Props SRS99-AM (Wood + Aluminium Halo Reach Sniper Rifle)

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Shadow Of Intent

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My latest creation is to be a partially functioning sniper rifle. By this, I mean the trigger will be movable, possibly an extendable stock, the magazine and scope will be detachable, and most importantly it will be able to eject all the "unspent" rounds from the magazine using a reciprocating bolt action.

I've never used wood before for a project of this size, although my hot-wire sculpted MA37 used a similar process of starting with a central cuboid of material, cutting the profile of the gun out, chamfering edges then adding additional panels or removing them with a rotary tool.

Everything's progressing smoothly so far, and I'm about 7 hours into my estimated 70 hour completion time. The ability to set my jigsaw to 45° or 22.5° has already helped loads with the chamfering, as has the liberal use of files. I'm planning to use a decommisioned microlight crossbar from the barrel, and the aluminium tube from a roll up blind as the charging rod (Which will chamber the rounds).

Although halo.wikia states it is a 166cm long rifle, I've left the reference pepakura model at 178cm as I've taken measurements, so it's only 4cm shy of Halo 3's sniper (According to halo.wikia, again!). Toward the end of the build, I will secide how to approach the scope. At the moment I'm undecided on whether to use an actual scope with picatinny mounts, or to use a mockup scope and integrate a video recording system so I can take videos/photos at conventions without getting my phone out. Other minor obstacles are whether or not to modify the magazine to use .50 cal casings modified to look like APFSDS rounds, or build some replica 14.5mm rounds from scratch (The kind of rounds it's actually meant to take), and whether to try and make the barrel removable for portability.
 
Reference image and completion diagram:
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Progress pictures so far
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Something along these lines is on my list for this year or next, so I'll be keeping an eye on this. Looking thoroughly promising thus far!
 
Looks fantastic! Great progress photos. Love the bottle of Morgan haha
I do love a good match of RUMble!

Very minor update: I spent about an hour pondering over how to tackle the various thicknesses of the other gun parts with the materials I have available. There's another 78mm of height to add to the area above the magazine and stock, and that's also 78mm wide at its widest point. I have a 95x95mm wooden post in the garage that I used for the muzzle brake, but the upper half of the gun is too tricky to make from a single block.

Instead of using the 145x45mm timber I used for the stock / grip / forestock in a vertical orientation, I cut it into a 60mm width and a 70mm width, discarding 15mm which had turned a bit rotten from being outside 10 years (The rest's pretty decent stuff!) Although 8mm thinner, it would help reduce a lot of the weight, but more importantly, I found some plywood to extend the upper magazine and forestock outwards. since they are 45mm thick, and the plywood is 12mm, that gives a total of 69mm rounding up to 70mm for the thickness the glue and minor surface undulations will add (Any difference can be sanded down anyway). As for the height, although I said it was an extra 78mm, there's some sort of cheek guard above the rear stock that I originally planned to do separately, but since it's about 12mm high (78mm + 12mm = 90mm) and the two blocks of timber are 90mm (45mm + 45mm), I figured I may as well use the timber to form the top of the cheek guard and bulk it out with thin MDF or plywood. This means I'd have to cut down the height of the surface below the scope, but I'm leaving most of that as it is for reasons I'll explain when I get to adding the picatinny rail.

Much ado about nothing post is over...
tl;dr, I finally planned out the main shape of the rifle using 3 blocks of wood and some plywood.

A couple of images here show the 60 and 70mm blocks. Both will be chamfered at the top by about 22.5° to let them meet more cleanly and for ergonomics (Staying true to the Reach design model)
You can see the cutout area for the bolt to move in. I've cut it out, but not cleaned it up, so there will be picture of that tomorrow. Still waiting on the arrival of a 28mm spade bit and 300mm extension to cut the holes!

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More progress pictures:
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Sandwiching layers togther to reach the necessary 66mm for the barrel shroud worked great. The Joint piece to go mid-way along the barrel looks a bit messy, but it still has a lot of cleaning up left to do on it. Just got the extendable stock left to do before I go on to the detaling and thicker plating.
 

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Trigger mechanism made from metal scraps, small bolts and a clothes peg spring.
The bolt was too long, so the trigger barely gets over 5mm of movement, but otherwise it's a nice little addition that adds a tactile feel.
Routed some grooves into the barrel shroud, and made some sliders for the stock, although one is misaligned with the holes on the stock, so I'll have to move it 3mm and fill the gap with something.
 

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This is looking super impressive for a real-wood project. I'm enjoying watching it take form.
 
Some side details added, barrel fittings drilled out muzzle brake interior widened (Needs some cleaning up)
My sniper scope arrived, although I still need to make the box to go around it. Charging handle finished and lubed, but it still needs the slider cover and ejector slot cover.
Since the strength of the barrel is vital at that point, I can't make the chambering system as I originally intended. Instead of actually chambering the bullets, I now intend to have the charging handle simply push the bullets out of the side, under the barrel when the handle is pulled back.

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NEED ADVICE! I've hit a wall with the mechanics behind the cartridge ejector.
As mentioned in my last post, to avoid weakening the barrel, the cartridges will have to be pushed directly out of the right hand side, under the barrel.
There's about 15cm of linear movement from the bolt that needs to be converted into either 3cm of perpendicular movement, or about 70° of rotational movement to move the uppermost bullet out of the side and clear the hinged cover

The "perpendicular" solution would be to attach an angled wedge to the bolt that would push the bullet further and further to the right as the bolt is drawn back. This would be very simple, as it involves adding no extra moving parts, but when I visualise it, it seems like the bullet would either be flipped round so it was pointing to the right, with the rear still stuck in the magazine, or (with a more gently sloped wedge) it would push it out without rotation, but not far enough to clear the side of the chamber.

The "rotational" solution would require a lot more work, and involves milling a slot that winds 70° around the side of a 30mm diameter sleeve, and fit it over the sliding bolt so that it rotates but does not move forward / back as a result of the bolt's reciprocating movement. 2 or more pegs would be attached perpendicular to the sleeve so that when it rotates, the pegs contact the uppermost bullet and force it out with minimal friction on the bullet. This would be the most ideal as it guarantees enough horizontal movement with zero spin on the bullet, but I have no way to secure such pegs to the sleeve without affecting the interior (Glue would be too weak, and I can't weld).

A solution I discarded early on was to have the spring in the magazine provide all the force, and have the bolt simply operate the "door" to allow them out. This is unfeasible because there's no way to stop more than one coming out when the door is opened, and the magazine would have no way of holding the bullets when out of the rifle (They'd spill out of the top since any latch to hold them down would negate the effect of the spring)

A problem with the first two proposals is that the slider would need to also prevent the next bullet occupying the space until the bolt was returned to its forward position (For the rotational method something like these rotationg dials would work).

Here's a cross-section of the area in question. Blue lines represent wood (The curved one on the right is a necessary guide-wall I will have to add regardless of whichever solution I use). Note the right "lip" will have to be bevelled.
Red lines are the bullets in various positions, and the magazine. The green lines are the side panels (Bottom half of the right panel will be hinged). Purple lines are just to test the clearance of the rotating pegs idea.

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Any ideas on how to eject the bullets with a backward movement of the bolt are appreciated.
 

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You could do two magazines. The slide-in magazine you are already planning would hold unfired dummy .50 rounds with the bullet still installed. The second magazine would be a tube magazine like an old Winchester rifle (Model 1873 for example). You build this tube magazine into the barrel with a long and relatively weak coil spring to move empty (spent) cartridges back against the 'bolt'. Working the bolt would ignore the loaded cartrigdes and instead collect a spent one from inside the barrel and eject it as if the weapon had fired. A tab that pops up as the bolt is moved back would prevent more than one cartridge from ejecting.

The net effect to your audience is that you are somehow converting full rounds into spent rounds even though the weapon doesn't fire.

Redshirt
 
You could do two magazines. The slide-in magazine you are already planning would hold unfired dummy .50 rounds with the bullet still installed. The second magazine would be a tube magazine like an old Winchester rifle (Model 1873 for example).

Thanks for the reply, I've been asking anyone who'll listen for the last week, and your suggestion is the first idea to think outside the box.

That would greatly simplify the ejector process, since (Other than the spring) it wouldn't involve adding any moving parts. The problem is that if they're to be loaded into the barrel, it'll need a 21mm slot cut out of the opposite side from the bolt. Although it avoids the need to cut one underneath too, the barrel is already somewhat flexible after cutting the 14mm slot for the bolt, so I still don't think there's any way around feeding them from the magazine under the barrel and out.
 
Great job. i do some wood working know how tedious things can be. so far your workmanship is superb. The grips. The but . grooves, rounded edges and symetricol.
Great job!
 
Thanks for the reply, I've been asking anyone who'll listen for the last week, and your suggestion is the first idea to think outside the box.

That would greatly simplify the ejector process, since (Other than the spring) it wouldn't involve adding any moving parts. The problem is that if they're to be loaded into the barrel, it'll need a 21mm slot cut out of the opposite side from the bolt. Although it avoids the need to cut one underneath too, the barrel is already somewhat flexible after cutting the 14mm slot for the bolt, so I still don't think there's any way around feeding them from the magazine under the barrel and out.

You mean outside of the box magazine! What about building the magazine into the buffer tube under the barrel. Make a mechanism that pushes and holds down the rounds in the box magazine as you insert it from the bottom so that rounds can enter from the buffer tube and be ejected. Or just shorten up the box mag to keep things out of the way.

or

Make the cut in the barrel, then graft on a quarter section of tube above and below the slots with JB Weld to strengthen the barrel. As long as the drafted on sections are longer than the slots, your strength should be restored. Better still, get a section of the next larger pipe and JB Weld on a whole sleeve section. This should look right anyway as a real rifle's barrel is wider there to form the chamber.

Redshirt
 
Sorry about the long delay. I haven't spent much time ont he sniper in the last couple of weeks, although the mag, gas tube and bipod are pretty much done now, as well as the ironsight thing on the heat guard (Under the front end of the scope).

Getting the offset bends on the mag to stay put while I bent them the other way was nigh on impossible, but somehow I managed. The carry handle will be bent into a large "O" shape, and acts as the axel for the bipod pivots, as well as being able to pivot itself. I'll need to find a way to thicken the bar, since it's only 5mm right now.

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Looks like it's at the point where you cry at its gloriousness, and then you prime the wood... And cry at all the finishing work you didn't realise you had ahead of you.

Magnificent!
 
Looks like it's at the point where you cry at its gloriousness, and then you prime the wood... And cry at all the finishing work you didn't realise you had ahead of you.

Magnificent!

Heh, yeah.. I can see why most "wood" builds are actually made solely from MDF. Not only do you avoid fighting the grain when cutting straight lines,but you don't end up with a rough surface on anything cut at an angle.
I've never tried priming wood before so I'll need to find some tutorials, but once it's sanded down sufficiently I might gice it a coat of resin or several coats of wood glue
 
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