7.62 Musgrave Target Rifle Fitting a Picatinny Rail

March 6, 2009

Seeing as though the Mauser action is being discussed in the `What Factory Tactical 308` post

I thought this would be a good time to show My Musgrave 7.62 again....this time with a Picitinny rail that i have just installed my self...

I know it is not a `Factory Tactical`rifle but it is what I have and am very pleased with it.

This is an image of it when purchased a while ago....with the scope bases and rings that i had been using but not pleased with.

I was never pleased with the scope base and ring set up...so set about installing a new one.

Trying to get hold of a 20 MOA Picatinny rail to fit this action proved to be very expensive ( a custom one off ) and a long wait.

A good friend of mine said he had one spare off of an RPA .....I offered it up to the action, the fit was good but the screw hole did not line up.

So what was it to be ??? Drill new hole in the scope base ?....Or drill and tap new threads in the action ?

Looking at the threaded holes in the action i found they were not in the same plane, the front two were off the centre line by a small amount....

Now, I am no machinist and never confessed to be one but even i could see they were not true !!

I consulted `Onehole ` who has some amateur machining equipment in his garage so i thought how hard can it be to drill and tap 3 new holes ?

I fixed the rail in place with one of the rear most `M4 screws and used a clamp to hold the front of the rail on to the action.

I then marked the centres of the 3 other screw holes to be drilled.

The action was stripped down and held in his press drill vise , i placed a level on top of the action and set it ready to be drilled.

Again ..no pro here...but i used a center drill bit to start the holes to guide the main drill bit.

By this time i was starting to get a bit nervous... but went ahead and drilled the 3 holes. ( i used the drill bit supplied with the taps )

I then offered up the rail to check my work......looking good and all in line as good as my eyes can tell.

So now to tap the holes, my local machine shop supplied 2 taps ( a tapper and a plug tap ) It went very well and I used a cutting oil to help .

I cleaned up my action flushing away all the chips, then offered the rail up to the action and installed the M4 screws.....the threads were nice and tight with little `wobble` and all 4 screws were centered in the rail fixing holes.

I also had to machine part of the rail off at the rear to clear the bolt....

A few images of the end result...

I doubt very much if this was the correct way to carry out such a task, but it worked out well for me.

I must add a BIG thank you to `Onehole` for letting me use his gear and making the tea...

Next ...a tactical bolt handle.... :lol:

March 6, 2009

Not shot it yet , but have set scope windage to ` centre` and `eyeballed ` it from the muzzle end and it looks very in line...

Time will tell , so will report back after i have fired a few rounds at range...

Streeker59 · March 6, 2009

Sweet Martin.... A job well done... :lol:

nemasis243 · March 6, 2009

Hi there mate looking a good job there :lol:

Nice looking musket , how does it shoot?

Are you giving the Parker Twins a run for their money?

cheers Andy

March 6, 2009

Hi Andy....it shot like this before i ` butchered` the action.....

The 5 th shot that went left was Ray nudging me cos it near beat his group.....only kiddin :lol:

foxing2night · March 6, 2009

Hi Matin,

Nice bit of work there my mate!!!!

Could be a good thing this???? Bring your car and your gun to martin for a fix :lol:

Nice looking rifle,, and now it looks even better mate!!!!

All the best, Darrel

onehole · March 6, 2009

I suppose you wanna borrow me rasp and super glue a golf ball on now!!It was a job well done Martin you know that and it couldn,t be more straight,well done and your welcome anytime.cheers Onehole.

baldie · March 6, 2009

Martin, if you need any bits for your musgrave in the future, bookmark these guys. HPS target rifles, they have bucket loads of spares for musgrave, old rpa,s , and swings kicking about, and are smashing people to deal with, they bend over backwards to help.

http://www.hps-tr.com/prices.asp?category=35