30-06 pawn shop find.

ksubuck

Handloader
Jun 25, 2014
362
56
Picked up a new project rifle for next to nothing. This rifle is the New Haven equivalent of the Remington box store ADL, originally retailing in the 90s for 375 to 400 bucks. Found it sitting at the store with $250.00 price tag because there was a little rust on the wing of the safety and the safety was not functional. Salesman said it needed a trip to the gunsmith to get the safety replaced because it was broken... Talked him down to 200 because of the issue.

Brought it home and hit the bolt and safety with some bore scrubber, then doused it with Remoil. With a little wiggle and jiggle, got the safety off of fire to half safe. It would move easily from half to full safe and back. Stripped the bolt down. Cleaned the dirt and grime out of the shroud, polished a burr and a pit off of the safety notch on the firing pin assembly. Polished out the spot of rust. Cold blued the exposed metal from polishing. Lubed everything. And reassembled the bolt. Safety works smooth as silk now.

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Started cleaning the bore, tons of powder residue, carbon, and a fair amount of copper. Bore scoped it and the throat looks fresh but still has copper in the grooves close to the end of the barrel. Will clean more later.

I bet this thing is gonna shoot. If not, it will make a nice donor action.
 
Took a similar rifle and turned it into this very nice 35 whelen for my dad.
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I'm sure it will serve you well.


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Both my M70s came like that with light rust but off gun broker for around the same price. One a 30-06 went to JES for e bore job to .358 and chambered for the 35/AI. The other is a 7mm Rem that I had to repair the safety on that was sticking like yours. I also stoned the triggers on both to get a good crisp trigger pull. They were one of the best factory triggers made. JMO
 
Very nice. Certainly a more solid rifle than alot of the "budget" rifles we are seeing these days.
 
ksubuck":30255jvm said:
Picked up a new project rifle for next to nothing. This rifle is the New Haven equivalent of the Remington box store ADL, originally retailing in the 90s for 375 to 400 bucks. Found it sitting at the store with $250.00 price tag because there was a little rust on the wing of the safety and the safety was not functional. Salesman said it needed a trip to the gunsmith to get the safety replaced because it was broken... Talked him down to 200 because of the issue.

Brought it home and hit the bolt and safety with some bore scrubber, then doused it with Remoil. With a little wiggle and jiggle, got the safety off of fire to half safe. It would move easily from half to full safe and back. Stripped the bolt down. Cleaned the dirt and grime out of the shroud, polished a burr and a pit off of the safety notch on the firing pin assembly. Polished out the spot of rust. Cold blued the exposed metal from polishing. Lubed everything. And reassembled the bolt. Safety works smooth as silk now.

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Started cleaning the bore, tons of powder residue, carbon, and a fair amount of copper. Bore scoped it and the throat looks fresh but still has copper in the grooves close to the end of the barrel. Will clean more later.

I bet this thing is gonna shoot. If not, it will make a nice donor action.
If you don't like it let me know and for the right price I'll gladly welcome it into the fold. :grin:
 
Nothing wrong with that rifle at all especially at that value. I have two of the same, and one has been my primary hunting rifle since 1970.
 
My M70 featherweight is a push feed like that. It was my first deer rifle and I still love it. You did real well on that buy I'd say. Mine shot OK in the pretty FWT stock, but the uneven barrel pressure from the stock caused POI shift as the barrel heated up. It now sits in a Bell and Carlson Medalist stock and is very consistent sub MOA, .05-.75" with its favorite load. Try a strong copper solvent on it, like Sweet's 7.62 or similar, and I bet it will shoot very well for you.
 
Nice find, reminds me of the M17 sporter I picked up for $125. Was going to make something else out of it, then I shot it. Now it holds a place of honor at my hunting cabin in it's original "in the wild" condition, minus the few pennies worth of copper I scrubbed out of the bore. Fun to take it to other camps late in the season when a shooting match and a friendly wager might be in the cards. Never judge a rifle by it's looks! They never notice the M1907 sling with the QD rear swivel and the 1950's vintage raked target grip with palm swell in time. I think it used to be somebody's poor man's NRA match rifle judging by the glass and trigger job and the receiver sight shadow under the scope base. I also like to hunt with it on days when my pretty rifles would rather stay in bed.
 
A man can never go wrong with another 30-06...load up some 165gn BT and go forth to strike fear in the hearts of whitetails everywhere

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That is a dandy find and you could not do much better than converting a 06 into a 35 Whelen (The Hammer of Thor) :wink:.
I hope everything goes smooth and we get to watch the conversion (y).

Blessings,
Dan
 
Heck of a deal !
Ain't no flies on the '06 when it comes to filling tags.
Sure, lots of cartridges that are " cooler " but very few been working as long as the '06.
Officially jealous.
 
"I bet this thing is gonna shoot. If not, it will make a nice donor action."

I have the same model only in .270 Win. Like yours, the prices was right and when the first 100 yard five shot group was .50", well I guess I get lucky once in a while. It's never shot a group larger than .80" so far.
Paul B.
 
Got some stock work done. Opened the barrel channel, added some color, bedded recoil lug and rear action screw, and installed a new recoil pad.

Looking at a FX-3 6x or a VX-3i 2.5-8x Leupold in Talley lightweight rings.

Picked up 2 bags of Winchester brass, was shocked to only find a 1 grain variation in case weight over 100 pieces after it was all sized, trimmed, chamfered/deburred, flash hole deburred, and primer pockets uniformed. Did I get lucky, or did they step up their game?

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Think I will tinker with 165gn ballistic tips and 180gn Accubonds.
 
Wow, it looks great. That is turning out to be an excellent rifle.

Those two bullets should be just about perfect for the old 06. Can't wait to see some load work.
 
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