I realized ive been using my intro thread as a build thread, silly me.
In 1939 my great grandpa bought himself a Savage 219 single shot in 30/30 and because of a disability he was ineligible to join the military in ww2, so he used it to poach deer, moose etc during the war and made sure the families in his community had meat while their men were off fighting. Sometime between then and 1947 when my grandfather got it great gramps had shortened the barrel to 22”, ported it, drilled and tapped for a scope base(bit of an amateur machinist, and pretty progressive thinker), put on a weaver 2.5x scope, and changed the buttstock for a savage 24 stock.
I inherited it a number of years ago, and have been searching for a utica addressed barrel to replace the original damaged one. Finally found one, and sent it off to a good friends shop to get some work done. Considering he usually builds long range precision rifles, i am very fortunate he took this on as a personal project. We had some misteps along the way with the bluing due to the early reciever turning a particularly nasty shade of purple, but he managed to get it. Shortened the barrel and ported it, and drilled and tapped for a scope mount. He custom fit a rail rather than two bases, as we were unable to match whatever great grandpa used(wasnt weavers lol).i also managed during the time he had it to locate a weaver 2.5x that dates to 1950ish and had it gone through and restored. I found a decent piece of walnut, and decided to try my hand at stock making, finished up fitting it this evening, and stained both the original forend, and the new buttstock. For being made 81 years apart i think it came out pretty close. I left the wrist about 1.5x thicker than stock, as i find the originals to be thin, and prone to cracking, the added thickness is comfortable to me and should help the cracking. I also plan to bed the tang both at the rear, and on the scallops just to help ensure the fit is perfect, and to help it a tad. With all the other work Great Grandpa did, i have no doubt he woukd have bedded it himself if he had of known about bedding or the eventual cracking. I’ll continue updates here.
The finished receiver
Finished barrel
Couldn’t wait to mock it up
All the stock fitting finished
And finally stained
Tomorrow the stock and forend finishing begins, then bedding and final assembly. I apologize for the novel length post, it is definitely not my usual style, i am just super excited
