Yes, I could have simply bought a plastic case with roughly the correct dimensions. But wheres the fun in that?
I've had this pistol a couple years now, and always had the conundrum of storing and transporting it. FT pistols are factually anything BUT a pistol. They're too big to fit in typical pistol storage, and they're not the right shape to stand upright in a gun case. So for about two years it's been stored on an extra shelf, sitting on the miniature bipod. And for matches it would be placed on top of the blankets and pillows and sleeping bags in the back seat. Neither the storage or the transport situations were optimal.
Had a new fridge delivered at work around 6 weeks ago, a special fridge for a particular use. Well the fridge had some fancy closed cell foam protecting it in various places......hmmm, looks an awful lot like the closed cell foam in a gun case....hmmm, that 1 inch thick sheet of foam could be the bottom, that 2.25" thick sheet could be the cut out, and that thinnest 3/8" sheet could be on top. And so I threw the three sheets in my trunk and left em there for a few weeks while I pondered how to make a case, visiting my shed a couple times, sorting through all my scrounged lumber.
Ran a few designs though my head, focused around the dimensions of the foam and the lumber that I had. Finally decided on building it about like a drawer, but without 45 degree angles at the corners, or finger joints.
It is 3/4 inch poplar all the way around, with 3/8" plywood for a top and bottom. Three pocket screws at each corner, one for the lid, and two for the bottom portion of the case. I built it, and then cut the lid off just using the fence on the table saw, all the way around. By doing it that way the wood grain on the sides lines up, lid and lower.
It's not fancy construction, nor is it quality wood work. Overall fairly tradesman in design and execution, think framer, not cabinet maker and that's about what I've got.
This is pre stain, and pre hardware. Generic cutout for the scope in case I swap out for a different scope on the future, and room to extend the scope cutout further forward for a larger scope. 24 inches interior length, and I think it ended up being 13 inches interior width. Pistol rules limit overall length to 25 inches so it could presumably hold any future ft pistol purchase instead of this 1720t. If a gun fits in the case, it's legal for field target, as far as length goes.
Since my little 1720t is Bumblebee, I decided to try and make the case somewhat match. The wood was pretty plain so I wasn't losing much in natural wood beauty. I've done this two tone process before, with decent results. Basically, stain with oil based stain, ebony in this case. Wipe off oil based stain and then restain with a water based aniline dye, yellow in this case. Repeat the aniline xtimes for darker color. In theory the water based and oil based stains penetrate to different depths and different types of woodgrain, creating contrast. This was a past stock project where it worked pretty well.
It didn't work so well on the poplar and ply though.
Here is the finished product. Polyurethane applied hastily and without sanding between the coats. I just wanted to seal and protect it, versus creating a furniture grade finish.
It is surprisingly not as heavy as it looks, despite being WAY overbuilt.
Other than my time, cost me about $9, for the latches and hinges. I had everything else, including lumber and stain and poly and even the pocket screws. So the price was dang sure right.
I intended for it to be mostly storage and transport to matches. In my mind I was expecting it to live horizontally most of the time. Now that it's built, and "seeing" the final product, I'm thinking I need to work out a handle so it can be carried vertically.
Fun little project.
