My 9 yr old grandson's new sniper rifle

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HighValleyRanch

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My 9 yr old grandson's new sniper rifle-almost finished!

For a shop project, My grandson, Owen asked me if we could build a wood rifle.
I had him look through some old American Rifleman, and he found this article about the Seal Sniper team.
The gun is based on a Remington 700 action.
So we are copying fairly closely the pic that he chose.

The project is a lesson in using shop tools as well as PATIENCE!!
He keeps asking me, when it is going to get done, and I keep at a steady slow pace, each day, doing only a little on it.
I measured him and the stock is built to his proportions and everything else is scaled down for that.

The first barrel was sliced to fit, but my wife sat on it when it was under some pillows on the couch, and the barrel broke! So this morning I inletted the stock for a full strength barrel.
Barrel is 3/4 inch hardwood dowel, and the rifle is cut from one solid piece of alder wood. After it is finished, Owen is going to camo the whole thing, and I'm mounting an old cheap Tasco scope on it.

Look at the detail of the picatinny rail! Right now, even the scope rings fit as is, but we plan on inletting two metal portions screwed in for the real scope mount for strength.
I mortised out the mag carrier so that even a wood magazine is removable. And the under side has a mortised T rail cut right into the wood as a bipod rail for a removable bipod.
That wire bipod is only temporary until we make on out of wood.

Still quife a few more hours to put into this project.
Tonight we are shaping the stock. Look at the trigger cutouts!
Thought you might enjoy seeing this.
OwenSniperRifle.jpg

OwenRifleDetail.jpg
 
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That is awesome.

I once heard if you don't let boys play with guns, they'll just eat their sandwich into the shape of a gun and then point it at things. Probably true more often then not.

So with that in mind, that is going to be one happy little grandson.
 
I once heard if you don't let boys play with guns, they'll just eat their sandwich into the shape of a gun and then point it at things. Probably true more often then not.
Click to expand...

Yeah, when he was six, his parents didn't want any gun toys. So one day, up at the cabin in the mountains, he said,
"pappy, come over here and see my collection."
He had gathered a bunch of wood that were pistol shape and that was his pistol collection!:D

Now, I bought my son a glock for his 40th, so my grandson can now have toy guns and they bought him some airsoft. He brought up a 1911 and AR15 airsoft, but somehow, he's been mostly playing with the new sniper rifle.
He had some camo netting a little while ago that he wrapped the rifle up in!

My dad was a competition bullseye shooter so I got to grow up around guns.
American rifleman was on our coffee table. So when the grandson comes up, he can be free to enjoy the gun nut world, and along with that he is learning gun safety.

I'll post more pics as we work on it. He is only here two more days, so we gotta get going on it!
 
I once heard if you don't let boys play with guns, they'll just eat their sandwich into the shape of a gun and then point it at things. Probably true more often then not.
Click to expand...
My mother is a school psychologist and was vehemently anti-toy gun when I was born. For my third or fourth Christmas she bought me a toy tool set. I opened it up, immediately grabbed the toy power drill, and started to run around the room saying "pow pow pow" and shooting everything moving or still. She exhaled and said "I give up" right there. Next week I had a rubber band gun my grandfather crafted. I can tell you, a rubber band rifle will get more mileage than a model.

http://surefireproducts.com/html/pricing_order.html
With less skill than you have already exhibited, you can take their bluieprints and build any sort of rubber band gun you want around the action. Excellent for flies.
 
looks good, while it may not get as much "mileage" as a rubber band gun I'm certain it will have a place in his room and make a good conversation piece for years to come. not to mention the grandpa time you get to spend.
 
Progress

We worked on it late this evening.
I even had Owen cut out the rough bolt on the band saw and jig saw, and cut the bolt hole in the stock with the drill press.

Made the bolt (not enough time to making a working action) and some rough details of bolt inletting in the stock and action, and worked on the grip area some more.Just a generalized bolt action detail.

Its almost done, except for the final sanding, stippling and camo spray coat.
And the bipod which will be made out of wood and slides into the T slot on the forearm under rail slot.

Wow, this is so cooool, that I am going to have to make one for Pappy's wall hanging too!
Pic taken in the fading light, so some better pics tomorrow.

Owen is leaving Monday, so only one more day to complete it.

Notice that I inletted an actual weaver rail into the wood picatinny rail for the red dot mount.
We decided that a big tasco scope is going to be overkill, and he wouldn't be able to play at short distances, so a cheap dot is on order.
In the mean time he can play with the real Ultradot that's in the pic.

OwenRifleDetail2.jpg
 
Since I'm not that handy at wood working, when my younger Son wanted a more realistic "toy rifle", I just took an old 93 Mauser that had a rusted out bore, cut 1/4" off the firing pin, and handed it to him. Gave him a bayonet that fit it, too. Can't get more realistic than that w/o ammo. Oh wait, I gave him some dummy ammo but he ended up losing that in tall grass.
 
Try making a stamped steel trigger guard and a trigger. It would really enhance that wood gun. Will his next gun be a crew served M-2?
 
Except for the wood bipod which we are making this evening, the rifle is sanded, stippled and finished and waiting for the camo spray coat.
Wanted to take a pic in the "White" because it shows the details better.
WhiteSniperRifle.jpg
 
Finished!

Here is the final product.
A good lesson for kids that one can make things totally from scratch instead of the store bought society that we have become.

Owen did the camo paint job himself!
We think it came out pretty nice.

The inscription on the mag carrier reads:
MFD. 2012
by Owen & Pappy
FinalOwenRifle.jpg
 
Way Kewl!,,,

I guarantee that gun will be with him for a lifetime.

I still have (stored in my sisters attic) the firecracker powered match-lock muzzle loader my Pop made for me back in the 60's.

Aarond

.
 
Ya'know, with all the other work it didn't really need the actual bolt handle. That's just a cherry on the top. The rail and scope are frosting.

That is a pretty good camo job. I remember doing something similar to a pellet rifle many years ago. With a little bit of forethought and planning you can pull off a decent camo scheme. Ours wasn't quite so good, your little man should be pretty proud of himself.
 
What a great gift from grandpa! If my granddad had given me something like that, it would have an honored spot in the collection;)
 
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