This adventure started about 3 or so years ago when I traded a lathe for a Winchester 52C with a buddy. It was his Fathers and the stock had been shortened quite a bit. It had always been missing one of the action screws and every time I tried to order the correct one it never fit. The thread pitch was always wrong so we just shot it with one screw even though the barrel always was really loose in the stock.
That never seemed to affect the way it shot, nearly every longrange rimfire match Chris or I shot it in the gun either won or was in the top two or three spots consistently. Chris and I always kidded about just bolting or duct taping it to a 2x4 and see how it would shoot. I've always been one to experiment and have my own theories on what makes a gun shoot and always wondered how far you could go the opposite direction and still have good accuracy.
A couple days before my longrange rimfire match was to start I grabbed a chunk of pine 2x4 and went to work. I made a couple nylon holders that cradled the barrel and bolted it on top of the 2x4. Screwed another section of 2x4 to the side to go alongside the action, added a small 3/4" spacer to get another 2x4 kinda in line with the action for the rear stock section. Did a quick check for length and height then screwed them all together.
A buddy suggested a cheek rest so a cut up Poweraid bottle stapled to the top of the rear worked quite nicely. I have to admit it's ugly as hell but once you get past that and the strong smell of pine it's quite comfortable to get behind.
I sighted it in at our normal 50 yard distance and was really surprised that it just stacked them on top of one another on the steel plate I use. Moved over slightly to my Humbler rack which is 10 steel circles from 2" down to 1/4" and ran them cleanly. Hmmmmmm, moved over to the axe blade I have at the same distance and split 3 bullets with 5 shots.
I had it down it the rack the whole time of the match so everyone could see it and get a good laugh, a few commented that they didn't even want to try and shoot it and others said they better not get beat with that piece of $&!#.
Chris shot the match along with another top shooter who was one that commented about not wanting to get beat by it. Talk about getting into someones head, I don't think he had really thought he'd have anything to worry about since he hadn't seen it shoot.
The gun only missed two targets out of the 100, one was a Horseshoe at 187 yards which he said he held about 1/2" over the top inner edge due to his shots being a tad below center and that is where it went, prob a bit faster round and the other shot being a 1" circle on my 10" down to 1" descending circle rack. Ugly Beddy really shoots.
The next day I shot 10 shots at a steel circle the same size as a clay pigeon at 195 yards. On the 8th shot it fell out of the holder, I rode out to set it back up placing it in the same position in the holder. I got back to the bench and know I hurried the 9th shot which is the one a bit above the group but the 10th shot fell right in with the others. Those 9 shots are just a tad under 2 inches which is remarkable for Wolf MT at that distance.
I haven't had time to put it on paper, I do have some of the 50 yard BR green targets and might give it a try. I know it's not going to shoot with a purpose built BR gun but I bet it won't be a slouch either. So, what does it take to make a 22 rimfire shoot? The action is free floated and the nylon barrel clamps are a good fit, the stock is comfortable to shoot.
Chris is working on a really nice thumb hole target stock for it but I'd like to leave it in the 2x4 for a while and show up at some matches with it. Should get a few laughs and snickers. All kidding aside though, It's wildly exceeded out expectations and I'll put this thing up against any of the top guns in our longrange matches. I don't think it'd run with a high end BR gun with a tuner and high dollar ammo but I bet it wouldn't be embarrassed either. Crazy that it even shoots. Chris shot it offhand and commented how comfortable it held and easily cleaned my 25 yard rack numerous times and also quite a few hits on some tiny circles at 37 yards.
Topstrap
That never seemed to affect the way it shot, nearly every longrange rimfire match Chris or I shot it in the gun either won or was in the top two or three spots consistently. Chris and I always kidded about just bolting or duct taping it to a 2x4 and see how it would shoot. I've always been one to experiment and have my own theories on what makes a gun shoot and always wondered how far you could go the opposite direction and still have good accuracy.
A couple days before my longrange rimfire match was to start I grabbed a chunk of pine 2x4 and went to work. I made a couple nylon holders that cradled the barrel and bolted it on top of the 2x4. Screwed another section of 2x4 to the side to go alongside the action, added a small 3/4" spacer to get another 2x4 kinda in line with the action for the rear stock section. Did a quick check for length and height then screwed them all together.
A buddy suggested a cheek rest so a cut up Poweraid bottle stapled to the top of the rear worked quite nicely. I have to admit it's ugly as hell but once you get past that and the strong smell of pine it's quite comfortable to get behind.
I sighted it in at our normal 50 yard distance and was really surprised that it just stacked them on top of one another on the steel plate I use. Moved over slightly to my Humbler rack which is 10 steel circles from 2" down to 1/4" and ran them cleanly. Hmmmmmm, moved over to the axe blade I have at the same distance and split 3 bullets with 5 shots.
I had it down it the rack the whole time of the match so everyone could see it and get a good laugh, a few commented that they didn't even want to try and shoot it and others said they better not get beat with that piece of $&!#.
Chris shot the match along with another top shooter who was one that commented about not wanting to get beat by it. Talk about getting into someones head, I don't think he had really thought he'd have anything to worry about since he hadn't seen it shoot.
The gun only missed two targets out of the 100, one was a Horseshoe at 187 yards which he said he held about 1/2" over the top inner edge due to his shots being a tad below center and that is where it went, prob a bit faster round and the other shot being a 1" circle on my 10" down to 1" descending circle rack. Ugly Beddy really shoots.
The next day I shot 10 shots at a steel circle the same size as a clay pigeon at 195 yards. On the 8th shot it fell out of the holder, I rode out to set it back up placing it in the same position in the holder. I got back to the bench and know I hurried the 9th shot which is the one a bit above the group but the 10th shot fell right in with the others. Those 9 shots are just a tad under 2 inches which is remarkable for Wolf MT at that distance.
I haven't had time to put it on paper, I do have some of the 50 yard BR green targets and might give it a try. I know it's not going to shoot with a purpose built BR gun but I bet it won't be a slouch either. So, what does it take to make a 22 rimfire shoot? The action is free floated and the nylon barrel clamps are a good fit, the stock is comfortable to shoot.
Chris is working on a really nice thumb hole target stock for it but I'd like to leave it in the 2x4 for a while and show up at some matches with it. Should get a few laughs and snickers. All kidding aside though, It's wildly exceeded out expectations and I'll put this thing up against any of the top guns in our longrange matches. I don't think it'd run with a high end BR gun with a tuner and high dollar ammo but I bet it wouldn't be embarrassed either. Crazy that it even shoots. Chris shot it offhand and commented how comfortable it held and easily cleaned my 25 yard rack numerous times and also quite a few hits on some tiny circles at 37 yards.
Topstrap
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