.44 Mag Night Scout

[AJMD429]

You've probably seen the previous 'Night Scout' projects (http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =1&t=31062), so this is nothing especially new, but it's the third and probably final one.

First one was a Marlin .357, since I had a 'rough' one of the 'CSS' series that needed some work to look presentable, and I wanted to experiment with some holographic sights. I felt the idea of a 'grab-and-go' gun was a good one for folks who live on a farm and have livestock to protect, but the common mind-set of having a battle-rifle or assault-rifle handy just isn't very practical, when the 'bad guys' are merely a possum in the chicken coop or a couple coyotes trying to go after the baby goats. No sense going deaf shooting an AR-Shorty, and turning loose high-ballistic-coefficient bullets at night that can go for miles.

Anyway, the end result of the first project was nice:




Soon, I decided I wanted to do the same thing in .45 Colt, and not having a Marlin to deface, I used my Rossi:




Well, I liked the Rossi's light mount best, durable and not bulky, but I liked the simple and uncluttered, centered, scope mount of the Marlin. In the interim, I had tried to JB-Weld a scope rail onto a Marlin .44 Mag, but it came off with the first shot (still don't know why). So I hunted around, and found a steel one, so I could solder it directly to a magazine tube. I had some Cerama-Coat from Wheeler Engineering, so I decided to try it and see if it would match the old parkerized finish on the Marlin. Not too bad. Now I realize the 'green' light is a bit of a clash, but the varmints will have to just deal with it...



(Sorry I forgot to include slipper-tips in the first two photos - I'll try to do better in the future )

[Blaine]

A bit too tactical for me, but I'll bet they are practical as heck

[jeepnik]

I like it. And it looks like the light comes off pretty easy for daylight use. You know, I've got a WWG light mount for my GS floating around somewhere. Bought it when I picked up the Happy Trigger and Bearproof ejector. Never got around to putting it on. I've got some time, so maybe this week end. Thanks for the push.

[GonnePhishin]

Nice looking weapon. Who says you can't "tactical up" a lever rifle (as long as its in good taste)

[wecsoger]

I'd sure like some more info or a close picture or two as to how you did that magazine tube light mount......the rail I see, how you got it to stick to the rifle is the interesting part.

[Ysabel Kid]

Y2K really wants to do this with the Winny 94 he got last year. Can't wait to show him!

[Ysabel Kid]

Just showed him. He's in love!

[AJMD429]

I'd sure like some more info or a close picture or two as to how you did that magazine tube light mount......the rail I see, how you got it to stick to the rifle is the interesting part.

If you follow the >link in my post at the top of this thread, it leads to more information.

I forget the model of steel rail I used (I can check), but I wanted to find a steel one so I could solder it to the steel magazine tube, instead of having to fasten an aluminum one, which from what I understand would not be able to be soldered to steel very well. The Rossi one (follow the links) I used JB-Weld on, as it was an aluminum one. It's held fine, though I only shoot 'cowboy' loads 90% of the time. The .44 Mag one I made the same way, but it fell off after the first shot, so I looked around for a steel mount. It took longer to shape to the proper concavity, but a combination of Dremel tooling and corse emory paper wrapped around a tube (smaller than the magazine tube, to correct for the thickness of the paper), did the job.

I really need to do a modification to the forend or something to make it easier to reassemble, as well.

Anyway, hope the threads provide some useful info. The 'sweat soldering' I didn't take any pictures of, but basically just cleaned and roughened the surfaces with files and coarse sandpaper, degreased it with brake-cleaner, then used a kit from Brownells that came with the 'proper' flux (not sure I couldn't have just used the same stuff I use on copper plumbing pipe, but decided not to risk messing it up).

I coated each piece with solder over the 'bonding' area, separately, using a propane torch for heat. Then re-sanded the soldered surfaces, cleaned them, reapplied flux, then clamped them together with a vice-grip and heated them together until the solder melted and they fused a bit. I tightened the vice-grips a bit (the solder melting allowed the pieces to nestle closer together), then I re-heated them and applied solder all around the periphery to make a nice 'cove' bead all around the joint.

Hasn't fallen off yet, but I do worry that there was still the occasional 'bubble' popping through the solder as I was heating the final time; it seemed hot enough that all the flux would have been long gone, and I'm assuming the bubbles were just 'boiling' of the solder, but I have these nightmares of little zinc chloride or whatever islands under there that will erode through the magazine tube someday and screw things up...

[1894c]

i really like your stuff...i really like your set-up...nice pics too...for me i would like a scout lvergun in .357mag or 30/30, but that's just me... :)

[AJMD429]

i really like your stuff...i really like your set-up...nice pics too...for me i would like a scout lvergun in .357mag or 30/30, but that's just me...

Thanks.

I thought about a .30-30, or even a .444 Marlin or .45-70 Guide Gun, using cat-sneeze loads, but then I figured if I was going to load it down (so I don't have to wear hearing protectors when I go out to pop a possum in the henhouse, or just check the livestock), I may as well stick with a 'pistol cartridge' levergun.

Of the .44 Mag, .45 Colt, and .357 Mag, the .45 Colt is the easiest to get full-length cases and mild loads for in factory ammo, but the .38 Specials cycle through most .357 leverguns pretty well, and are dirt cheap. I suppose one should de-crud the front of the chamber after shooting tons of them and before shooting .357 Magnums in it, but I've not had any problems. The .44 Mag version I think should be fed .44 Specials if you're really using it for ranch/farm purposes, unless you're in bear country (in which case maybe a Guide Gun version would be pretty useful).