Custom gun from an unusual source

[mehulkamdar]

Grumpy,

I have shot the German hogsback type stocks with the front Schnabel tip and they handle fast though they do look ugly to me That said, I like the old English stocks without a cheekpiece and the slim and tight fore-ends as on the pre war Holland, Jeffery and other bolt guns. Somehow, with theor parade sights, those stocks work very well for me with my iron sight and quick pointing rifle preference and they also look far more sleek to my eye than the Germanic stocks do. But then, you know that I am an Anglophile in my tastes as far as guns are concerned!

Inder and I saw a very nice CZ rifle with a cross bolt in 416 Rigby at Gander Mountain last week for the very reasonable price of $ 799 though I do not have any reason whatsoever to buy a new rifle for such a heavy round.

I can't stop laughing at your comments on American shotgun stocks. Yes, those pistol grip and beavertail fore-end stocks have a lot that is very wrong in both how they look as well as how they perform. I have seen several American shooters struggle with some of the older guns with double triggers and American style shotgun stocks. And then they introduced single selective triggers to overcome the barrel selection problems caused by this silly stock design - some people like complicating things as much as they can, I guess...

[Johan]

The rifles are built on Brno contract VZ-24 made in Czechoslovakia, or on actions that were made in Iran under Czech supervision. Barrel is according to the manufacturer stainless but blued. Current calibres are 270, 308, 3006 and 8X57IS. Price is about 3500us$ on local market with scope mount.

/Johan

[Grumpy]

Blued stainless barrels ? Interesting trick.

[mehulkamdar]

Grumpy,

How is it done? Is there a coating of a layer of iron over the stainless barrel that is blued? Just wondering...

[Grumpy]

Well obviously the barrels couldn`t be blued as such - as you are aware Mehul. Could be some form of anodizing but that always produces a metallic looking finish or it could be a baked-on paint finish. The most logical answer is that it is a typo and the barrels aren`t made of stainless steel at all.

[Johan]

No idea if the information from Iran is a typo or not. There are a few methods available. Coat the barrel with iron electronically and blue it- this is what Sempert & Krieghoff used on their Krupp nirosta barrels. There are bluing salts that works on some stainless, my border barrel shall be blued by a local smith- he has done a few before and result been great.

Some treat their stainless barrel with an acid mixture before they are blued to make the bluing “stick”.

Black chrome works very well, Caprinus used it for their shotguns, it's very durable and finish often looks satin or mate black.

/Johan

[mehulkamdar]

Grumpy,

Stainless blueing is a new buzzword in US gunsmithing circles though I fail to understand the point of it. I have seen some gunsmiths offer it though I cannot remember who it was right now. I shall find the details and post them here. I am curious about this as I have wondered what the process is though the purpose is something that I shall most probably never understand...

Mehul

[Grumpy]

I hadn`t thought of black chroming - which does look really good. I suppose that I shouldn`t be surprised that stainless steel can be blued....by some process and, thinking about it, I`ve come across `stainless` steels that will corrode ( obviously not very `stainless` ) and even some that are magnetic.