FROM A SOW’S EAR TO A SILK PURSE

With a few notable exceptions, I’m a lover of most everything that goes bang. And even those few guns that don’t set me all-aquiver can usually be appreciated at least from a design standpoint. Of course, I’m a product of my age so my more serious firearm infatuations are with designs that I came to love many, many years ago…and still favor to this day.

Take fine rifles, for instance. For me, these pieces of functional art are crafted properly from two materials: WOOD and STEEL. Trust me, I know ALL the arguments for staying entirely with a stable, man made stock material…and there’s more than a few fiberglass stocks in my inventory…but while they are tolerated, they are DECIDEDLY unloved. For me, a day spent afield with one is about as fulfilling as a day spent afield with a framing hammer. The traditionalist in me finds them cold to the touch, dead in the hands, and utterly lacking anima or soul. My utilitarian side finds them useful in inclement weather in the same way I choose rubber boots over leather when I’m out in the mud and muck.

OK, so I’m a wood stock fan…this is not news to folks that know me. Wood has warmth, and life, and provides me a very real tactile connection. As well, my preferences run to handsome wood as opposed to the average chunks of AA-grade chair-leg that the bean counters at the Remchester mega-factories utilize.
I’m also a fan of Mausers (the action style, of course…not the company per se). So, when the opportunity to pick up an unfired, ‘80s vintage Brno ZKK-601 in .223 Remington appeared a few years ago, I snagged it! Now, I knew from the start that “1980s Eastern European” and “Classic stock design” were mutually exclusive terms…but I wasn’t prepared for the chasm I was confronted with!

Heavens…where to begin? Where the factory stock finish (and I use the term advisedly) remained, it was a thin coat of hastily applied polyurethane; where it had been rubbed off while in the box there was a featureless blonde wood exposed. The forend sported a tip of contrasting wood (apple box?) set off by a white line spacer (I suspect 1970s vintage linoleum but I could be wrong). Both the wrist and forend wore panels of checkering cut with all the finesse of an octogenarian armed with a horse-shoeing rasp. The finishing touch (and needed for something as brutal as a .223) was a 1” ventilated recoil pad…complete with linoleum spacer. Taken as a whole, the stock held all the elegance and grace of a Cro-Magnon club.

The metal work was exactly what Brno has produced for years: rock solid but ROUGH. Many Brno rifles have been used by young and broke (as opposed to old and broke) African professionals over the years…men who needed rugged and affordable firearms with which to ply their trade…and this rifle was no different. A very utilitarian matte finish was applied to the metal, and the barrel wore a very serviceable set of iron sights. For a bang button, there is the instantly recognizable straight Brno single set trigger...as well as the damnable backward safety so common on many European guns. The whole thing needed help. Professional help. Great, whacking doses of PROFESSIONAL help. No timid amateurs need apply.

I wrote Aaron Little (of A.M. Little Bespoke Gunmakers, LLC) with my ideas for the project. My idea was simply this: take the bones of this Brno and craft a mate for my “Everyday Double Rifle”, the Sarasqueta 28 bore that Aaron converted to a .30-30 WCF for me. If the Sarasqueta was the “heavy rifle” in my “Texas safari” battery, the Brno would become my “light” rifle…the real workhorse of any safari gun rack!

Being a gifted young man (and fearless, apparently), Aaron took the commission.

All successful projects “begin with the end in mind”. For this Brno, the end should have the look and feel of a fine English magazine dangerous game rifle…albeit in a varmint cartridge chambering. The basic “to do” list looked like this:

Barrel & Sights: Provided that they perform adequately in testing, let’s leave them alone.

Action: Smooth action overall and correct current feeding/cycling issues. I suspect that both the rails and ramp will need attention.

Bolt: Straighten bolt & fill knob.

Safety: The factory backward BRNO safety is an abomination and should be replaced with an M-70 type swing.

Trigger: Leave the original BRNO single set unit. Tweak as necessary.

Stock: Like the safety, the original stock is an abomination. I’ll keep it just for the carnival-sideshow look of it. Replace with a nice piece of walnut. Install Niedner buttplate and checker butt. Install skeleton grip cap and checker the butt of the grip. No forend tip.

Aaron began the hunt for a suitable stock blank and sent loads of pictures of prospective lumber. Most had gorgeous figure but grain flow is incredibly important in stock layout and Aaron vetted my choices, and we finally settled on a blank from Cecil Fredi. With my measurements in hand, Aaron could begin shaping and inletting.

Ed LaPour provided the three-position safety. Aaron installed it and straightened and filled the bolt handle. Smoothing the action was a challenge in its own right; Aaron texted me at one point to comment that Brno had evidently “broached the bolt raceways with a butter knife”! He managed it, though…and today the bolt throw is slick as can be!

The spartan matte finish was polished smooth and richly blued. Talley rings hold a Leupold 2x7 in place…just the right amount of scope for the work I’ll be asking of this rifle. The checkering is flawless (at least I haven't found anything to quibble over). My eyes aren't good enough anymore to accurately count lines-per-inch on something like this; Aaron says 24-26 and I believe it. Exquisite.

The finished product is all I’d hoped for and more. From a distance one might easily mistake this for a fine .375 H&H. It is slim, elegant and handles like a 5 weight fly rod.

Make no mistake: Aaron Little is a craftsman of the first order. Not a gun mechanic, not even a gunSMITH. A gun MAKER. Thanks, brother!

GUNMAKER NOTES:
What can I say, hearing these thoughts so eloquently written brings me much joy. “Wood has warmth, and life, and provides me a very real tactile connection.” As a gunmaker who also has the same feelings about fine wood and steel guns, I can’t argue with that.

Something I don’t feel is talked about much is the life of the craftsman during the time of these projects. Looking back at these and other projects I can easily remember doing the work on the project itself, forming a relationship with a new person who impacts my life, and also what was going on in my life at the time. The first project I did for this specific person I can recall being a year into business, with all its joys, concerns, and uncertainty. I remember making my girlfriend into my wife. I remember stumbling upon a better way to regulate these double rifles I was building.

With this BRNO rifle I remember buying and moving to our property. Becoming a follower in Christ after 28yrs, becoming a Father. I learned it’s better to reposition your work in the vice instead of putting yourself in an awkward position, resulting in a slip with a chisel which led to a bit of leaking.

Warmth, Life, Connection. I’ll add encapsulator of memories, for the craftsman and commissioner. And more shall come!