Boresighting

Since I made my own scope mount, I have no idea where the scope is actually pointing in relation to the barrel.  In theory, it should be right on but it's all dependent on where the stock sight mount pins are located.  The best way to get in the ballpark is with a laser boresighing tool.  There is one commercially available for the 7.62x54R round, but user reviews say that batteries only last a few minutes, and it's not really worth the cost. 

Fortunately for me, one of the things I've accumulated under the "hey, that's cool and looks useful" category are some laser modules.  These are basically just the guts of a laser pointer.  I decided to make one into a boresighter.  I first wrapped it in electrical tape to build up the diameter, then in teflon tape that will compress and stay concentric in the chamber.  Pretty simple really.  As it turns out, I had to shim up the front of the scope by the thickness of a strip of electrical tape.  Nice and easy, and close enough to get me on target for fine tuning.

More F&C CAD

I spent some more time with Solidworks.  This is still a "see if I can" rough draft, so none of the dimensions are accurate.

Fast and Cheap update

Just a quick update of the Fast and Cheap.  I'm going to make a new body mold if I ever get up the motivation.  It'll be CNC'd instead of hand carved plaster.  Since I'm not all that proficient in Solidworks, I started on a super quickie Solidworks model just to see how much work it would be.

Scope out the situation

Still working on stuff while the stock was drying... Since I'm going for long range, I need a scope.  That presents yet another a problem.  Like the Mausers, the bolt handle on the Mosin sticks straight out.  Because of this, with a standard scope the bolt handle would hit the scope so you wouldn't be able to get the bolt open.  One option there is to modify the bolt with a bent bolt handle to clear the scope.  I didn't want to do that. 

The other option is to use a scout or pistol scope.  While a standard scope is made to be positioned 3"-4" from the eye, scout scopes have an eye relief of 11"-13".  This lets the scope be mounted much further forward so bolt clearance isn't an issue.  They say that the rule of thumb for scopes is that your scope should cost about half what the rifle cost, so I ended up with an AIM Sports 2-7x42 Scout scope.  It's definitely an entry level scope, and the reviews are mixed, but there's no way I'm spending $200+ for a scope on a $130 gun.  The scope will get mounted ahead of the bolt area.

I like iron sights, and want to keep mine, so the scope will be mounted above the stock sight, using the stock sight attachment points.  There is a mount like this available, but it's just stamped steel and quite frankly I think it looks chintzy.  It also uses a picatinny rail and standard scope rings, so it mounts the scope way too far above the barrel.  With a rifle this powerful, having the scope and barrel centerlines so far apart can lead to accuracy problems, ie. low at 75 yards, on at 100, and high at 125.  Here's a picture off the internet showing what I mean.  You can see how the higher the scope is, the worse the problem is.

So, with all that out of the way, I decided to make my own scope mount.  As much as I like grinding, filing, and sanding, there's a better way...BAM!

Conveniently, I know a guy...that guy being me.  After I finished the model, I got a chunk of aluminum and had at it.  I let the machine do the the work while I kicked back and relaxed.  After a few hours, my solid block of aluminum was looking much lighter.

The shiny aluminum wouldn't look right on the mostly dark colored gun, and while I know how to anodize at home, I'm not set up to do it, so it got painted.  The scope sits nice and low, and I can still use the stock iron sight up to 400 yards.

This'll really trip your trigger

Since I had a lot of time with the gun apart while refinishing the stock, I took the opportunity to do some other work.  The Mosin is a military gun.  In Russia, that translates as "lets build them as fast as we can."  This is especially obvious in the trigger.  The stock trigger falls into the "It works" category.  The pull was so high that you could lift the gun by the trigger and it wouldn't go off.  It didn't feel very smooth either.  The solution is a trigger job.  It basically entails polishing all the contact points in the trigger system.  After polishing, I also shimmed the sear to lighten the pull.  It's still a bit heavy, but is lighter than stock, and feels much smoother.  Pictures won't do much good, there's not much to see, so I swiped a picture off the internet. 

The Finish is in sight.

With the terrible finish stripped off, the wood on the Mosin is actually in very good shape.  I used my iron and a rag to steam out the few dents that were there.  I've got my wood stripped, sanded, clean, and ready for stain.

As I mentioned previously, I don't like wood.  I also don't like the color brown.  It's my least favorite color.  That left me with a problem since these guns come with brown wood stocks.  I couldn't go with red either, because I'm colorblind and unless it's a bright red, it looks brown to me, which I don't like.  I considered bleaching the wood to a light blond, but it's discolored enough that I wasn't sure how well it would bleach.  So I decided to go dark.  Ebony dark.  I used a Min-Wax oil-based stain.  I chose oil based because this stock will still weep cosmoline for years to come and it shouldn't affect an oil based stain. Only after starting to stain did I discover that Min-Wax has a reputation as the worst stain on the market.  Consequently, my stock is dark brown instead of black.  If I were to do it again, I'd use a better brand.  It's a bit lighter in the pic than real life because of the flash.

To finish my finish, I chose Birchwood-Casey's Tru-oil.  It's mostly boiled linseed oil with some other additives, and is about the most popular gun stock finish on the planet.  It takes a day or so to dry well enough to sand and over the course of a month or so, I did the oil, let dry, sand, repeat routine.  This fills the grain, leaving a nice smooth surface.

After many many coats of Tru-Oil, I decided that I had enough build up(since most of it got sanded off between coats it's not very thick).  I did my final sanding wet with 1500 grit paper, then polished with regular automotive polishing compound.  The Tru-Oil buffs up very easily.  I know what you're thinking, battle rifles shouldn't be shiny.  But you know who's rifle this is?  Mine.  :)