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Sears Ranger 5000 rebuild

CaddmannQ

CaddmannQ

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(EDIT...Thanks to Ripjack for moving these to their own thread. I kind of turned this into my "how to" thread. It wasn't really my intention but I didn't know how much work this gun was going to end up being.
. . .I mean I didn't know how much fun this gun was going to end up being to work on. :cool:)

I bought an old beater shotgun today, as a project. It's quite similar to that Stoeger. It's a Sears Ranger 5000 12ga side-by-side with short barrels.
The gun is in OK shape, but the stock is in poor shape & will need patching.
I won't have it in my hands for 10 days of course.

Anyhow, it looks like this one, but shorter and not as nice.
RANGER5000.jpg
 
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Nice find.

I like taking old ill-maintained weapons and cleaning it up and making it look new again.

Blue is cheap, and wood is easy. ;)
 
I do too John, & this one may be a challenge.

I don't know how good it is internally yet.
It could turn out to be a wall-hanger.

I gotta go fill out the papers and wait 10 days to know more.
 
From what I have discovered this Sears Ranger 5000 was a copy of the Savage-Stevens side by side 12 gauge, and was supplied by them to Sears.

I haven't discovered anything about the reputed quality of the gun, but I suspect it was middle of the road.

It's got plenty of patina. LOL.
 
I had some time to go back and take a closer look at this gun which I have bought, and it turns out to be mis-marked on the tag: it is really a 16 gauge.

16 gauge wouldn't be my first choice but it's cool anyway.

Everything on the gun seems tight with the exception of the trigger guard screws, and the stock, which is been cracked and patched and then has another piece which needs to be patched now

Also the recoil pad is very loose. Screws are probably just stripped.
 
Judging by what history I've been able to find on the ranger shotgun it appears that this may be a late 1930s production Savage Stevens. In theory it could be as new as mid-forties but judging by the serial number it's probably not.
 
CaddmannQ said:
I had some time to go back and take a closer look at this gun which I have bought, and it turns out to be mis-marked on the tag: it is really a 16 gauge.

16 gauge wouldn't be my first choice but it's cool anyway.

Everything on the gun seems tight with the exception of the trigger guard screws, and the stock, which is been cracked and patched and then has another piece which needs to be patched now

Also the recoil pad is very loose. Screws are probably just stripped.
Click to expand...

16 gauge is my favorite. For numerous reasons, but once you shoot it, you'll probably find that it patterns very well. I have yet to come across one that shoots inherently badly. Judging from the x's carved into the stock in post 557, this one is probably no exeption.

Superglue will work the best in small, hairline cracks. Elmers max wood glue for bigger stuff.

There are a few different ways that you can fix the stripped butt pad holes. You can either use larger screws if possible, or fill the holes with glue and then put the screws in it while it's wet (that's not my preferred method).

Or for another type of repair if the larger screws don't suit you, drill out the stripped holes enough to insert and glue a wooden dowel in them that once set, you can redrill the repair to accept the pad screws.

As for the trigger guard screws, the front one is clearly not the correct screw for the gun. Since they are not anything that needs to be removed regularly, you can try Loctite, or again, drill and tap for a slightly larger screw, or find the right size screw to fit it if they haven't damaged the threads in the receiver itself.
 
CaddmannQ said:
. . .it could be as new as mid-forties but judging by the serial number it's probably not.
Click to expand...

Evidently this is bunk. These guns were made in runs for different client contracts, and serial numbers got reused like 3x over the decades. The guns were stamped sequentially within these runs, but were never delivered sequentially. The production date had almost nothing to do with the date of sale, even in a rough sense, over more than very short time periods.

Good records no longer exist, so close dating is said to be impossible.
 
John A. said:
16 gauge is my favorite. For numerous reasons, but once you shoot it, you'll probably find that it patterns very well. I have yet to come across one that shoots inherently badly. Judging from the x's carved into the stock in post 557, this one is probably no exception. . .
Click to expand...

I get a lot of good feedback about the 16 Ga. but what about those X's? Looks to me like some very old and somewhat amatuer repairs to a stock that's been abused heavily.
The patches weren't pinned or doweled or keyed in place, or at least the missing one wasn't. One remains attached, thus unknown.

My plan was to buy a new buttstock, and finish it myself, but I might fix this one. I'll know more when I have the time to play with it.

I suspect the trigger guard screws were stripped and then bigger screws forced in. I might have to make steel inserts and re-drill/tap/etc.

The butt pad is off a Winchester and doesn't fit. It's abused & it'll probably get tossed.

From what I can tell mechanically, this gun should fire OK. I bought some shells so might get to try it out Sunday.
 
(Guessing) the x's were done to show how many animals it's killed. Kind of like Japanese zero's painted on the engine cowl of old F4 corsair to show how many aircraft have been shot down.

But back to the subject of 16 gauge, I own a couple. I have used them with very good success, and they are light and handy.
 
Oh, that's interesting. I was assuming that whomever repaired the stock cut those x's to help hold the glue and to sort of key the patch in place.
 
I took another good look at that 16 gauge Ranger 5000 last night.

I also took the butt stock off of it to look at the mechanism.

While doing some research on the markings I have come to believe that this gun was made about 1939, right about the start of World War 2, but they were few of this exact pattern because of the war.

It seems there are many many earlier and later variations floating around which differ somewhat in the lock work, the trigger guard & the type of floor plate: if removable or non-removable.

The later models all seem to have an inscribed model number on the left side, which mine does not have.

Earlier models seem to have a different lock work which is evident by the pin arrangement on the side of the receiver, the length of the tang, and an earlier style of script in the Ranger name.

This gun supposedly equates to a Stevens 515 but I haven't seen a diagram which proves that yet.

A Diagram is reputed to exist and to be marked Stevens 515, but in parentheses it says "receiver Marked 5000", (which mine is.)

Evidently the Springfield Stevens guns were Marked Stevens 515 on the left side and 5000 on the right side, while trade guns and Guns for Sears and Roebucks were not marked with the number on the left side in my gun's particular production run.

All this leads me to hope that this one might be more rare than even the Hunter Arms or Fulton built Rangers.
 
I've been working on this buttstock a bit. This was an oil finish stock that at some point had been varnished. I scraped off of the remaining varnish with a razor blade, and I rubbed the stock down with Howard's butcher block conditioning oil. This is basically carnauba wax & food grade mineral oil. I don't know if this works better or worse than linseed oil, but it's more expensive and I already had some.

It had one crack in the middle that I glued with Crazy Glue. I had one small crack that was heavily polluted and I had to open it out and fill it with epoxy.

Two small pieces of Walnut that had been patched onto the stock are both removed, the old glue was scraped off, and the wood cleaned by scraping.

I Do not think this gunstock can be successfully patched with little pieces of wood. I intend to shape those pieces completely from scratch using epoxy putty.

After all shaping and sanding is finished, I will paint the epoxy and wood grain it by hand to match.
 
The epoxy I used didn't work very well. I ended up scraping it all out & using a different brand.

The Butcher Block oil is working out really nice though. I don't know how well it will hold up in practice but it seems to last on my butcher block.
 
Well I'm on my third round of bedding and patching and it's looking pretty good. I'll post some photos tonight.
Now I have to paint the patches to look like wood.

It was difficult to fix because this one has been patched before and the stock was sanded and slightly reshaped. I ended up doing more re-shaping to the stock to get it to look right. Of course I lost a lot of patina. I'll fake that back in to hide the sanding and scraping I had to do.

Also I bought a grind-to-fit Limbsaver recoil pad. I'll need to fit that and attach it.
 
The lugs that lock the stock into the receiver were worn and weakened. I scraped them off well and coated with Woodweld.
20160523_000120.jpg

I shaved them with a jewelers file, to fit tight in the receiver, which took some patience. Hell the whole business took a lot of patience and it's not quite done.

I've got the limbsaver somewhat shaped and attached, but it's going to need some more sanding to look right.

1464074921516878491187.jpg

I screwed it on the stock, scribed it, and then rough shaped it with the Dremel Moto tool in a wood vise.

I continued shaping it with a flat file and sanding screen. It fits the stock now, and I jist have to blend it on a bit.
 
I shot it for the first time today. I shot High brass low brass and medium brass. High brass Remington gave me one dud. Low brass fiocchi and medium brass Winchester shot flawlessly.

I put 12 rounds through it, and the gun felt absolutely solid. I am so pleased at how this turned out. :)

With the new limbsaver attached, I was even able to persuade my little wife to shoot one off. She put an ounce of number 8 birdshot through a Target at 30 yards quite handily.

She could easily take out half the geese at our local pond..
 
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