Long story short, customer went to a gonsmiff with a fundamental lack of understanding in over under repair. Now I am welding the rear tang back together, remaking a firing pin, and hopefully I never need to see this gun again. I need to dress the weld and re-blue the gun before it goes home, but this is forward progress to a quality fix.
A customer wanted their Ruger m77 cut to take aics magazines and pillar bedded. Cutting the reciever was pre straight forward and was way less frustrating than I thought once I realized I could do it without a long reach 1/8 end mill because the magazine stop for the aics mag had such a generous radius I could use a 3/16 standard length.
I know why people hate pillar bedding the Ruger m77s. It's a multi-day affair with a lot of frustrating alignment issues. It's difficult to measure how long you need to make the front pillar because the action and trigger guard move during clamping.
You need to do the pillars one at a time, and there is no way I have found to install the front pillar aligned to the action before getting it in the stock so it's a LOT of poking around and adding bedding compound as you go. Probably worth it to the customer but I always want to toss them into orbit by the time I'm at this point. I did remember to cut some teeth into both pillars to help mechanically lock them in place, which should help with long term durability.
Tortort recievers don't come with the sling slot already cut, so I had to mill it myself. It will be off to u/scientificcoatings for correct markings soon ish.
I did the barrel work, stock and everything else. u/scientificcoatings did the cerakote
Fortunately I am an 07. Part of me wants to machine the rear of the reciever out and weld in the appropriate parts for a side folder.
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Zastava m77 parts kit, akb Chrome lined barrel on a Totort reciever.
Working on a pair of zastava m77 parts kits for a friend and myself. We have yet to decide between custom turning a couple of match grade barrels or using the AK builder chrome barrels
A Swiss k11 alpine sporter (a factory.308 conversion done before 7.5x55 was available) rolled in for a side mount scope. This required not only some custom fixturing but I had to not the head on my mill to match the angle of the holes in the base (approx 20 degrees). Definitely more involved than I was ready for but entertaining and enjoyable to see the outcome.
This is girthy and is a real reminder the big ones hurt. A short barreled 500 s&w with a three port brake is not something I want to be shooting indoors!