The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

It has been raised by the committee that some of our juniors are struggling with the weight of our old Match 54 target rifles when moving on from the Air Arms S400 MPR air rifles that they use to complete the NSRA proficiency course at the club.

I'm wondering if there are any cheaper alternatives to making the old heavy match 54 rifles lighter for the youngsters to handle on a sling, prone.

Ideas I'm tossing around in my head would be:

Adding weight relief slots within the fore end of the stock
Turning down the barrel
Fluting the Barrels
Shortening the barrels

Obviously these things come with a cost attached in themselves, along with re-finishing, so wondered if anyone had had any experience in getting the weight down for prone, slung rifles.

The big sticking point on removing any material from the barrel would be getting the sights back on and within some kind of spec in terms of click values with the rear-sight.

The main cheap idea would be lightening the stock, so interested if anyone has any experience in this area, or suggestions for how else we may be able to make the rifles we currently own viable for their purpose.

New Rifles; Junior 1903 Anschutz have been suggested, but at £1150 each, not including sights, you're looking at a hefty price tag which would be hard to stomach at the current time.

Thanks in advance

Shorten the barrel.
Fred

Worth taking the buttplate off.......mine had a chunk of iron inside.

Pete

Re profile the barrel leaving the front alone so you maintain the front sight, or shortening it are both good options, also remove the rear butt hook if fitted. Slotting the forend saves very little weight, nor does lightening the butt, plus it throws the balance out.

Fluting is going to be quite pricey.

Personally, I would go with shortening the barrel as the first option and the weight saved is easily calculated, you can then bore out the butt behind the pad to try and bring it back into balance.

Why mess with a perfectly good rifle, why not pick up an 1803,1903 second hand for around £500ish, seems to be current going rate with sights, which is probably around what it would cost to modify the 54 to get enough weight out of it, bonus being you would have a lightweight for smaller shooters and something heavier for those that can cope with it.

That's a perfectly acceptable option, if second hand examples were readily available.

I think we're going to keep an eye open, but currently it may be easier to modify what we have to something more suitable. As club rifles they don't owe us anything so if we can keep them serviceable and have them suit our needs by some inexpensive modification, it might be in our best interests.

As second hand models come about we can look to acquire them along side.

At the minute I'm weighing up options, if it were a case of buying 4x 1803's second hand for sub £500 each, I wouldn't have asked the question.

From some preliminary reports the 2 we have found are over £600 each and at opposite ends of the country, so factor in fetching or shipping them and you're still looking at £1300 or so for 2 rifles with unknown history.

Counterbore the muzzle until the weight is deemed correct , remove weight from the butt . Recrown , carry on shooting . This method leaves the barrel the correct length for max sight radius and no need to alter the sights.

Just to add to this, I went to the club last night and have some observations.

We have 2 1403's which are fine as they are for the juniors, the 2 that are not are 1411's with rubber buttplates.

According to the Secretary, the problem some of the kids are having is that the 1411's are too front heavy, because they have little arms and the handstops are all the way back to the end of the rail, the balance point of these 1411's is infront of this point, making them unbareable.

There is the option of adding weight to the butt to even this out, but given that these are already heavy rifles, I don't want to pursue that unless it's a last option. It does mean whatever happens on the front end of the rifle can only be a good thing to bring the rifle back towards a balance, and shed weight in the process.

In comparing the barrel length of the 1411 to the 1403, there's not a lot in it, maybe an inch, however the 1411 have a heavier barrel as can be seen from looking at them side by side, which would be adding to the balancing issues.

I believe cutting the barrel down would be our best course of action, and I don't believe an altered sight distance will be too drastic in this instance. Just need to either find someone to do the work, or get in at the engineering place downstairs from where my office is and sort it out on their lathe.

Might need to PM paa for some advice on calculations for weight per inch of barrel...

Thanks for all the advice so far!

TG

Just looked on Guntrader, £80 will get you a BSA Martini with target sights, 50 years ago it was somebody's pride and joy. The barrel isn't floated so BSA Martini's went out of style but it will accurate enough for the intended purpose. Cheaper than hacking about the Match 54.

The other advantage is that it is a true ambidextrous rifle.

The BSA Century is the best starter rifle for prone small bore shooting I know. Bolt action, aperture sights, good sight radius, good fore end for sling swivel and hand stop but not too heavy for beginners.