20 gauge single-shot project gun

[gatrkyhntr70]

excellent job!!! Love the stenciled gobblers!

[gobblergls]

I must have more time on my hands than the law allows judging by the time I'm spending on this project.  Beats the heck out of yard work in this heat and it's a lot more fun.  I've been experimenting on a clear coat for the barrel and receiver.  I have marine epoxy and peel ply surplus to a boatbuilding project.  One trick with fiberglass is the use of "peel ply", a fine weave nylon. In laying up fiberglass, there are two kinds of bonds between layers—chemical and mechanical.  Chemical is best and is accomplished by layering before curing.  Mechanical allows curing between coats.  Roughing up the surface with sandpaper before next coat is mechanical.  A shortcut without using sandpaper is the use of the fine weave nylon which is placed atop fiberglass tape or cloth after it is wetted thoroughly with mixed epoxy.  The nylon is peeled off when the epoxy sets leaving a matte finish for better adherence for the next coat.  I wetted up some aluminum tubing and covered it with peel ply to see if the finish after drying is sufficiently dulled by the nylon.  I'll know by tomorrow when I remove the nylon from the tubing.  If it works, this will be a significantly tougher clear coat than spray on acrylic.  Colorfast nylon ribbon might be a good substitute for peel ply if the experiment works.
In the meantime, to do something constructive other than sit around watching epoxy set-up, a more complex stenciling was done on the other side of the stock.  Between the front leg of the first gobbler and the last leg of the bigger gobbler, it required 3 male stencils to make the pattern.  I sprayed the mylar with the Scotch Spray Mount Repositional Adhesive to position all stencils, the larger female and 3 smaller males.  It turned out nicely.  Tweezers were needed to align the male stencil.  How many more days before Georgia's spring season?  I can't wait.

[gobblergls]

Peeled off the nylon wrap. Matte finish, but prismatic effect makes it shine  in direct sunlight.  Will use light coat of acrylic matte finish.  Here's a comparison in direct sunlight of gun barrel and tubing with peel ply finish on marine epoxy.  In normal hunting conditions it would work fine and probably not a factor even in direct sunlight, but the difference is apparent.

[gobblergls]

Getting closer to the end.  Quick Detachable Swivel Bases arrived from Midwayusa today.  Midway # 366960 ($2.59), Uncle Mike's Sling Swivel Stud 115 B Set, looked about right online, and as luck would have, it fit perfectly.  The front stud replaced the machine screw holding the front end of the forend release latch and threaded perfectly into the retaining plate inside the forend.  How many more times will that happen in my lifetime in "some assembly required" projects?  I carefully drilled the hole for the stock working my way up in drill bit sizes to just below the OD of the threads.  The stock stud is threaded for wood.  If I had to do it over again, I'd order two sets of the 115 B set and use the extra machine screw stud and nut in the stock rather than the wood screw.  However, it went through three layers of styrene so it should hold.  Two of the layers are a hollow cylinder of plastic which runs the stock length for the butt plate screws.  The Claw sling and swivels add another 5 ozs. to the rig, bringing it to 5 lbs, 13.7 oz.  The stock stud must clear the end of the buttplate screw, so be careful if you go my route with this gun.  Still waiting for the FFIII from Burris and it should be here soon (hopefully).  It will add .7 oz. to the rig.  I could shave weight off the gun by cutting 6" off the barrel to 20" leaving an overall length of 22" with the Sumtoy extended .5625 choke and replacing the steel mount with the Burris FFIII 336 mount.  William at Sumtoy said he could mill a flat spot on the barrel to accept the base without sacrificing much metal.  The chamber thickness is  over .18" at the chamber.  However, I like having 28" overall length barrel in this gun.  As it stands, it is more than a pound lighter than my tricked-out Super Bantam with a 22" barrel.

[gobblergls]

Faced with the choice of cutting the grass or piddlin' with my summertime turkey gun project, I decided to make a paracord sling which is more fitting for my project than a store bought one.  After all, this is a cheap gun in the cost sense.  Fullchoke clued me in on a source of quality paracord on ebay.  I bought 100' of 550 9 strand for $9.50 delivered from sharkman_tackle.  It got here quickly.  I boiled it to pre-shrink it and found instructions on the knot on youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCY2WRyJ6Nk While the instructions are for a bracelet, it was easy to figure out how to make a sling using the same technique.  I cannibalized my old 835's swivel set and cobbled up a frame to hold the swivels and cord.  I used a loser's campaign sign which was corrugated plastic to make shuttlecocks to hold the line.  They were effective until I got to the last 6" where I made thinner shuttle cocks and finally fids out of coat hangers.    I spent half the morning driving around trying to find the aluminum binder posts to make the best type of fid, but a corollary of Murphy's law is that one will never find the exact materials or parts necessary to complete a project in accordance with instructions from a written source.  



Below is a pattern that I shot today using a Pure Gold .570 and Kyle Smith's recipe for 1 oz. Tungsten Super Shot.  This load utilizes a wad in a wad.  William of Sumtoy said that his wad strippers in his unperforated choke will only strip the first wad and not the "sabot" 28 gauge wad which holds the shot.  We tried it in William's chokes and he was correct.  Best we could get was a 100 in the 10".    He said it would take a perforated choke to strip both wads which would tighten the pattern.  Using the PG .570 with 1 oz. of TSS9s (376 per ounce in this batch) at 40 yards, 124 in the 10" ring and between 10 and 20", 157.  Shooting it out of a 5.75 lbs. gun was not bad and it's plenty dense enough to be a good hunting round.   I'd like to find a 1 oz. load that utilizes 1 wad.  William's choke does such a good with the other loads, I'd like to find a 1 oz. load that would work better in it. I believe a 1 oz. load, buffered, with only one wad would tighten things up better than Kyle's load which is unbuffered.  

I helped this gal across the road today on the way to patterning.  Box Turtle slate call?  I couldn't live with myself killing a box turtle deliberately.

[FullChoke]

Great job on his rig, man! Making yer own stuff is fun!

FullChoke

[killdee]

I like it!!!! Thats a very impressive 1oz. pattern. Thats a smart way to lighten the kick in such a light weight rig. My 670 is like 7.1/2#'s and will rock you back with the 1-7/8 tss. I may look at a 1-1/4 size load myself, the 1-7/8 is overkill at 40 with 320-350 in the 10.

[Hayudog]

Wow- looks like you are still having fun.  It looks great and keeps looking better.   Should  have my barrel back soon from Sumtoy.  It better hurry.  Duck season is just around the corner and I'll be knee deep ...literally.  Antelope for 10 days in N. Cali.  9 Days in Oregon- archery elk.  Duck season starts early Oct.  Think my wife has a week planned for me at Lake Tahoe.  Not enough time.

[gobblergls]

Killdee, Hayoudog, thanks.  It's keeping me busy.  Doug, be sure and post your gun when it gets back and you have time to work on it.  Sounds like your life is planned for the immediate future.  I'm trying out two-three loads tomorrow, a single wad, 1 oz, with and without buffer, and a 1 5/16 oz. load, buffered.  Killdee, I find the 1 5/8 oz. to be overkill.  Can't imagine the 1 7/8 load out of this gun.  I'd need a shoulder transplant for sure.  Gil

[gobblergls]

Not only has this project been fun, it has given me an opportunity to reflect on hunting loads for turkeys.  In my career, I have run the range of gauges and loads.  I have shot double-barreled 10 gauges with maximum hand loads of 2.5 ozs.  all the way down through 7/8 ozs. of Tungsten 9s out of this 20 gauge $91 single-shot.   I have witnessed the race to see how many tungsten 9s can be shot into a 10" ring at 40 yards.
For a turkey load, it is not important to me to see how many multiples of a 100 pellets I can shoot into the 10" circle at 40 yards.  I seek a balance between reliable lethality and recoil. If performance in the 10"-20" ring is passable, the 10" ring usually takes care of itself.   I am done with "cross your eyes, rattle your teeth" loads.  To me, the ultimate round is one that reliably anchors a bird with minimal risk of crippling (the bird and me) and loss at 40 yards. This Friday I believe I have completed my quest for relatively light 20 gauge loads capable of 125-150 TSS 9s (18 g/cc) in the 10" ring at 40 yards with about as many in the 10-20" ring.  Shirking job responsibilities last Friday, I spent the morning hand loading and patterning.  I shot 1 5/16 oz. 18 g/cc tungsten 9s (367 per oz. by hand count) at 40 yards.  The load reportedly is 1089 fps.  Behind the target, I set up an empty gallon olive oil can.  Some may ask:  What's that stunt prove?  Why isn't he at work?  Does he have a life?  Good questions.   Ignoring the last two, there are at least two possible answers relevant to turkeys and turkey hunters.  1)  It is demonstrative evidence of the penetration of small tungsten shot at 40 yards.   2)  It is fair warning to turkeys that thin steel body armor is pointless and you, Mr. Tom and your ilk, have just over 7 months to get your affairs in order and say your good-byes.
The 1 5/16 oz. load obviously has milder recoil compared with the 1 5/8 oz. load of 9s that I have successfully shot the past two seasons.  The 1 5/8 oz. load is past overkill for my purposes as far as number of shot within the 10" ring. (page 2 of this thread,  buffered and no buffer load photos) With my Sumtoy .5625 and the 1 5/16 oz. load, I shot 153 inside the 10" ring and 171 between 10" and 20" rings.  (photo below) The results are slightly better than the Kyle Smith 1 oz. load which patterned 124/157. (photo a few posts up on this page.)  Either load would be mild enough for children and wimps like me and sufficiently dense at traditional hunting ranges.  The Kyle Smith load performs significantly better out of a ported choke such as a Pure Gold which serves to strip the main wad and the sabot 28 gauge wad better than a non-perforated choke.  The Kyle Smith load (1250 fps) has less felt recoil than the 1 5/16 oz. load and would seem to be a better choice for some small-bodied children.  The 1 5/16 oz. load has more felt recoil, but not much worse than the 1 oz. load, and is more than tolerable for small adults. I was not successful with the "one wad" 1 oz. load.  That is a work in progress, but I may have to sit back and let someone else develop that one.  Best I could do with it was 104 in the 10" ring.  However, I am confident that I could shoot either the double-wad Kyle Smith load of 1 oz. or the 1 5/16 oz. load for the rest of my turkey hunting days out of my 20 gauge guns and not be under-gunned if I take disciplined shots, which is what we are supposed to do anyway, right?  Except sometimes all hell breaks loose and discipline is tossed out the window to make the shot.  Holding a gun barrel still on a wide right shot off my right shoulder is not my favorite for precision shotgunning.   Will I abandon the 1  5/8 oz. load in favor of the lighter loads?  Probably not.   The heaviest load fills up the 10"-20" ring better than the lighter loads. (see page 2 of thread for photo of load with and without buffer.)  I have made miracle snap shots on close in birds with my old 10 gauge gun where I could only find one pellet in the neck/head—killed by the pattern fringe.  I don't kid myself about never missing another bird.  It's the Indian, not the arrow. It happens to the best of us and there is no load, optical system or gun that will cure an occasional miss.  The 10"-20" ring contains 3 times the area of the 10" ring.  The 10" ring has an area of 78 square inches.  The 10-20" ring, approximately 237 square inches.  A denser pattern in the 10"-20" ring could be the difference between a crippled or dead bird.  I have three excellent loads for next year for my little Baikal.  Each has its merits;  each has its shortfalls.  Everything is a compromise.


Front:

Back:

[Hayudog]

Gil
Line by line I've followed your project.  Barrel for my Remington SPR 20 is on its way back from Sumtoy.  This is the rear stock portion of the youth model Baikal.  Need to put the top coat of mat flattener on still. 





Cut the stencils from paper directly to blue tape.  Laid flat, but only one use.  Should have left more of the tan in original camo, it would have shown the black better.   

[gobblergls]

Looks pretty good from where I sit.  Nice work all the way around.  Great patterns and stenciling.  One-of-a-kind camoing.

[SumToy]

  You got that smoke poll looking good. 

[gobblergls]

Burris came through with a replacement for my FFIII which I screwed up by cross-threading the battery cover.   It would be hard to beat service like that. Thank you, Burris Optics.  FFIII is mounted via Picatinny system.  I have a Burris 336 mount which I plan to use instead of the Picatinny system.  The 336 mount offers a more streamlined and lower mount.  Photos are of the Picatinny mount.

[gobblergls]

I took some comp time off today and Russ and I drove up to Sumtoy just outside the onion fields in Glennville to have William remount the Burris FFIII on a Burris 336 mount.  William milled a flat spot on the top of the barrel to accept the flat base of the mount.  Many of you probably wonder who this "William" is  and what he looks like.  I was able to take a quick photo of him working on a project that he didn't feel he could discuss because of his Govt. contract.  Here he is:

Here's the end product of his excellent work.  Thanks again, William.  The next report on the project you see will hopefully be the third weekend in March with a photo of the recently and dearly departed Mr. Tom.  Gil