The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Single Shot Pistols New Definition of HeadspaceGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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Apparently it is the void between the ears of gunwriters. All a gunwriter has to do is start talking about chambers or barrels and in 25 words or less shows his ignorance. Tonight in the "library" I was reading about the new 7mm WSM. The scribe stated that it had "longer headspace" than the .270 WSM. No wonder you guys get confused. What he was trying to say is that the cartridge is longer from head to shoulder. "Headspace" is just that, SPACE between the case HEAD and the breech face. The SPACE is determined by the length of the cartridge, yes, but "longer headspace" is totally meaningless in this context. The SPACE is not longer.... only the chamber and case are longer, in the body that is, ie., from shoulder to head. Pickin' nits? I don't think so. They pay these guys to write. The least they can do is write in a lucid manner that informs and not confounds. Sorry. No one else handy to vent to. Soap box mode off. Mike | ||
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Glad to see you vented the "library." :-) | |||
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Mike are all gunwriters bad or are many of them just guys like you and me that simply like to write? I heard thru the grapevine once that you took pen to paper too. You know what that means now. Could that simply have been a mistake the writer (or possibly editor) made? Suppose there were no gunwriters, no magazines. What fun would that be? Comments like this are the absolute definition of stereotype. | |||
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Since I work in the Publishing Industry let me just say, that yes, some of the writers are just plain bad. But, the industry is run on such tight margins these days that everyone is understaffed. How many times have you seen a pic of a bolt action where in one frame it has the bolt on the right side and in the next it is on the left. Or the rifle doesn't match the description? These are results of the procduction people messing up. In an ideal world the editor/writer would have ample opportunity to review but as you all know, this ain't no ideal world. Not that this excuses all the errors but it at least explains some. This is also why I double check any load that is published in a magazine against my references. | |||
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Mike, after you "Splained" it, even I can understand. How much of an investment would it cost to get into rechambering? Thanks, | |||
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Face it, guys, you look to the magazines for expert info..... at least you expect some degree of technical correctness. No? I have gone the rounds many times with various publications over out and out wrong statements made by writers thinking they know the subject, when in fact they are miles off. Publications include The American Rifleman and Shooting Times, to name just a couple, neither of which would acknowledge a mistake, let alone correct it. One Shooting Times writer, for example, would have us believe that headspace is determined by the way a reamer is ground when, especially with rimless cases, how the reamer is ground has nothing to do with it at all. Rather, it is how deep the reamer is run into the barrel. It just points out that you cannot believe what keyboard experts write when they never learn the subject in the first place. I make mistakes but hopefully have the cohones to admit it when I am wrong..... and there is no financial exchange even binding me to any sort of obligation like there is with a magazine writer. Yes, I did publish The Custom Contender Chronicle for awhile, and when I have gone back to various articles 10 years later, there are things I would update, things I have learned over the years. But the techinical correctness still stands pretty well. Mike | |||
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quote:Depends on how you go about it and what you have to pay for your lathe to start with. Could be very little. And my suggestion is to not go hog wild buying reamers. Start with one cal. and let it pay for itself, then add as you go. The import lathes are not bad.... about $3K up. Used lathes, expect to pay at least $1k for most anything that runs. Make sure you have at least a 1 1/4" spindle bore so you can run the barrel in the headstock. There are alternatives, but less convenient. More later.... Mike | |||
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Mike - RE: The Custom Contender Chronicle, what are the chances of one of us climbing up into the ol' semi and pulling them out of the file for republication. Maybe on the web, or maybe just reprint through Kinko's and for sale through the online store? I'm sure I speak for most of the guys when I say this would be cool stuff. steve | |||
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Mike- I'd like to second the idea. There's a lot of good historical information (what worked, what didn't) that I would give my eye teeth to look at. There's no sense in us new guys (or maybe it's just me) reinventing the wheel. Or repeating past failures. If we could learn from the things you've done, Mike, then we would all be ahead. One thing you've taught me is that the Contender / Encore is more than a firearm. It is a field laboratory. Stripped to the bare essentials (barrel, chamber, case, breech) it lets you understand the relationship between the components. I find that it was easier to understand the fundamentals with my Encore than my bolt actions, lever actions, or autoloaders. Sorry. I'm an engineer. I think the Contender / Encore is the next best thing to a barrel fixture to understand the mechanics of what happens when the gun goes Bang. I'm new at this, but I'm starting to develop a passion for it. Thanks, Mike | |||
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| <Fireball> |
Mike......will some of the smaller HOBBIE lathes work?? or are they just too small. I have seen the smaller hobbie lathes at harbor freight for around a grand. Fireball | ||
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I have two lathes, not for gunsmithing. My last is a 10K southbend. I looked for several years and finally gave up. I located a reputable dealer and told him what I wanted and how much I could aford to spend. It took him about 6 months but he came up with a super good one in my price range. I'm more than happy with it. Finding a good used lathe is tough. A dealer sees many more than I could ever look at. Anyway it worked for me. Jim | |||
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quote:Man, you hit it on the head. If one places his left ear in his left hand, and his right ear in his right and, and gives a tug, the Contender and Encore barrels will teach you more about chambers than any other gun. What really opened my eyes was the years chambering new barrels before the extractor slots were cut. Talk about a day to day test laboratory! It shows you exactly what is going on with each round you fire since the case head is not being moved by the extractor and masking what happens. Anyone can do the same thing with an existing barrel. Just remove the extractor and begin firing it, paying attention to where the case head is before firing and after. You will see ALL sorts of things. Cases driven forward by the firing pin, cases STAYING forward when the pressure is not sufficient to move it or stretch it back to the breech face, changes in movement due to the smoothness or roughness of the finish in the chamber, protrusion of the case head from the end of the barrel due to frame flex, variations in headspace due to variations in ammo, variations in new brass, deviations of both from SAAMI headspace guages..... it just goes on and on. Trouble is that the enthusiasm to share these discoveries can generate all sorts of disdain from those who have not "been there, done that." One can even earn points toward being THE Heretic. ![[Eek!]](images/icons/shocked.gif){kind=icon} Mike | |||
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Ref. The Custom Contender Chronicle, I do have at least one copy of each of the issues. So I could make copies, BUT, I do have boxes of copies buried in the semi that I have not gotten to. Putting most of the articles on CD would be a good move, I think. Better move would be to get the barrel equipment out of the semi and set up again to make new barrel blanks. ![[Big Grin]](images/icons/grin.gif){kind=icon} Mike | |||
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Mike, Put me down as another vote for the Reprint or CD version. I got one of the Don Bower's Journals last year. While his is interesting to read I would like to add yours to the Contender Reference Section here at the workbench! I'm sure we could get a long list of those on the newsletter who would like a copy. Just put it on the back burner for a while and after you get caught up in the shop it can go on the to do list. I'm sure you would want to add updated comments and that we know will take time to edit. But it is something we could all use. | |||
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