Gunsmithing Homemade Guns

[kurtlaughton]

Hello I am new to the forum and was wondering if anyone has made any bolt action rifles? I am currently building a Match Grade .50 BMG. Has anyone else done one or any other gun?

 

[:X2:]

Re: Homemade Guns

Get ready, the "use the Search Function" is coming.

This will get you started.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=779609

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

NO NO I am talking Homemade not built from parts thats is to easy. I am talking about machining everything (Receaver, Bolt, ECT.)

 

[coldboremiracle]

Re: Homemade Guns

NO NO, he meant use the search funtion to find that particular subject. lots of people scratch build guns, even "receavers"

 

[:X2:]

Re: Homemade Guns

self built chassis

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthre...rue#Post1716574

 

[chpprguy]

Re: Homemade Guns

Take a look here too...

http://www.homegunsmith.com

 

[mark4567]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt Laughton</div><div class="ubbcode-body">NO NO I am talking Homemade not built from parts thats is to easy. I am talking about machining everything (Receaver, Bolt, ECT.) </div></div>

Good luck with the barrel!

 

[coldboremiracle]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BULLET SPONGE</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt Laughton</div><div class="ubbcode-body">NO NO I am talking Homemade not built from parts thats is to easy. I am talking about machining everything (Receaver, Bolt, ECT.) </div></div>

Good luck with the barrel! </div></div>

+1

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

. I have the receaver almost done, bolt, and firing pin done. I think I will use a accutrigger or design a tigger I am not sure yet. I will post some pics soon.

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

And I am not your average home builder. I have access to a whole machine shop.

 

[mark4567]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt Laughton</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have a deap hole drilling machine and have made a barrel before that shot 1moa. </div></div>

If I'm not mistaken the FCSA record for a 50bmg is under 1/3 moa @ 1000yds. 2.9" for 5 shot group. Just because you can make a barrel doesn't mean its a good one. All the power to ya if you just want to make everything youself. I wish I had the skill myself. I think if you want to shoot match with it take a look at K&P barrels. I have one of there tubes on my 50. (which I built from parts)

 

[Clark]

Re: Homemade Guns

When the WorldWideWeb got going 15 years ago, there were no gun forums, but there were a few web sites, like the Fifty Caliber Shooters Association, with pics or a link to pics of a guy building his own 50BMG from scratch.

I know someone who built a 50MBG bolt action. I think one can buy a bolt body with lugs and a receiver tube that already had bolt races. It is not half done, so no ATF form 4473 or FFL to deal with.

 

[ewoaf]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt Laughton</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And I am not your average home builder. I have access to a whole machine shop and edm and wire edm. I am a machinist / engineer at a muti million dollar shop. </div></div>
wow, bet you're the only one on the site who can say that.

 

[IdahoMike]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ewoaf</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt Laughton</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And I am not your average home builder. I have access to a whole machine shop and edm and wire edm. I am a machinist / engineer at a muti million dollar shop. </div></div>
wow, bet you're the only one on the site who can say that.</div></div>

It doesn't take much... couple of CNC machines add up quick.

 

[ewoaf]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: IdahoMike</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ewoaf</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt Laughton</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And I am not your average home builder. I have access to a whole machine shop and edm and wire edm. I am a machinist / engineer at a muti million dollar shop. </div></div>
wow, bet you're the only one on the site who can say that.</div></div>

It doesn't take much... couple of CNC machines add up quick. </div></div>naw ...really?...i mean are you being totally serial?

 

[jmorris]

Re: Homemade Guns

I built one from maddi griffin plans every thing is built from billet but I used a Walther barrel blank.

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

Thanks for all the input there are some people making some really nice stuff! I will post some pics soon.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Homemade Guns

I don't have much help to offer, but you've certainly got my attention.

Or..., maybe I do, check this out.

Greg

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

That is really cool! I might look into doing that for weight reduction!

 

[nmntz]

Re: Homemade Guns

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SNIDE REMARKS? A GUY HAD A GOOD QUESTION AND EVERYONE JUMPS ON THE BANDWAGON OF BEING AN ASSHOLE. ANYWAYS I SAW A BUNCH OF TUBE GUNS THAT WERE SCRATCH BUILT ON HERE. LIKE SAID A COUPOLE TIMES USE THE SEARCH AND DIG AROUND ALOT, THERES A TON OF GOOD INFO ON HERE KURT. GOOD LUCK AND LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING PICS.

 

[MinorDamage]

Re: Homemade Guns

Please, stop typing in all caps. Thanks.

Josh

 

[Victory]

Re: Homemade Guns

Not a machinist, but I do enjoy seeing what you guys are capable of doing. It truly blows me away sometimes.

Good luck and I look forward to your pictures.

Cheers

 

[aynorpd]

Re: Homemade Guns

Good luck man and keep posting pics.

 

[gamma]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nmntz</div><div class="ubbcode-body">WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SNIDE REMARKS? A GUY HAD A GOOD QUESTION AND EVERYONE JUMPS ON THE BANDWAGON OF BEING AN ASSHOLE. ANYWAYS I SAW A BUNCH OF TUBE GUNS THAT WERE SCRATCH BUILT ON HERE. LIKE SAID A COUPOLE TIMES USE THE SEARCH AND DIG AROUND ALOT, THERES A TON OF GOOD INFO ON HERE KURT. GOOD LUCK AND LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING PICS. </div></div>
Its called begrudgery and its everywhere in the world. Theres some great guys on here, 300sniper, wmroscoe, Eddybo, Hateca,
ushandgunner, Debosdave, usmc7980 and Skunkworks, to name but a few and then you have the guys mentioned above, take your pick on the ones that are really any addition to the Hide. I might be no great shakes myself but I encourage anyone I can.

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

Here are some pixs

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

 

[RADcustom]

Re: Homemade Guns

Nice and clean.

Will this be a bench rest rifle?

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

Yea that is what i am shooting for. I dont want to lug it around it will weigh about 30 LBS.

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

It is 100% 300 Series Stainless Steel I dont want no rust!

 

[RADcustom]

Re: Homemade Guns

It looks good so far.

What caliber will it be chambered in?

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

.50 BMG

 

[ewoaf]

Re: Homemade Guns

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nmntz</div><div class="ubbcode-body">WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SNIDE REMARKS? A GUY HAD A GOOD QUESTION AND EVERYONE JUMPS ON THE BANDWAGON OF BEING AN ASSHOLE. </div></div>
Because the OP was the equivalent of getting on a NAMBLA forum and asking if anyone was into banging little boys. So yeah, he should have done a search.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Homemade Guns

I know a little bit about the L-W Lightweight barrel concept from some dialogues with L-W's Head Honcho.

The idea of a production sleeved barrel was first experimented with by them sometime before WWII. They did some work on shotgun barrels, and then the War overtook all sorts of development and testing.

More recently, they revived the idea for a different reason, to attempt to tame rifle barrel harmonics without resorting to the customary practice of building a lot of mass into them.

Building on the basic concept of the BR-related sleeved/tensioned barrel, they came up with what they have in the web page description. Without delving into details of a proprietary nature, there's a lot more to it than just sleeving and tensioning, and it took several prototypical evolutions to develop what's being offered now.

I can tell you it handles heat from sustained fire in a remarkable manner, and has some advantages that may help defeat IR detection. The thing that required the additional evolution was the demand for 1/2" at 200yd accuracy. Yeah, I blinked at that one, too. This barrel is held to an extraordinary accuracy standard.

I can also tell you it ain't cheap, costing maybe a couple of times as much as a conventional barrel.

Greg

 

[ranger1183]

Re: Homemade Guns


Greg Langelius,

ABS carbon fiber wrapped barrels are now running $900 for 26" bolt action match grade barrels.

How does that compare to the L-W Lightweight barrels?

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

That's. A litlle expensive for my taste.lol

 

[bohem]

Re: Homemade Guns

I might be able to find pictures of some of the stuff my dad and I have built, but if they exist, they're on a hard drive in a computer that's in a storage unit... here's the list of scratch built stuff that we've done.

Using existing receivers:

9x19 mauser k98
7.62x39 K98, interestinly Wolf ammo shoots about 1.5-2 MOA...
22-250 on a MN 91/30
30-30 on a 91/30
45-70 on a 91/30
30-06, 308, 44mag, 357, 6.5-06 on k98's

Using scratch materials
several AR15 and AR10 lowers, a lefty 10/22 that uses a scratch built bolt, flipped charging handle, and new stock. It's trick to feed though, we had a lot of trouble with the mags. I tore it down for parts on a regular match 10/22, Marlin 25M receiver for a 22 mag parts kit that I got, AR15 and AR10 combination that's made to shoot our proprietary wildcat based from 30-06 cases and is a cheap ballistic twin to the 458 SOCOM, works the same as a 450 Bushy, and was done in 2001.

One of the Bill Holmes home shop pistols, a Bill Holmes 50, and I started a falling block from scratch when I was in college but ran out of money for parts/pieces when I was about 90% done with the primary part of the receiver.

Guns are somewhat simple to build, I started building race cars and race gearboxes about 3/4 way through college and I'm just getting back into building rifles now, I just don't have the time or patience to build AL gearcases from scratch so that some ham fisted rich boy can smash it against a guardrail and then tell me it was the car's fault.

Now I go racing with a couple close friends and enjoy the time around the cars and the smell of high octane, leaded fuels.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Homemade Guns

Last time I priced the L-W it was three figures beginning with a 7.

This lightweight concept of a core and shell does not need to be limited to barrels.

Receivers are basically tubes, and bolt bodies do not need to be monolithic, either.

The primary value of sleeving, etc. is that by dividing the components into sections, materials can be selected based on specific properties.

Simple tubing, etc. can be employed in a shell to provide rigidity, with intervening space providing lightness without requiring machining.

Die cutting, stamping, and spot welding can be employed in lieu of machining.

Done ideally, it should be possible to design and manufacture a system which does not require the component parts to be machined in any way; and I don't see any reason why the design principles that provide good accuracy would need to be dropped by the wayside.

For example; does anyone really think the key design features of the AR upper and lower could not be duplicated using stamped sheetmetal; or that the design could not be improved upon in the process?

The idea lends itself admirably to mass production, which allows tooling expense to be amortized over the volume of large unit multiples.

Greg

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

That is a great idea and i am going to look into it alot before i would ever try it myself. but i dont see why it would not work.

 

[LRI]

Re: Homemade Guns

To date my personal collection:

22 Win Mag made from a chunk of mid 90's Ford Explorer front Sway bar. (good steel!)

A 7075 forged billet machined Ruger 1022 knock off

An "americanized" copy of an Anschutz 54 action in Stainless
Another Anschutz 54 copy

A tactical action still in the works

Fun stuff. Good luck!

 

[jeffm]

Re: Homemade Guns

How would you know how thick to make the steel in order to withstand the pressures of the 50 BMG?

 

[LRI]

Re: Homemade Guns

A 50 BMG doesn't make any more pressure than a 5.56nato. In fact its a bit less. what your concerned about is the square inches. the square inches of bolt face on a 223 (.390BF) is far, far less than what the big boomer uses. So, it's a function of creating enough surface area on the lugs to tolerate the pressure generated over the surface of the cartridge head.

Remember, guns are nothing more than pressure vessels and atmospheric pressure pushes on every surface it contacts at a right angle. The body of the case is seeing just as much as the case head. What this means is the bolt face isn't having to deal with quite as much force as the chamber walls because when the brass squishes against the chamber, it creates friction that is going to resist being moved around the best it can. This only really becomes an issue on catridges like the 22-250 where there is a fair amount of taper (break away angle) from the chamber walls. Terms used to scare people like "bolt thrust" originate as a result. In truth if your material and heat treat selection is appropriate, it's a non issue.

This is also where surface finish in a chamber becomes significant and why I will not polish a chamber to a mirror finish. A light cross hatch will promote the brass case to bite the walls a bit. Go too much and it frosts up your brass which annoys many. 320 at a couple hundred rpm works pretty good.

In terms of lug thickness on the bolt, it's going to depend on your material selection, the heat treatment, and the surface area you decide to go with on your lug faces. I'd guess any figure over half an inch would be appropriate so long as you pay attention to your material selection. A double arc furnace 4130 prehardened to around 42HRC with a bolt made from 4140 and hardened to 40HRC and maybe surface nitrided should work really well. It'll be slick and run like a raped ape.

If you go SS I'd choose 15-5PH H1150 solution annealed or 416. 416 is a bit more labor to work with but it'll get a bit harder than 15-5. 15-5 cuts nice when in the H1150 condition but it is a bit more prone to galling.

good luck.

Chad

 

[LRI]

Re: Homemade Guns

Maybe this will help.

A 338LM runs in the upper scale of pressure. If memory serves me right this cartridge is rated to around 60K CUP.

If you have access to an action known to run well with this boomer measure the surface area of the lugs. Do some math to find the relationship of the lugs to bolt face surface area. Use that ratio (whatever it is) as a starting point when figuring your surface area on the 50. Fudge in a few percent more as a safety margin.

Another option:

the 50 was/is nothing more than John Browning taking a 30-06 springfield and blowing it up on an overhead projector. The two cartridges are almost direct copies of each other-only enlarged. You may be able to do the same thing I mentioned earlier with a plain Jane Remmy 700 set up with a 480 bolt face. Again, just use a reasonable safety margin so you don't have gun parts being removed from your face at the ER.

Good luck.

C

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns

well I got it done finally! pics soon!

 

[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns


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[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns


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[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns


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[kurtlaughton]

Re: Homemade Guns


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