Cutting down a JC Higgins 103 (Marlin 80)

[FredoSD]

A few of you know I bought two JC higgins bolt actions. I decided I wanted a short bolt action for camp, plinking.
So I took a deep breath and went over to my buddy's house and used his lathe to cut one of them down to 16.50 inch bbl. I recrowned it best I could by eyeballing the cut.
I used a slip over front sight from ebay after turning down the muzzle end and hand blended it in.
I used BBQ paint to refinish. Need to decided scope or Peeps.
A cpl of pics with one showing the diff after cutting and repainting. I'll polish the trigger group up and take it to see if I ruined a working rifle.
I do like that it is coming out just like I hoped. My wife says I'm nuts because I love to modify everything from bikes to cars to now guns.

First mock up


Starting the blending


Final Finished color

[jfifer]

Wow man! Thats badass. Whats the overall??

[motorwerks]

I dont really understand whats going on with that front sight but I really like it.

[chad allred]

Looks like a great pack packing gun

[FredoSD]

Thanks everyone, I'm real happy with it so far but I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet. I plan to take it out tomorrow for a test run.

Fiferronald: The new overall is 36 inches I cut 6.50 inches off the barrel.

Motorworks: The front sight is from a glendfield mod 60. What I did was turn a smaller diameter step onto the muzzle end of the barrel so it would slip on. Once I did that I had to hand blend it to match the outside of the barrel to blend it in. That was pretty easy since the sight is aluminum.

Chad: Exactly what I was thinking, it is so small I don't see it snagging on many branches or fence wires. A mock up of a rifle sling idea I have for it keeps the muzzle just bellow the top of my pointy head.