Twice a year, Spring and Fall, our rod & gun club sponsors a good 2-1/2-day gun show at the local fairgrounds. Today was day two of the 2007 Fall Show. I thoroughly enjoy it because after 17 consecutive years of attending I know most of the regulars, who I can deal with, who may have what, etc.

Today I was found by two things which forced their way into my car and then broke into my vault when we got home. One was a complete VZ-24 Yugo action and bottom metal with no signs of rust or pits, nicely polished to about the 220/240 grit level, no scope or receiver sight holes. I thought $140 was a pretty fair asking price, so I didn't even haggle. Naturally he wouldn't take a Czech (check) for the Yugoslav, so I wandered over to the show manager who gave me the required $140 cash until I can bring him a check tomorrow when I go back for the last half day.

That VZ is going to be the basis for my .318 WR if I can find a new .329"-bore barrel. I already have a Parker-Hale bolt-head peep for the Mauser action, and a spare multi-leaf set of un-filed English folding open sights to put on the barrel. Have the stock off one of my old .318s which were made by WR, so that should likely fit, though I may have to adjust it here and there.

Also at the show, met a couple of friends from Powers, Oregon (same remote, deep woods, very small town as Darrell Holland's operations).

One of them had a rather nice little Martini-Metford carbine in .303 British. It had a VG original Metford configuration barrel & bore, original carbine wood, and although mostly patina instead of blue, no signs of any pitting or active rust. Had the correct sights, too. For another $140, it came over to my place for the rest of my life.

So far I have only looked at half the show. Saw a very nice condition Weatherby Deluxe Mk V .240 Wby. I'll have to do a little test dickering on it tomorrow...as well as look at the last 6 double rows of tables. (About 180 tables more.)

Ah yes, some days I can almost "waller" in being a gun-nutticus-primus.

BTW, the more "liberal" the bigger places get, the more firmly established in the old ways our community seems to become. The population of our "city" is about 16,500 people. Of that number, about 1 out of every 7 folks is a dues-paying member of our gun club this year.

Love it.......

Man, good score on that Yugo Mauser. I've contemplated a 318 W-R for quite some time but the one thing that's made me hold off is trying to find that barrel. Where are you planning on looking? FWIW, I contacted Pac-Nor about a custom bbl. for an 11.2x72 Schuler and they quoted me over $1K to change tooling etc. In the end, they said it was to big an undertaking to re-vamp everything for just one tube. Can't say I blame them. I'd love to find a source for the odd diameter calibers - 318 W-R, 11.2 Schuler, 280 Jeffrey, and so on.

Pinotguy -

My first thought is to search the forums for any info folks might have on existing North American barrel availability. If that doesn't work, then will probably contact some of the larger European manufacturers to see if they can help.

With all the Austro-Hungarian rifles coming in surplus now, some enterprising "cut-rifled" barrel maker will sooner or later see a "niche" in making replacement barrels for them I suspect...and they use the same diameter bores.

I am not at all surprised at PacNor's reply. I asked about getting a special twist for a 9.3 barrel, and they quoted me a price which was almost enough to put ME in the barrel business. I understand they have a lot of BIG foreign orders these days, so maybe they are losing interest in the little guy's orders. But, as the economy softens, I suspect a lot of folks will re-awaken to the concept of "service" if they truly want to stay in business.

Also, PacNor is a "button-rifling" operation. It is much cheaper and easier for a "cut-rifling" barrel-maker to make special dimension one-offs than for a button-rifler to get special buttons made, etc.

It actually is not too great a leap for a cut rifler to make the grooves of an 8 m/m barrel .006" deeper, and shouldn't be too expensive to ream the unrifled bore the required amount bigger also.

Any re-boring outfit should be adaptable to doing that work, so long as they don't use the button-rifling method to form the final rifling.
Whether they will or not remains to be seen.

I just noticed that Krieger offers 318 W-R as a standard diameter. Don't know why I didn't look at them before as it sounds (from their website) they are willing to make just about any kind of barrel conceivable.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
Pinotguy -

My first thought is to search the forums for any info folks might have on existing North American barrel availability. If that doesn't work, then will probably contact some of the larger European manufacturers to see if they can help.

With all the Austro-Hungarian rifles coming in surplus now, some enterprising "cut-rifled" barrel maker will sooner or later see a "niche" in making replacement barrels for them I suspect...and they use the same diameter bores.

I am not at all surprised at PacNor's reply. I asked about getting a special twist for a 9.3 barrel, and they quoted me a price which was almost enough to put ME in the barrel business. I understand they have a lot of BIG foreign orders these days, so maybe they are losing interest in the little guy's orders. But, as the economy softens, I suspect a lot of folks will re-awaken to the concept of "service" if they truly want to stay in business.

Also, PacNor is a "button-rifling" operation. It is much cheaper and easier for a "cut-rifling" barrel-maker to make special dimension one-offs than for a button-rifler to get special buttons made, etc.

It actually is not too great a leap for a cut rifler to make the grooves of an 8 m/m barrel .006" deeper, and shouldn't be too expensive to ream the unrifled bore the required amount bigger also.

Any re-boring outfit should be adaptable to doing that work, so long as they don't use the button-rifling method to form the final rifling.
Whether they will or not remains to be seen.

Dear mr Alberta!

The only one I can think of is Arthur Smith in England, who could do you with a set of barrels metfordrifled in .329.

He did my two barrels for my .333 jeffery...7 land metford rifled. The waiting time will be a challenge by which your character will be measured by..hahaha..but Athur can do it!!.
LW also do a normal rifled .329cal barrel!
Arthur could rerifled an excisting barrel too!!

I'd love to build a 318 WR. For me it's about the most the "least sensible" desireable cartridges - just about everything about it is problematic. I've decided to just go with a 338/06 instead.
Good luck with your project AC.

I'm afraid there is no such animal as a VZ-24 Yugo action. You might check with some of the more knowledgable Mauser people as I think your Yugo action is shorter than a VZ-24 action.

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
I'm afraid there is no such animal as a VZ-24 Yugo action. You might check with some of the more knowledgable Mauser people as I think your Yugo action is shorter than a VZ-24 action.

I know I ahould never type stuff at night after a long day...it never comes out right. My action is not a Yugo, it's a a Czech action, but it IS a VZ-24. At least that is what is factory stamped on the left side.

And, I know it has a long enough magazine box for my project as I loaded .30-06 rounds into the box, then fed them though the action by operating the bolt, before I bought it. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't confused about which one was long enough for what I wanted to do. This action will do just fine.