TargetTalk

Making do with juniors on a budget. ;)

A former Air Force Service Rifle Champion and Olympic Trials competitor from back in the early 1960's donated his 1952 Valmet Model 45 to our junior precision small-bore program. An old, cut-down club rifle he bought for $25 back in the day, he thought the barrel was shot out, and describes shooting it as trying to hold up a railway car axle.

Turns out all it needed was a new crown, although we cut the barrel to 500mm and added weight to the buttplate so as to bring the rifle's balance to the front of the receiver ring to match our Annies.

It's still a bit heavy (13lbs 14oz) and looks like a barking dog, but this old dog can still stand up and sing. ;)

Bob, you do the nicest transformations.

Mike

Post more pictures, please!

Adjustable comb made from common hardware for less than 10 bucks. Nothing else would have fit this stock. The flash distorts the red in the aniline dye stain. Looks much better in natural light.



For a program with a safe full of kiddie rifles, these combs can be knocked out quickly if you are willing to sacrifice the cosmetics of plugged holes. Simply clamp the stock to the underside of the drill press to index the shaft holes, cut the comb after the holes are drilled, counterbore for collars and assemble with epoxy. Less than an hour. Beats the hell out of risers made from carpet scraps and duct tape. ;)

Drill and tap for the knurled set screws after the collars are epoxied in. Do it from both sides on ambidextrous stocks so you don't lose that feature.



Interesting pin-mounted trigger on the Valmet. A sear engagement window but no user adjustments. The window was for the smiths at the factory to do final stoning A 2-stager with a crisp break of less than a pound, it remains a most excellent trigger.



Hardly my best craftsmanship as it was done as a volunteer to a hard price point, but as ugly as it is, the trigger is so nice I can't resist playing with this old rifle. It's fun to watch the hole print where the crosshairs were through the scope (and a unique experience for an old Hi-Power guy). It also really likes Federal No. 711 Gold Medal:



Best efforts notwithstanding, at 13lbs 14oz without accessories, it remains too heavy for any juniors we have in a hundred-kid program that don't already own their own rifle, and we'll sell it to contribute toward another Match 64.

Hi Bob,

interesting to see that the trigger didn't change much from the early models. Later models gained user adjustments, certainly by the M65, and possibly the various updates in the 1950s. I have in mind that a Finnish Olympic shooter named Mantaari was responisble for the adjustment.

The showstopper here is the barrel is huge at around an inch and a sixteenth in diameter, and fluting or reducing its diameter can easily ruin its ability to shoot well. Seen more than one overheavy Remington 40 ruined that way.

We did a lathe-cut crown when we cut the barrel, and the results were adequate but disappointing. So I used a piloted facing and crown cutter by hand with a light touch, then instead of polishing, fire-lapped the cut edges with a hundred shots of junk ammo. I was surprised how well that worked.



I was thinking about dropping $360 on one of the new Manson Precision 11-degree Crown Cutters, but the old Brownell's 45-degree Crown Kit more suitable for deer rifles than Annies, worked just fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xpzv1Spsnk