Thread: "Dont shoot the donor!"

A few people have a fair idea that Im rather partial to Husqvarna rifles, and about 18 months ago a local asked me if I was interested in buying a Husky 1600 in 270. But he told me it had a buggered barrel, would only group about 5-6". So I had a look, it was nice and tidy, but the barrel did look pretty bad. A bit of cash changed hands and I had a Husky that I intended to rebarrel at some later stage.

Roll on this lockdown BS, and being in my 5th week of lockdown I was getting pretty bored this afternoon. So thought to meself, that I would get the rifle out of the safe, fit a scope to it and see what I had. First thing I did was check all the important screws etc. The bases looked like steel Weaver's and I checked the torque on the rear one, and both screws torqued up a bit more, but felt "squishy" so I had a real close look. Somebody at some point had fitted the bases and there was no evidence of epoxy, but there was a decent gap around the bottom of the rear base. So I took it off - and this is what I found......

Removed the offending star washers and did some more checking. The base was about .5mm too low, the screws were the wrong thread and had buggered the screws and there was a slight bump around the screw holes in the action. Fortunately it hadn't damaged the threads in the action.

Then I looked at the front base. The rear screw was loose, and the front screw was frozen and the torque 'hole' was all munted. Couldn't fit any torque keys in it that would hold. there was no way I could get that front torque screw out so took to it with an angle grinder and carefully cut a slot in it, and the base. With the heat of the disc and a correctly fitting screw driver I was able to get it out and remove the front base.

Thought I could find a rear base of the correct height in my box of spares, but sadly nothing that would level up the bases. So then I checked out my PH bases and was able to find a set of front and rear bases that fitted correctly without any modification. I carefully stoned off the 'swelling" around the rear base screw hole, and checked all 4 holes with the correct screws to make sure they threads weren't damaged. I then fitted the bases, but didn't epoxy them as I still want to go back to picatinny bases as soon as Im out of lockdown.

Rummaging through my spare rings I was able to find a tidy set of original PH 26mm low rings, fitted them to the bases. I had a 2.5X Kahles scope waiting for a period correct rifle, so mounted that in the 26mm rings. The barrel did look pretty bad , so I took to it with a bronze brush and G96, scrubbed it all nice and shiny. Then boresighted it off the dining table, aiming at spot on a bulk fuel tank about 100 metres away.

Had a few random 270 reloads in the gunsafe so grabbed them and went down to the range. Three shots at 25 had me on the mark, but a tad to the right.

Then I put 1 shot on target at 100, and walked down to check it out cos you cant see bullet holes with a 2.5X scope. Happy it was close I then walked back and sent another 2 down range. This is what I got........

Put up a new target, and adjusted the scope 3 clicks left.......


Not bad for a 1950's rifle with a "buggered" barrel, a 2.5X scope, and some random reloads, I'd be happy to take it hunting.