OntarioHunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2020
- Messages
- 5,980
I finally finished upgrading the old war horse. Over the last three years it's had a new scope (retired my ancient 1970s Weaver K3 for new Nikon 3x9 BDC ... which had to go back to factory for repairs the first season), replaced the corroded 2-land WWII barrel with another sporterized 4-land military barrel, replaced the horrible aftermarket trigger Dad put in it in 1962 with a sweet Timney (older variation that retains striker safety), replaced the incorrectly installed unsafe aftermarket Buehler style wing safety with a Mauser style left side scope safety, replaced the buggered WWII trigger guard (broken anchor screw housing), tossed the Weaver rings and bases for a rail and quick detach Warne rings, drilled and tapped the barrel for iron sights (Williams hooded front ramp with brass bead blade and 1990s Winchester Model 70 rear sight with fully adjustable fold down notched leaf), floated the barrel (originally stock was bedded to the end), rebedded the stock (third time's the charm), cut off the trademark Springfield striker knob to make Mauser style safety more accessible to right hand, polished the striker and extractor claw to match the polished bolt per Dad's design, modified the follower so the bolt can be closed on empty magazine without depressing it manually, and had the barrel, receiver, safety, rail, magazine/trigger guard hot blued. I thought about a new stock with checkering but this one fits me perfectly. Hated to put a rail on it but that's the only way I could make the short tube scope work with QD rings. The front sight blade and sight pusher finally arrived today and I just installed it. Bore sighted the iron sights on garage rain gutter out the kitchen window and gun was bang on with no adjustment! How lucky is that? It shot a decent group last week through the scope at 100 yards with 165 gr Hornady Interlok (?). First shot out of cleaned cold gun was a bit higher than others. Next trip to the range will be to fine tune iron sights at 75 yards and scope at 200. I can see the iron sights just fine if I look over the top of my glasses. Iron sights clear the rail okay with a snug cheek weld (not a grind). Glad I got the measurements right! Something I've never tried before. The scope lines up well with medium to light cheek weld. I removed and replaced the QD scope several times at the range and it seems to hold zero well.
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