Colorado,

I hope Judson chimes in here as the begining of this thread shows a great build and much the way I do it now. Besides I want to see the rifle, I hope he desides on the Fluer checkering.

Anyway I had been using contors as they were from the blank makers such as Douglas or Shilen. However on the last 3 now I've taken to turning the blanks to my own set of dimensions. This allows me to thin out the end of the barrels alot and get the weight back between the hands. This really makes a difference in the handling of the DR. I've been using monoblocks that I build or sleeving barrels that have been cut. However I'm only willing to cut the barrels if they have a flaw, personal choice. In fact I wouldn't cut the barrels on the CZ that my father -in-law wanted to use because there was nothing wrong with them. After a short exchange on my reasoning he proceded to lay the barrel on the anvil and smash them flat with a hammer, thus they were flawed and I'd cut them off

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The fixtures and approach to how I regulate comes a lot from the procedures Brown lays out in his book. I'm fortunate as one of the guy's I've corrupted ..err.. convinced to help me is a retired tool and die maker who has a complete shop at his house. Thus if I'm unable to make what I need I simply tell/show him and he cranks one out in no time. Honestly the hardest part for me has been laying the ribs. The tinning and soldering the sight or barrel sleaves etc is pretty easy but laying the ribs has been quite a challenge at times for me. I've bought ribs from Numrichs but have been making ribs with many thanks to the machinist back-up I have who has made a fixture to make ribs. They only require minor filing where he changes cutters to get them to match barrel contours. On top of that the local gunsmiths have been really helpful when I need some technical help or have some issue that we can't figure out on our own.

The fit and finish of the CZ guns is quite good. Not just for the money but actually quite good. Now please don't think that it's in the same class as a Purdy, Westley Richards or a Holland & Holland etc. However it is far and away better than the basically equivalent priced Baikals. In fact I'd put it on par with most any prodiction gun that is priced at twice the amount of the CZ's.

Among our group now we've made 11 DR's. More than half of them I made. So I have an idea what has worked so far and what hasn't. The last couple have been pretty nice but people like Searcy have nothing to fear from me

. I build them for one reason because currently that is the only way I can afford to have one or some. At 32 years old and a growing family I'm not exactly rolling in money as a FF/EMT. However my house is due to be paid off in about 4 years and then i plan on buying a decent double that began it's life as a double. However my builds have left me get into doubles a lot sooner than i would have. I built my first one almost a decade ago and the others since then have only cost me a total of about $6,400. Now I suppose if over that same time I would have simply saved I could have bought a used Chapius or Merkel but as it is I have 6 to play with till I can afford a nice old English gun.

Sorry for being longwinded.

BB