I have a Finnish MN m28/30 that I purchased many years ago. It has a good bore/crown and is in good shape over all. I finally took it shooting for the first time and discovered that it shoots to the right. No problem I thought......I'll just adjust the front sight windage.....uh oh. Someone's already adjusted it to its limit. What's goin' on here?
Looking at the muzzle barrel band, I noticed that it seemed to be touching on one side, so I disassembled the rifle for a closer look. It was touching all right......the entire forestock, from the second barrel band to the muzzle has a distinct curved warp. The barrel actually has rub marks where the wood has been forcing it over. The remainder of the stock, including the Finn finger joint splice, seems to be fine but the forestock is quite thin and looks like it "took a set" that is affecting the accuracy. Frankly I'm somewhat amazed that I hit anything I aimed at.
My first thought is to remove any metal, strip any oil/finish and place just the forestock section into a home made steam chamber long enough to soften the wood. I would then place a close fitting form of some sort in the barrel channel and bind everything with surgical tubing until the wood cools and solidifies. Hopefully this will straighten the warp and allow the barrel to float like it used to. I'm avoiding simply using a barrel channel rasp as I'm afraid I'd have to remove so much wood that it would be too thin.
Does anyone have any other ideas before I try this? I'm anxious to save this rifle due to its heavy barrel and decent bore. Thanks in advance for any advice!