South Florida Bluewater Build.

Still need to ballast and coat her. Been so crazy busy with my new job I haven't touched it in weeks. Gonna get the ballast in this week for sure.

Got a little free time today and with summer coming knew I had to finish this thing so here goes.

Now is the part where i gotta do a big plunge slot in the gun and i dont like it :laughing:

Thinking about doing another slot in front of the trigger instead of a cylinder in the butt. im not sure a 3 x 5/8 cylinder of lead is gonna play nicely when I try to extract it.

Ive also decided im probably no longer doing an epoxy coating. Everything fits together too nicely and the wood is too nice to goob up. Hopefully the epoxy track and oil play nicely.

Thanks Xan. I was planning on attaching the butt with the black whateverhudred before oiling as well. And using some epoxy in the lead slots to hold it in. Below the weight only.

Quote from LunkerBuster

Mark. The lead rid is easy. Take two pieces of wood and clamp them together. Drill the hole down the required depth and width. Then pour. After letting it cool, undo the clamps and it is already out

Judah thanks for the idea. Worked out perfectly. The hole in a 2x4 was quite rough so it would have never came out without the split. Was able to shave the ingot nice and smooth and tap it into the hole I drilled in the butt while sweating bullets (with some help from my dad). Also cut the slot for the ingot to a perfect fit.

This thing is ready to be sanded, acetoned, oiled, and assembled.

Thanks guys. Feels good to be finally assembling it even if Im busy as can be and painting coats between working lol. Last night I glued on the butt pad with 5200 (what a mess acetone saved the day though) and oiled up the handle. Cant wait till the 5200 is dry and I can final sand and oil the gun.

Should be just in time for hopefully some good offshore weather sunday.

Thanks for the tip. As for my butt. I might touch it a little early. I think A thin gasket of 5200 is usually pretty dry in 3 days. Im gonna oil and assemble the gun then so its ready to take out sunday.

I was bored staring at my butt waiting for it to dry so i decided to polish my shaft.

Still gotta touch up a few spots and get into a few cracks but this gun is gonna be bling bling.

Applied the first coat of oil carefully avoiding my butt. Also hammered in my lead ingot. I didnt glue it because the fit is so tight, hopefully that doesnt come back to bite me. Wont be hard to pour of a replacement if it gets lost. The oil finish is just beautiful and easy. Really glad I went with it in the end.

Quote from Dan

Always liked the look of lead settled in a nice dark teak stock. What did you use the punch for?

Yeah I really like the exposed lead. That plus the stainless really gives this thing a nice look. I started using it to tap in the lead (its slightly recessed) fat side down (its the same width as the lead) but it was marring it so i switched to a wooden dowel from a paintbrush (not pictured).