I'm always glad I don't do general gunsmithing work for the public. Today, finishing up a rifle I've been postponing doing for a friend. He brought over a 1902 rolling block with a cheap 45-70 barrel screwed into it. It needed the trigger worked over, and it had been stoned previously so it was unsafe once the heavy trigger spring was removed; it would fire itself. So, had to recut all the angles and fix it and then install spring to lower the weight. Then, made a new forearm for it. Easy enough, but nothing esthetic about the rifle; the buttstock is an incorrect one too small and not inletted for the dovetail surface on a 1902. Nothing I can fix there, it's just wrong and ugly. Could maybe epoxy the inletting to fit better, but the stocks smaller than the metal, so no helping it there. There's no matching the style or finish or anything with the forearm, just make one and stick it on there. So, I did. The thing I really hate doing is the tang sight. He brought over a pedersoli "leaner" windage adjustment sight. Arguably the worst tang sight you could possibly get. Thus, cheapest. The mounting screw spacing is wrong for a rolling block. The holes are huge, it takes a 10-32 to fit them. I elected to drill the holes such that the front one will be right for a correct sight, and a 3rd hole can be drilled in the rear if someone ever wants to put on a correct sight. There's nothing rewarding about finishing this rifle; it's an ugly junker that could be made into something better if you bought it right. Great action, decent trigger now, cheap barrel, ugly, wrong buttstock, mis-matched forearm, useless, ugly tang sight, wrong spacing to replace it. And, to top it off, the dovetail for the rear sight on the barrel is crooked, so the part of the sight that goes in the dovetail is hanging out one side of the barrel when the sight notch is centered. Don't know how someone could mill a sight slot crooked! He just wants something cheap that will go bang. I guess this is it.
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