Turning a Rifle into a Carbine - .22 Magnum style

Here's a quick pictorial of how I transformed my Zastava .22 Magnum rifle into a carbine over the last couple months.

As purchased a few years ago, 40.5" long -
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Cut off about 5.75" of barrel and 0.5" of stock.
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Muzzle work -
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New Williams rear sight converted to 11mm dovetail.
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Stock work for ammo storage, holds 18 rounds -
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Now it's a carbine. I call it the Zastava Mini Magnum.

New specs are:
Overall length = 34.25"
Barrel length = 16.25"
Length of pull = 13.50"

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New Marbles front sight.

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After a shooting session a couple weeks ago, I added a small piece of weaver rail to the pre-existing rear sight mount on the barrel today.

I also added a pair of ammo cuffs on the stock to hold two or three magazines (two if horizontal - three if vertical). The inner cuff still has the centerfire loops that give ridges to let the mags get a bite. I removed the outer cuff's centerfire loops to keep the width down. So the right side holds magazines, and the left side holds a slim pack of spare 2032 batteries and an allen wrench to remove the red dot.


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WestKentucky said:

I really like the buttplate idea. I may have to do something similar. I do still want a crickett or similar sized gun in 22 mag or 17hmr.

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Credit must be given to the Savage 24C for the idea. I just modified it to my liking.

Skylerbone said:

That's one ugly Frankengun but I really like it!

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Frankengun is an apt description. It is several ideas put into one gun.

OilyPablo said:

Who did the bluing?

Nice project!!

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I merely blued the muzzle and some small parts with cold blue. The entire gun still wears the original blueing from Zastava. They sure know how to polish and blue!

WestKentucky said:

I could do without the long eye relief scope, or a scope at all on this type setup. Function over form for some occasions, this is one of those. It's not pretty but I guarantee it will work.

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It doesn't look as nice as a scope over the receiver, but that red dot sure is easy to look through.

The whole idea of this project was a small as reasonably possible repeating rifle, made from a gun I already owned. Space taken up over the receiver had to be minimal, so any optic was going to be a compact red dot, and preferably not at the back corner of the receiver.

I also like the choice of .22WMR in a gun this size as a good amount of ammo can be on the gun fairly unobtrusively, without resorting to going all the way down to .22LR. I've got other .22LR guns and do like them, but .22WMR got the call this time.

Hmmm, a desert carbine? I never thought of that since I don't live anywhere near a desert. What would make it suitable for that? ATV transport?

The Marbles front sight base attaches with a screw, so one hole has to be drilled and tapped into the barrel. The dovetailed sight blade covers where the screw goes.

I don't have the skill to silver solder . . . yet.

carbine85 said:

I like it. So how does it shoot?

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I have only fired it with the aperture sights in the current carbine configuration. It shoots as tight as I can see the target at 50 yards. It was a real tight shooter up to 100 yards when I scoped it in the past. I'll have to check back in after giving the red dot set up a try.

EDIT:
In my last shooting session using a common zero at 50 yards (if I remember correctly), the results were -
30 grain VMax 1-1/2 inches high and 1/2 inch left.
40 grain Winchester JHP 2 inches low and 1 inch right.

When it was scoped and the barrel was 22 inches, these ammo types were closer together at the same zero and range. Probably at least an inch closer.

I can't say the shorter barrel is all to blame without mounting a scope again to check.

I thought you looked familiar, kBob!

carbine85 said:

I like it. So how does it shoot?

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I got some time with the red dot yesterday. It still seems to shoot pretty well.