Shortening a 76 rifle

[Sloan Dodgy]

Me three, I'd love to see pictures!  I really like the round barrel button magazine '76s I've seen and wondered about just such a change on one of the new ones.  The half round ought to be a peach!

[Leverluver]

Good show    Ya beat me to it.  That's the same thing I'm going to do to mine.  And it's not just the 1.5 pound reduction.  The center of gravity will move to the rear a lot and that will make it seem like even more weight was removed.  I'm also going to do a 22" short rifle on the same action.  After playing with both, I'll decide which I prefer.  Actualy, I think Teddy's was a four round magazine.  It sure appears to me that he had the forearm shortened (like the short rifle).  You can sort of tell by the points where the forearm checkering ends.  On the standard forearm, there is more gap between the point where the checkering ends and the actual edge of the forearm wood.  On his, the checkering runs nearly to the ends of the forearm.  It may be just an optical illusion but it sure looks that way to me, i.e., standard checkering pattern but on shorter wood.  Like you though, I don't think the standard forearm looks bad at all on a 24" barrel.  I will wait until there are some spare part forearms in the pipeline before I go chopping one off for the short rifle.     

[Joe Lansing]

Leverluver,
    If you shorten the forend, you will expose the nosecap support which is dovetailed into the barrel. This may be the deciding factor:can you finish this well enough to allow you to cut the forend? I have my reservations.
    By the way, my mag. holds 5 rds. and Teddy's rifle has a 28" barrel.
                                                                             J.L.

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[Hobie]

Here's Joe's rifle.

[Leverluver]

Joe

You're absolutely correct that you couldn't "modify" our current rifles for a shorter forearm for the exact reasons you mentioned.  It still looks to me like Teddy's is shorter than standard which it would mean it was manufactured that way.  Again,, it just may be an optical illusion but also again, the checkering just doesn't jive. I might ask Turnbull as he measured the original.  If I do the shorter forearm it will be with a new round barrel and I can put the nose cap dovetail where ever I need it to go.  BTW, beautiful rifle and the 24" with the standard forearm and button mag looks very symmetrical or correct or whatever the word is I'm lookin for.  It's twin will be up and running pretty soon    FYI, I just optical scoped the barrel off the 76.  I wanted to make sure that it was good before I put the extra money in it.  I've scoped a lot of barrels in the last ten years and I'd say (except for a small flaw at the muzzle that will be cut off anyway), this barrel ranks in the top 10% as far as quality and freedom from machine and tooling marks.  I was pleased and impressed.       

[Sloan Dodgy]

Thanks Hobie!  And another view or two:





Nice work Joe!

PS: Also note that if you right-click the image that Hobie put up you can "view image" and it can be expanded into a very nice larger picture of the whole rifle.

[Joe Lansing]

Thanks Pards for posting the picts. To dress up my rifle I had the side plate hand engraved with my initials in period style. Sorry, no pictures yet. I bought a spare plate while I was waiting for the work to be done, so I could keep on shooting. Anyone interested in buying it, please send me an E-mail.

[Roosterman]

Looks great! Now I have another excuse to buy another gun! (like I need any excuse....) I'd get some stain on that wood to match the original color , then you'll be set.
 Does the turned round part follow the original taper of the barrel, or is it straight? Can't tell from the picture.

[Joe Lansing]

It follows the taper.  It was turned down by Whitacre's Machine Shop, a maker of fine Civil War barrels.

When the rifle was completed I sent a letter and pictures to Chaparral in Connecticut suggesting they may want to consider offering a lighter, more user friendly rifle, particularly for hunters. 

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Joe
That is what I want to have done to my barrel . But I want to keep the full magazine tube . That is a great looking rifle and I bet it carries like a champ . If we all keep telling the gun Companies what we want maybe they will make them and YES we want a 24 in. barrel .