Springfield upgrade finished ... finally.

OntarioHunter

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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.20220711_202302.jpg20220711_202733.jpg20220711_203146.jpg
 
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I should have added a photo of the before as well as the after. This is the rifle four years ago. Sadly, it no longer fits in the scabbard I made for it in 1977. Dad cut 3.5" off the end of the original WWII barrel, probably due to corrosion. The replacement barrel is full length military. Deer Gun final 3.JPG
 
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How are the QD’s for return to poi?
So far so good. I initially had some trouble with grouping due to bedding issues and mostly concentrated on fixing that. I did note that last time out it appeared to return almost exactly to previous range outing POI after the scope had been removed numerous times at home. Also, yesterday I used the scope to line up the gun for bore sighting the iron sights (which happily required no adjustment) after scope is removed. I checked the scope again after putting it back on and crosshairs were still on the same spot. SARRCO sold both aluminum and steel rail for this gun. I went with steel because I anticipate scope possibly coming off frequently. I don't expect aluminum would keep its shape in those conditions. For a permanent mounted scope an aluminum rail probably would work well enough. When I get back to the range I will test POI retention more thoroughly.

There are about five different makers of QD rings: Burris, Leopold, Warne, Talley, and Weaver. Weaver QD rings are by all accounts junk. Talley are ridiculously overpriced. The other three all have good reviews. The problem is they all have no uniformity whatsoever in sizing. "Low" Weaver rings are NOT the same height as a "low" Leopold ones. I used low Warne rings because they were as close as I could get to height of "medium" Weaver extended rings that I had on the gun that fit me perfectly. Fornutately, the new rail is exact same height as the Weaver bases it replaced so I didn't have to fiddle with adding that into the calculations. These Warne rings are just a bit higher than the Weaver setup and it is noticable. One of the other manufacturers made lower QD rings but they would put the bolt too tight to the scope when cycling.
 
@OntarioHunter

Thanks for the detailed reply. I considered QD on the 1895 Marlin but my OCD stopped me, knowing I'd burn time and expensive 45-70 ammo verifying each detach.
 
@OntarioHunter

Thanks for the detailed reply. I considered QD on the 1895 Marlin but my OCD stopped me, knowing I'd burn time and expensive 45-70 ammo verifying each detach.
For the kind of work and range you'll be using that 45-70 I suspect any tiny variation won't make a difference. At 100 yards my last group MAY have moved half an inch left of previous outing. Warne guarantees the rings will hold zero if used with their bases. Unfortunately they don't make base/rail for Springfield.
 
@OntarioHunter

Thanks for the detailed reply. I considered QD on the 1895 Marlin but my OCD stopped me, knowing I'd burn time and expensive 45-70 ammo verifying each detach.
The Leupold QR (I think that is what they are called) set up is very reliable. The rings are on a post that go into the base and the bases have a cam lock lever on them. I have used them on several rifles and they 100% of the time are spot on.
 
The Leupold QR (I think that is what they are called) set up is very reliable. The rings are on a post that go into the base and the bases have a cam lock lever on them. I have used them on several rifles and they 100% of the time are spot on.
Leopold also makes QD rings for rails/Weaver bases. Their QR setup indeed comes highly recommended but again, they don't make one for old WWII guns. Didn't Redfield make something similar to Leopold QR?
 
Sorry I was meaning for your Marlin that @noharleyyet mentioned.
No problem. I meant to say I had considered QR but not available. How high is that setup? That's always an issue. I have looked at guns with peek through scope rings and they are way too high. Really have to hunt for scope crosshairs when getting on the gun, especially if scope is cranked to high magnification. Using iron sights with them requires looking through a tunnel. I used the highest Williams ramp and front sight available to ensure I'd be able to see over the rail when scope was removed. Note that I also had to move the rear sight back almost under the scope to raise it enough so adjustment didn't run out.
 
No problem. I meant to say I had considered QR but not available. How high is that setup? That's always an issue. I have looked at guns with peek through scope rings and they are way too high. Really have to hunt for scope crosshairs when getting on the gun, especially if scope is cranked to high magnification. Using iron sights with them requires looking through a tunnel. I used the highest Williams ramp and front sight available to ensure I'd be able to see over the rail when scope was removed. Note that I also had to move the rear sight back almost under the scope to raise it enough so adjustment didn't run out.
I have them on a Remington 700 30-06 and take the scope off for open sights and have a perfect view. Same on my muzzleloader. I use them on my T/C Encore to swap scopes but none of the barrels have open sights.
 
How are the QD’s for return to poi?
Here's the last four rounds at the range today with scope. Getting the iron sights zeroed on another target burned up more ammo than expected. Adjusting the sights is tricky! When tightening down set screws after adjusting, the windage or elevation slides had a tendency to wander as the twisting screw pulled on them. Couldn't find my magnifying glass so I had trouble reading the increments on iron sights. Anyway ... I had messed with the rail some so I expected the scope to be off. That is first shot way left. Second shot overadjusted too far right (the increments on this scope are a lot more than 1/4" @ 100 yards!). Backed out half the clicks and third shot is in the bull (inside green circle). I then removed the scope and reattached it for last shell. Scope did not lose zero.Target 14 July.JPG
 
Yesterday I was finally able to sign up for a real live shooting range with good covered benches and 40, 100, 200, and 300 meter targets. Membership was a hundred bucks for rest of the year. Not real fancy but good enough to do the job. Loaded up a box last night and got there when posted open at nine this morning. The weather forecast was sunny with temp rising to 29C. So I wanted to get started early before it heated up. Forty minute drive through intermittent heavy rain. Boy, this will get miserable fast when clouds clear off! I had done some work (again) to improve anchoring of the rail so I checked it first at a hundred meters and shot a nice group maybe slightly under MOA but about 2.5" high and a little left. I left the elevation alone and corrected windage. Then put up a 200 yard target. By then sun was out and bugs were starting to wake up. First shot and I couldn't see any evidence of a hit. Even my spotting scope acquired last week showed nothing. Crap. Better take a walk to be sure. Surprise! Bullet hit just above the bull. Can't see holes in the black bullseye till right on top of the target. Back to the bench, fired a second shot, and walked up. Almost landed on the first bullet hole! Bugs were suddenly horrible so I decided to pack it in. Walked back to the bench and packed up everything but the gun. What the hell. Put the target back up and take one more shot. The first two were almost too good. The third shot drifted right a bit but still MOA for 200 meters. The bullet probably hit a hundred mosquitoes going downrange. Yeah, that must have been it. Later this week if weather cooperates I'll take a few more shots with iron iron sights and scope removed. Then reattach scope, check zero again, and see what it does at 300 yards.

This range is interesting. The 300 target must be shot from first two benches on the left. About ten yards downrange there's a huge heavy wooden beam about three feet high suspended five or six feet above the ground. It's a "baffle" and its purpose at first baffled me. Obviously it's intended to stop shooters from attempting lob shots with inadequate calibres at the long distance target and accidentally shooting over the backstop. Nice thing about the range is it's not very busy. Last club member to sign in was eight days ago!

This gun appears to be sub-minute of kudu. I am ready for Africa.20220731_123016.jpg
 
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Iron sights make a rifle, IMO. Nice touches!
Problem with iron sight's is having eyes young enought to use them. Actually I think for any kind of hunting the best way to go is low power fixed scope. My 30-06 has a very old 2 3/4x and wide field of view enough light to shoot always and fast on target.
 
Problem with iron sight's is having eyes young enought to use them. Actually I think for any kind of hunting the best way to go is low power fixed scope. My 30-06 has a very old 2 3/4x and wide field of view enough light to shoot always and fast on target.
I have to look over my glasses to make the iron sights work. I can actually get a decent group at 100 yards with this setup. I also prefer a low power scope and usually have my Nikon turned down to 3x in heavy timber or 5x in the open. However, there are times when it's better to have the scope off. Like this fall when I was hiking back up to the spot where I shot a spike bull back in 1982. The ground was steep as a dog's hind leg and covered with a foot of snow and lots of logging slash and blowdown. And it was snowing wet stuff. Just as well switch to iron sights and not risk falling on the scope.20221127_114348.jpg
 
Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

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