What was your first build?

As the title suggests . . ..What was your first build? How'd it shoot? When you look back now do you shake your head? Haha Post some photos!!

my first build was re barreling my first .22 ( a mossberg plinkster) with a greenmountain barrel blank. groups went from ~2" @100yds to .5". It was a great first project and i learned a lot from it.

Not sure. I set the barrel back on a 22, H&R M-44, I think. The retaining screw was so tight it had collapsed the bore in front of the chamber. Had to make a new screw as well, it sheared off trying to remove it.

Tried to use a barrel off a 541-X, but the breech was hardened and it trashed the reamer. I don't remember if that was before setting the original barrel back or after, to see if it would be better. The 541-X was threaded and a Lilja barrel put on. Also made a single shot loading tray with an ejector built in, and rebuilt the trigger with the proper geometry to the sear. That all now seems pretty ambitious for a first project, so I think I'm gonna stick with the H&R as a first.


First CF was my old M-77 7mag. It was so crooked inside and out I could never get it zeroed with a scope on it. Like *feet* at 100 yds. Made a fixture to true the thread and put a Douglas .338 barrel on it. And then had to grind the outside to get a base lined up. It was a 'round top', used a M-700 base. First shot after dialing the scope straight on a surface plate was only a couple minutes out. Shoots MOA now.

Many years ago I made a reversible conversion for a Calico M100 to .17 Mach II. Made a new barrel with a liner, made some Tungsten/Copper inserts for the bolt, and smoothed the feed lips on the mag. Also put a raised rail on the barrel so the scope would point with the barrel instead of the receiver. Zero recoil, point and click 100X, as fast as you like.

back in about 1970 my dad had is gun shop at home i was in 7th grade and on sat. night my dad was part of a pit crew for a buddy of his that had a sprint car so i would sneak in to his shop and play he had a rack against the wall were all the take off barrels went [god i wish i new back then what i know now the stuff he would throw away ]so i found a junker 12 ga. barrel cut about 6" off of it and pound it down at one end and it cracked on the sides so i cut off another peace but this time i heated it up red hot with his torch and pounded it down reheated it and folded it again to make a lap joint cooled it off drilled a touch hole in it [sham on the school system for showing us the gun smith of willamsburg in 5th gd.] being my dad did a bit of bird hunting and reloading for it he had a mec 600 set up on one of the benches so there was my powder and shot along with a bit of shop rag for a wad so it was to the back yard [all is was going on at about 10 pm also my mom was a rn that worked the night shift] my dad had a bench with his disk sander for recoil pads that made a nice back stop for the cannon with a bit of powder on top i lit it off and boom after that i cleaned things up and went to bed now the next time i went to fire it the back end came apart and not a scratch i know there is a patron saint for fools as i am living proof but before i was 16 i had had my ear almost tore off by the guy next door dog i was about 5 at the time . then i got hit by a car and got a refracted hip and skull [that explains a lot ] was about 7 [in the hospital keep seeing an add for a new tv show that was coming out batman ] then two weeks before summer in 3rd gd i crushed my hip flying off the side of a hill on a bike i spent 30 days in a hospital and all summer in a body cast and for Christmas i got to have the pins removed and then in about 10gd i hit a tree on a motorcycle and when i got up my knee went sideways and knock on wood that was the last time i spent the night in a hospital at that point the dr. told me you and wheels don't get along the good thing is i did all this as i was still growing so no limping and no pain when its cold and i am 63 o ya the last one was then i was about 19 the guy next door the one that his dog got me his kid [one of my best and oldest pals] got me with a 12 ga 00buck one pellet right at the back of my leg 3" up from the heel that was a er in and out then the cops started calling gun shot wound there's more but that's the life death stuff yup there is a patron saint out there for some of us

Some photos of a Krag build. 35/40 with a stainless barrel and red dot sight for fast on target low light pig hunting.

Built a single shot silhouette rifle from a VZ24 Mauser. Rebarrelled in .30-06, bedded it to a fiberglass stock, and added a double set trigger.

2002 I put a Shilen .452" bull barrel on a 1903 Turkish Mauser and chambered it with a 0.470" straight reamer and a 45acp throater. I had to pound brass in and out of a Lee Carbide sizer die to get the brass to chamber. I loaded to 460 Rowland pressure levels [35 kpsi] and shot groups at 100 yards.
The bullet made a loud noise when it hit the plywood target.

Hi,
Here is my Retro 1911 build I did years ago.

Used a surplus Brazilian Army slide made by Colt with a Foster/ Caspian frame.

Hand checkered 20 LPI, on the frame and the arched MSH.

Has a take off S&W .45 barrel and a 10-8 retro rear sight with a peened and soldered Colt front sight.

Used regular fire control parts but everything was tuned using Ron Power's series 1 and 2 jigs.

I t is totally reliable with Wilson Combat 47D mags!

My first build was a run of the mill AR15, the lower machined from a "30%" forging (magwell broached and a few things to fit the broaching fixture but not much else. Machined properly on my Bridgeport mill, CNC engraved on a converted mini-mill and then anodized. It took a couple relaxed days total with no issues.