Bluesman
03-16-2004, 04:56 PM
Hay chevyrulesz1 -
My very first center-fire rifle was a Moisin Nagant. Actually it was my first SIX center-fire rifles. Mu mom got a great deal on six rifles that had been taken apart, thrown into a box and were sold as-is for $12.00.
It took me a couple of weeks to strip every screw and part down to components, clean them all, pick the best parts, and assemble one rifle. The fronmt sights were missing from all of the barrels so I took a nail, cut it off a little higher than I thought it should be, filed down opposite sides of the nailhead, filed those "flats to fit the dovetail on tyhe barrel and drove her in with a hammer and brass rod.
I had gotten my grubby little hands on a case of 250 rounds of surplus ammo which I turned into what I th0ught might work as "hunting ammo." IO sawed off 3mm of the tip of the steel jacket and, using one of my fathers jewlers drill, drilled a "hollow point" in the whole batch. For a 12 year old kid I did a pretty nice job, if I do say so myself.
I hitchiked (When I was 12 you could hitchike with a rifle over your shoulder and a saack full of ammo as long as the dino=saurs didn't eat you !) out to the Clairton Sportsman's Club near Pittsburgh and got ready to try out my new rifle.
I was smart enough to bring along a couple of jewlers files ( My dad was a jewelery manufacturer so tools were always at hand.) so that I could trim down the shiny nail-sight that I'd made.
It's hard for even me to believe and I was there, but in an hour that old Russian rifle was shooting to point of aim at 100 yards. My groups were nothing to write home about, but ant deer that strayed in front of that shiny nail was meat in the pot.
I did, later, use Perma-Blue to darken the sight and this tightened the groups up to - as I remember - about two inchs. That was when I could still see like a hawk. Today I'm an old man with old eyes and scopes are the best sighting equipment for me.
I shot only one deer with that lovingly converted military ball ammo, well three deer actually. I hit the buck and the bullet killled two doe that were several yards apart and a good piece behind the buck. Lessons learned? Ball ammo don't expand no matter how pretty it looks with a hand made hollow point, and gutting and dragging three deer out of the woods is more work than any 13 year old kid shoulkd have to do on his first deer hunt.
Several more deer fell to that rifle, but I splurged and bought two boxes of Norma ammunition that expanded. I wish I had that rifle today, but it was traded off for a Winchester .32-20 with a smooth bore. I had that one turned into a .357 magnum because I thought, way back there in the late 1950s, that the .357 was a real butt kicking round. Well I learned a few things over the years - and it all started with that Old Russian. Enjoy it!
Terry
My very first center-fire rifle was a Moisin Nagant. Actually it was my first SIX center-fire rifles. Mu mom got a great deal on six rifles that had been taken apart, thrown into a box and were sold as-is for $12.00.
It took me a couple of weeks to strip every screw and part down to components, clean them all, pick the best parts, and assemble one rifle. The fronmt sights were missing from all of the barrels so I took a nail, cut it off a little higher than I thought it should be, filed down opposite sides of the nailhead, filed those "flats to fit the dovetail on tyhe barrel and drove her in with a hammer and brass rod.
I had gotten my grubby little hands on a case of 250 rounds of surplus ammo which I turned into what I th0ught might work as "hunting ammo." IO sawed off 3mm of the tip of the steel jacket and, using one of my fathers jewlers drill, drilled a "hollow point" in the whole batch. For a 12 year old kid I did a pretty nice job, if I do say so myself.
I hitchiked (When I was 12 you could hitchike with a rifle over your shoulder and a saack full of ammo as long as the dino=saurs didn't eat you !) out to the Clairton Sportsman's Club near Pittsburgh and got ready to try out my new rifle.
I was smart enough to bring along a couple of jewlers files ( My dad was a jewelery manufacturer so tools were always at hand.) so that I could trim down the shiny nail-sight that I'd made.
It's hard for even me to believe and I was there, but in an hour that old Russian rifle was shooting to point of aim at 100 yards. My groups were nothing to write home about, but ant deer that strayed in front of that shiny nail was meat in the pot.
I did, later, use Perma-Blue to darken the sight and this tightened the groups up to - as I remember - about two inchs. That was when I could still see like a hawk. Today I'm an old man with old eyes and scopes are the best sighting equipment for me.
I shot only one deer with that lovingly converted military ball ammo, well three deer actually. I hit the buck and the bullet killled two doe that were several yards apart and a good piece behind the buck. Lessons learned? Ball ammo don't expand no matter how pretty it looks with a hand made hollow point, and gutting and dragging three deer out of the woods is more work than any 13 year old kid shoulkd have to do on his first deer hunt.
Several more deer fell to that rifle, but I splurged and bought two boxes of Norma ammunition that expanded. I wish I had that rifle today, but it was traded off for a Winchester .32-20 with a smooth bore. I had that one turned into a .357 magnum because I thought, way back there in the late 1950s, that the .357 was a real butt kicking round. Well I learned a few things over the years - and it all started with that Old Russian. Enjoy it!
Terry