Building an 1895 Lee Navy display rifle

[browningautorifle]

He or I don't know where that barreled receiver came from.

Probably best to not chance it then, the guy sitting there with the Lebel may agree. Nice looking pieces though...very nice.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[oldhoodoo1]

Thank you. One of the reasons I have not fully straightened the barrel of the Lebel, not to mention I did not drill out the magazine hole in the stock, is to set up a red flag. The charring on the buttstock should be enough, but some people only see what they want to see. They look down the sights of the lebel, they can see the issue. As for the 03, its a personal choice and I never like the recoil of an 03 anyways. Oddly, when they were tried with maxim silencers in the teens, the testers noted that the perceived recoil and muzzle blast were much less which made the 03's pleasant to shoot.

[browningautorifle]

but some people only see what they want to see.

Even worse, I know a gunsmith that rebuilt an 1886 Winchester in 45-70 that was in a fire, also a Lee Navy sporter. They had both been cooked and had the forend completely burned away, he carried on and completely re did them and re blued them. They're out there now for those that want to shoot them, they'll never know. I had a Rem 870 go through me that didn't seem right and I could get the smell of charring on occasion from the gun. Seems it went through a fire and the gunsmith parted it out, receiver and all. This was a different guy. I guess the money makes it worth while...

[oldhoodoo1]

Interesting enough, a significant number of 1895 Rifles in the first batch of 10,000 were damaged in a warehouse fire before issue. Some of the guns were condemned, but most were salvaged and issued as they were badly needed. The 1895 USS Texas received some of these rifles and the Captain complained about the charring on the stocks of many of the rifles, but BurOrd said suck it up.
Most guns seem to be inherently overbuilt, the Lee Navy is not one of them, in fact, it seems to have been "not quite done". Several design issues in the first batch made the rifle questionable that would have shown up in protracted testing. In the SAW the rifles were subject to having the bolts fall out as well as the magazine springs losing tension if the gun were kept loaded.