7.62 HRA build done

[Dave]

This is one of the two I mentioned in my post below. Been laid up with the flu all week so I made use of the boredom and put my last two projects together that I just got back from Tim. This one is the first 7.62 I've had in over 20 yrs of collecting these things. Always wanted one, just never got around to it. This rifle was a "spare" 5.4 HRA I had that I was going to sell. It was a greek black receiver and other parts with a mix of USGI parkerized parts. A while back I bought a like new 7.62 barrel from Orion7 and it has the HRA marking on it, so I figured why not build the greek into a 7.62 instead of selling it? I also had a spare HRA Crane Naval stock which most likely came off a 7.62 rifle as well. Sent the metal out to Tim with the exception of the barrel which already had a mint finish. It came out great. My only mistake was I should have tried the trigger group first, which was a brand new HRA assembly I traded for. Had I done that, I would have had Tim do a trigger job on it. It was horrible, second stage was a very long hard gritty pull. I decided to replace the trigger and hammer with different ones I had and problem solved, got a nice crisp clean break now. Finish on those two parts is used but no big deal. The barrel fit tight like a new barrel should, headspace is perfect closes on a go and about halfway on a no-go. Tried chambering several types of foreign surplus, old USGI and new Federal 7.62 ammo, all chamber easily with no lead issues. I don't have a TE gage for the 7.62 but it has to be like new. Bore looks new, MW is .5. Had it refinshed in Manganese and it came out with a darker receiver (I assume from the prior greek black?) with all the other parts a shade or two lighter, gives it a cool but subtle two tone look. It's hard to see that in the pics as the sun was shining bright but it is one of the better looking rifles in the stable now, I really like the way it turned out.$clapper$
Hoping to shoot it sunday afternoon.
photobucket album link: http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/M1Riflenut/HRA%207%2062MM/

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/M1Riflenut/HRA%207%2062MM/P1130621.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/M1Riflenut/HRA%207%2062MM/P1130623.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/M1Riflenut/HRA%207%2062MM/P1130613.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/M1Riflenut/HRA%207%2062MM/P1130628.jpg

[Phil McGrath]

Very Sexy!!! when is the range report?

[redheep]

Very nice Dave.

[checkmate19]

What a beautiful rifle , congrats, I love that its all HRA. Thanks for sharing.

[Orlando]

Very Nice!

[cuppednlocked]

Rifle porn!

[Dave]

Took it out today for it's trial run. I am blown away. First ammo used was new Federal surplus from a 500 rd bulk case I bought about two years ago. The stuff does'nt work in my AR10's, not enough power to cycle them. It's works ok in my M1A's so I figured I'd try it in the garand. First clip went perfect, group was darn near bullseye out of the gate, about an inch low and left with both the front and rear sight centered. Made few few clicks adjustment and was dead on by the second clip! Decent groups, about 2-3", no flyers, ejection is way different than the 06 garands. The empties all go over my right shoulder and most of them kept landing in the trash can behind me. Made for real easy brass pickup! After running a few clips of the federal without any issues, I switched to WRA 67 ammo I've had for some time now. It was given to me by my neighbor years ago when his father passed away. The stuff was loose, about 200 rds just sitting in a cardboard box in his damp basement. Half of it is on 5 rd stripper clips, the rest loose. All the stuff on the clips is still in nice clean condition, the loose stuff had a lot of staining and green stuff on it. Cases were not that bad but not good enough that I wanted to save them to reload. I cleaned them all with a scotch brite and they shot fine. Groups were not as good as the Federal but very close, for the price I was'nt complaining. I used up all the stained stuff and kept the clean stuff on the strippers. Next I went to some Portuguese surplus I bought a long time ago, maybe ten years at least. Got about 800 rds of it so I tried that and it worked great, better than the Federal. I shot about a hundred rounds of that as well, overall did about 230 rds down the pipe. I took my time between clips, did'nt overheat it to much, basically relaxed for a nice sunny fall day of shooting. Got home just in time to watch the Patriots game, then cleaned the rifle, watched that Zombie show with the kids and now I'm off to bed. All is well. :)

[themeowman]

Very nice rifle Dave. Range report sounds good too.
Tom

[luvmym1 13]

she is a beauty!!

[checkmate19]

I deep going back to the pics and love it. I keep saying Im done buying but if I could get a br like that I would strip a correct one to finish like that. I love it .

[Dave]

I deep going back to the pics and love it. I keep saying Im done buying but if I could get a br like that I would strip a correct one to finish like that. I love it .

Yea been waiting a LONG time to build a 7.62 and I must say it was worth the wait. I'm so glad I did'nt sell this rifle like I had originally planned. Then when I emailed Orion7 to say I wanted one of the barrels he listed and he said it was H&R marked..... well that was a no brainer as to where it was going! I still can't get over how the colors turned out with the parts a slight lighter shade and the receiver a bit darker, it looks so cool and when I hold it I get a........ ah never mind.:o

I had thought of putting it into a laminated stock, something else I always wanted on a garand but never did. I think now that it's done I'm going to leave it as is. The laminated build will have to wait for some other day. Or maybe one of my M1A's instead.