30 Gov't Project
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On a gun buying roadtrip the week before Christmas I managed to purchase a Ruger #1B missing the barrel with a Kiplinger set trigger installed that had been built by Steve Seyboldt. Steve was well known in the schuetzen community and his connection to this incomplete rifle sealed the deal for me. Let's say I got a good starting point for way less than the cost of a used complete rifle.
My friends are helping me with this project so this rifle will be for sale at my wake. My gunsmith buddy had a Douglass XX chrome moly 30 caliber 1:10 blank that he acquired along with the shop when he bought out his grandfather in the late 1970s and a 30-40 Krag reamer that his grandfather left behind that looks and feels brand new but is known to have been used several times by Mr. Boggus. He will turn the blank down to match the action width and clear the forearm hanger then pass it along to another friend who is a machining genius who will profile the barrel into a lightly tapered octagon with a tulip on the breech end. It will then be stress relieved, drilled and tapped for Talley rings, polished and rust blued. There is a small humility mark on the right side of the forestock where Steve let his Dremel get out of the barrel channel that I think I'll leave there to remind future owners that we are all fallible.
I managed to stumble into some Captech overrun 30-40 Krag brass wearing the headstamp of Bertram Cartridge Company and got enough to never have any reason to worry about getting any more. The same company was clearancing some Hornady 180 gr round nose bullets and a set of dies. Sometimes a blind hog finds an acorn.
As the project progresses I hope to update this thread with photos and maybe some proof that obsolete guys with obsolete guns can still eat wild meat.
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Sun! Finally! Here's a poor cell phone photo of the starting point. Somehow managed to lose the threaded barrel that the forearm screw attaches to the hanger, so one more minor fabrication to be done.
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