Modded 981T

[Buschwick]

Heya guys. I've been lurking here for a while and I wanted to share some pics of my 981t. I got it nearly two years ago, and from the factory the barrel was fuggered. The crown was drilled at an angle, and there were tool chatter marks in the last few inches of the rifling. I called Marlin, and a very rude and unhelpful lady told me the turnaround would be months. So I chose the next most logical option; i took a hacksaw to the barrel. lol

Anyways that's how it all started and I've ended up with a pretty fun and accurate rifle. Here's how it looked before I modded it..

So I hacked the barrel off...it measures >16" even if measured from the front of the receiver. I measures 16.5" if measured properly from the bolt face.

After I cut it, I had to crown it. I straightened the cut with a file (this was the hardest part by far) and then used sandpaper to polish the muzzle. After that, per Larry Potterfield, I crowned it the a brass wood screw, a drill, and some valve lapping compound. It turned out pretty good I think. It's not target grade but it's 100x better than the crown that came on the rifle.

 

[Buschwick]

Then I had to shorten the magazine tube. I started by measuring all of the components to the tube, including the uncompressed spring. Then once I found out how long I wanted it I cut everything the same proportion, then reassembled the plunger. I was going to pay to have a new dovetail cut to hold the tube but my local smith wanted $60 or something. So I sanded where the barrel lug is and JB welded it in that. I can still disassemble the receiver by unpinning the metal thing where the rounds go through and backing it off the tube.

It can hold 11LR in the tube but it's a slight squeeze so I only load 10..which ain't that bad...still more than the 925!

Then I got bored one day and took the bolt apart to polish it. There's a little recess that I can get to and it aggravates me lol.

I've got two scopes for it, ones a big varmint scope in the first picture that I shoot paper with, and a nikon that I keep on it. I wanted the nikon as low as possible but the bolt handle hit the bell. Sooooo I got a dremel out and went to town on the handle. This took a while because I conformed it perfectly around the bell. I took off just enough to clear so I didn't risk weakening the handle too much.

Other than this stuff, I've firelapped the bore with the kit from midwayusa...didn't do squat. And I did a trigger job on it, replacing the trigger return spring and shimming the sear spring. The break is SUPER crisp with no creep whatsoever. It's not the lightest I've felt but it's night and day compared to the factory trigger.

This is how she sits now and I'm happy with the results. With good ammo and a calm day I can shoot a .5" group but it holds just under an inch usually. I don't expect competition accuracy with a homemade crown lol. But it does shoot straighter than it did out of the box. It was aggravating that it wouldn't shoot straight but I'm content with it now. I want a Savage 17hmr now too though. I'm kinda bored at shooting groups at 50yds lol.

Hope you like it!

Mike