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.

Work, any work. A RKS barrel has been in my lathe for several weeks. The shank is threaded. I should go out there and fit the breech block. 

Tomorrow I have to go to the bank and get some parts for my Jeep, then I go shoot silhouettes and finish the day off with Chinese food. It'll take a day or two to rest up from that. Maybe this weekend I'll fit the breech block. It could happen...

Sometimes functions wins over form.

I've had to deal with those stupid tang sights before when two different guys asked me to help. In both cases I told the guys we needed to find perfect vertical and then put blue Loctite on all the adjustment screws and pivot screw for windage so they would never get moved again. Better to have perfect vertical than to have that goofy tilt the staff windage.
I'd just remove the barrel sight and put a Marbles blank in the dovetail to fix the angled dovetail cut. Doesn't even need that sight if he's got a tang sight. 
Sometimes all you can do is make it better, and it's still not good enough.

Nice to have a place where you can vent and commiserate with like minded folks!

Regards,
Joe

marlinguy wrote on Sep 6^th, 2024 at 12:08am:


Oh, those... Cringe...

It looks exactly as you described, so no surprises there! I hope he springs for at least an entry level semi inletted stock to make it look much better!

Or…

Use this as an opportunity to teach your friend to inlet and shape a stock from a block of wood.

I have had friends in the past who wanted to avoid doing the work, and later came back with my original suggestion of replacing the wood.  I keep straight grained walnut around for such projects.  The picture is an H&A 922 Junior that wasn’t nice enough for fancy wood, but needed a new stock.