|
Sighting In With Shooting USA - Pro Series Guns
 Smith & Wesson calls on their master gunsmiths to create factory produced guns that are ready and legal for competition.
There has always been a market for hand guns that have been worked over by a gunsmith for improved accuracy, and the feel of a slicked up trigger, an action job. But those improvements have always had a steep price. Then there’s the custom gun solution, built up one at a time, with individual fitting, stoning and enhancements. And now, we’re really talking a big number when it comes to price.
 The new idea from Smith and Wesson is a production gun from the factory, built with enhanced performance parts and supervised
by the gunsmiths from the Performance Center.
Master Gunsmith, Jim Rae shows us the process involved in creating the Pro Series Guns.
Related Links:
John’s got a home camo job that going to cost you about $10. He explains how to do it:
That Ruger 10-22 I have been working on this season has come together into a really functional utility rifle, and with squirrel season fast approaching I want to address the visibility of this rifle when it’s out in the woods. So today, I am going to spray on a camo paint job.
The key to success with this type of project is in the prep work. I am going to separate the barreled action from the stock and paint the two parts separately. The main reason for this is that the stock is plastic, and the barreled action is all metal of one kind or another.
First, the prep work on the stock. I spoke to the engineers at Knox Blackhawk about how best to get paint to stick to this plastic and their answer is rather interesting. To burnish the plastic with a propane torch. This will help the surface to become porous and give the paint a grip to adhere to. There is a fine line here between burnishing the surface and melting the plastic. So keep the flame moving, the burnishing will also eliminate any stray oils on the plastic.
The stock will take a minute to cool off, so lets work on the barreled action. The prep work here is a lot more involved and time consuming, but remember this is critical to the success of the job. A few extra minutes here will save hours trying to get paint out of moving parts in the action or worse, in the optic. With quality painters tape, mask off all of the action and trigger, as well as the ejection port and the bolt. Also a piece of a foam earplug makes a great way to protect the inside of the barrel. The lenses of the scope are obvious. The windage and elevation adjustment covers can be painted, but the magnification ring must be protected. Paint in this groove and this ring could seize up. The last bit of prep work is to wipe all of the metal surfaces with a degreaser to ensure that the paint has a clean surface to stick to.
 I am going to mimic the pattern in this Scopecoat, and the trick here is to work from the light colors out to the darker colors. I have chosen this tan as the base, it is pretty close to the color here, and also the ground color of the woods I will be hunting. Building out from the base layer color, we come into this coffee color blotches. I am going to go with this OD green instead of the coffee color because its more like the woods that I hunt.
I have made a couple of patterns out of a manila folder and some painters tape. I like the manila folder material because it’s flexible, but cardboard will work just as well. I’ve torn the painter tape in strips to make the edges random. Spray the color on lightly to make sure no runs occur and to allow the misting effect to add to the pattern.
The darkest color goes on last and in smaller areas. A little of this will go a long way in the camouflage effect. After everything has had plenty of time to dry, unmask and reassemble. There may be a need to come through with a small paint brush and some additional color in places, but I think as a whole we have done pretty well.
A couple of things to keep in mind with this painted rifle, bore cleaner will cut right through the paint, so be conservative at cleaning time. This finish will not last forever even if you take the best care of it, but repainting it is easy.
The Top Ten Best Hollywood Gun Fights
 We appointed the 100,000 members of AR15.com to be our judges in nominating, and then voting for the top ten best all time Hollywood movie gun fights. First came a two week nomination period for suggestions. Then the top 20 movies nominated were set up in a poll for member votes.
Now we begin to reveal the results over the next ten shows. With the name AR15.com, You might think all the votes would be for movies with M-16s and M-4s, but that’s not how it turned out for number ten on the list.
Related Links:
Pro Tips – Irlene Mandrell on Choosing a Shotgun
Irlene Mandrell joins us with a series of tips for moms who are ready to join the fun on the trap and sporting clay fields to make shooting a truly family event.
|
