M70 PAP Update #1

So I purchased a Zastava M70 PAP rifle back in Feb and rehabilitated it back in Sept.

After hunting around for a good deal on some wood for the stock set, the gods at Gunbroker smiled on me late last month and I picked up an almost complete Mitchell Arms take-off stock set for her for $80 plus shipping.

Before

 

 

 After

Now that I've got her dressed, the last thing I have to do is fabricate a piece to cover the angle cut area at the rear of the receiver.  I've also got to get a cleaning rod for her.  Other than that, I'm done.

Learned some new things getting this project done.  First, never underestimate the power of a good dial caliper.  I had all kinds of ideas about how to open up the mag well, I tried to create a template to lay over the mag well, but that didn't go very well.  What I ended up doing was measuring the width of another rifle, in this case the mag well of my M70 AB2 underfolder, and then transferring those measurements over to the Zastava.

Also, never underestimate the need for a good shop vac when using the rotary file on a Dremel tool, especially when using said tool to open up the mag well.  The metal shavings that little tool produces is amazing.  I'm still trying to clean up from it, even after vacuuming them up, cleaning my bench with Fantastic general purpose cleaner, and wiping everything down with a half a roll of paper towels.

So now it's on to the next project:  getting my M92 prepped for when I eventually get the tax stamp I put in for back in early May.  I've already got the barrel assembled, now it's getting the barrel installed in the virgin front trunion and getting it headspaced.

Not Quite A Kool-Aid Drinker...

Yet.

So I finally broke down and bought an AR-pattern rifle.  But not just any old AR.

Not me.  I've resisted buying an AR in any caliber primarily for one reason: the gas system.  I don't like a gun that craps where it eats.  I used to deal with the AR in my day job and after 20+ yrs, I just fell out of lust with it. 

Give me a gun with an operating rod any day.

Sure, when I remember seeing the AR-15/M-16, I thought the gun was totally cool.  That was then.

Give me an AK, or FAL, or M1A, or anything with an operating rod/gas piston system.  As long as it's not a direct impingement system.

And then all these piston driven ARs started hitting the streets.  Primarily chambered in 5.56/.223, I wasn't too keen on those rifles because I'm not a big fan of the round, but not for the reasons you would think.  Yes, it's accurate.  Yes, it can do all kinds of things.  But my thing is, EVERYBODY is shooting it.  It's almost as bad as the .30-06 was back 20-30 yrs ago.  You know the type: If you ain't shooting '06, then you just ain't shooting.

Hogwash.  Turns me right off, right now.

And I don't want to stock a new caliber.  I've got enough to keep me busy as it is.  I don't need to be buying new dies and stuff for my RL550B.

Thus my foray into the AR platform had to be on my terms.  The rifle had to be piston driven, be in a caliber I stock (preferably .30 caliber), and it had to be affordable, under $2,000.

And then they started showing up.  POF-USA has a nice offering, but the price was all wrong.  The ones I saw last year were well north of $2500. LaRue Tactical also offers a .308 piston driven design, but again, price was wayyyyy out of my range.

Enter Sig Sauer and their 716.  .30 caliber?  Check.  Piston driven?  Check again.  Under two grand?  Double check.  So, after much saving and a really good fun show, (and a lot of arguing with the staff at the fun store about why they needed to sell the rifle to somebody else*) I finally have one.

My initial impressions?  This rifle is something to behold.  Weighing in at just a hair over 9 lbs, it's a little heavy, but not much.  Most of the controls are ambidextrous, with the safety/selector and bolt release being standard AR fare.  The four-rail forearm is not really my thing, but it came with the gun, so it stays for now.

Back up irons are nice, and fold down nicely out of the way.  The MagPul stock is comfortable and the six position collapsible stock locks up nicely.  My only complaint is the lock tab doesn't really lock when the lever is squeezed to move the stock on the tube.  Maybe it's not a bug, I don't know.  With all the stuff they've done to the AR in the last 8 yrs, it's hard to keep up with.

The rifle shipped with one 20 rd MagPul SR 25 PMag, I've since bought 4 more because hey, you can never have enough mags, right?  These drop free on release, no sticking or hanging up in the well.  Also shipped with the rifle is the factory 3-point sling.  What's nice is there are 3 (with a fourth stored in the butt stock) attach points for the push-button mounts on each side of the rifle; one on each end of the rail on each side of the gun, and the third near the buffer tube on the back end of each side.

The factory box also contained low-pro rail covers, extra panels for the adjustable pistol grip, and a GI-style cleaning kit.  I've heard and read that some of these came with a hard case, but not mine.

From the picture above, I've added the stubby fore grip you see, and a Sig red dot sight (not pictured).  I"ll know more on the accuracy front tomorrow when I take her out to break in the barrel and check to see how it shoots.

*The argument was basically that they needed to sell the rifle...so I wouldn't have to buy it.  And THAT worked out well, didn't it? ;)

New Gun Goodness, S&W Edition

Picked up a new S&W revolver tonight. A Model 310 Night Guard in 10mm with 2.5" barrel.

I've got a couple of other 10mm pistols, but they're 1911s with 4 and 5 inch barrels.

This should be interesting to shoot. I've got a lot of 10mm loaded and stored, 8 grains of Power Pistol sitting under 180 grain FMJs. Well, except for the 155 grain Noslers I got for S&Gs. This will be fun!

Newest Member of the 700 Club

That would be the Remington 700 club, and not the 700 club of Pat Robertson fame on the ABC Family channel.

For years I've wanted a Remington 700. My Dad has had one since before I was born. 6 months before I was born to be exact, chambered in .270 Win. That rifle has taken more game in our family than any other rifle. It's taken countless deer, numerous elk, and one moose. I also took my first two deer with that rifle. (One a side note, all this hubbub about the model 700 recently hasn't made much difference to me. Dad's got one in .270, and my brother has one in .243. In our experience, this dust up is much ado about nothing.)

Being a southpaw, decent rifles are hard to come by. Very few rifle makers offer their wares to us lefties. And even fewer still offer them in the caliber I was looking for, .308 Win. Oh, I could have had all kinds of stuff from Remington, Ruger, and others in calibers ranging from .204 Ruger all the way up to .375 H&H. But .308 was very few manufacturers list of chamberings.

My first left handed rifle in .308 was a Savage Model 10GLXP3. A decent enough gun, the Savage. Excellent trigger in the Accu-Trigger, but the rest of the gun left a lot to be desired. It was too light, firstly, and was not fun to shoot because of this. Secondly, the parts seemed to be made of pot metal. Lastly, the stock looked to be made from something besides walnut. Oh, it looked like walnut, but if I were to scratch the surface finish off, I'm betting it would've been a white colored wood under there.

Last spring, I scared up a used Ruger M77 Hawkeye in .308. Very good gun, easy to shoot with enough weight to absorb the recoil. She came with a Leupold VX-1 2-7x33mm scope sitting on top. The previous owner had glass bedded her, and she shoots like a dream.

Last Friday, I was down at the local funstore here in RC, and was ogling a newish left handed 700 chambered in '06. Nice dark walnut stock, mounted iron sights, and just an all around good looking gun. Talking with the sales dude, I was lamenting the fact that Big Green had offered the left handed 700 in every caliber under the sun EXCEPT .308 in their hunting line. The only place you could find a lefty 700 in .308 was in either their line (XCR) or the police line (SPS). On my way out the door, I talked with the owner and passed along my frustration at not being able to obtain what I was after. He didn't miss a beat in telling me that he had, in fact, put out a left handed 700 in .308 that very afternoon. Talk about a dose of cold water.

TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!! That's what I wanted to hear! So I had them put it back for me and yesterday I went and traded that Savage Model 10GLXP3 towards that 700. After adding a Sightron S1 3-9x40 scope and Leupold bases and two-piece base, the total OTD was right at $504.

So yes, Louise, I'm now a member of the Remington 700 club.

Parts Bleg

I'm going to be the proud owner of a 7.62x39 AKS-47U parts kit in the next week or so. In order to expedite the Form 1 process, I'm in need of an NDS 1KP receiver.

I've contacted Harlan at NoDak Spud receivers, and he's not planning another run until maybe November.

Does anyone have a NDS 1 KP receiver they would be willing to sell me?

Just drop a comment or email me at thunderriverhomeATgmaildotcom.

Thanks!

Gots Me an Idea...

So, I know there's a couple of folks out there who stop by occasionally. I would like your opinion.

What would you all think if I took this (Saiga .308):

(pic borrowed from this Gunbroker auction)

And turned it in to this (AKS-74U), in .308 of course:

Think it'd be too much? Or would it be sublimely evil? Thoughts? Prayers?

Edit to Add: Am bumping this up for a couple of days to see what kind of reaction I'm going to get.

My BAG Day Gun

Not really a gun, but it's a Bulgarian AK 74 parts kit. So, while not a real BAG Day gun, it soon will be!

Dan Wesson Commander Bob-Tail

Last week, I picked up a Dan Wesson Commander Bob-Tail 1911 in 10mm. Fit and finish on this little shooter is beyond head and shoulders above anything else I've ever owned or fondled.


The one issue I had with her was the lack of an ambidextrous manual safety. After a couple of days of snooping around, I found a Kimber stainless steel set up that looked like it would work perfectly. The downside was there were some small modifications that I would have to make to both the pistol and the parts.

First, I had to polish up the Kimber parts as they came with a matte finish. About 30 minutes with various grits of sandpaper from 240 grit all the way down to 400 got me about where I needed to be. To finish up, I used the Dremel with a polishing wheel with some jewelers rouge to put a final polish on things.


After that was completed, I had to disassemble the rear end of the pistol to remove the smallest pin. Part of the Kimber setup was a replacement pin that had a cut out on one side to accept the left side of the manual safety without the spur commonly found on standard ambidextrous safeties (see the bottom pic of my custom Delta).


(On a related note, I've disassembled every one of the six 1911's I own and have never had to go chasing the plunger pin and spring across the room. Note to self: If I ever do this again, keep a better eye on that little piece. They fly pretty good!)


When assembling a Kimber ambi-safety, put the left side in first, as you won't be able to get the left side safety onto the pin if you don't. Once that's in, everything else slips right into place ala the usual reassembly procedures. Fortunately, none of the mods I did today are irreversible. All of the parts I took off can be put back on the pistol, returning it to its factory original condition.


So, here's the before picture:

Here's the after pic:

Which should go well with my custom Delta Elite:

Not a bad little collection of 10's, is it?

Happy Birthday To Me!!!!

For my birthday 2 days ago, I went out an picked up my layaway from the local funstore.

It's a Dan Wesson Commander Bob-Tail in 10mm. Now, I'm not real big fan of stainless steel pistols, but this one grabbed my attention by the gnads and wouldn't let go. The action is tighter than any other semi auto I've ever handled or owned. Paid just over 9 bills to get her, plus the guys threw in two extra mags ( a SS colt and MecGar 8 rd mag). It's got the Trijicon night sights, and I was a little disappointed I couldn't find any biblical refernces in the SNs, bummer. Anyway, this brings the 1911 count to 6, and probably growing.

A New Twist

On an old game. This may very well end up being one of things that comes on line and we wonder where the hell it's been the whole the whole time.

Not that I need much more reason to watch the Sportsman Channel.

Custom Delta Elite Part II

Took the Delta out yesterday (Sunday) to make sure everything functioned. Had some issues with the manual safety and the trigger was giving me fits at the range.

Got her home, completely shucked her down to the frame and made sure everything fit correctly. In doing this, I fixed the issue with the manual safety and the trigger.

The last thing to do was to ensure the tang blended correctly with the grip safety and make sure the right side of the manual safety wouldn't dig into the web of my shooting hand. Man, it didn't break the skin, but it sure hurt like hell.

The last thing mechanically I've got to do is knock the tops off the hammer and sear pins to ensure the right side of the safety sits flush to the frame and do a little more custom fitting so that manual safety doesn't get me any more.

Then for the aesthetics, I've got a set of Night Hawk grips coming for her to finish her off.

A Little Custom Work

Last spring, I restored a 1944 Remington Rand 1911A1 to its former glory as a warrior's pistol.

This got me to thinking about maybe tackling something a little more complex. Well, last month I got a Colt Delta Elite in 10mm. One thing I don't like about standard Colt 1911s is the grip safety. The way it's configured doesn't lend itself to my shooting style, which is to get as high as a grip as I can and then some. I tried this grip style on my RR 1911 only once, and I've got the scar on the web of my left hand for the effort.

Obligatory before pic

This is what led me to make my first attempt at customizing a 1911. I got the parts from Ed Brown (no paid advertising or anything here FCC) last week and set out today to make my project come to life.

What I got from Ed Brown was:

Beavertail grip safety w/memory pad
Commander-style hammer
Sear and disconnector
Flat checkered main spring housing w/mag well
Ambidextrous safety
Main spring

The trigger is from STI and is polymer. It required a little bit of custom fitting to make sure it cleared everything. This was the very first thing I did when I started. I figured I'd start easy and work my way up from there.

The one part I was most worried about was the beavertail grip safety, as this required firing up the old Craftsman bench grinder. I took me a couple of minutes to make up my mind if this was what I really wanted to do. It was, and I did.

Roughing in the grip safety

Following the instructions included with the jig I bought, I got the grip safety roughed in, then spent the next hour working with various jewelers flat files to get everything to fit right. The one thing that guided me in this part was the fact I didn't want to take too much material off and ruin my project before it ever got off the ground. In fact, I was downright paranoid about it.

Then I spent the next couple of hours (ok, more like 4 or 5) getting everything to fit right. The only thing I really had any problems with was getting the new ambidextrous manual safety to fit. I think I disassembled and reassembled the guts of the Delta Elite about 35 or 40 times checking fit and cussing when things wouldn't go back together the way they were supposed to.

The finished product

After all that, I finally got everything finished, put back together and function checked. Man, I'm good. This turned out way better than I had any right to expect. I look at her and I almost don't want to shoot her. But shoot her I will, probably tomorrow. I can't wait to check out that STI trigger. Just dry firing a couple of times for function, it's wayyyyy better than the stock job. I can't wait.

A New Addition

Gots me a new member of the family today, a Colt Mark IV, Series 80 Delta Elite 10mm. Picked it up for a song via Gunbroker last week, if you call $800 for an early model 4 digit serial number Delta Elite a song, and she arrived at the funstore this morning.

Took her, and my wife, out this afternoon to test fire the new pistol and expose my wife to shooting large bore semi auto handguns.

First, the Delta Elite. Shot to point of aim at about 60 ft, no issues with feeding or ejecting. Matter of fact, ejection was pretty, shall we say energetic. Unlike my Ultra Raptor which seems to hit me 3 times out of seven somewhere on my head with dead brass, this one was up and over my head and out about 10-15 ft behind me to the right. I didn't put out any paper, as this was a shakedown cruise, just to feel her out. In the coming days, I'll be upgrading some things on her like grip safety, mainspring housing w/mag well, trigger, hammer and sear, ambidextrous safety, main spring, and disconnector. I'll post how things go as I go.

Now Mrs Hazmat. This being her first time shooting large bore semi autos, I was worried, but not too terribly, as she's done excellent with her Mosquito, my CZ 50, and the two .25 ACPs she's shot. I don't know why I was even worried in the first place, as everything she's shot that had a little kick to it rifle-wise she ate right up. But she ponied up to the bar so to speak, and shot my XD .40 sub compact, the Ultra Raptor, and the new Delta. Of the three she shot tonite, she didn't much care for the XD as it had too much muzzle flip for her tastes. I think maybe a 9mm or a standard sized .40 might be a better fit for her in that department. She didn't much care for the Delta, as it had a little too much snort for her. She did, however, take a substantial liking to the Ultra Raptor. I'm thinking that there may be a compact .45 in her future, that way she won't be running off with the Raptor when I'm not looking.

The next thing we're going to work on is getting her CCP. Fortunately, here in South Dakota, it's not too much of a hassle. $10 and a trip to the county sheriffs department and she'll be all set.