FINALLY GETTING TO START ON MY MG53

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

Here is a picture of the AR15 FCG mounted in the grip stick. I use the original trigger pivot pin hole for the AR trigger and silver soldered a small 16ga plate on each side for the hammer pivot pin. It also functions as the front gripstick mounting lug. I plan to silver solder a extension bar on the rear of the trigger to engage the original MG53 safety.

SS

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

I got a lot done on the one of the MG53s. I got the bolt modified , firing pin made and installed using Pirates V2.0 method. I cut down the recoil spring, flattened and silver soldered the end coil. I pulled some bullets out of 5 cases, dumped the powder out, drilled a hole in the side of the case and fired the primers. 2 when off with a laud pop and 3 just kind of fizzled??? I replaced the bullets, no powder and loaded them into a belt. It feed and ejected just like it was supposed to on the first try. A nice change from having to tweak the feeding of the MG47s to get them to feed right. It is now ready to test fire but I have to wait for a week end that is not snowing so I can take it and my just completed BREN to the desert to try. The local covered range frowns on guns of that type. I will post pictures tonight. Compared to the my MG47s, this has been a relatively easy build.

SS ( SS stands for Sharpsshooter, not the Nazi SS, I should change that)

[Bil]

Looking at your avatar,I had already figured that out!Your 53 looks good.How hard is it to get the spring silver soldered? I couldn't get mine to lay right without kinking it-could you post a picture of it? I was told by GordieK it was a good idea,but never got to it.[I should listen more carefully,I guess]Does your son get into the 53 project,or is he more into the older stuff? ---bil

[rocco1911]

Congrats looks great I cant wait to hear the range report

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

Bil
Yes that's me on the right and my son on the left. We are both into black powder as well as modern guns. We go to Mountain man rendesvous. Last year we took 2nd place at the Fort Bridger WY rendesvous cannon shoot with my 30mm 1/2 scale Whitworth breech loader at 800 yards. I shoot black powder cartridge ,Sharps, as well as muzzleloaders and but he is the one that got me into the more modern, Bren, MG53, MG47s. We built him a long range 338 REM rifle from scratch including the receiver and bolt. I believe I posted a picture of a 300 WSM FAL I built several years ago as well as a SA MAC-10. I have to test fire bothe the Bren and the MG53 as soon as it quits snowing here. At the rate it's going, that will be about May!!!
I was not hard to heat and flatten the end of the return spring and then silver solder it but you have to use high temp (approxamatly 1000-1200 degress melting temp) true silver solder and flux, not the stuff that looks like regular solder that is mostly tin with a small, less than 5% silver in it. The high temp silver solder look like brass Mapp gas works best as you have to get the ends a dull red hot.
SS

[rocco1911]

I'm very interested in your unique grip mods can you show how it mounts into the receiver I like your Idea of a smaller Hammer plate on the original grip

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

Here are some pictures of my gripstick mounting and safety. The small side plates were silver soldered on. They could actually be a little smaller. The gripstick was machined out just big enough for the hammer trunions to fit and the small knotches on the trigger boss were ground off so it would slip between the outer gripstick side plates. The inner side plate was machined away. A small 16ga piece of steel was silver soldered to the back of the trigger to engage the std. MG53 safety. Clear as mud??

SS

[Bil]

Very nice job-thanks for the pics and info! ---bil

[Michael J]

Man, you like some sort of terminator or something! Like i said, you are a freaking machine dude!
Love the grip, its very discreet looking.

haha, signing off with "SS" on a german ww2 website .

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

After I test fire it then I will rivet the rails on, plug weld the ratchet plate on, sand blast it and Parkurize it. For now, there are screws holding the rails and ratchet plate on. Now I have to weld up the receiver on the second one. Pirates bolt modification is the only way to go. I tried drilling a hole in the feed stud for the firing pin and bushing the ejector sleeve but if the feed stud rotated at all then the firing pin would bind.

SS

[rocco1911]

Thanks so much for adding those pics of the Grip I think I will give one of these a try also it looks rather nice

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

Last night I got the bolt modified to Pirate's V2.0 method on the second gun. Hopefully I can get the second receiver welded together this weekend. It's all tacked together now. I need to make some buffer cam pieces and attach them to the rear. I don't have those 2 pieces yet.

SS

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

I got the second gripstick modified and AR10 FCG installed this evening. The trigger is the same as an AR15 but the hammer and hammer spring seem to be a little bit heavier. This should help with more reliable ignition with hard primers.

SS

[rocco1911]

Were did ya pick up the AR-10 parts & how much were they ??

[nugget73]

midway has them for 162. bucks plus you can get diffrent triggers springs
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?p ... ber=363304

[SHARPSSHOOTER5090]

I got the AR-10 FCG from a guy on AR15.com. They are DPMS and he replaced them with a target FCG and didn't need them so I got them fairly cheap. About the same price a standard stock FCG for a AR15. The only thing I didn't get with them was the hammer and trigger pins.

SS

[rocco1911]

I got the AR-10 FCG from a guy on AR15.com. They are DPMS and he replaced them with a target FCG and didn't need them so I got them fairly cheap. About the same price a standard stock FCG for a AR15. The only thing I didn't get with them was the hammer and trigger pins.

SS

OK cool let me know how this combo works out for ya I have several more to build & I like doing different versions of things so I may just try a AR-10 fcg version as well...