TC Renegade Project.

[mahd776]

Picked up a TC Renegade as part of a package deal and it needs some help. Has a scope rail and cheap scope on it that looks terrible. Took scope and rail off and looks like 3 extra shallow drilled and tapped holes. Stock has some tight cracks in the lock area and opposite side where lock bolt goes through. Does not seem to be any flex that I can see in the crack areas. Wanting to do something with this rifle. So here are my questions.
Stock......try and spread the cracks enough to Acraglass and refinish. Try to find another TC stock without cracks. Or purchase a stock from someone like Pecatonica. They offer a half or full length stock that the TC parts are supposed to move to with a bit of fitting. Would one wedge be enough on the full length stock?
Barrel......the drilled and tapped screw holes are a eyesore. Suppose I could just put flush screws in them. Welding them would be a option I suppose but dont know how well that would work and would definitely need a refinish. Any other thoughts or options for these extra holes? Bore is nice but might consider having the barrel reamed to smoothbore or opened up and rifled to a 56 or 58 caliber.
Aay suggestions or comments are welcome. Thanks!

MAHD776

 

[necchi]

Come on` man,, you must have learned something with your Issac Hanes kit?
Uhm, Weld? On the barrel? For a couple of holes?

What do you really intend to do with the rifle?
It was a part of a package, so do you just want to re-sell it? Do you want to keep it as a hunting rifle?
Do you wan to invest another $10 in it? Or nothing or $200 including a full rebuild with a re-bore as you mentioned?
Folks will help but your original post asks a lot of different questions.

 

[Griz44Mag]

It seems like it would cost more than it's worth to do all that work on it. Why not just sell it to me for a decent price cause I am looking for a second rifle for a field gun and to have backup parts to swap back and forth if needed.

:grin:

Griz

 

[mahd776]

Want to make a nice shooter out of it if that's hunting or just target range. Very possible I would hunt with it. Don't mind putting some money in it and if thats a couple hundred or more that's fine. Could just sell it out for parts but not keen on that. Have several Renegades already so this one is something to piddle with and see what I end up with. Don't really see welding as much of a option but have connections in that area so mentioned it. Issac Haines kit is still a kit....but soon!

 

[mahd776]

Will keep you in mind if I decide that I do not want to piddle around with it. Looks like a lot of these end up taken apart and sold as parts. This is more a lets see what I can do with this if I try. Have less than a $100 bucks in it so got some room to spend on it.

 

[Artificer]

DON'T weld up the screw holes in the barrel. Welding heat will most likely transfer down inside the bore and cause problems like scaling or other things under each hole. If it does it even under one hole, the bore can or will be ruined. The traditional way to fix this is plug the holes with screws cut them off a little above the surface of the barrel, file them flush and refinish at least around the holes. The SIMPLE WAY to fix the problem is just fill in the screw holes with a Black Two Part Epoxy - flush with the barrel. Clean it up nicely before the epoxy sets and you won't have to do any refinishing.

Depending on how deep those screw holes are, you may not be able to bore out the barrel much.

Spread the cracks in the stock as best you can and fill them with a colored epoxy or even a clear epoxy. Force the epoxy into the cracks with a pallet knife or even a small width putty knife or even a popsicle stick. The trick is to let the epoxy squoosh out a little and harden, then use a sharp exacto knife or razor blade to scrape it down to the surface of the wood.

Gus

 

[nhmoose]

Fill the screw hole with screws of that thread then file and polish. First cut them off after tightening then peen flat then file and polish. Why weld but if you can TIG fill tig but then you got's to file and polish.

Time welding to refinish is a waste of time and money.

 

[lastgoodusername]

I have the same problem on a barrel I bought. A couple extra holes. I would buy or make , I'm going to make, a long sight and use the two factory screws holes. It will cover up the others and look better as well. The ones I found usually have a dovetail mount. File it of flush, transfer the hole pattern to your new sight, and away you go.

 

[don hepler]

I have a custom Hawken, that had a lot of the same issues, that you have described. I put screws like the ones used to fill scope base holes. I browned them and they are not a big distraction. Another option is to make or buy a long sight, like on a custom Hawken and use to hide the holes. That's one option, that I am considering, for my rifle.

If you can get epoxy into the cracks, you can use IPA to wipe off any excess, before it drys. If the stock is solid, the repairs should hold up. If you refinish the whole stock, most of the cracks and imperfections will be hidden, if you fill them with epoxy.

I browned a TC barrel, and it looks nice, which is another option.

 

[CTShooter]

I'm in the same place, picked up in unfired Renegade .54 for a song. The gun shoots great, the red plastic butt pad.. eh... Sprayed furniture finish, more eh, drop of hot melt glue under the front of the lock to make it flush with the wood.

Came with a tang mounted peep sight, I'm guessing factory because it has what look like original plugs screwed into the sight holes in the barrel.

Didn't have an intended purpose, but it would make a nice field, woods walk gun.

I have a spare T/C patch box cover, thought about installing that, removing some stock, proper finish...

 

[nwtradegun]

If you go screw route on holes, use grade 1 soft steel screws . peen around and file smooth, reblue. did this on a jap 38 sporter I was given. could hardly see any repair.

 

[Artificer]

If you can get epoxy into the cracks, you can use IPA to wipe off any excess, before it drys.

Having glued cracks in more stocks and handguards than I can begin to remember, I learned long ago not to clean up the squooshed out glue directly on top of the cracks. It leaves the epoxy surface lower than the wood around it and that will be noticeable unless you sand scrape the wood surface around it flush.

Cleaning the glue, before it dries, close to over top the cracks is OK and I do that with Q Tips dipped in acetone, but I make sure there is glue over the cracks to set up and scrape/file down to the wood surface after it dries. There is less wood needed to be sanded down that way.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

P.S. If you can, you also want to spread the crack/s by holding the stock in the vise on one side of the crack and pulling the other end a bit so the crack opens up. Then clean out the crack with Acetone before you glue it. I do it with a toothbrush dipped into Acetone. Oil/finish/junk that gets into the tops of cracks may or usually will cause the glue joint to be much weaker or not set up correctly.

Gus

 

[B.Habermehl]

Acraglass wicks pretty nicely into cracks with a little help from a hair dryiers heat. This is a old Kit Ravenshear trick. BJH

 

[S.Kenton]

If you go screw route on holes, use grade 1 soft steel screws . peen around and file smooth, reblue. did this on a jap 38 sporter I was given. could hardly see any repair.

I've done this repair myself...I went an extra step and probably not needed, but I put a tad bit of epoxy on the threads of the soft bolt, hack sawed it flush,filed it to clean it up a bit,then touched it up with browning solution.Good repair and still holding ten years later. The cracks you can spread apart, Acura glass or super glue I have used with good results. Pecatonica makes some cool dress up stuff for an original looking hawken, if you want to go that route.