Project 2A1 Rascal The saw and pencil come out.

[DW58]

Oh no you won't - there again I could put my TET Tac-brake on the .300 WSM and sand-blast you sideways

[meles meles]

Hmmm, but one of these in 9x55 Swiss would be awesome...



See here for how to do it... http://www.zjstech.net/gunstuff/k31tanker.html

[DW58]

Hmmm, but one of these in 9x55 Swiss would be awesome...



See here for how to do it... http://www.zjstech.net/gunstuff/k31tanker.html

Burn the Heretic ... ... ... BURN HIM!

[Blu]

There is a No4 Mk1 on Gunbroker that has been re-chambered to 7.62x54R, that would be interesting to shoot

[ovenpaa]

I like the green finish.

Building such rifles is always going to be down to personal tastes and no doubt some purists will have a hissy fit at the thought of a rifle being modified to anything other than its original form. I built my project 2A1 mostly because the vast majority of the original parts were missing and the barrel was tired, to return it to original would have been costly and it would only be original in looks as the numbers would not match. I could of scrubbed the incorrect nose cap number and re-stamped it however this is just wrong in my eyes and only one step away from the active practice of adding random Waffenamt stamps or scrubbing electro pencil marks on a Mauser. Taking all of this into account I chose to build something different.

The 2A1 project gives me a rifle that will be used for a specific purpose and in no way can ever be misconstrued as anything other than what it is. I do think it is important to try and keep Pre-45 service rifles as original as possible however there are going to be examples of rifles that are not original, will never be original and are doomed to stay in a dark cabinet or in a dusty rack until someone eventually either strips them for spares or deactivates them. These are the candidates for such conversions and no doubt something interesting will turn up for this one:

10mmR.PNG (6.79 KiB) Viewed 1036 times

[DW58]

Totally agree with what you say above Dave.

It saddens me when I see perfectly good original rifles which have had what our former colonial cousins refer to as the "Bubba treatment".

[Sandgroper]

Totally agree with what you say above Dave.

It saddens me when I see perfectly good original rifles which have had what our former colonial cousins refer to as the "Bubba treatment".

I agree, but in some respects it's no different to what you've done to your 300 wsm or others have done to their rifles, including my 257. Some of the changes that have been done to rifles (old and new) are not to my taste but if done sympathetically and keeps the rifle shooting, then it doesn't really bother me as it's part of it's history - good and bad.

As an example, my Steyr is not original - started life in 8x50R, rechambered to 8x56R, barrel chopped, refurbished in Bulgaria with horrible electro-pencilling. So if circumstances required it I wouldn't hesitate to get it rebarrelled to a more convenient bullet size. But if that ever happened then the most important thing for me would be that I'm still able to shoot it.

Anyway, Bubba keeps enough project rifles in circulation for those of us so inclined...

[DW58]

I can see your point regarding the Steyr and would agree with this, however to the military rifle historian it is a progression in the history of the rifle unlike the Bubba'd 2A1 which had never been in service in the condition David received it from some mysterious source

I totally fail however to understand how you can connect my .300 WSM rifle to this - it is a factory original Tikka T3 rifle which can be taken out of the chassis and returned to the Tupperware stock in minutes, the rifle has not been physically modified in any way other than threading for muzzle-brake/suppressor.

Your .257 however is a totally different ballgame

[Sandgroper]

I can see your point regarding the Steyr and would agree with this, however to the military rifle historian it is a progression in the history of the rifle unlike the Bubba'd 2A1 which had never been in service in the condition David received it from some mysterious source

I totally fail however to understand how you can connect my .300 WSM rifle to this - it is a factory original Tikka T3 rifle which can be taken out of the chassis and returned to the Tupperware stock in minutes, the rifle has not been physically modified in any way other than threading for muzzle-brake/suppressor.

Your .257 however is a totally different ballgame

No mystery - I'll happily own up to giving it to David and say that what he is doing is what I would have liked to have done if I had the time and money to do myself. However, I don't go about butchering rifles just for the sake of it but if, for example, I found the right 303 I'd change it into a 303 wildcat - as was done to them after the war in Australia, SA and Canada - which is just another progression in it's history as a rifle.

As to your Tikka, I did say "in some respects" and in that I was referring to the fact that it is not in it's original guise i.e. as bought or issued. I'm sure that someone, somewhere would consider what you've done to your Tikka as horrific but as long as you're happy with it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

I consider it a far worse a crime to deactivate a firearm than to change it into something you like to shoot. Having said that I think it is extremely foolish to bubba a historically significant rifle just because you can...

My 257 - you aint seen nothing yet!

[450 Martini]

Speaking of Ishapore Rifles i have just been offered a 1965 dated 2A rifle from a mate who is retiring from shooting for the princely sum of £100.The rifle looks great and has only had blank fired through it so the barrel looks really good. I already have a 1966 dated 2A1 rifle that i had to restock with a SMLE stock due to a very large split in the butt stock.

Ticket is definitely going in for variation in January!