Today's photo's of the finaly completed rifle.

[Fred]

Glad you like them!

[John Beard]

Thanks John! Hey, I sure appreciate the original Rod Bayonet parts! Everything fits and looks right now.
Should I do anything with the missing wood on the heel of the butt?

I believe I would attempt to repair the piece of missing wood on the heel of the butt. But, i would remove very little, if any, existing wood. I would attempt to make a patch that would fit where the wood is missing. A good place to start would be to scavenge up an old stock that has about the same color. And then cut the patch out of that same location on the old stock. A lot of time and patience would be required to make it fit.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

J.B.

[Fred]

OK, I'll get to work on that. I've tried wood patch out of a can before and that just won't do. I'll get some walnut and see what I can do. Thanks John.

[buttebob]

It looks great Fred. Keep those pictures coming.

[CPC]

Very nice. Thank you for sharing!

[Fred]

You're very welcome!

[tom gray]

Very sweet! I can only dream

[Promo]

I've looked up Brophy yesterday, he lists a different safety for the Rod Bayonet rifle. Did I look it up wrongly, or do the pictures show a different safety on the rifle which isn't mounted anymore?

Besides that question, my highest envy for that beautiful rifle! Congratulations to it!

[Fred]

I'm happy that you like it Promo! From what I've picked up, while the rifle was still in service, there was a change from the Krag type safety, which also had a concave surface on each side, to the one that we know of today. It isn't known yet just when the old type of square cornered and too short follower was replaced with the type encountered today which was longer and also rounded on the corners and which functioned better. The earliest type of stacking swivel was also replaced by another which although still having the flat on one side also had more metal around the screw hole.
I think that the unaltered rifles with the first type parts must've escaped updates because they were in the hands of individuals who had received them from the Govt. for one reason or another. During the approximate 14 months that the rifles were made, developements must've still been going on at Springfield and Rock Island. Of course I believe that the Rod Bayonet rifles were still coming into the Armory for conversions up into 1910 (anyone please correct me on this time frame)which would've given any armorer time to update any early rifles. I'll look it up in John Beard's and Nick Ferris' book on the subject. I went from not being able to find a single copy of the book to now having 7 new unread copies of it. Ain't that the way is always seems to go?

[Rick the Librarian]

I heard that one of the largest sources of unmodified RB rifles were those sent as samples to the various state governments.