not nearly deep enough to allow a free-float of my Sporter 22" barrel, a rather stout barrel. So I first tried sandpaper......it worked, but way too slowly, so......to Amazon we go, looking under "Dremel Moto-tool". A week later the Dremel 4000 created a new, deep barrel channel for my Remy inside of ten minutes. The Kevlar and fiberglass was nothing to shave away for this beast. I find myself looking for other projects to tear up with this thing. 
     There was maybe 1/16-1/8" of airspace around the receiver sides and after sanding a lot of airspace in front of the barrel stop lug. Not good enough.....So, I watched the "Glass bedding a rifle stock" video on Midway's Video Library and was struck with the mission. I would not be stopped. I should have been. I learned the importance of black, electrician's tape a little late, but the patient survived. Critically, line the stock's edges all around whereever you intend to epoxy, and whereever you do not wish to epoxy, and you will do fine. Also, APPLY PLENTY OF THE INCLUDED 'RELEASE' COMPOUND TO ALL EXPOSED AREAS OF THE BARREL AND RECEIVER THAT WILL EVEN POSSIBLY COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE GLASS EPOXY . Enough of that all-caps scary stuff. On to part II.

     

A Man's Integrity

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/11/13/krauthammer-white-house-held-affair-over-petraeuss-head-favorable-tes#ixzz2CCRIbBuC


I am not yet sure myself that David Patraeus sold out his testimony on Bengazhi, towing the Obama "it was about a film" line, in order to hold onto his position at CIA. His past character says he's bigger than that. Did he really sell out his country thinking he would keep his position??? "Let's be clear," as Obama spouts constantly: lying about the motive behind murdering four noble Americans to smooth things over for Obama prior to an election is indeed selling out one's country. More shall be revealed.

Thief in Chief

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/03/REVEALED-Obama-Bundlers-Bagged-Millions-In-Auto-Bailout

But....but......Obama really cares!!!
Sure. As he pulls the gold tooth from your jaw.