A different route of restoration, too far gone, but I liked it anyway.

[flying pig]

Well six months after I started this one's transformation I'm finally satisfied with it. Don't know why I liked this rifle so much, guess it just spoke to me.

Before:





After:



Sorry about the terrible pics and lighting. Two weeks straight at work without seeing daylight at home so I have no idea when I'll get some natural light photos.





Built a mid band/sling swivel combo on this one to save the thin fore end when carrying it in tight brush on horseback. The taper is so close its not even funny. I had to guess as I have no inside calipers yet. I think I got the inside taper closer than the outside. I had to leave the center of the band oversized and finish it by hand with a file, so it isn't perfect either but its fairly close.





First I did a bit of metal work on this one, the barrel had been cut off with a hacksaw and not even very straight at that. So I bored the chuck in my mini lathe to take work up to 3/4" and went to it. This is my first re-crown as well.

For the finish I used minwax stain under a zillion coats of varathane. I learned a lot about using varathane as a rifle finish through doing this project. It ends up being a beautiful high gloss finish that is very smooth but there are a ton of challenges along the way and its pretty obvious there was a lot of trial and error when you examine the stock up close. But this rifle was a perfect example to learn on. I plan on building a similar copy of this stock for this rifle down the road that won't have the comb and grip butchered like bubba did to this one. At that time I will be checkering this stock for practice.

The finish on the steel is Radocy express bluing solution. This is the second rifle I have done using this method and I love it. Great product, especially for those of us who want to do great things but rarely get the chance to dedicate a full day or days to our projects.

All in, about 6 months worth of work, somewhere between $50-$100 worth of shop supplies and bout 100 hrs of my time.

Range report to follow soon!

Information

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[louthepou]

Can't wait for the range report. We might be pleasantly surprised

Lou

[browningautorifle]

I had one that was at least that modified back in the mid '80s and it shot fine. Never gave any trouble at all as I recall...

[flying pig]

It shot OK before I started. The bedding was garbage, and the crown looked like an AK flash hider. It still got 4" groups with my go to Lee-Enfield load. I'll do some homework with it this summer, but chances are the next outing will just be with the standard load to see if I've actually improved it a bit. I did just standard type sporterized bedding, around four pounds up pressure at the forward contact, supported under the chamber and even contact under the entire receiver. I'm hoping it works well, I'd like to take some critters with this one, see how hard that Varathane is to hang onto in some wet fall weather!

[flying pig]

Well I had it out and put 10 down the pipe yesterday. Shooting offhand at 100m I hit my gong every shot, so while not shooting for groups I think it does very well. The barrel being cropped where it is makes it balance perfectly. Recoil is still very light and with that smooth action it is a dandy to shoot. I think it will make an excellent bush rifle.

[browningautorifle]

Well, there ya go! Another happy shooter of the Ross!