Rimfire Central Firearm Forum banner

So, who's tried the chief's conversion?

10K views 126 replies 15 participants last post by  p7junkie 
#1 ·
I know of two people that have tried the conversion with success. both of them took a slightly different approach to the same problem. finding the space for the magazine.
I'm starting mine this week and wanted to talk with those of you have have at least tried this.
here is what I am planning to do. I plan on shortening the trigger housing and not add holes to the reciever or the trigger housing.
the hard part is the plunger has to go back farther. the first part of limiting this is the magazine release. it's to wide to allow the plunger to be drawn back far enough. if you shave it down you can get a couple more mm.
but it's will stop after that becuase the mag release and plunger will start to bind. that angle can be changed pretty easily as well but is it enough?
 
#104 ·
the hardest part with the front pins. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do. yet. the quick solution I did was to get a couple of kidd pins. I cut one so that I could use the two parts and insert them through the reciever from each side I ordered some longer screws that would fit and used some quick steel to hold them in place from the inside of the trigger housing. now I just insert the trigger housing into the reciever and insert the rear trigger housing first. I screw on the kidd pin from the left and then the right side. holds it in place an doesn't interfer with the plunger. I did have to take a little bit off of the bolt hold open so that they wouldn't interfer with each other.
 
#107 ·
Misc. ramblings.....

Boomer- I am on my way to shooting HMR, HM2, Aguila, 22MAG and 22lr all from one action, this project is a real "Blast" :t .
Junkie- If you use 10-32 set screws for the front pins, it'll work good, you just have to leave the holes in the housing small enough to thread 10-32 thread into them, that is what I did for my rear holes, and I used a Kidd pin up front. If you already made the front pin holes too big, you can either go up to the next set screw size, or use some of that "Form a thread" stuff. I like the going up a size idea, then it's all nice and tight (Maybe metric has something to offer?). :t While you are doing that, if you raise the nose of the guard about .010-.015" by re-centering your hole locations, then file the top of the housing and the "Rails" until the bolt "JUST" slides smoothly, you will have also removed the remaining slop from your bolt that pinning, or a BB does not fix. :t NOW you're gettin' somewhere. :t I can say that my rifle in 22MAG form, is really, really accurate with the Remington Premium ammo., and we're workin' on more. :t
 
#108 ·
I'm not sure I'm following Skeeter. I kept the hole side the same and just cut a Kidd pin in to two pieces I used quick steel to hold two screws in place inside the holes at the front of the trigger housing. when I insert the trigger group into the reciever I just screw the two kidd pins in the front holes and the remaining kidd pin in the rear hole.
are you thinking I'm going to need to raise the front of the trigger guard some for proper feeding?
I'm not having any problems with the firing pin engagement to the cartridge.
I just picked up the proper drill bits to remake the aluminum block for the plunger. the last one was perfect but I ruined it.
 
#110 ·
The sides of that inside block get awfully thin don't they??? I buckeled mine but was able to save it.

BTW I used a oversized steel pin for the rear and 2 set screws for the front. I chucked them in my drill and filed the head down until it fit snug in the receiver holes. To dissemble my rifle I must screw the set screws in from the outside of the receiver. Once they are screwed in far enough, the trigger assembly will fall out in front. To install it I simply back the set screws out until they get snug. Worked out pretty good I thinks.

swampf0x
 
#111 ·
Misc......

I am using an extractor spring and plunger for the detent/plunger, with a 10-32 set screw.......
Junkie- I think what I had in mind, was like what Swampy talks about. The way I did my set-back, it is opposite of that, where I have the Kidd pin up front, raised to remove the slop from the bolt vertically, just another tolerance to remove, nobody seems to care except me though......I have 10-32 set screws in the rear, in the original rear receiver holes, but the group holes are now .375" forward of original, and threaded to accomodate the 10-32 set-screws. :t
I'd have to see pics of your to understand what you did, it sounds kinda fancy, schmancy.....If you don't have feeding problems, then don't change a thing!
No, wait....Go shoot Remingtom Premium through it, and then tell me you still don't have feeding problems. If that works out, then don't change a thing (They are a lot of fun!=loud, flat shooting, and very accurate). :t
Weight is good. I am resorting to trying some barrel porting, because the Magnum with Premiers likes to put quite a beating on my poor little detent plunger, and I need to settle it down more. detent/plunger works great on HM2, but that Rem Premium stuff is kinda wild in comparison. :t
 
#112 · (Edited)
ok, I understand now. I forgot that we used two different methods. I shot three different kinds of ammo through it. the cheap cci and the high velocity CCi. I put nine rounds of the winchester black box through it as well. I had three boxes of the remington in the truck but didn't think to use it. I think the weight helped but I think it would work with an unmodified bolt. if I had to do it again I would use the tungsten plugs exclusively. I got lazy at the end and didn't put a set screw in every place I added weight. if you wanted to add weight but still wanted to use it for the lr. I'd think about the tungsten plugs held in with set screws. that way you can take it out to adjust the weight. I don't think you'd even have to take the weight out for the 17hm2.
Swampfox, the block does get thin. just in case I put set screws on the top and the bottom so it won't wiggle around.
 
#114 ·
Well don't just sit there............................. spill the beans.
What did we look over?? Rivets?? JB-weld???
I give up, but mine doesn't seem all that complicated to me........................then again.......................it did take a while to finish it................wait a minute????????????????? We are NEVER really finished........ are we?

swampf0x
 
#115 ·
there is no reason for the reciever pins to be screwed in right? the factory ones arent because they are held in by the stock. kinda the same concept. cut off a piece of the kid reciever pin so that it fits through the reciever and the trigger group. the screw keeps the pin from falling into the trigger group and the stock keeps the pin from falling out of the trigger group. just make sure the powder coat is removed from the pin holes and that the pin fits well but can be disloged with a gentle tap.
 
#117 ·
I agree. I wasn't sure how the trigger group would turn out. I was afraid I'd ruin the first one so I bought four others just in case. I was determined to get this thing to work. I took it slow and worked out the problems and was able to be successful with the first one. I have one tiny issue that I will be able to work out this week. the funny part is the trigger guard took me 3 months for the first one. another one would take me about six hours now that I know what I'm doing.
 
#119 ·
We still aren't done....

There are some really fantastic ideas being tinkered with right now, that have the potential to make it a lot easier for everybody.
What I am liking best so far, is that nobody has done theirs exactly like CD's original instructions, all four of us anyway, have done different things to make all of ours work. I think the only thing that's universal, is we all had to figure out how the Magnum magazine was going to fit!
As of today, I can add HM2 from a re-chambered and cut GM barrel to my repitoir. :t We cut it at the chamber end, down to 16.5", then chambered it in HM2, no modified freebore in this one, gonna shoot it against the modified freebore GM here shortly, and see what kinda difference it makes. :t That poor barrel never had a chance, not 1 round put through it before it got hacked off and re-done. :t
 
#120 ·
I agree skeeter. I think the way I did it is pretty close to what the chief did on the second example. I gotta contact him and see.
next week if I got time i'm going to check and see how long it take to do a complete trigger housing. it'll be start to finish prior to install. i'll take it straight to the range and see if it functions ok.
 
#121 ·
Ok, I got it all together. I made some modifications that i should have and a few modification that I shouldn't have. I'm gonna have to re do the block, magazine release and the bolt lock. don't get me wrong it all works right but I tried to tweak it some and I tweaked it the wrong way. no worries, I have some spares. now, how do I post a pic since i'm a member?
 
#123 ·
In order to use the bolt hold open on my magnum conversion, I'd have to do some more machineing on the internal block.

I could make it work, I've went over it a thousand times in my head............................It's just not worth my time to make it work. It isn't all that important anyways. Besides..............I'm a sorry, lazy, bast@rd. lol


maybe my next one will have it,
swampf0x
 
#126 ·
I'm not really sure about the size but it's close to 3/8" thick and 5/8" wide I believe.

PS
Thats not bad at all for a homade .22mag ;) beats paying $350 for a mag from ruger. hehe

Thanks to the Chief for the inspiration.

I'd like to do a little more work to mine. I'd like to add an adjustable sear and convert it into a two stage trigger and add one of TTShooters trigger return springs and over travel stops.

swampf0x
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top