One of a kind
A beautiful, diminutive and accurate rifle in .22LR that will immediately steal your heart...
The ubiquitous .22 rimfire rifle seems to be confined to an almost entirely utilitarian existence. Despite extensive use, these firearms seldom receive more than a modicum of care and are most unlikely candidates for embellishment as bespoke firearms. The subject matter of this article is however one of those rare exceptions which, coincidentally features on page 190 in the work of the late authorities, prof. Felix Lategan and dr. Lucas Potgieter, Die Boer en Sy Roer, with which I became acquainted in 1984 while in high school.
The building of the rifle featured in this article commenced in the 1980s when André Wes- sels, at the time a consultant to Musgrave (later the production manager), decided to build himself a “different” .22 calibre rifle, the end product of which is truly in a class of its own.
ACTION
The building of the rifle commenced with a miniature Martini-Henry take-down rimfire action in excellent condition, built by Westley Richards, which was filed and polished in order to remove all tool marks in preparation for the engraving to follow.
Although of simple design and featuring few moving parts, the trigger mechanism in these actions is nevertheless capable of rendering an excellent trigger
pull (it is not without reason that these rifles were used as .22 rimfire target rifles for decades). Accordingly, the trigger assembly, capable of disassembly by removing a single screw, was worked and stoned to render as perfect a trigger pull as is possible with this design.
BARREL
At a loss for a suitable barrel in the time of the arms embargo against South Africa, André chanced upon a pre-war Oberndorf Mauser .22 target rifle bar- rel. Initially deemed beyond repair due to corrosion damage at both ends, inspection of the interior of the barrel revealed that the corrosion only extended approximately 1½ inches into the barrel from either end.
The removal of the corroded end portions of the target contour barrel rendered a barrel blank of suitable length (20 inches) with a perfect bore that merely needed to be turned down to match the diminutive action. Since the goal was to produce a full stock rifle with a relatively short barrel, the quest for a good barrel of the appropriate length was solved.
The barrel was then turned down to the appropriate contour and threaded with the appropriate (Imperial) thread to match the diminutive action, where after a disassembly screw, featuring a 5° taper, was handmade and then fitted to the rifle. In the process a screwdriver, featuring a handle made from the walnut blank to be used in the stock, was built and ground to perfectly match the slot in the disassembly screw.
Using mild steel, André then fabricated the quarter-rib for the rifle, which was hand-filed and fitted using the traditional oil lamp technique to perfectly match the contour of the barrel. The quarter-rib was also grooved in the event that it was deemed necessary to mount an optical sight on the rifle.
The front sight was similarly fabricated by hand from mild steel and also hand fitted to match the reduced contour of the muzzle portion of the barrel.
After the quarter-rib and front sight were soldered onto the barrel, a single folding rear sight featuring a practical U-notch was dovetailed into the quarter rib and secured by means of a screw attaching the sight base to the quarter-rib. A barleycorn sight bead matching the U-notch in the rear sight was then fitted to the front sight, which received a detachable hood which was also hand fabricated and fitted.
Almost all metalwork capable of fitment on custom rifles today is CNC produced and available on order from the United States, Austria and Germany, significantly reducing the gunsmithing skill required. At the time that this rifle was built, South Africa faced a massive »
» arms embargo and the CNC technology required to manufacture such custom firearm parts was still in its infancy and not therefore available.
All metalwork on this rifle, from the quarter-rib to the front sight to the sling swivels built to the Holland & Holland pattern, was fabricated entirely by hand and thereafter carefully polished prior to being blued using the Nital S (nitre) process.
STOCK
Using a dense straight-grained blank of European walnut, André built the stock along the traditional straight grip English pattern (to accommodate the operating lever of the Martini action) with a matching fulllength fore-end by hand. The end result is an elegant and exceptionally slim rifle.
Certain unique features were then built into the rifle. To mention but a few, the Schnabel foreend, butt plate and sling swivel ferrule inserts in the stock, were all fabricated from dense South African Stinkwood.
METALWORK EMBELLISHMENT
The artistic flair and ability of the rifle builder was bound to result in extensive embellishment of this rifle.
What also renders this rifle unique is that the entire project, including all embellishment thereon, was undertaken by André himself. It is indeed rare to find an entire rifle built to such high standard where all of the gunsmithing, metalwork, stock work, wood carving, checkering and extensive engraving was executed by a the same person.
The scenes engraved on the flat surfaces of the action, are also uniquely South African in nature, with the left side of the receiver being relief engraved to depict a pair of yellow-billed duck rising from water against a reed background, all of which is bordered by relief scroll embellishment.
The right side of the receiver, which was similarly surrounded by relief scroll embellishment, features a pair of duiker bounding past a background of dense vegetation.
The attention to detail and standard of execution of the engraving is clearly depicted in the photographs accompanying this article. Both the quarterrib and front sight ramp were lightly engraved with an elementary scroll pattern matching the more extensively embellished receiver.
STOCK EMBELLISHMENT
The stock of the rifle was meticulously checkered in a 22-lineper-inch pattern. Similarly, the Stinkwood butt plate was also checkered, but to a more coarse pattern for practical reasons. Note the alignment of every screw slot on the stock.
The checkering on the stock and for-end is surrounded by wood carving emulating the pattern bordering the engraving on the sides of the action. The end result here is both unique and tasteful.
CASE
Since the rifle was a take-down model, André built the exceedingly compact case for the firearm which only measures approximately 22 inches in length and in the order of nine inches in width. Despite its Lilliputian dimensions, the rifle handles very well – much like a fullsized rifle.
For those of the view that small take-down rifles are not capable of excellent accuracy, note the target featured, representing four shots at a distance of 20m with Swartklip .22LR high-velocity solid ammunition using iron sights. I believe the photographs will speak for themselves. Enough said!