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Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday. I have the ribs in the smoker where they will be for some time, and don't plan to get to in the pool and start drinking beer until it gets REALLY hot, so thought I would do a post I have been thinking about.
Some of you may remember a member named DHart who was a real craftsman with old walnut and steel shotguns. He was an even better photographer. I will never equal him in either department, but his awesome "old school" home defense shotguns really inspired me.
Here is my current home defense shotgun:
Defender Overall View.jpg
It's a Winchester Defender, 7 + 1 rounds, 18 inch barrel. 12 inch LOP and 36 5/8 inches nose to tail in it's current configuration. Not sure of the weight. Fully loaded, it is heavy for it's length now, but nicely balanced and I'm not going to be hunting Chukar with it or anything.
I added a tritium big dot bead:
Defender Tritium Bead.jpg
I wanted to cut down the stock to a 12 inch LOP, but was afraid of messing up the one that came with it, so I bought a used Winchester 1300 stock and forend off eBay for $25. The stock was actually nicer than the one that came on the defender because it had a checkered grip.
Defender Checkered Grip.jpg
I had intended to swap out the forends as well, but decided that the wood matched close enough, so kept the original "corn cob" forend.
I borrowed a power miter saw to make the cut on the stock, and invested in a fine tooth blade so it would cut smooth. I was kind of nervous about sanding down the recoil pad to match the cut down stock, but I think it came out pretty good:
Defender Recoil Pad.jpg
Finally, I added some weight to the stock to make it balance with the shorter stock. It turned out that nickels are just the right diameter to fit just right in the hole for the bolt that attaches the stock to the receiver. I used a about a roll and a half of nickels, $3 worth. There are denser weights you can buy for this, and lot of people use lead shot, but the nickels were handy and easy to remove if I want to take the stock off again.
I have D-mount for a light but not sure I want to put it on, so I am done for now.
I keep it loaded by the bed with an empty chamber and seven rounds of Federal No. 1 Buck Flite-Control in the magazine. Should be enough to allow me to get to my AR and AK when the zombies come.
The whole project was super cheap. I got the defender on Gunbroker for $200 plus $20 shipping. It's had some rounds through it, but the action is super slick and smooth and it's been utterly reliable. I did the FFL transfer and DROS when I was doing two other guns, so no extra charge. Stock was $25 plus $6 shipping. I don't remember how much the tritium bead was. I think I got it online for about $30, which I thought was a phenomenal deal, so I bought it. Only snafu was that I realized I would need a gunsmith to attach it to the (non ribbed) barrel and index it correctly. I think the gunsmith was $75, which was expensive for this project. I would have skipped the bead if I had realized that before I bought it. But the bead is nice.
I just like the traditional look of it. Anybody else into "old school, tacticool?" Any photos to share?
Some of you may remember a member named DHart who was a real craftsman with old walnut and steel shotguns. He was an even better photographer. I will never equal him in either department, but his awesome "old school" home defense shotguns really inspired me.
Here is my current home defense shotgun:
Defender Overall View.jpg
It's a Winchester Defender, 7 + 1 rounds, 18 inch barrel. 12 inch LOP and 36 5/8 inches nose to tail in it's current configuration. Not sure of the weight. Fully loaded, it is heavy for it's length now, but nicely balanced and I'm not going to be hunting Chukar with it or anything.
I added a tritium big dot bead:
Defender Tritium Bead.jpg
I wanted to cut down the stock to a 12 inch LOP, but was afraid of messing up the one that came with it, so I bought a used Winchester 1300 stock and forend off eBay for $25. The stock was actually nicer than the one that came on the defender because it had a checkered grip.
Defender Checkered Grip.jpg
I had intended to swap out the forends as well, but decided that the wood matched close enough, so kept the original "corn cob" forend.
I borrowed a power miter saw to make the cut on the stock, and invested in a fine tooth blade so it would cut smooth. I was kind of nervous about sanding down the recoil pad to match the cut down stock, but I think it came out pretty good:
Defender Recoil Pad.jpg
Finally, I added some weight to the stock to make it balance with the shorter stock. It turned out that nickels are just the right diameter to fit just right in the hole for the bolt that attaches the stock to the receiver. I used a about a roll and a half of nickels, $3 worth. There are denser weights you can buy for this, and lot of people use lead shot, but the nickels were handy and easy to remove if I want to take the stock off again.
I have D-mount for a light but not sure I want to put it on, so I am done for now.
I keep it loaded by the bed with an empty chamber and seven rounds of Federal No. 1 Buck Flite-Control in the magazine. Should be enough to allow me to get to my AR and AK when the zombies come.
The whole project was super cheap. I got the defender on Gunbroker for $200 plus $20 shipping. It's had some rounds through it, but the action is super slick and smooth and it's been utterly reliable. I did the FFL transfer and DROS when I was doing two other guns, so no extra charge. Stock was $25 plus $6 shipping. I don't remember how much the tritium bead was. I think I got it online for about $30, which I thought was a phenomenal deal, so I bought it. Only snafu was that I realized I would need a gunsmith to attach it to the (non ribbed) barrel and index it correctly. I think the gunsmith was $75, which was expensive for this project. I would have skipped the bead if I had realized that before I bought it. But the bead is nice.
I just like the traditional look of it. Anybody else into "old school, tacticool?" Any photos to share?
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