Take a look at this little beauty. A friend gave me this .22LR Winchester Wildcat yesterday. He'd never fired it but clearly it had seen a lot of use. I fired it yesterday and it gave somewhat respectable groups at 100 yds.
The barrel is okay inside and has a little rust on the outside metal. Last night I field-stripped the bolt and gave it a thorough cleaning. The fore-end was slightly warped and touching the barrel on the right side (that is the problem with wood stocks, of course: variation with environmental conditions and potential to warp over time. I love wood stocks but it's hard to beat synthetic for ease of care.) I had a few options to correct it but it has to be corrected. There was no point sighting it in till the barrel was completely free-floating. I only needed about 1/16 of an inch so I didn't think anyone would notice the asymmetry that will result if I simply file the inside of the fore end. That is a pretty standard fix anyway for this problem unless the stock is extremely expensive. Anyway if I botched it, I could always buy a new stock.
I took it apart and used a half round file on right inner right surface of the fore end till I had the desired clearance. It took 3-4 tries till I had it how I wanted with it all torqued down. Once I had the clearance I wanted, I torqued it down (18 inch lbs ought to do it for a .22... It was torqued to only 10-12 in-lb when I started) with blue threadlock.
The pic of the fore-end is "before". You can see where the contact was.
The last pic shows the desired clearance (plain sheet of paper should slide easily the full length of the barrel.
I have a video but the site doesn't support .MOV files and it isn't worth converting. you get the idea.
I may head to the range today to sight it in.
"Got bunnies?" ;D
The barrel is okay inside and has a little rust on the outside metal. Last night I field-stripped the bolt and gave it a thorough cleaning. The fore-end was slightly warped and touching the barrel on the right side (that is the problem with wood stocks, of course: variation with environmental conditions and potential to warp over time. I love wood stocks but it's hard to beat synthetic for ease of care.) I had a few options to correct it but it has to be corrected. There was no point sighting it in till the barrel was completely free-floating. I only needed about 1/16 of an inch so I didn't think anyone would notice the asymmetry that will result if I simply file the inside of the fore end. That is a pretty standard fix anyway for this problem unless the stock is extremely expensive. Anyway if I botched it, I could always buy a new stock.
I took it apart and used a half round file on right inner right surface of the fore end till I had the desired clearance. It took 3-4 tries till I had it how I wanted with it all torqued down. Once I had the clearance I wanted, I torqued it down (18 inch lbs ought to do it for a .22... It was torqued to only 10-12 in-lb when I started) with blue threadlock.
The pic of the fore-end is "before". You can see where the contact was.
The last pic shows the desired clearance (plain sheet of paper should slide easily the full length of the barrel.
I have a video but the site doesn't support .MOV files and it isn't worth converting. you get the idea.
I may head to the range today to sight it in.
"Got bunnies?" ;D
