doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Restoration and Preservation

Well, it too SIX years to get two Krag set triggers from Canjar .... and I prepaid. Maybe that is why they are out of business.

OK, we'll give this one a go. You know my thing for old target rifles. This is a Winchester-Hart 52 with a Harvey Rodgers stock.



The white line pad needs to go. Don't imagine we could find one to match the original, but we could come closer that what is on it. Someone had cut the wood to mount a Redfield style rear base, that will need fixed. I can likely find a Lyman 48, but I have no idea where Hart got one with such a long slide. At the time maybe you could special order one from Lyman, but I suspect I'll have to fabricate one. The metal has turned mostly brown, and the end of the barrel where the original front sight was removed the finish is mostly gone. I suspect that Hart did not refinish the metal, only touched up the area where the front sight was removed. The rifle would have also had the hart trigger, but it has been removed and a modified Winchester trigger installed. I believe the chances of finding a Hart trigger are somewhere between very slim and non.

OK, lets hear your thought. I am well aware that even in mint condition the rifle may not be worth what the above work would cost. Nearly every custom rifle that is commissioned today looses half it's value the day it leaves the builders shop. Sometimes it is not about the money.

Thanks,
John

My turnaround time for barrels is generally 90-120 days, and I feel bad telling customers that. As a much respected gunmaker, writer, photographer once reminded me “it doesn’t matter how long you backlog is if you don’t get paid until you get the work out” . Restorations I can generally get out in under a year, but again, I stick to specific models that I’m set up to do.

Yes the shop is mildly machine intensive, for a couple of reasons: a. I like machines b. the machines are set up to do repeat operations. One of the mills is set up just to octagon barrels, and make the mag tube relief cut; the second mill is for “other” operations: dovetails, extractor/ejector cuts, general milling/drilling etc.

Some are very specific: The Volostro Rotary Milling head; its only purpose is to cut the rotary dovetails for the magazine tube hangers.

The factory used stamps & roll dies for their markings, to do a proper restoration I have to do it the same way the factory did it. Some of these roll marks are very specific; only applicable to a very narrow serial number range i.e.. the “broken D”, but if you’re going to do it you’ve got to do it right.

John, The original DW pad would be hard to find, they were also used on some shotguns 1920-30's so maybe our shotgun friends who read this could help.
I would try to find a Lyman 48 base that fit the 52 and try a 125 slide and see how it works, the groove in the wood does not look long enough for 150 slide but the picture sure shows a long one. If you get to that point I can send you a 150 slide to try out and see if it fits.

Do you have a closeup picture of where the Redfield was?

Mike, How and where do you mark your restorations?

John, You might want to pick this up, if you don't do Ebay let me know and I'll bid on it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Group-of-brochures-i...=item27acd7243d

The D-W pad is a scarce one. Best chance is to check with shotgun stockmakers. I have only bought one gun with a D-W pad in fifty years of fooling with shotguns.

I recently bought a Lyman 48 for a M52, if you want to send me the 125 slide I'd be happy to see if it fits.

The 48 was available for the right or left side of the 52. The later 52's with the right side safety needed the sight on the left, so that is the more common model, but the early 52's could have the sight mounted on either side.

Michael,
As the tall sight was used to get the line of sight to the same height as the scope, not to to gain more elevation adjustment, there would be no need to be able to run the sight all the way down, so no need to make the cut in the stock as deep. Just a thought.

It may be possible to take a std slide and weld an extension onto it and have an engraver engrave the markings on it. The long slides are so rare I'd hate to give one up for this project if one could be fabricated. I could probably make the longer screw.

I'll see about getting a better picture, but might be a few days. I've got birthday cake to eat tonight, then leaving early friday for the Tulsa show. I'll put a bid on the brochures, thanks for the heads up.

Thanks,
John

John, We need someone with some CNC machinery to make a batch of the long slide 48's. Happy Birthday and tell the guys hello in Tulsa.