.......I started this thread to get it off the "Tuesday at the Range" one. Without the chronological posting capability, this is going to be a PITA :-).

Starmetal: "....just finished casting. As they drop from the mold the Austrian boolits mike .3298 on the driving bands and .3201 on the nose."

BobS: "They drop from my mould at .3308 on the driving bands, .3199 on the nose. This with old (pre-1970) wheelweights with some tin added.

Very possibly since the lands are about .316" I believe they may perform well. I think that the lands will upset sufficient metal as the drive bands engrave to seal the grooves. I've had a bit of experience with this thing, but have sized both the RCBS 205gr and Lee 220gr .338" bullets down to .332".

I use the surplus Berdan primed brass, which I've converted to use 209 shotgun primers. I've attached a photo of the tools I made to necksize the brass, de and re-prime brass and also size lead bullets.


I've since bought a set of the Lee dies, but have had to hone the seater die out to accept .332" boolits. I can't say that my M95 is a tack driver as 2" groups at 50 yards have been about the best I've been able to do. There's probably lots of things contributing to this. Not the least is very possibly the nastiest trigger this side of my M91/30 MN :-)

The M95

I had a M95/34 with a tragic barrel that I knew wasn't ever going to shoot. Since the 30-40 was a good match in rim OD and caselength I had that action rebarreled to 30-40. This is it:



GPC had the M95 rifle stocks avail for $15, so I got one of those and cut it down. The original one while aresenal repaired, was split from the recoil lug back through the action and into the wrist.

Here's the action. I jeweled the bolt and fit a Williams receiver sight. In order to keep it away from the bolt handle I put it on the left side and reversed the apurture:



Since the 30-40 has a smaller shoulder OD then the 8x56R, the packet clip had to be tweaked a bit in order to present each round properly to the chamber. Other than figuring that out, it was a very simple and straight forward operation. As you can see in the photo the 30-40's stack up in a slightly sharper angle.



It'll be nice to finally be able to have boxer primed brass :-). I've never done it, but I've heard that the heavier 8mm FLGC bullets work well. Not that I'd be shooting many of those, ha! Since the 30-40 is so accurate, I'm hoping to be able to improve things with the new brass.

.........Buckshot

Buckshot, that is one pretty post. That is the sort of stuff I am hoping we can do here, with the ability to save the information for posterity. You figured out how to put the pics where you wanted them and get them to stay there, too.

I like your jeweled bolts, grit and a brush or grit and an eraser? Did you make your own jeweling holding jig or did you buy one?

BTW, I agree the slightly 9 inch slower twist on a 7mm bore will allow greater velocity compared to a 6.5 Swede barrel. That 1,650 fps wall sucks, but it certainly is there on the 6.5 Swede barrels. Shame about that, but is just is.

I also think the 30 caliber and 8mm bore size are simply more cast bullet friendly at that 10 inch twist rate and if I am going to build another one it really needs to be in a caliber I don't already have.

If I did finish the gun in 7mm-08, it will have to be a real lightweight gun shooting a heavy 7mm bullet. Turn the barrel down first, then firelap it to "straighten it out" then throat it, crown it and black oxide it on the action.

Oldfeller

[ 08-31-2003, 17:16: Message edited by: Oldfeller ]

Buckshot....soon as the weather clears(it's been raining bad) I'll test shoot those new lee boolits. Makes me wonder why Lee chose .329 as the diameter when it seems that most of the Austrians are going to have a bigger bore. Also even if an Austrian had a .329 bore wouldn't you think they would go for a final size that was at least .001 bigger. As for condom boolits here is what I did. I bought a box of the Hornady 200 gr flat nose meant for the old 33 Winchester. Then I sized them down to .331. I too have peep sights on my Austrian and with those condoms it shoots pretty respectable groups at a 100. Also mine shoots the sized down .338 cast at 100 with about the same groups you are getting at 50. No it's not that I shoot better then anyone else. I don't have to ask or see to know you shoot just fine. It may be the differences between you gun compared to mine. Sure wish Grafs would get that brass in. I have a box of Bertram and it's just fine. I also told you before how to rework the 350 Rem Mag brass to fit. I've gotten alot of reloads out of that Rem brass so far. The only thing I don't like about the straight pull bolt on the Austrain is that it doesn't have the camming power to engrave cast boolits. With condoms it's fine. Love fooling my friends that don't know about straight pulls in tell them "Hey try to open this rifle". Funnier then hell. Ok..when I get these boolits shot will report.

Joe

Lets give this a shot for adding a pic. Not sure I got it right.

[http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/standard?pictid={77D470CC-47F9-428F-A963-48C730113461}&]

oops..one more time

[IMGhttp://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/standard?pictid={77D470CC-47F9-428F-A963-48C730113461}&/IMG]

oops..one more time

Starmetal,
You almost had it right....there ya got it.....The little things seem to matter most
Nice cartridge collection,I am working on one myself.
45nut

[ 08-31-2003, 22:40: Message edited by: 45nut ]

Ok got it now..as you can see "my Austrian".

This one is of the Williams receiver sight

[IMG]http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={01FB327F-8AB0-4314-B983-738DD9D348DA}&ndx=0&slideshow=0&AlbumId={D79C5CE9-8B22-4A3E-8381-98692B5943B3}&GroupId=&scree nheight=600[/IMG]

This one is to try to show the very nice wood figure in the buttstock

[IMG]http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={01FB327F-8AB0-4314-B983-738DD9D348DA}&ndx=0&slideshow=0&AlbumId={D79C5CE9-8B22-4A3E-8381-98692B5943B3}&GroupId=&scree nheight=600[/IMG]

The next is my Yugo 8mm

[IMG]http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={01FB327F-8AB0-4314-B983-738DD9D348DA}&ndx=0&slideshow=0&AlbumId={D79C5CE9-8B22-4A3E-8381-98692B5943B3}&GroupId=&scree nheight=600[/IMG]

Williams sight on the Yugo

[IMG]http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={01FB327F-8AB0-4314-B983-738DD9D348DA}&ndx=0&slideshow=0&AlbumId={D79C5CE9-8B22-4A3E-8381-98692B5943B3}&GroupId=&scree nheight=600[/IMG]

..and finally my Buckshot 45 carbine

[IMG]http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={01FB327F-8AB0-4314-B983-738DD9D348DA}&ndx=0&slideshow=0&AlbumId={D79C5CE9-8B22-4A3E-8381-98692B5943B3}&GroupId=&scree nheight=600[/IMG]

Sorry I took so many times to figure out the posting of pics.

Joe

well I certainly messed that up.

My Buckshot 45 carbine

[IMG]http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={01FB327F-8AB0-4314-B983-738DD9D348DA}&ndx=0&slideshow=0&AlbumId={D79C5CE9-8B22-4A3E-8381-98692B5943B3}&GroupId=&scree nheight=600[/IMG]

Hahahahaha...well at least I'm entertaining you all with my stupidity. Okay last time...I think I think I got it now.

Austrian with the Williams receiver sight



Nice wood figure in my Austrian's buttstock



My Yugo 8mm



Yugo's Williams sight



Finally once again my version of Buckshots 45 acp carbine



Well keeping my fingers crossed.

Joe

......Oldfeller, thank you. My, ah bolt jeweling deal is a simple jig I cobbled up that's held in a $49 compound feed drill press vice. I use the stainless cup brushs and valve grinding compound. I put shrink tubing on the brush to make it live longer. I used 2 of'em on the Steyr bolt as I did the jeweling so 'fine'.

The jeweling on the bolt in the picture of the small ring 7.62x39 Mauser was simple and didn't even use up the one I started with.

.......Starmetal, yeah! You got the picture thing down now!! :-) Truth be known, I'd give up the pictures in a heartbeat for chronological posting. Your M95 is a fine looking one also. Amazing some of the wood they hung on these old military guns, isn't it. Guess they had wood back then :-)

On the original M95 as you know the barrel is a thin whippy thing. I've identified a couple areas (besides the trigger) probably causing problems. One is the where the handguard goes under the ears on the rear sight. There's lots of pressure there and wouldn't be surprised if it was trying to lever the front of the action up.

The other is the front barrel band/forend/handguard area. These really have the barrel in a stranglehold. I really need to get in these areas and releive the wood some. I'd like to see the barrel with a bit of 'wiggle room'. The M95/34 is a great shooter, but I've not really done anything at 100 yards with it. I was thinking of making it a 40-60 Maynard (30-40 blown out straight) but if it'll shoot like it seems to want to, when I get some boxer brass I think I'll leave it 'un-molested' :-).

Why's your workbench so clean, huh?

.........Buckshot

Buckshot...CLEAN? CLEAN? Hell fire..you only saw the top shelf. By the way for those of you that are curious about the two pistons on the shelf, the bigger one is a 12/1 comp. ratio out of my old 409 Chevy, and the smaller one is out of a 1929 DeSota that I rebuilt for some gun.

Ok back to the Austrian. I think I will pull the action out of the stock and check those pressure points you mention Buckshot. I kinda like the Austrian and would like to see if I can make it shoot better but first I will try those new lee cast boolit today hopefully as I see the sun peeking out. One more interesting thing about my rifle Buckshot is when I first started reloading for it, the fired casings split my sizing die. It's a CH die set. I called Dave on the ph, as Iknow him personally, and explained what happen to him. He requested the die back and a fired casing. He discovered that I have a large chamber only in the head/web portion of my chamber and thus polished me out a new die to correct the problem. The rest of the chamber is normal. Okay now for some test shooting...will post the results.

Joe

Okay Buckshot here are the results. I didn't have time to take pics of the group. I fired two ten shot groups at 100 yds off the bench and with my new rear sandbag this time. Load was that new Lee .329 boolit and 28 grains of surplus 844 with a tuff of dacron overtop the powder. Really took my time and tried my best. I got two inch groups at 100 yds and that's with the william peep sights as you know I have them on the rifle. I feel that it didn't shoot good enough...what do you think honestly? You think we should work on relieving the barrel pressure points? I don't think my trigger is particularly bad but might polish it up. Let me know what you think Buckshot.

Joe

.......Starmetal, a CHEVY man eh? Well take THAT!!!



When my daughter Chris was 16, I wanted a project we could do together. Spend time and build memories together. Besides, I liked the 53 to 56 series Ford pickups :-). I bought the thing for a grand and drove it home (surface streets ONLY). It had a really, and I mean REALLY worn out FE series 352 V-8 and 4 speed. Looked like we were fogging for mosquitos. When we'd come to a stop this huge cloud of smoke would envelope us. Chris and I laughed so hard all the way home we hurt. The steering was so bad that if you hit a bump or ripple it'd take off in some unknown direction :-).

No door glass and the doors were held shut with bungee cords hooked to knobs on the dash. However, it had all the little doo-dads, like door handles, window cranks, dash knobs etc. Plus there were no extra holes drilled in the cab or dash. A BIG plus.

We took it down to the frame. Had a Volare' front end put under it. I fully boxed the frame and hung a Ford 9" rear end on a reduced leaf pack with a reversed eye Smoothie top spring, all with nylon spacers. We put a 78 Caddie tilt & telescoping steering column in it along with power brakes. The bed was done in clear Red Oak with polished stainless dividers and bolts.

My grandmother decided she didn't need to drive anymore so she gave me her '69 Ford LTD. We yanked out the 429 V-8 and C-6, and had the tranny built. I really wanted to do something to the engine, even though that money wasn't in the truck budget. You know what I mean :-)? Chris and I went over to Wayne's Engine in Riverside and asked to talk to their 'Ford Guy'. Told him what we had and he wanted to know what we were gonna do with it?

I said we were building a 55 Pickup for my daughter here, as a daily driver. He said, "Fer crissakes, it's already 360 HP. What's SHE gonna do with it? HA! He finally said that if we brought in the heads he do the exhaust side and that'd give us another 35 horses. We never did. It was plenty just the way it was, really. My wife Donna was a bit upset about that engine too. She wanted a 6 cyl. I said we don't HAVE a 6 cyl and no money to buy one. All we have is this crappy 429 :-)! 10.5-1 compression. Boy would it crack when you cranked her over. Even with premium unleaded.

The first time Chris drove it in the rain she called me up when she got to where she was going. She said she thought the truck was broke for a minute. I asked what she meant. She said she was at the light at Redlands & Texas St and when the light changed she didn't go anywhere! She said she looked at the tach and it showed 32 hundred but no movement. She got a clue when the rear end started to swing over a bit.

Got in trouble at the folk's house, there for dinner when Chris told grandpa (my dad) that I'd showed her how to go around a corner without hardly using the steering wheel ....... mainly just the gas pedal :-). I thought my mom was going to whack me with the salad fork. I DID get talked to. Chris thought it rather funny. Donna was in with the 'unfreindly crowd' which was a majority for sure :-). I was supposed to have known better. Can ya imagine?

She drove it for 4 years and was pulled over 3 times by cops, who wanted to talk to her about it. Never mentioned the blue dots on the tail lights either. Nope. Not some cute red headed girl, nosirrie. You let a fat ole hairy guy in it and BAM! I get a ticket for blue dot tail lights :-)



This interior shot is kinda washed out, the sun was so bright. I let Chris pick the interior at the upolstery shop and that took about all freakin' day to decide. Women! Ended up gray tweed upolstery, with dark charcoal carpeting and door panels. I built the instrument cluster which had all the guages plus engine oil temp. To the left of the column is the tach and tranny temp.

The cowel vent in front of the windshield sure worked! If you were going down the freeway and opened it up with the windows open it'd blow your pants legs up around your knees :-) If the windows were up it'd about burst your eardrums.

We'll have to talk M95 Steyrs tomorrow. The kid invited us out for Mexican and then I gotta hit the sack. Been up since 1400 yesterday.

..........Buckshot

Buckshot...well we'll talk austrian mannlichers tomr but for now cars....Here are pictures of my current ride. It hasn't been restored yet except for the engine and tranny. Got a new 350 cube 4 bolt main block with aluminum "D" shaped exhaust port Corvette heads with all TRW valves and springs. The slugs in the engine are forged TRW flattops. The cam is a Crane HMV 278 dual pattern hydrualic. Intake manifold is Edelbrock RPM Performer with a 600 cfm AFB Edelbrock carb. Headers are by Heddman. HEI distributor with a Performance Electronics coil and module. Also have one of those Fluidamper harmonic balancers on the crank and the clutch is and 11 inch Hayes. The four speed is a Borg Warner Super T 10 out of a big block Pontiac and it's toppped off with a Hurst V-Gate shifter which is a straight line shift pattern race shifter with a separate reverse lever. Rear gears are 3.55's. Estimated horsepower by Edelbrock and Comp Cams is around 400 horses or a bit over.



Hoping my 14 yr old son gets more interested in it. My wife doesn't want him to have it. hahahaha

Joe

Buckshot...okay took the rifle apart and relieved the tension on the barrel from the hand gaurd and the bands. Also polished up the trigger and it made a huge difference. Will take it out maybe tomr. and see how she does this time.

Joe

..........Starmetal, THat's a fine looking old automobile ya got there! Does it have air conditioning, or is it so cool ya don't need it? I just couldn't see doing any engine work with the kid driving it, ya know? If it'd been me I'd have had a bit of 'rumpity rump' going on :-).

"Okay Buckshot here are the results:" I fired two ten shot groups at 100 yds off the bench. Load was Lee .329 boolit and 28 grains of surplus 844 with a tuff of dacron. I got two inch groups at 100 yds."

I would consider that very excellent, especially when you consider the sight radius and the 'work' being done to the bullet. Just pull out a ruler and take a good look at 2". And 10 shot groups on top of that!

"You think we should work on relieving the barrel pressure points? I don't think my trigger is particularly bad but might polish it up."

I think that's my problem with my carbine. The barrel looks just great and is as good looking as the one on my M38/46 Turk and it shoots like crazy. I worked over the trigger on the M95/34 conversion to 30-40. It probably had a full 1/8" engagement with some 'whoopties' in there during takeup. Got rid of those and also added a set screw down throught eh tang to bear on the sear arm.

That way I could make very fine adjustments to sear engagement. Plus, I cut 1 and a half coils off the sear spring, which did considerable to lightening it up........ a BUNCH!

........Buckshot