Deer Hunter
Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2005
- Messages
- 4,097
I thought I might as well share the beginnings of my 1740 project. I got this idea a long time ago while playing Doom, or Duke Nukem, or one of those horribly cheesy gut-blaster shooting games. I thought to myself, "Could it be possible to have a double barrel pump action gun?"
Skip ahead a few years and here I am with the guns, the materials, the knowledge, and the great help and support from a great firearm enthusiast out at my church. After purchasing a used right-handed 870 and a new left-handed 870 from Bud's gun shop online, I was ready to start brainstorming.
I called up my friend and set up a time to head over to his house. After dissasembling each shotgun completely, we both ran through how it could be done. Here's what we're planning on doing.
For the receivers: Two long pins to replace the four smaller pins. These would go straight through both recievers and trigger mechanisms of each shotgun, providing a main support. For this, I've already found some screw-pieces that fit pefectly in each hole. Once they are cut to fit and tightened, it should be plenty of support.
The forend of the gun: A tricky part which required both of us to think a little bit. Since we couldn't make any real handguard that went over both ends, we decided to scrap that idea and start again. The plan is to find some thin-walled piping (which I found, but didn't buy because I was still looking around. Kicking myself for it right now) that would fit over the mag tube and into the area between the nut right behind the mag cap and the lower lip that catches the forend. One on each of the mag tubes will be needed. Once we have that, Another church friend of ours (God bless southern baptists) has a mig welder and will weld a piece of 16 gauge steel (which I have) that has been cut to fit between each of the pipes. Once that's done, I can bolt whatever piece of wood I want onto the forend, so it opens up many more possibilities for furniture.
For the buttstock: This one was my idea, and it probably isn't as ingenious as the rest. Looking at the width of the receivers, a properly sized buttstock that went over both ends of the receivers would allow no room for my finger to reach the triggers (more on the triggers later). He was talking about just putting a skinny normal buttstock between the two receivers, but that just wouldn't look good at all. So I thought about it and came up with this plan: On the left receiver, stick a normal buttstock. On the right reciever, stick a PGO stock that is almost vertical. That way, the left full buttstock can reach my shoulder easily and I can work the shotgun with my hand on the PGO stock. Not pretty, but very servicable and probably the easiest thing we could do. I may stick a piece of steel to replace the rubber butstock on the full stock to balance it out a little better, and that stuck will have to be ground down a bit where the PGO will fit, maybe. We're not quite to that part yet.
As for the triggers, I'm leaving two triggers, but if I can 't reach both of them in the current setup, we will stick a large trigger shoe on the left-sided trigger to make it easier for my finger to reach.
I plan to have a couple different barrels for these guns. I want a slug barrel for the left handed receiver, as I could use that as a slug gun, mounting an optic if needed. I can put any barrel combination I want on this gun, and the best part is that if I ever grow tired of it (doubtful), I can easily convert both shotguns back to their original configuration. No permanant changes need to be made to the shotguns.
Now I have a few pictures of what it looks like right now. Take a look. It's not much, but it may help with visualizations.
Skip ahead a few years and here I am with the guns, the materials, the knowledge, and the great help and support from a great firearm enthusiast out at my church. After purchasing a used right-handed 870 and a new left-handed 870 from Bud's gun shop online, I was ready to start brainstorming.
I called up my friend and set up a time to head over to his house. After dissasembling each shotgun completely, we both ran through how it could be done. Here's what we're planning on doing.
For the receivers: Two long pins to replace the four smaller pins. These would go straight through both recievers and trigger mechanisms of each shotgun, providing a main support. For this, I've already found some screw-pieces that fit pefectly in each hole. Once they are cut to fit and tightened, it should be plenty of support.
The forend of the gun: A tricky part which required both of us to think a little bit. Since we couldn't make any real handguard that went over both ends, we decided to scrap that idea and start again. The plan is to find some thin-walled piping (which I found, but didn't buy because I was still looking around. Kicking myself for it right now) that would fit over the mag tube and into the area between the nut right behind the mag cap and the lower lip that catches the forend. One on each of the mag tubes will be needed. Once we have that, Another church friend of ours (God bless southern baptists) has a mig welder and will weld a piece of 16 gauge steel (which I have) that has been cut to fit between each of the pipes. Once that's done, I can bolt whatever piece of wood I want onto the forend, so it opens up many more possibilities for furniture.
For the buttstock: This one was my idea, and it probably isn't as ingenious as the rest. Looking at the width of the receivers, a properly sized buttstock that went over both ends of the receivers would allow no room for my finger to reach the triggers (more on the triggers later). He was talking about just putting a skinny normal buttstock between the two receivers, but that just wouldn't look good at all. So I thought about it and came up with this plan: On the left receiver, stick a normal buttstock. On the right reciever, stick a PGO stock that is almost vertical. That way, the left full buttstock can reach my shoulder easily and I can work the shotgun with my hand on the PGO stock. Not pretty, but very servicable and probably the easiest thing we could do. I may stick a piece of steel to replace the rubber butstock on the full stock to balance it out a little better, and that stuck will have to be ground down a bit where the PGO will fit, maybe. We're not quite to that part yet.
As for the triggers, I'm leaving two triggers, but if I can 't reach both of them in the current setup, we will stick a large trigger shoe on the left-sided trigger to make it easier for my finger to reach.
I plan to have a couple different barrels for these guns. I want a slug barrel for the left handed receiver, as I could use that as a slug gun, mounting an optic if needed. I can put any barrel combination I want on this gun, and the best part is that if I ever grow tired of it (doubtful), I can easily convert both shotguns back to their original configuration. No permanant changes need to be made to the shotguns.
Now I have a few pictures of what it looks like right now. Take a look. It's not much, but it may help with visualizations.
