What: Restore with or without changes.
Who: Myself and whoever does the barrel reline.
When: I have given myself a 30 day time to finish this project.
Where: My work shop at home.
Why: These parts were orphaned off of other unusable guns and bought individually. To make a firearm whole again.
Delima: restore to 22lr or spice it up to a .17 Mach II.
Ok... I have a project to perform. Either way I go it is somewhat straight forward. I have collected all of the piece parts to a Savage Model 23a in 22lr. The problem is, the barrel / receiver are in pretty bad shape and they are machined together. The receiver end just needs a reblue, the barrel exterior needs a very good sanding / polish and reblue to get rid of rust and pits. The bore is dark, worn rifling and also pitted in several areas. Its only salvation would be to reline the barrel, done professionally of course.
After it is done, regardless of either caliber, take it out for a range report. I honestly would like your thoughts on this project. I know restoring to historical accuracy is important. I also know this is an orphaned gun so why not trick up the caliber just a little. I am very undecided on this and would appreciate your help to decide one way or another. During the process I can take pics and show the progress if anyone is interested.
Option 1 - Restore this piece to orig state via the use of a .22lr barrel liner job and then refinish all the parts best I can.
Option 2 - Restore this piece but change the caliber to .17 Mach II via a barrel liner job and then refinish all the rest of the parts best I can.
The magazine and bolt face would not have to be changed at all to convert to .17 Mach II, maybe just a touch on the feed ramp and lips.
The only real change would be the caliber to the .17 Mach II. Here are some pics of the pieced parts, none of them were from the same gun, they are all orphaned piece parts. The only pieces I need to get are the front bead or globe sight. The parts in total with S&H cost $83.00 from many different sources. The barrel liner job regardless of caliber will be approx $50 to $100 depending on who does it.
The reblue I will do myself and the stock I will redo myself (any tips would be most welcomed).
The barrel - Needs major overhaul in and out
The stock - needs just a good oil finish and touch up, nothing major
The Bolt - needs cleaned and most likely a reblue to match the barrel and receiver. I may change all the guns springs and working parts like the extractors and such, have not decided that yet. (your thoughts would be welcomed) The bolt handle will just be polished and left natural metal color and not blued.
The Trigger group - Needs cleaned, sear face polished and most likely a reblue
The peep sight - needs no work, excellent condition
The Magazine - Needs work due to someone taking a file to the back and a reblue.
The Trigger guard - needs cleaned and a reblue.
