Well, she's nearly done.

Left to do
1: checker
2: blue x'bolts
3: slightly refine LOADING not feeding

below are some WIP and Done pics

Here's some pics of the mule/work in progress




And her closer to done




What is it?

it's a 700 grain bullet, at 2130, beating the 577 nitro in ME and SD (about 7100 lb-ft and .331SD) with a .550 bullet, built on a vz-24 mauser 98, with a jeffe custom coffin box mag, single stack feeding, and I kept the flag safety. Forrest (fla2006)traded me for this nice piece of turkish. The stock only shows about 30% in the pics. Black Oxide (epi.com) bluing.. it aint GREAT, but it sure is cheap and hard

She's not a guild level gun, but she's fun to shoot.

Feeding?

did I mention THREE down, and you load the 4th from the mag? Feeds like a weatherby, just as quick as you can work the bolt. Including the last one, which had been a bear!

On the LOADING.. i bent the single stack a hair too much, on purpose, to hone it perfection


Several fellas have taken her for a ride, most pulled the trigger more than once!!

jeffe

forgot to mention.. this is tied down tighter than.. well, most anything

it has a 3/8 all thread wrist ping
2 cross bolts
intregal barrel lug
barrel lug tie down bolt

shesh, you might you think I have built a bigin before

jeffe

ON A Mauser??????? are you sure there is enough action there.

As you know I am giving Jeff a hard time for a job well done.

RNS

Great result!

Looking good, but it's gonna put an ass whuppin' on somebody.

jeffe,

It sure looks better than the last time I saw it.

browningguy,
It's going to whoop ass on anyone who tickels her trigger with those loads. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT But I will try again with the new stock.

Hog Killer

Looking good, time for another alignment

Excellent. I like the safety.
With such a big hole, it makes the tube look shorter than it is. (Ts'wot I tol' her, you know.) 24"?
Where's Porter? That thing looks like 2.5 tons o'fun!

jeffe

Looks great.

In some ways the 550 Express might be better than the full length case. The smaller capacity will make for easier and more flexible reduced loads while at the same time it develops about all the power you can use before moving into "stunt gun" ballistics

By the way, I should remind you it is not considered polite to mention the word "Weatherby" on the Big Bore forum and that goes double if 500 Grains is on the thread

Mike

Keith,Jeff, Gene... come pull the trigger!!! Butch telling us about the lions got me back on the warpath to get er done!!

BB, it's a 23" tube.. but the buttstock is what makes it look short... that's 15 3/8 or so LOP

Mike
The express and the magnum are like fraternal twins, each perfact in it's own way. and yeah, it does feed like a weatherby... as I called them and got one of their "mags" to use as a pattern. In fact, it might sit on top of our magnum barrel.

jeffe

I ready for another go-around and no, I don't want to wait until November!

Jeffe how bout a close up of that rear sight please? Looks really nice!

Doug,
the rear sight island is actually an intregal sightbase and recoil lug on the bottom. I cut it for a CZ sight (because I had one handy). I should have done a better job blending the metal in, but there's always next month!!



jeffe

Jeffe, looks great. Can't wait to pull the trigger on that one. Best part is it will fit me.

With such a big barrel the barrel band swivel stud looks so small. How wide is the one on the gun?

Really looks great. Keep the pictures comming.

John

John,
from memory, that's about 5/8 wide.. it's from a ruger #1 in 416 rigby... and then bored!!

the barrel basicly goes from from 1.05 at the taper join to 950 at the muzzle, and a 1.25 long shank.

jeffe

fritz454,

When you go ele hunting, will one of your rifles be a .600 ok?

500grains, I'm debating the benifets of the 600ok and the 505 gibbs. I think RGB is going over soon for elephant with the 600. I hope he's not under gunned.
John

the barrel aint rusty.. just bad light... i'll take pics in the sun light tomorrow

Congratulations
Your rifle looks vey nice.

I look forward to your daylight pictures.

Cheers,

André

Rusty??????

I resemble that remark!

Jeffe, it’s looking really good to me. What Mauser action did you start out with? I'm not up on all the Mauser variants.

Is there any cast off on the stock. The drop is about perfect for a big bore. I think the beaver and its master are getting good together. Keep up the good work.

BTW did you get my blank yet?

John

John,
I thought i called you and told you I got it... the black walnut PURTY stock!!

Well guys, the stock survived totday... Merkel Double and I hit lake houston range this morning.. shooting my express and my 58 ML express rifle.. what a nice morning...

I knew Merkel was in trouble this morning... He pulled the trigger and turned around with a goofy grin... you know that "i like recoil cum is that a concusion" look?

I'll send her off to be checkered in a week or so.

I've got to send part of tomorrow turning stocks...

jeffe

Maybe you did tell me you got it Jeffe. I got trampled by a horse on Thursday and am pretty banged up and on morphine so my thinker is not working as clear as usual. which as you no is not all that good to begin with, especially when it comes to making reloading dies.

John

John,
Gimme a call!! G's man, sorry to hear that you got trampled... I'll tell you (what i hope) was the last time I got trampled...and damn lucky that my pony loved me!!

You alright buddy? Seems every time I have an arguement with a pony that goes south I get cracked ribs, EXTENDED fingers, and way way way smashed feet (arabs are pretty high strung!)

jeffe

Looks like a brute. Do you make a face like this before you pull the trigger?

HA! If it was me, I'd be like this My .375H&H seems like plenty. You big bore guy's amaze me.

Terry

quote:

Originally posted by TC1:
Looks like a brute. Do you make a face like this before you pull the trigger?

HA! If it was me, I'd be like this My .375H&H seems like plenty. You big bore guy's amaze me.

Terry

Jeffe looks like this when he shoots his 550 Exp.

it aint going to put an ass whuppin on me............cause I aint going to shoot it.

I'm with Harry, lets don't wait til Nov to have a shoot.

Keith?
Know what it looks like with I rip off a full magizine?



Billy,
Man, it aint all that bad... just a big ole shove..

Daniel's not a great big guy... and shot it 4 times!!! three of them in about 3" and the last one was a dinger in the bull!!

Of course, our "light" gun was the 58 double...

jeffe

all I know is I shot one of your 500 whatevers and it droped kicked my big country ass. I think you guys had a ringer load for me and mine sure wasnt a dinger. I'll stick with my 404's and 416's.......big enough for me.

Good work Jeffe!

I have been jonesin' for a big bore fix lately. Living out of a hotel and missing all my "babies" at home. The last fix I had was triggering JJHACK's 458 Lott in RSA, and it was a pussycat....very nicely done by John Ricks, I have to say.

Keep on posting about your progress. The vicarious thrills are appreciated!

Cheers,
Canuck

Jeffe,

Thanks again for lettin me try out the 550. It was awesome!!!

Daniel

As ususal a great job, Jeffe!
Looks like a good rifle for a good man!

Daniel,
got to more converts Sunday morning, and one of those will probably build a magnum!!

Rusty,
thanks man.. just took the stock in for checkering... kind of a toss up.. we'll see, but this might be a second source for checkering for me. Perhaps before you see it, i'll have the floorplate reworked some.. it works fine, looks fine.. but just not EXACTLY what I want.

Work left to do (required)
replace/rework follower.. it's 3/8 too short
put back in newly checkered stock

optional work
raise rear sight [tig] to work with 665's
recut floorplate...

jeffe