I had stopped in at Williams Gunsight and Outfitters (Davison Michigan) to see about having them machine some new, taller front sights for the Schmidt Rubin 1911 and K-31 rifles. While the counter guy was taking to the gunsmith, I began looking at their Used Gun section. I found a nice S R 191 that followed me home that day. on the rack below the 1911 was a familiar looking magazine well in a chunk of wood and metal. The receiver on this K-31 was marked Simpson's LTD. There was a scout mount in front of the receiver and the barrel (with no sights) was marked 308 Winchester. Man was this thing ugly. I felt sorry for the little orphan, but didn't want to mess with it right then. About six weeks later, I picked it up. I just couldn't get it out of my mind during that time.
Before I picked up the rifle, I had an opportunity to snag a K-31 stock and handguard for little money, and I jumped on it. This stock had been glass bedded to a K-31 and had an after market Recoil Reduction System (RRD for short) (Recoil Pad doesn't convey the fullness of this thing.) This stock is very interesting in that it is an original military stock, but is made from four (4) distinct pieces of wood. From the pistol grip swell on back, you may notice the splice on the side, but there is also one on top and one one bottom of the butt stock as well. The RRD looked as though it had been glass bedded to the wood in place of the original military style buttplate. Upon trying to disassemble this to see about removing the glass bedding there was a surprising discovery. The ugly glass bedding was actually a glass spacer plate. The original cutout for the buttplate still existed with very little deformation to the bottom of the stock. I decided to strip this down and re-finish it as part of the project.
(BEFORE)
After my usual cleaning with TSP
I'll have to try something stronger to get this to bare wood
(AFTER)
The picture shown above illustrates very nicely the three separate pieces of wood that were grafted onto the rest of the stock to make up the buttstock. It seems to me this would be more work than it was worth, perhaps they were short of wood at the time (or long of hours). This stock also has a small repair in the forearm section.
I have received replacement Barrel Bands and a Butt Plate form Layne at Tennessee Gun Parts.
And a Scope Mount with a Leaper 3x9 Compact Scope.
This scope mount is sold by Brownells and is a Pierre St. Marie design. This mount is shown below, but with a different scope.
Some wood will have to be removed from the stock after the mount is fitted to the receiver.
(Picture from Big L.E.E.'s website ~ Swiss Rifles dot Com)
After removing the scout sight from the barrel, I will send the barreled receiver to (xxxxxx) to have the receiver Drilled and Tapped and Mount installed and a Re-Bluing as well. After that, all that should be left is the reassembly (after finishing the stock) and test firing.
(to be continued ~ 6-16-03)