Gianluca Santoro

About

July 2007

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The Shooting-Range	Jul. 15th, 2007 @ 11:28 am

The Shooting-Range

On February 2006 some friends of mine decided to realize a little shooting-range doomed to air-guns shooting. The Bench Rest and the Filed Target are mainly practised. Nevertheless pliking is not disdained.

The range has been built in the Marsh of Fucecchio (Firenze).

I contributed a little to build the range.

From the left: Alberto Guasti, Alberto Bianchi (alias Albian), Franco Germani the President.

Me and Albian are shooting to some animal target.

We are deciding for the floor. A provisional solution to avoid to stay in the mud.

The crow doesn’t want to fall down.

Alberto is shooting and my girlfriend is passing him the pallets. I’m trying the Albian’s air pistol.

The final decision for the floor.

An air-picture taken from the helicopter of the “Arma dei Carabinieri”.

Web site: www.campoditirolecolmate.it

Again cases	Jul. 8th, 2007 @ 06:09 pm

Again cases

Somebody could think I’m worse than a woman: women have a bag for Winter and for Summer, for the mountain and for the sea, for the day and for the night.

Like women I have several gun cases. I don’t have an idea yet how I will use them for… I’ll have time to think about it!

Here is the case I sold to a friend of mine: Albian.

Some nice details: the save-corner and the hinge.

My FIRM.

My new case for the CZ Lux caliber 22 L.R.

The last long gun case called Western. I have to finish it…

A Christmas’ present… an idea… the begin…

Have you ever asked yourself why I’ve made so many cases? The answer is unusual.

On Christmas 2005 my girlfriend gave me a little case as a present. She bought a raw wooden case and she cared on her own all finishing details.

By this present I got an idea and I started making cases…

The Gun Rack	Jul. 8th, 2007 @ 05:54 pm

The Gun Rack

On February 2006 I contributed to build a little private range doomed to air-gun shooting. To offer a solid stand to the rifles, overall during the funny moment and the match, I built an as simple as functionally gun-rack with eight gun-positions to be collocate close to the shooting lines.

The structure is made of antiquated painted iron, the beams are made of fir wood.

Here are some pictures of the rack taken in my house-garden. Some of my long guns are on.

The shooting-range www.campoditirolecolmate.it

The Bench Rest table	Jul. 8th, 2007 @ 05:18 pm

The Bench Rest table

On Februay 2006 I contributed to build a little private shooting-range doomed to air-gun shooting. The range was founded with three shooting lines but it soon had the necessity of the fourth line exspecially during the match events. I thought to realize a very comfortable and useful bench suitable either for bench rest or for the classic pliking. Obvoiusly a comfortable and stable seat couldn't have missed.

I used some simple pipes that I cut and welded to get the right inclination to guarantee the stability.

A short central pipe keeps the three legs united with angle of 120°. A simple nut welded on the central pipe permits you to have an adjustable seat.

The stopper to prevent the seat from shaking has been created welding three short iron links on a nut.

The support for the seat wooden disk has been obtained from an iron plate two millimetres thick.

The wooden seat has been obtained from a piece of poplar play-wood. First it’s necessary to obtain a quite round form, later the piece will be perfected by the plunge router.

Let’s install the wooden seat on the iron plate and sure of the quality of the work it’s possible to go head in rounding the edges.

My girl-friend at work. She is treating the rust with the Ferox and later applying one layer of synthetic anti-rust before the finishing layer.

After having applied a layer of walnut water paint I kept on in marking my firm. Let’s start reporting the drawing on the wood…

… later I carved and filled the scratch with the same black paint I will use to paint all iron structures.

The second step consisted in preparing the bench plane made of poplar play-wood. I’ve drawn the border on the wood and using a mix of jigsaw and plunge router I’ve finished the work.

The bench has been finished with the walnut water paint and protected with a bee-wax soaking paint. Again the marking process is due.

The third step consists of preparing the iron stand.

The work is turning to the end so the painting moment is coming soon. Again a layer of synthetic anti-rust and then the antique aspect finishing paint is due.

The result is a very light structure either in design or in used material but absolutely stable for the type of shooting which it has been created for. The antique finishing makes the bench delicious if placed in very simple ranges located in the country-side.

The shooting-range www.campoditirolecolmate.it

Jewel case	Jul. 8th, 2007 @ 04:50 pm

Jewel case

Do you want to spend lots of time in your workshop making cases, closets, rackets and so on? Do you want even to preserve your marriage and the peace in family?

Say your partner you are working for her! Give her a Jewel case!

The Workshop	Jul. 8th, 2007 @ 04:32 pm

The Workshop

Below you can find some random pictures taken during the period spent to make the several cases.

Me and my girlfriend at work…

The Pistol Grips	Jul. 8th, 2007 @ 03:38 pm

The Pistol Grips

On January 2002 I decided to start the shooting practise so I asked my uncle to give me his 22 LR pistol: the V. Bernardelli mod. 69.

Right away I found out the big grips weren’t so comfortable for my hand. Moreover a noticeable unbalancing of the front part, necessary to contrast the inertia of the heavy bolt, didn’t contribute to the maximum shooting comfort.

During the Christmas holidays in 2005, after a long thinking about the profit of changing the pistol or not, I got the final decision: a pair of new custom grips made of a beautiful piece of briar walnut.

I took a nicer piece of briar and cut it in two equal parts to get the continuous grain. I photocopied the internal part of the original grips and glued the paper copies on the wood to obtain the right contours for the modelling process.

I gradually reproduced the cavity for the pistol handle by the plunge round.

Checking the exact matching of the cavities, I cut them away from the rest of the wood. Before I made two pin-holes reference to be able to head the grips with the saw.

I fixed the grips on the pistol and I started the long external shaping work.

To get the final form, I kept on smoothing and polishing the surfaces.

I finished the work giving as many cocked linseed oil layers as they were necessary to close all wood porosity and to reach the desired colour tonality.

Although it’s impossible to eliminate some defects, the pistol results absolutely more comfortable in shooting and nicer in appearing: simply elegant and monstrously beautiful.

Which will be the next pistol to get the same treatment…?

Cases for Air-Rifle & Shootgun	Apr. 12th, 2005 @ 05:58 pm

Case for Shootgun

When I was sixteen years old I was used to go to the clay-pigeon shooting. My grandfather gave me a Benelli Montefeltro 20: a light and nice shootgun. Some years ago, I decided to build this case for it:

It's made from mahogany plywood. The hinges and the locks are done from metal and finished with a brass coat, whereas the handle's supports are made from real brass. The handle is a real cow-hide.

The plywood surface finish consists in:

water paint mahogany colour;
2 steps of nitro paint to close most of the pores;
1 step of polyuretanic transparent paint paint from spay.

If you skip intro you can see the comfortable bed for the rifle-body, the barrel and the stranglers. It's made from gray foamrubber sheets 1,5 cm thick:

The rifle and the barrel stay on a foamrubber sheet and to prevent them from moving up there is the second upper sheet copying the parts of the rifle as it's shown below:

Case for Air.Rifle

In the same style like above I built another case for Weihrauch HW 977 full power. I followed the same line cutting some more particular shapes. Let's have a look.

If you skip intro you can see something that you have just seen above:

As you well know the HW 977 is a very heavy gun so to hold it properly I created its form in the foamrubber sheet. The black cotton tape serves as a prevention from breaking down the hinges when you are opening the cover.

Eight metal angled profiles (with brass coat) prevent the corners from demaging. Some rivets hold them to the plywood. Moreover I put four small brass feet to be possible to leave the case in the erected position on the floor for saving space and in the meantime don't damage it:

Some outdoor pictures:

The case is also suitable for my rimfire CZ Lux, fine when you take off the formed foamrubber... and et-voilà:

As you can see this is not its proper case... I'll do the right case for CZ... Just wait...

Case for Pistol	Apr. 10th, 2005 @ 09:11 pm

Case for Pistol

When I got my first pistol I also got its case done from cardboard and covered with a red sheet that looks like a velvet. So I wished to do something unusual that you can hardly see in the shooting-range... I built this case:

It's completely done from mahogany plywood.

When you open the case you can see the first stair where the pistol and the magazine stay together.

How you can well see, each lateral part has a bevel angle of 45°. I milled the upper and the lower plywood cover, almost the half of the thikness, to make a little channel where the lateral frames can get inside.

After taking off the pistol bed you can see the lower box where I usually keep the "first-aid" pistol tools:

To make the bed comfortable for the pistol I used two sheets of foamrubber: the upper one is cut following the handgun line.

Painting:

Before, I painted the case with a wather mahogany paint and then I used a nitro paint to close some pores. In the end I gave the last two-part transparent paint.

Conclusions: maybe quite too big, but nice and suitable...

Cleaning Tool	Apr. 10th, 2005 @ 07:41 pm

Cleaning Tool

Each shooter takes care of his guns after shooting... or... at least I do… I take care of my rifles. To make the cleaning work easier, you need a comfortable tool that can hold your rifle properly.

Is anything else that you would like more than my holder? Maybe yes, but mine works perfectly and I like it: it's very simple and very functional...

This is the tool taken out of the box:

The tool is made from MDF wood completely except the "U" iron vice.

The little support is not fixed: you can move with it as you prefer, so you can hold the rifle with the barrel more or less angled. When you want the dissolvent to remain in the barrel for a long time to give it the right time to melt the dirt, you can keep it the barrel in a horizontal position. To mount the scopes or to set the turrets of the scope for the first time you hold the barrel in a horizontal position too. On the contrary if you want to remove everything from the bore quickly you can angle the barrel.

The movable support described above is also suitable for rifles with a big either a small stock... Anyway you can remove it according to particular situations.

To prevent the tool from moving ahead when you force the rod in the barrel (i.e. when you I pass the patch inside), I put four rubber discs in every corner.

Below you can see how my CZ Lux likes being bedded in my holder...

Three years later...

Very very usefull...

Front Rest for Rifle	Apr. 10th, 2005 @ 06:47 pm

Front rest for Guns

When you want to go to the shooting range to shoot with a rifle you need a rest. There are several types of rests that can be very expensive for example a rest for BR shooting.
If you don't need a complex and expensive rest for a competition you can buy a simple, economic, but still a functional rest.
I made one of these mentioned rests types by myself. I assure that it works perfectly.

The body of the rest is made from the iron whereas the support for the stock is made from MDF wood.

The three legs are made from iron rectangular pipes. I joined the hexagons on the tips to use the threaded handles. The legs are joined with a short iron cylinder that has a hexagon on the tip which allows tightening or unloosing the support as you need. I fixed a thin iron piece on the handle in a removable way with a nut. The support is fixed on iron piece in a removable way with two screws with plastic handles. So if you want to change the rifle you can put there the right support, but you can also make only one standard support.

The black hexagon prevents the support from moving up and harming the shot. For an easy manipulation with the hexagon I added three tiny poles with little iron balls on the tips. For the right fixture of the rest on the bench I made three screwed nails.

There is a piece of rubber in the support that I glued with a biadhesive tape.

The tool is painted with a two-part paint colour alluminum.

Now you can see the completed rest in use:

I tried it just one week ago and I can say that it works perfectly...

Three years later...

... ever the best!

Iron Closet for Guns	Apr. 10th, 2005 @ 10:48 am

Iron Closet for Guns

To protect my guns from unlicensed people and to respect Italian laws about the firearms store I built this closet by myself.
I wasn´t able to make a heavy closet from thick iron sheets, so I used only 2 mm thin sheets, but it does the trick perfectly.

Technical data:
Height: 2.20 meters
Width: 1.20 meters
Depth: 0.60 meters

I let the sheets cut and bend because I don't have any tools to do it properly by myself. These pics show the sheets when I got them:

The doors:

The body-case (two part, the left and the right one must be join):

Note: I had to cut the body-sheets a little bit on the top because I got them longer than I had ordered. There was too big clearence between the doors and the body.

Now I can join the sheets together.

Then I have to weld the iron hinges (six, to be right) on the doors and on the body. Before I have to bed the doors in their final position and insert some pieces to make the gives guarantee the right clearence between the body and the mobile parts:

Note: In the upper picture and in the lower one you can see well the wooded and iron pieces to make the right clearence.

Below you can see one of six particular hinges:

The crude closet looks like this:

Now I have to build the base to bed the closet on the floor and to knit it to the body as the lower pictures show:

Now I can make the holes for the two small poles that serve to close the mobile door. I can join the poles to fix the partly-mobile door and also some small bent iron profiles to carry the wooden shelves. See the lower pictures: