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Looking for a M-71/M-86 forend steel cap that has been modified for increased resistance to recoil. Parlicularly looking for a forend cap that might have had a barrel band welded onto the cap. This would have been installed to provide additional strength and rigidity to the tip area of the forend during heavy recoil.
Thanks
R Marriott
NRA-Life
450 Fuller said
Looking for a M-71/M-86 forend steel cap that has been modified for increased resistance to recoil. Parlicularly looking for a forend cap that might have had a barrel band welded onto the cap. This would have been installed to provide additional strength and rigidity to the tip area of the forend during heavy recoil.
Thanks
R Marriott
NRA-Life
Ridge , The only 450 Alaskan I ever held in my hands was a standard grade Model 71 that had been rebarreled by Johnson’s Kenai Rifles of Cooper’s Landing, AK with a very heavy contour barrel. I believe the forearm had been glass bedded to the receiver. The nose cap had been modified in the manner you describe. It occurs to me not every such modified cap would fit every barrel profile, particularly since we know 50 Alaskans exist as well. You might want to specify your barrel diameter at the nose cap.
For what it’s worth, I recall the magazine tube cap had been modified to mount a forward sling swivel. Saw this one in 1968 at the Buckhorn in downtown Dallas. What I remember most was it weighed more than a fairy’s wings.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Bill:
Good points.
I have two of these wildcats, one is the 450 Fuller version with a heavy barrel that received such strength treatment. The other is the 450 Alaskan in question. This rifle retains the original barrel- and its dimension at the forend cap as the M-71 barrel was re-chambered and re-rifled to the latter wildcat. JKR stood for “Johnson’s Kenai Rifles”, and that rifle was an original from the shop of the originator of the .450 Alaskan. Bill Fuller was Johnson’s gunsmith, who also cut the reamers. He also developed the .450 Fuller.
This 450 Alaskan is very similar to the later 1886 ELW rifles as to barrel contour. As such, it develops more recoil though is quite handy for traveling through the Alaskan bush outback. In Alaska and parts of MT-WY-ID, bears tend to just show up at inconvenient times. With an Alaskan homestead as I own, bears tend to increase in numbers while tearing things up.
These 450 versions are on pre-war Model 71s which I consider to be the best manufactued. My task is to keep the front end and forend all together under substantial recoil. It is a fascinating project with a practical goal. I may end up with an attached barrel band to the nose cap over the barrel, along with judicious glass bedding and tenon staked with Marine Tex. Whatever works best in the long haul.
Sounds like a worthy project. I’m sure the recoil is attention-getting at the bench but in the circumstances for which the gun is intended, it’s likely not even noticeable.
Best of luck and show us pictures of the beast when you’ve got it done!
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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