First Custom Rifle Build Page 5
Marlin Action
Green Mountain Barrel
Caliber 17 Fireball

February 22, 2016

At the end of page 4, 8 months ago, the laminate stock had arrived from Boyd's. I had only minor chamber work to do to complete the barrel part of the project.

I wanted a high gloss finish on the stock so I was working on that this winter and was pleased with how that was coming along. 5 coats of Brownell's Gun Sav'r Pro Custom Oil. Then Boyd's introduced new laminate colors one of which was called "Blaze - Orange/Black".

Well how can I put together a Fireball rifle and not have a Blaze stock?

So when the new stock arrived I was thrilled. It's really sharp! I have 2 coats of Custom Oil on it so far and it's turning out very nice. I put it together for a couple of pictures.

Back to the rifle. I finally got up the courage to finish the chamber work and assemble the rifle. The list of things to do were:

Sounds simple enough but this being my first attempt on chambering I was a little intimidated. Long story short, I completed the steps on the list and now all I needed was the guts to pull the trigger the first time.

Considering all that could go wrong, I assembled the action back into a Marlin synthetic stock instead of risking the new blaze laminate. I secured the rifle in my Tipton gun vise, tied a string to the trigger and layed a pair of insulated coveralls over the receiver. Ear muffs - check, glasses - check, PULL!

Nothing came apart. One more time for safety's sake. No problems. I shouldered the rifle for the 3rd shot and lived to write this. Whew Whoooo!

I took measurements to compare the fired cases with un-fired cases and was thrilled. No change in the shoulder position and the neck diameter all but stayed the same. Of course I can't take any credit for the neck diameter as that is determined by the Manson reamer. I could turn my case necks ever so slightly but at this point I'm going to wait and see how it looks on target first.

 

Bill

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