Here is a picture of the stock when it finally came out clean. I sanded, and soaked it in my bathtub (when the wife was not home) with just about everything I could find that would take grease off of your hands clothes or dishes. I had to soak it three times letting it dry on the dashboard of my truck in between each soaking. Once the stock sat in the heat for a while more grease would come out of the wood. After the third soaking and drying no more grease came out, or at least I convinced myself of that.

After letting the stock dry for 3 days I sanded with 80 grit paper first, then 180 grit, then 320 grit paper. First I applied a coat of true oil to the stock, and hand guard. Let it dry for a day and then applied another coat. After letting that dry for another day, I hung the stock up and sprayed it with clear satin polyurethane. I let that dry for a day, then sanded it down with 1200 grit paper until it was nice and slick, and gave it a second coat of polyurethane. Sure beats 10 to 15 coats of true oil, and it looks great.

Finally finished welding and fitting the lower mag housing to the floor plate. I still need to make a mag catch, but everything fits really good. I still don’t know if this type of mag housing is worth the trouble that I put into it. I think I will be happy with it when I’m done though.

Here is a picture of the magazine latch that I made.

Finally got the mag latch mounted up and adjusted, it works really well. The magazine even pops out when the latch is released with the bolt closed.

The gun is completely assembled, and of course test fired a few more times. Only thing left to do is blue all the metal parts, and make a pin for the mag release (I wasn’t planning on leaving the drill bit there), then this project will be finished. I plan to turn down the bolt handle, but that can be done at a later date because I don’t plan on putting a scope right away.

My Dad is one step ahead of me on the scope and bent bolt; here is a picture of his almost complete rifle. I will make a lower mag housing for his rifle, but he gets to do the welding. (Not fun on such small parts!) Then we will do the bluing of both guns together.