A couple of months back I called Ovenpaa to let him know a £50 bolt action shotgun would be arriving the next day and asked him to do what he could to it to try and eek out any accuracy potential and also to try and fit a Picatiney rail for a scope.
The beast that arrived was in my understanding fun to work on but had to be handled with care, despite being over 50 years old, this thing still had teeth!
I was disappointed to hear that the firing pin was all but in unusable condition, I had bought this as a working gun, and that the magazine release lever was only just hanging in there. Thankfully Ovenpaa went beyond by brief and checked the gun over before giving it back and ended up spending a day putting things right that we should have been able to have assumed were OK. It was only a £50 gun though so I am not going to throw any mud around.
Ovenpaa was amused at the barrel being a nats do da over 24". I am still not convinced that on Sec 1 single barrel shotgun that length matters, however I have no idea how the length, short or long will affect the accuracy.
I have to point out a couple of items that may not be obvious at first glance.
The accessory rail is inletted and is parallel to the barrel. This is a beautifully bit of craftsmanship and shows how accomplished Ovenpaa is with wood as well as shiny metal. You will note the 5 bolts which have all been properly inserted. He could have used wood screws ass many would have, but not Ovenpaa, if the job is worth doing lets do it right.
The next item was the Picatiney rail. Thankfully a ral with 20moa was chosen, I guess we could have doubled that and added a bit again for the distance that I want to get this to, but for off the rail (no pun intended) I am grateful for 20 moa.
The more observant of you will notice that it has been cut away to exactly conform to the shape of the ejection port. Essential that during a competition the shells are being extracted cleanly. We always knew that this was going to be a scout scope set up, or long eye relief set up, so I am grateful for the extra rail on the receiver to stiffen things up a bit bore. It might just be possible to mount a ring right at the back, but it will again need some precise engineering to make it fit, thankfully I know just the person to do this.
Ovenpaa also found the rear but pad had cracked and was in pretty poor over all condition, thankfully he had another and fitted it at the same time as the bag rider. More shiny metal on the gun but hopefully more than just bling. I have not used one before so will have to see how I get on with it.
The Bi-pod is one of Ovenpaa's F Class models and is a item of beauty, engineering and finish. Any questions about these you will have to contact him direct, I believe I got the last one out of a run of 12!
More to come,
DM
