Status of smallbore rifles

[jmm]

Originally Posted by bill.neville

Will wonders never cease...finally made it to the e-store! My order arrived at 8:38 on the third. Late October DBU, then nothing until today. I just recently set my wife up with a scoped 82G, and it seems she'll have a 521T to go along with it! Nice to be able to involve her in my CMP obsession!

Good luck to those still holding out hope...

when it comes in, we're gonna need pictures. you know the rules, no pix, it never happened.

[bill.neville]

Received my rifles just before Thanksgiving. It seems the Army firewall won't allow me access to image hosting sites, so pictures will have to wait. I was floored by the condition of the 4 rifles. They are all fantastic. The M44 had near perfect original finish, with the exception of a non-matching (different s/n) bolt that had a black finish. The stock was pretty much the same orange as the replacement birch M1 stocks, and very dry.
The 513T is marked Military Finish, and it seems like the bluing color is about like plum browning. Finish is thin in a band on the underside of the barrel. Rack wear, I'd guess. Very nice stock. It has a non-serrifed P in a box on the bottom of the grip, and "NOPM-61" on the side.
521T was in the worst shape of the bunch, but still very nice. Stock has large "Director of Civilian Marksmanship," and "National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice" stickers on the butt. Had a Redfield 75 block mounted and seemingly hand stamped 4 digit s/n, barrel marked OK 47, and grooved receiver. Blued finish is nice, with a few scrapes and scratches. Long list of patents, and no "Junior Special."
H&R M12 was very nice, with impeccable finish, and a few minor scuffs on the stock. Even the bolt s/n matched. Not as hideously ugly as I was expecting, but the lack of ergonomics to the stock is strange. It doesn't seem like it would have taken any more time or effort to come up with a shape that fit the human body. I can't imagine the stock being comfortable in any natural position.
I have been nothing but pleased with all the CMP purchases I've made over the last year. What a fantastic organization!

Only able to shoot one of the 4 so far, since I'm still waiting on sight parts and magazines, but the Mossberg (with 130 sight and screws I cobbled to fit) routinely shot 5 rounds of Automatch (only ammo I tried) under a nickle at 35 yds. I'm sure with better ammo and a better shooter, it'd be hard to beat!

[jmm]

so Bill, was it worth the wait??

[bill.neville]

No kidding, I find it hard to sleep at night, dreaming of my preciouses. Even my USMC 40Xs didn't have this effect on me. They are all in great shape, and I'm hooked on smallbore for life. I'm a cheap Yankee, and the cost of high power ammo really keeps me from shooting much. I can bang away all day with .22s, and it doesn't hurt my sensibilities. Wonder what took me so long to see the light!

[bigbird]

Finally I feel good enough to show this Rem 513T, it was a real challenge.

From: CMP purchase.

http://postimage.org/image/fbp8pfytt/
http://postimage.org/image/g9wvjmecb/
http://postimage.org/image/wfvufxe8n/

To: Restored after a great deal of rework to function properly and finally look like this.:

http://postimage.org/image/rjvh3bglb/
http://postimage.org/image/zcsffu66t/
http://postimage.org/image/o8qkpysw9/

[Darkside6]

Originally Posted by bigbird

Finally I feel good enough to show this Rem 513T, it was a real challenge.

From: CMP purchase.

http://postimage.org/image/fbp8pfytt/
http://postimage.org/image/g9wvjmecb/
http://postimage.org/image/wfvufxe8n/

To: Restored after a great deal of rework to function properly and finally look like this.:

http://postimage.org/image/rjvh3bglb/
http://postimage.org/image/zcsffu66t/
http://postimage.org/image/o8qkpysw9/

Nice job, how did you clean up the bolt and other metal?

[bigbird]

Originally Posted by Darkside6

Nice job, how did you clean up the bolt and other metal?

Darkside6

Thanks, this rifle wouldn't even release the firing pin, the trigger was resting against the trigger guard, and the safety wouldn't work either, also the stock had some serious dents and scratches, but no crackes, when I received it from the CMP.

First of all, I completely disassembled the rifle and gave it a good cleaning.
I wet the parts good with WD40 and used some steele wool and a wire brush to remove all of the rust that had built up on the bolt parts and the barreled receiver and trigger group. It did leave some dark rust stains on the metal surfaces.

This rifle had been parkerized at one time or another and had scratches in the parkerizeation. So without removing any more of the finish on all of the parts, I used a cold blue to touch up any and all scratches, but only applied a single light coat of cold blue. It darkened the parkerized receiver and barrel some what but not much and it made the scratches blend in and almost disappear.

The bolt had a different finish and for some reason would not take a dark cold blue, but it also turned a little darker than it was. I liked the results so I didn't do anything else to it.

The stock, well I completely removed the old finish and steamed as many of the dents and scratches out as I could. Those that wouldn't disappear, I simply left and didn't try to sand out. There wasn't many left after steaming the stock. I applied about 5 or 6 coats of hand rubbed BLO.

I had bought this rifle to be a Christmas gift and had to really hurry to have it ready in time for Christmas that year. The young shooter that now has it, loves that rifle. It turned out to be a nice accurate Rifle and was worth all of my efforts.

Jim

[Barry Rowland]

I have a Rem. 512 made in Nov. 1945 that I grew up with. It was my grandfather's farm rifle. I inherited it and it suffered a ton of neglect. I'm new to following the small bore forum, and had no idea that Remington took that action into the target field. It is a sweet shooter and I tore it down and brought it back to life. Most of the time I have to pry it from my 8 yr. old son's hands, but when I do, it sure is fun to shoot! Now I'm on the hunt for a 513T....got two empty spaces in the gun rack!