Part two of "Next Bigbore"

[Old Moss]

Morning Gents! Will here is the scoop On what rifle I picked and my 1st impressions.  I went out and picked up a CZ 500 Magnum American stock in 375H&H.  Beautiful rifle which shows a lot of potential.  Made the clerk bring out three from the stock room picked the one I liked best. It had nice wood but not to nice, hard to drag a real pretty rifle into the bush.  First step cleaning. tore the gun apart boy was it dirty.  Many folks mistake this for cheap/poor workmanship and materials this is just not true.  The Czechs cut costs this way and just pass this onto the buyer to do.  Even the bore may look a little rough and a friend said that it looked rusted.  But I think it is stain from blueing which is a rust blueing process and firing proof rounds, they do not clean just oil after firing.  So I cleaned it well and used JB bore cleaner a lot.  I used Hoppes #9 worked great on outside and trigger area.  Slicked everything up and the blued finish shaped up nice.  CZ rifles (in my opinion) are not for the one who wants to buy a rifle wipe it off and take it outshooting the next day they need a bit of work to get them where they really shine and perform.  A lot of burrs and rough edges were cleaned up.  I further want to explain that the bluing chemicals were still evident and did give a lite covering of rust patina all over the gun.  This needs to be removed and neutralized the Hoppes #9 and wd-40 did will in cleaning this up.  Enough said in this posting - Next posting the Stock.  Any questions?  Thanks Old Moss :wink:

[Redhawk1]

I bought a CZ 500 Safari Magnum with the hogback stock. I have it at the gunsmith getting it glass bedded, the barrel floated and a second cross lug installed.  

[Old Moss]

Morning all cold morning here in AK, Well next on my big bore adventure was the stock -- Took the stock and smoothed all the rough edges on the inside then I hogged out all the action bedding areas areas chose to bed the rear tang area deep into the grip to reinforce for splitting. then bed forward from the front edge of the magizine box to just past the barrel support screw.  This only leaves about 3-4 inches of barrel free floated but for the 375H&H I felt this would make the best set-up.  Fore the fore end where the bbl is free floated I grooved out a deep cut the length of the fore end.  This way I made a ridged bar of bedding to decrease the fore end from warping.  Then I Steel bedded the two areas completely.  Be sure to rough the stock and drill small support holes into the stock to help the steelbed flow into for added strength.  after it sat-up and hardened I either filed, sanded, or ground everything back into correct shape and dimensions.  Then every area of fresh/bare wood got three (hand applied) coats of spar urethane.  Then after that fully dryed the whole stock received 3 coats of spray on spar urethane.  It went over the old factory coating well and brought out the wood colors and figure really nice.  I had to polish and flatten some areas of the action and barrel so all those areas and factory machine marks were re-blued came out nice and dark (birchwood blueing solution does work).  Then I trued up the front of the front sight and glued a new white dot to the front.  Next weekend I will put the package back together and take a picture or two of the finished package.  Thanks for lessoning to an old fart's ramblings  Old Moss

[Ramrod]

You got the stock pretty well covered with epoxy! As a fellow amateur gunsmith, I'd like to pass on one thing I have learned, though. The wrist is always the weak point, and I have found it better to relieve the contact in this area, rather than try to re-inforce it. Let the recoil lug do it's job. Put a crossbolt in behind the lug if you think the wood here is not up to the task. I like the tang resting on a pad of bedding compound, but I want the screw holes drilled out quite a bit oversize. I also want some clearance behind the tang, either by using some tape here before the bedding goes in, or by grinding it out with a Dremil afterward. I learned from re-stocking double-barreled shotguns, that the tang can act as a wedge, and split the stock.

[Old Moss]

Hello Gents, well it's all together and looks pretty Good.  I made a new white artifical ivory front sight bead and epoxyed it into place can't wait to shoot it.  Plan on leaving it open sighted.  Well next step Reloading for the first breakin at the range.  I have a few factory rounds 20 or so for the inital breakin.  But think I will start off with a load consisting of Speer 285gr grand slam spitzer.
 
POWDERS, I like Hodgden powder 4350  then possibly one of the Ramshot powders
 
Primer - Win Mag Lg Rifle
Bullet - Speer 285gr GS  2nd pick will be Nosler 300gr partition
Cases - Win & Fed
 
Here in Alaska the load I'm looking for is one that will handle Large Bear and Moose.  Range most of the time will be 50-150yds, possibly a black bear or a rare chance at a wolf out at 200yds  :-)   Will more later after I get to the range.  Thanks Old Moss