I bought a Guild rifle a few years ago, the markings on the barrel indicate it was made in August of 1924, cleaned it up and took it out to shoot last winter. I went to the expense of purchasing antique Kynoch and DWM ammunition to fire for velocity for reloading purposes.

I had noticed the bolt was quite tight upon closing even with no cartridge in the chamber. I only fired a couple of shots when chambering another round was just "too tight". I had done a chamber cast and checked it against original cartridge drawings so I know it is a 9x57mm.

I used a small dental mirrir to inspect the inside of the receiver and couldn't find any reason for the tightness of the bolt closing. I took a shell, put it in the magazine and ssssllllooowwwwllllyyyyy attempted to close the bolt. Voila! I saw the cartridge come up out of the magazine, head towards the chamber, but hanging just a little on the endge of the breech, before beginning to slide the rest of the way in. At the moment it hangs up (very slightly), I saw the slimmest sliver of lead carved off the nose of the Kynoch bullet and when the bolt is closed, it flattens into a very thin sheet in front of the bolt nose, to the side of the chamber. Using a dental pick, I began excavating a remarkable quantity of lead shavings from both the left and right sides of the receiver. All of these were in the form of sheets. How many cartridges had been fired to do this, I don't know, but it was many, many. The interesting thing is there was no way to know; at least to me. The shavings had exactly the same color as the steel. After about 30 minutes of digging, I had all the lead out, and the action feels wonderful. Except it still carves some lead off the tip when I chamber a round. For this reason it stills hangs on the wall. I do not want to use it in this condition. I believe it will take some work on the magazine lips to chamber properly, or I could use pointy bullets.
Your advice appreciated on what you would do if you owned the rifle. It is not unusable, the cartridges just need to be chambered smartly, then later use the pick to remove the lead shavings from the bullet nose.
Thank you.

let me know if you want a couple hundred rounds of Kynoch/H&H ammunition for it. I'd just live with it, unless the rifle isn't grouping well. Just pack your dental pick...

Rich
DRSS

so, i'll ask a couple baseline questions...

do you have foaming boar cleaner?
if so, use this, and see how much more comes out

have you tried another brand, therefor shape, bullet?

on .358 bullets in the 9x57
of all the fireside tales, i've never heard anyone say they ruined their guilde rifle shooting US 9mm ve .356 bullets.

it's a large cart than the 358 win, and i really like pointy bullets in my 358s

jeffe

Howdy Jeffe,

Nope. Can't get the bore cleaner here. I use other stuff. Havne't used any other bullets, needed to catch some velocities before beginning to reload. Any other shape would work perfectly, as long as it is not those round torpedo shaped bullets. I need to keep these projectiles under 2200 fps so I was primarily interested in the blunt shapes. This is why my question regarding lip work.

I guess I will deal with it.

I have a question, perhaps showing my ignorance, but I'll ask anyway. What does the term "Guild Rifle" mean? I've seen it used several times and I don't know.

Thanks.
KB