dakota.potts
New member
First, a Note: I have been using online forums since I was barely a teenager. I am used to long winded posts and cataloguing my experiences and experiments for other forum members to read, and I feel pretty comfortable with the written form of this. I have decided to branch out and try a new form of media, a series of videos showing the build. I am still trying to find my footing in this form of media and will be posting videos along the way. Following and interacting with these videos is much appreciated, but I will also do my best to include enough information that those who don't do YouTube are able to participate just as well. The first video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRe2uaHtxaM Comments, criticism, and discussion of the video are welcome through my private messages or on the YouTube page itself
In the last semester of my gunsmithing program at school, I have some freedom to work on personal projects of my choosing to develop more specialized skills, provided the projects undertaken are of sufficient complexity to be worth studying. I have decided to work on my CZ 452, which is perhaps my favorite rifle. I got it the day I turned 18 (first time I filled out a Form 4473) and since then have fired many hundreds or thousands of rounds through it.
Not long after I got it, I purchased a Boyd's stock for it that it's worn for a long time.
The Stock is cool and unique and I like the generous free float channel, but I have lately appreciated a nice classic wood stock, and the European style stock that the CZ comes with suits the rifle very well. I also boogered up a lot of the screw heads when changing out stocks originally.
So, I've set the following goals/guidelines for my work on the gun:
*Cut the original stock for left handed flutes (as it's simply flat sided originally and I'm a left handed shooter)
*Strip the stock since it will need to be refinished, and refinish it with a nice, high gloss finish (hopefully moreso than the original stock). The beech wood is very light, almost white in color, so I'll need to find a nice stain that looks like a nice classic wood stock. I am thinking almost walnut in color, with a little red hue.
*Fix and polish the nasty looking action screws. Along with the trigger, I am going to experiment with electroplating them using some common materials and see the kind of effect I can get. If it doesn't look good, I'll have to find another way to refinish them.
*Work on the trigger. Bring the trigger pull to maybe half its weight (2 to 2.5 lbs) and reduce the takeup and sponginess in the stock trigger. I have a Yodave spring/shim kit coming which should take care of this nicely.
*Bed the action and the barrel up to an inch or so forward of the front barrel lug, then free float the rest.
At the end, I'd like to see the gun shoot nice ragged 5-shot holes at 50 yards with me behind it. I'm sure it's already capable of it and I have shot some groups that I couldn't believe I could shoot, but I am looking to bring it both to a classic look and fine tune the accuracy on an already very accurate rifle.
I did not get any good pictures of cutting the left flute, but here it is in the case ready to go home that day with the flute rough cut (the process is in the video shown above for those interested). I do mean rough. At this point, I have a lot of blending to do but I've decided to strip the stock so that everything is at least the same color and thickness when I'm trying to blend it.
I tried some citri-strip and let it sit until it bubbled. The finish on these guns is very thick - I'd guess at least ten thousandths of an inch. The Citri-strip made it a little softer but ultimately didn't do a whole lot at removing the finish. So I taped up the checkering with some masking tape and an X-acto knife and got to work with cabinet scrapers, which are able to scrape a very surprising amount of material.
By the time it was ready to go home, I had it looking much more blonde
Here you can see my progress on the left hand flute
That's all I got done last week, hoping to make some significant progress on the gun this week.
These are great rifles as is, but I'm very excited at the notion of having one that is customized with only my wants in mind. I will be sure to update on the progress.
In the last semester of my gunsmithing program at school, I have some freedom to work on personal projects of my choosing to develop more specialized skills, provided the projects undertaken are of sufficient complexity to be worth studying. I have decided to work on my CZ 452, which is perhaps my favorite rifle. I got it the day I turned 18 (first time I filled out a Form 4473) and since then have fired many hundreds or thousands of rounds through it.
Not long after I got it, I purchased a Boyd's stock for it that it's worn for a long time.
The Stock is cool and unique and I like the generous free float channel, but I have lately appreciated a nice classic wood stock, and the European style stock that the CZ comes with suits the rifle very well. I also boogered up a lot of the screw heads when changing out stocks originally.
So, I've set the following goals/guidelines for my work on the gun:
*Cut the original stock for left handed flutes (as it's simply flat sided originally and I'm a left handed shooter)
*Strip the stock since it will need to be refinished, and refinish it with a nice, high gloss finish (hopefully moreso than the original stock). The beech wood is very light, almost white in color, so I'll need to find a nice stain that looks like a nice classic wood stock. I am thinking almost walnut in color, with a little red hue.
*Fix and polish the nasty looking action screws. Along with the trigger, I am going to experiment with electroplating them using some common materials and see the kind of effect I can get. If it doesn't look good, I'll have to find another way to refinish them.
*Work on the trigger. Bring the trigger pull to maybe half its weight (2 to 2.5 lbs) and reduce the takeup and sponginess in the stock trigger. I have a Yodave spring/shim kit coming which should take care of this nicely.
*Bed the action and the barrel up to an inch or so forward of the front barrel lug, then free float the rest.
At the end, I'd like to see the gun shoot nice ragged 5-shot holes at 50 yards with me behind it. I'm sure it's already capable of it and I have shot some groups that I couldn't believe I could shoot, but I am looking to bring it both to a classic look and fine tune the accuracy on an already very accurate rifle.
I did not get any good pictures of cutting the left flute, but here it is in the case ready to go home that day with the flute rough cut (the process is in the video shown above for those interested). I do mean rough. At this point, I have a lot of blending to do but I've decided to strip the stock so that everything is at least the same color and thickness when I'm trying to blend it.
I tried some citri-strip and let it sit until it bubbled. The finish on these guns is very thick - I'd guess at least ten thousandths of an inch. The Citri-strip made it a little softer but ultimately didn't do a whole lot at removing the finish. So I taped up the checkering with some masking tape and an X-acto knife and got to work with cabinet scrapers, which are able to scrape a very surprising amount of material.
By the time it was ready to go home, I had it looking much more blonde
Here you can see my progress on the left hand flute
That's all I got done last week, hoping to make some significant progress on the gun this week.
These are great rifles as is, but I'm very excited at the notion of having one that is customized with only my wants in mind. I will be sure to update on the progress.