[Toten Kopf]

Well guys, except for phosphating it's pretty much done (I know the picture sucks). Loads and ejects (dummies) real nice. I'm really looking forward to it's first burp! Oh, My, God.............I forgot the damn cleaning rod! Next picture will have it, I promise.

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

NICE!

 

[hotbarrel]

looks too sweet. very creative too.

 

[Toten Kopf]

Well, it got it's first burp! 40 rounds downrange and no problems or malfunctions. Did the usual one round thing for 5 rounds (just to make sure everything was okay). Then loaded 5 rounds, fired, then another 5 rounds, fired, finally loaded 25 rounds and let'er rip......SWEET!!!! It's really fantastic to build something like this and not have any problems. I just wish I had taken more ammo!!!!! "I OWE IT ALL TO YOU GUYS AT THIS SITE, MANY, MANY, THANKS".

The ejector (which I Kasenit'ed) looked good, no signs of any wear.

One thing I did notice is that the ejected cases landed in different places, some just 2 - 4 feet away others like 10 feet. Is this normal?

 

[yosuthnmasa]

Very nice TK! Are you going to install the front PG? What kind of final finish are you going to use? My rounds tend to do the same thing with Wolf or Red Hammer.

 

[alpo]

Congrats and nice.

 

[Toten Kopf]

yosuthnmasa.........

I will not install the FPG. The finish will be, bead blast all parts, dip in pre-black (to give all parts a uniform black color), then phospahte. I have done many firearms this way and they always look good, the finish is hard to beat to.

I'm doing a little fine tuning to the rifle, as an example I didn't like the way the safety selector worked. When moving it from the safe postion, you only had to move the lever less than a 1/4" to be in the fire postion. So I added some metal to the aft end of the trigger to engage the safety lever for a longer distance. Now the lever has to be within less than 1/4" of the fire postion to Fire.

Also noticed that when shooting, the safety lever would move upwards so I used a center drill to drill a detent to engage the lever in the fire position. Another potential problem that I noticed during dry firing was that I could get the hammer to follow the carrier (didn't happen when shooting). So I removed a very small amout of metal from the trigger where it stops on the receiver, also the disconnector and flat of the hammer then polished both, haven't been able to repeat since doing that work.

Also, during my second shooting session, I could get the rifle to miss-feed. I discovered this when chambering a round while the rifle was on it's side (ejection port up). It was weird because it wouldn't happen when the rifle was held normally. As part of my testing I check to make sure the rifle fires in all postions like upside down, sideways ect. I have found that some semi-auto's jam (ususally the case fails to clear the gun) in postions other than normal upright postion. But this rifle had miss-feed problems. Sooooooooo, I had to drill out the triggerguard rivets and reset the distance between the mag and the bolt. This allowed the bolt to engage the cartridge head more to ensure correct feeding. I hated to drill out the rivets but what are you going to do?

So after all the additional "FINE TUNING" (LOL) I'm looking forward to my next outing.

Just one other thing.......Do you find youself always picking up the gun and checking it out? Like I have trouble putting the thing down. I'll have it on the work bench and be involved in other things and I'll walk pass the room, stop go in and pick it up, maybe insert a magazine then put it down and then go back to what I was doing. I mean I have done this a lot......LOL

This has been one fun build (I just wish I could take better pictures).

 

[Toten Kopf]

Cephus............

Bead blasting takes most of the time, the pre-black dip only takes a few minutes and then the phosphate takes around 20 minutes for each piece. Of course when doing the small pieces you can put many in the phosphate tank at one time for the 20 minute period.

Heating the phosphate to 190 degrees takes quite awhile because the liquid is so dense/heavy.

I guess once you have all the parts bead blasted and the phosphate up to temp, it would take about one hour to do the whole thing.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

Sooooooooo, I had to drill out the triggerguard rivets and reset the distance between the mag and the bolt. This allowed the bolt to engage the cartridge head more to ensure correct feeding. I hated to drill out the rivets but what are you going to do?

Boy, what a pain. I have had to drill out a few rivets that didn't seat right and that was a real pain, especially in the trigger gaurd area. Did you have to extend the length of the mag well area, or make the mag closer to the barrel. If you had to move it closer, did you have any issues with the extra space at the end of the magwell, or did the mag catch keep everything from moving around and wobbling front to back?

I may try some of the things you mentioned when test firing your gun. I never thought to do things like this which could help finding small glitches or things you want to change.

 

[Toten Kopf]

yosuthnmasa.......

The problem with the magazine wasn't forward or aft, it was up and down. Actually the magazine needed to be move closer to the lower rails so the bolt would catch the next round in the mag. I don't know why it never happened when holding the rifle normally. But the second you change the angle I guess the mag would move just a little bit and I'd have a miss-feed.

Also went to the range today to fire another 100 rounds. After about 60 rounds the hammer wouldn't release. I removed the top cover and looked inside the receiver and didn't see anything. Manually released the hammer and put everything back fired another 5 rounds and the same thing happened. WTF....LOL, I took the cover and recoil spring out and looked again..........GUESS WHAT? The little piece of metal that I soldered on the trigger to increase the selector engagement had broken off and was resting under the trigger............LOL, I guess I didn't do a good job with the solder. So I packed up everything and went home, took the trigger out and really cleaned the broken off piece and the trigger where I need to solder and this time "CLAMPED" the pieces together and re-soldered them. I'm using Hi-Force 44 solder, and if it happens again I'll switch to a harder (higher temp) solder.

At the range I was shooting 154 grain soft points, I can tell the difference in recoil between them and the 122 grain FMJ's. Other than the broken little piece (which has nothing to do with the actual build) everything went fine.