Sheridan Stock Limbo

Project update:  Trying to get back to the Sheridan refinish, but the cold weather is thwarting me.  It warmed up to almost 20 degrees today by midday!  But now, it's 13 and dropping.  I need to get into the garage to do some sanding, but my fingers are numb after fifteen or twenty minutes.















Still figuring out what to put on the end of the stock.  I was short on recoil pads so I made a run to a local gun shop.  One of these may or may not make it onto the Sheridan.  Yep.  Decisiveness at it's best.



















Regardless of which buttpad or buttplate is used, the rifle still needs a bit more length of pull.  To that end, I cut two pieces of 1/8" thick maple and a piece of Bolivian rosewood.  I've had some problems using cuts from this particular piece of rosewood in the recent past.  Had a reaction to it similar to having poison ivy.  Needed a steroid shot as well as additional medication.  Fun stuff.  Wore gloves and a mask while making the cuts. 



















Sandwiched the rosewood between the maple.  Used Gorilla Glue.

Clamped it in a bench vise between some thicker maple boards and cranked it down tight.  Gonna let it dry for the night.

It's not supposed to warm up for a few more days, so I may temporarily shelve this project and start something I can work on in the basement.  Where it's warm.

Refinishing a Sheridan Stock -- Part 1

Here's the second of the two Sheridans from friend, Sandy.

It's in great shape, save for a few nicks and scratches in the wood finish.













Wiped with a maroon ScotchBrite pad--sort of highlights the marks in the wood.

Nice grain.

Removed the action screw and knocked out the two roll pins that secure the forearm to the pump lever.


 

 
















The rear of the trigger guard is held by a screw.

The front is held by a rivet.  "Was" held by a rivet.  It was a real headache to remove.  I, uh, won't be using it on reassembly.

Started the sanding with 150 grit. Amazingly, Guineness makes all my projects look better.

Ouch.  There's a pretty good ding in the forearm.

Even with the sander, it took some time.  The paper kept glazing over as it loaded with the varnish.  I think I went through three full sheets of sand paper--a quarter sheet at a time.

Hopefully, I'll be able to pull out the grain contrast.  Undecided as to the butt of the rifle.  The length of pull could stand to be longer and I'm not sure if I'll add a rubber recoil pad or use the old Morgan from the old QB77 project.  Also conflicted as to exactly how much fancying up I want to do to the stock. 

The forearm before sanding.

The plain buttstock was bothering me.  Leave it or change it?  Kinda like put up or shut up.

Put up wins.  Now it's, Pachmayr Decelerator or Morgan?  Contrasting wood spacer(s)?  Reshape the forearm?  Ahhhhhh, too many choices at the moment.   Another Guinness.  The rest will wait.

More soon.

Walther Sight Cover Plate

Nick and I are now at 650 rambling airgun posts and counting. Yeeeow!

I need a cover plate for the Walther LG55 target rifle formerly owned by Volvo.  Apologies, as I've blogged cover plates for various rifles before and they're always pretty much the same.   With all the various airguns in the pile, there are a multitude of small projects like this--and right now, this one is calling.

















Look at the gaping holes on top of the base block probably made for some field sight that I don't have and likely never will.  This rifle is set up with a target aperture at the end of the spring tube and there's really no place for an open notch sight on this kind of gun.  Has anyone even seen such a sight for a 55?  There's even a counterbored hole for a pin to resist recoil.   Yeah, Walther goes all in.  However, the holes for this nonexistent mid-ship sight are tapped M4 x 0.5mm.  This is not the normal 4mm pitch--which is 0.7mm.  I looked pretty hard and couldn't find any M4 x 0.5 screws in the US.  It was easy to find both taps and dies, but the actual fasteners?  Nope.  None.  Of course, in my haste, I'd already cut the plate, squared the sides and done the layout before realizing this.  So, the plate sat on the bench.

Finally, I went through my box of airgun pieces parts.  There, I found some extra grip screws for a Weihrauch HW45/Beeman P1 in the correct pitch.  Maybe this fastener is common in Europe.  The project was back on track.

Try to keep this short.  0.500" wide cold rolled piece of steel.  It's 0.125" thick.  Cut to length, did some layout for the mounting hole locations and started drilling through holes.  Used a #25 bit. 

Couldn't find a suitable endmill to counterbore for the screw heads, so I had to make a suitable cutter from a reground drill bit.  Had to cut it really short to minimize flex. 

Milled the front and back edges to match the angles on the Walther's breech block.

Gave the sides a finish pass.

And a 0.750" endmill to take a clean up pass on the top.  Probably should've used a fly cutter, but the machining marks polished out without too much effort.

Wet sanded it (WD40) down to 420 grit on a granite plate.

Hit it on the buffer for a few minutes, then blued it with Van's cold blue.




































Installed and done.  Angles carry over pretty well.

Looks like it's been here all along.

More soon with blog #651.

Mounting a Williams Peep Sight on a Sheridan

My uncle called me at the shop a few weeks ago and asked me to stop by on my way home.  Our mutual friend, Sandy, had kindly dropped off two Sheridan rifles for me.  We shoot firearms together and she'd heard about the airgun blog.  They belonged to her late husband, Paul, and she wanted them to go to a fellow shooter. 

Both of the Sheridans are exactly the same vintage with the rocker-type safeties.  Of course, both are .20 caliber and have real walnut stocks.  They've got the dings and dents to show their age.  They were users, not safe queens.  Of course, I'd like to clean them up a bit.  Maybe an oil finish on the walnut, add a recoil pad... Anyway, to that end, I removed the stock and pump handle from one and started to sand off some of the factory varnish in preparation for a higher quality finish.  I need to get into the garage and do some finish sanding, but this morning the thermometer read eleven degrees.  So, I turned to the second gun (in the much warmer basement).



 
No idea of the exact vintage.  1970's?

The scope is great to shoot with, but it covers the exact spot on the receiver one should grasp while pumping the gun.

It's also difficult to lift the bolt and cock the hammer.  The clearances are just tight enough to make this awkward.

Removed the scope

This'll find a home on a different air rifle.

Removed the intermount.

The original sight was also removed.  I've read that these sights can promote solder separation between the barrel and pump tube.

Took the action out of the stock.

Removed the two screws holding the cover and cam plate.

Here's the bolt lug.  It's a 1/8" allen head.

Surprised to find that I have a nut driver that small.

Use care when removing the bolt, as the bolt spring will go flying.

Bought this Williams peep sight from Chuck at Precision Airguns in Maple Heights, OH.

On the new Sheridans, the rifles are factory-drilled for this sight. On the older guns, it's up to you, baby.

The supplied mounting bolts are #6-48.

Did some layout on the breech and gently clamped the action in the milling vise.  Found a piece of brass tubing that was a snug fit in the bolt channel.  Drilling through the breech and into the tube let all the chips drop into the center of the tube rather than into the pump/valve mechanism.  Also prevented any burrs in the bolt hole.

Drilled with a #32 bit.

I actually have a #6-48 plug tap???  This was an even bigger surprise than finding that nut driver.

Installed the sight and put the bolt mechanism back together.

Took few sighters and had the gun zeroed in a dozen or so shots.  The double screws holding the sliding windage adjustment is rather crude, but the gun is substantially easier to pump and work the bolt handle.  A good trade off between precision and ease of use.  The trigger, by the way, is exceptional.