B28: a work in progress

[ptpalpha]

It's been awhile since I've posted here, but I've kept busy in the meantime working on my B28.  There's not much left on the rifle that's OEM, lol.  To date, here's the list of mods, in no particular order.
JM's large Apex seal, JM's "old school" piston buttons, cocking linkage trued, polished and lubed, cocking slot trued and polished, full lube-tune and interior hone/polish, Mike M. 2-screw trigger mod, trigger pins replaced with drill-stock pins, trigger reshaped and polished, barrel chopped and re-crowned, oem spring cut to 37 coils w/ends flat and polished, delrin spring guide and tophat, grade 8 washer at each end of spring, stock refinished-checkering removed, fore-end tip rounded, relief cuts to access pivot bolt, stippling from cocking slot to pistol grip.
I removed the recoil pad and drilled a pair of holes to accept .451" lead conical bullets, allowing me to add up to 4oz of weight to the stock.  Currently I have 2oz in there, and the balance seems pretty good.  I also made a couple of sleeves for the 2 forward stock bolts to keep them from compressing the wood.
I got sick of the stock/action bolt sinking into the plastic trigger guard, so I did two things.  First, I drilled out the stock and epoxied a stainless sleeve in there.  Next, I beat a stainless washer into a cone shape to match the head of the bolt, then I heated it with the torch and sunk it into the trigger guard.
Added some frog tape inside the stock for pseudo bedding, replaced all bolts with stainless, epoxied the scope rail to the action.....that's about it (I think).
It's been thoroughly enjoyable, and I'm really happy with the final product.  It can put 10 rws sd's under a dime at 30 yards, but I'm still working on my 40 and 50 yard groups.  A variety of pellets are on the way, and a new scope will be next (the current scope is a Nitrex TR-1 with the parallax adjusted to 40yds).  One thing not in these pics is the scope level I made, I changed the design this morning and it's still drying in the shop.  That little item made a believer out of me that canting the rifle has a huge effect on grouping. 
Thanks for listening...forums like this are the only place where people understand and appreciate what we do.
-Paul
Trigger group with 2 drill-stock pins and rounded/polished trigger.

Detail of stippling and sleeve (pillar) for action bolt.

Finished stippling.


Weight system for stock.


Shot taken before stippling was carried into pistol grip.

[ptpalpha]

Here's a couple of pics just taken, showing the crown and the scope level.

[1216bandit]

Very nice indeed!!

[Flatcar1]

Beautiful!! How did you do your stipple work? I would like to try that on some of mine. Thanks for the pics.

[ptpalpha]

The stippling was done with a dremel using  the bit with the little metal-cutting ball on the end. 

[Random Plinker]

A work of art!  Where did it end up in fpe?

[LAalex]

Beautiful job.  How's she shootin'?

Scotty

[ptpalpha]

The weather here all weekend was poor, so no shooting.  I don't have a chrony so fpe remains unknown until I borrow one from my shooting buddy.
Ordered another batch of pellets last night, going to see if she likes the JSB 18 grains (got some more sd's and a tin of cp's too).  Also going to try out a Simmons Pro Air when that arrives...hoping I've got it tuned to the point that it's now a "medium recoil" springer and doesn't rip the crosshairs from their moorings.
I also ordered some Buna dura-90 o-rings to try out as breech seals.  Everything should arrive this week, just in time for some hours behind the trigger this weekend.
Without doing a serious range session, all I can say right now is that the shot cycle feels smooth, but potent.  I think the factory spring cut down to 37 coils is going to be right where I want it.  If so, the plan is to buy the new 37 coil Vortek spring for similar fps with better quality and longer durability.
Bottom line is still the same: I want this rifle to do dime-size groups at 40 yards and drop no more than 2" at 50.  Tall order for a Chinese springer, but I've got faith (and time...).
Thanks for the kind words, guys.  I really enjoy this rifle.  I can't believe I'm considering selling some of my beloved powder-burners to fund this new addiction, but the thought keeps crossing my mind.

[ptpalpha]

Forgot to add that I'm trying to figure out how to make an aluminum trigger guard for it.  Stainless is out of the question for my little home-shop, but aluminum would match the trigger and should polish up nice.  Any ideas where I could score a small block of aluminum?  Something in the neighborhood of 4" long, 2" wide, and 3/4" thick.
Thanks,
Paul

[ptpalpha]

New pellets arrived today.  Seems like I've been wasting time and money on the rws sd's...the rifle really performed with both the domed cp's and the jsb 18.1's.  Both shot to the same poi, where the rws sd's were landing 2" left (??) at 30yds.
Ran out of daylight too soon, but ended up with one ragged hole measuring 7/8" with the jsb's and a 1" group with the premiers (both 10-shot groups).
Can't wait to borrow a chrony and see what fpe the jsb's are pumping out!
Next time I'm going to stretch it out to 40 and 50yds to check trajectory.  Also sized a couple more grade-8 washers and polished them to 2000 grit...with a little moly they should be slippery as ice on the spring.