New life for an old Sportco.

[Tony Z]

Finally getting around to doing a 9mm bolt gun. It's been on the agenda for a while but the thought of getting a Spanish Destroyer, a chopped mauser 98, a Rock Island Armory (Stirling) or doing a conversion on a Lee Enfield all left me cold and looking for a course in self dentistry.

The Sportco 22 Hornet action was made for this and very closely matches the RIA action in their 22 TCM that they do the 9mm rifles on. Twin rear locking lugs, the feed port rails are a perfect fit for a number of 9mm pistol magazine options. The bolt face needs just a tiny bit of opening up to take the 9mm case and the factory extractor and ejector system works well as is.
A recoil lug was made to get away from the silly barrel lug set up on the factory rifle. The bolt handle is yet to be replaced with something a little more user friendly. The barrel is 14" long plus 4 inches of bloop tube.


As for a stock it will be either a Tikka T3 with some slight mods to the trigger and a new floor plate made to suit, or a Boyds classic laminate blank inletted. The action as is fits the T3 stock very closely to the recoil lug, front action screw and bolt cutout. The rear screw has to be moved somewhat and the entire action inlet area set in devcon to close up the action width difference.
The barrel and action will be nitrided.

A bit to go yet but i hope to have it up and running by years end.

[Branxhunter]

Now that is an 'outside the square' idea. Do you have a particular reason/use in mind, or just 'cos you can?

Marcus

[Seddo]

Nice job.

I went and did a 45acp in a SMLE.

[Tony Z]

Nice job.

I went and did a 45acp in a SMLE.

Good choice Seddo. I am doing one after this one on a Rem 788 action.

Marcus no real reason other than an aquired action and 9mm ammo is cheap to buy and load for.

[B4408]

Good one Tony.
Wish I had any metal machining skills. Maybe one day.

Bruce

[The Raven]

Good one Tony.
Wish I had any metal machining skills. Maybe one day.

Bruce

Gunsmithing rule #1: Step away from the Dremel

[macca]

Now that's two interesting projects.
9mm and 45 acp.
Look forward to seeing the finished project.
Cheers

[pepperC]

You guys are too cleaver!
Have never even heard of anything like this.
Id love to see a video of the action cycling bullets through it?
C

[Tripod1]

Savage Model 23 works well for the 9mm round too. Magazine and boltface work without modification and the barrel can be lined to 9mm.
I have a Marlin Model 27s pump action that is earmarked to become a 9mm pump gun for cheap play.