She is pretty. I would call her "Blondie" until she gets a dye job.

Thanks Rip,

It was the very first time I ever fit a Boyd's walnut stock, so I'm not goin' too hard on myself - the flash isn't doing the photo any favors, but I should have stained the stock before oiling it. I actually have some minor cosmetic finishing to do so its no big deal to strip it and stain it when I get around to actually finishing the sock. The Springfield stock came out a better color!

The bluing on my 6mm is beautiful - an old Herter's j9 I found on a rack in a gun shop that I went to, to buy something else!

That QuickLoad program really is something else - matches my Hodgdon load manual almost perfectly for the 6mm Rem.

Oh well, it's going to be a while...

Whomever made the second recoil-lug that was screwed onto the barrel, must have made it with a hacksaw and a file, while they were drunk, and blindfolded, and had no clue what they were doing in the first place...

Never noticed how screwy the thing was until I started "cleaning" the surface rust off'n it in preparation for Marine Tex bedding - what a piece of garbage.

Now I have to find someone that can bore tapers (for a NEW recoil lug) - might not happen in this lifetime.

Man do I wish I had a lathe and a mill...

Of all the...

I will post better photos when the part is in my hands but, The God's looked down on me with generosity this week and some awesome young machinist 'back east' went and made me this recoil lug for my barrel! Sent me a video of the thing being made on a 5-axis milling machine too!

So I am asking anyone that needs parts to give this guy as much work as he can handle! All he needs is a SolidWorks model of the part, and I can SolidWorks anything a sane-mind can imagine that the software can model. Remember, measure 4-times, and cut once!

I am not trying to weasel my way into a cut of his work - just want to help him get work because he deserves it. If anyone is interested send me a PM and we'll go from there.





Here is the drawing:

I can see how that piece of steel might make a really nice secondary recoil lug to go on a rifle barrel,
especially if the concave, contoured side of it matches the spot on the barrel where you want it to go.

Captain Obvious salutes a job well done:

You mean like this? I didn't bother with two photos but the taper fits the barrel perfectly.



I had to shift the location of the lug back closer to the receiver to work with the Boyd's stock - the tapped hole lower right is the rear-most hole of it's original location.

The original, hand made, thing that was supposed to be the recoil lug, is in the photo just for laughs... You might notice the negative taper of the sides (mechanical bedding lock) and the fact that the counter bored holes are misaligned - and that was only the beginning. It's a junk part...

As soon as my barrel spinner gets here I can polish some of the ripples out of the barrel and then finally get this fricken thing BEDDED already!

OK I took the second photo



And a third

Definitely an improvement. (Captain Obvious again.)

Solder and screws or just screws?
Is that fourth hole, threaded, without counterboring, to be used with an escutcheon and screw through the forearm of the stock?
+/- if needed, depending on how it shoots best?

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Definitely an improvement. (Captain Obvious again.)

Solder and screws or just screws?
Is that fourth hole, threaded, without counterboring, to be used with an escutcheon and screw through the forearm of the stock?
+/- if needed, depending on how it shoots best?

Well, the original lug was just screwed on, so I was thinking to go with that (especially since this one fits so much better). If it was the only thing taking all the recoil I am pretty sure the screws would have a brief life, but as it is a supplemental kinda thing, I think the screws should be ok. The threaded hole is for an escutcheon screw, but only because there was a similar threaded hole in the original part.

I am waiting now for a 'barrel spinner' that the guy that machined the lug is making for me, so's I can polish the ripples off the barrel, and then get the thing bedded and shoot my make-due ammo in your make-due brass!

He did such a nice job on the barrel lug that I betcha he can make a sweet quarter rib too!

I would use J B Weld instead of solder, after you get it all blued. No one will ever know.
Surely you won't shoot it fast enough to melt JB, but you can always remove it with low torch heat.

Actually I thought of that after I finished the preceding message! I like MarineTex - pretty much the same thing, plus I have a huge can of it! I've used it for lots of things - best thread locker on the planet! And, like JB, a lil heat with a propane torch and you can loosen whatever you stuck together with it.



I've almost been thinking of rust bluing this thing, myself...

While I am sitting here trying to be patient waiting for a set of ball-bearings so I can get my barrel spinner finished and polish some of the ripples out of the barrel, I decided to install a Dakota Safety I had sitting on a VZ 24 that I was going to build into a 280 Ackley (revised caliber - I am getting old...), before this rifle popped into my life!

I started polishing the receiver too, but it has a ways to go! 320 wet-or-dry and a sanding block, a case of WD40, and, what will seem like a year of elbow-grease, then start all over again with 400 wet-or-dry, and then maybe 600 wet-or-dry (depending on how I feel) and it will be there!

Nasty bolt-stop, I know. I need a nice sparkly new one!

A preliminary schematic of what I am thinking...

This is IF I decide to mount a scope - I am still undecided. I really do like the idea of making this just an iron sight rifle, and putting tall sights on it so the sights work with the stock and I don't beat my face to death with recoil (as I would if the sights are too low).

Annotations a little blurry, I know.

Iron sights 1.120" above bore axis - 16.00" sight radius, front sight 1.000" from crown.

QRW medium rings .850" above rib.

Scope 1.167" above bore axis.

.050" clear between top rear sight and scope tube.



Expert advise and opinions welcome!

Not expert, just a riflecrank's two cents worth, for free:

Great safety. Makes your rifle ready for scope.
Must do scope bases on the quarter rib.
What can it hurt?
It will add a lot to the rifle versatility.
I have used a Ruger No. 1 quarter rib on a Mauser for redneck approach to this.
Excellent redundancy of sighting systems, which you will appreciate when your eyes get older.

QRW
Ruger
Talley

Whatever turns your crank and you can get properly machined into or fitted onto the quarter rib.

Well, sir, you are certainly more of an expert than I will ever be!

Best I can figure, QRW rings will not work, unless I make the quarter rib as wide as a weaver base, and that would look terrible... (never seen a Ruger quarter rib?)

I could buy a set of QRW's, and use the hardware (screws, lever, cap) and make my own steel lower ring, and make it work.



PS. my eyes ARE already old!

PSS. Someone asked me if adding all this quarter rib and iron sight stuff wasn't going to make my currently 7.5-lb rifle "a lil heavy". I told him that when that 400g Woodleigh goes off, a shooter will wish the rifle weighed 10-lbs, make that 15-lbs!

darn it - the bore is .412, not .411...

Woodleigh only makes a 300g bullet in .412

Ticks me off.

I should probably just order a 416 Taylor barrel from Douglas and be done will all this Wildcat stuff.

Anyone want to buy 2-boxes of 400g .411 Woodleighs?

I suppose I can live with a 300g shooter but, 400g sure would have been nice!

quote:

Originally posted by Quick Karl:
darn it - the bore is .412, not .411...

There you go again, calling the groove the bore.

Making a mountain out of a mole hill too.
A .412-groove diameter and a .411-bullet diameter are quite compatible.

That Woodleigh .411 bullet bumps up/obturates upon firing, to fill the .412 groove.

Lots of us have great results with .423 bullets in .425-grooved or .4245"-grooved barrels like McGowen makes,
or .424"-grooved barrels like Krieger makes, all meant for the 404 Jeffery.

IF you go ahead and get the .416 barrel and off-the-shelf reloading dies, with much better bullet availability:

DO NOT SLUG THAT .416 BARREL!
IT MIGHT TURN OUT TO BE A .417!
THEN WHAT WOULD YOU DO??

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Lots of us have great results with .423 bullets in .425-grooved or .4245"-grooved barrels like McGowen makes, or .424"-grooved barrels like Krieger makes, all meant for the 404 Jeffery.

I never knew that! Remember, sir, I am not a wildcatter, I am just a guy that likes Mausers (though I don't get out to shoot them as often as I might like), and I can draw pretty good (especially virtual gunsmithing stuff)! I never knew that good results might be achieved with jacketed bullets unless the bullet diameter matched the GROOVE diameter (within a few 10ths of a thousand of course).

The worst trouble I ever had with a bullet fitting a bore and shooting well was with my 45-70 -- had to get .459 lead bullets for the .458 GROOVE or the bullets would turn around sideways some by the time they hit paper. Once I found .459 bullets it shot fantastic. I came to understand that could be typical for lead bullets, but in the opposite direction that we're talking about here.

When I first found this rifle a few folks were all squiggly over what the GROOVE diameter was, implying that I had to match the bullet to the GROOVE diameter if I expected it to shoot.

Maybe someone should write a detailed article on the subject?

No worries, I still luv ya like a brother! I will stick to doing good drawings and leave the GROOVY stuff to you. It takes a village ya know!

My barrel spinner should be here this week - then I can polish the small ripples out of the barrel, screw it back into the receiver, attach the recoil lug, and MarineTex bed it into the Boyd's stock.

Once that is done I can shoot the loaded make-do rounds I have, and I will have 10-pieces of fire formed brass.

I have a box of 50 cylindrical brass, but do not know how to, or what dies to use, to make more make-do brass for fire forming. But if I could, I would make 20-rounds, and then fire form and then neck size them, so that I could load some of the 400g bullets I have, to see if they will make round holes in paper, and not sideways holes (just to calm my nerves).

If it makes round holes with good brass, I will get the dies made.

Or...

http://accuratemolds.com/bulle...bullet=41-400C-D.png

If that would work anything close to how my 45-70 shoots, that is all I would ever need!

QK:

Big difference between jacketed and cast lead.
Yes, that .415" diameter (in wheel weight alloy) mold would be great.
Then you need a .413" sizer to size it down to .001" greater than your groove diameter, FOR CAST LEAD BOOLITTS, YAH, YOU BETCHA!

Here is a 0.410" diameter JACKETED pistol bullet that does well in my .411"- grooved 400 Whelen-B, for fire-forming plinking,
last weekend:





Here is a .423" bullet in a .425"-grooved barrel, never a problem in 404 Jeffery:

Nice shooting RIP! We should start a new benchrest shooting class: "Elephant Hunter" - minimum groovy diameter .375"

I just never had occasion to even think about groovy / bullet diameter dimensions -- always understood groovy / bullet diameter to be the same for jacketed bullets, and I know there is always variation to one degree or another in everything, especially machined parts, but I though the two had to be the same within manufacturing tolerances (but I have no idea how Douglas, or any barrel maker, can keep variation from breech to muzzle to .0001" in a XX Premium Air-Gaged?)

If .001" less than groovy diameter works, then its all good.

Killin a lil more time - modified QRW rings with some wildcatter's QRQR feature...

I sent it out and had it blued.



I think I am going to do the Dakota safety next! Man am I bored...

For anyone that may not know, or that may drop in without having followed the entire thread, this is an in-progress 3D model of a personal project of mine that I created in order to design a front sight, quarter rib, and scope rings, thus explaining the lack of Dakota safety, Timney trigger, bottom metal, and stock -- but if the economy keeps goin the way it is goin, I'll have plenty of time to model all of that stuff too!

Texas here I come. I've had it with AZ.

Why use Dakota-safety if yours scope is so far front, there is no problem when using mauser original safety....?

Because I have one

But, you are right! Maybe I was just bored killin a lil time so I screwed it together. I have a while yet till I have to decide so in the mean time, I needed something to do.

The factory safety, to the educated eye, would really make the rifle look great, and be as fool-proof as possible -- a feature that is very important for a klutz like me!

Oh well, Texas here I come! For many reasons the two most important being that the weather is better for rust bluing, and they actually have an economy...

I guess I'll have to become a pig hunter. I've never been all that crazy about Texas but heck, I guess it's closer to the Ozarks than Arizona is...

Would you believe - I finally got the bedding done -- what a trick free floating the barrel, except for 1-inch from the front of the receiver, and only the rear surface of the barrel lug!

I think I am a world-class MarineTex bedding expert, now.

Fire-formed cases, maybe tomorrow, but probably Monday...

In the mean time, I fussed with my stock model a little bit more:



A Les Brooks Classic!

FINALLY!!!! Now RIP can smile

96.5 grains of water!

Fired (nice kick), trimmed to 2.550", cleaned with 100 PSI compressed air, weighed, filled with cold water and scraped to perfectly flat with top of case, dumped water into powder tray, wiped outside of case just incase, added case to powder tray, weighed, did math, 96.5 grains of water.





Now for some dies...

I sure wish I had a Wilson case-holder for my Wilson case-trimmer for something this fat. I'm going to have to figure out how to trim them all the same length - I wrapped masking tape around the case I trimmed till it was the diameter of a Wilson case holder and worked slow and careful ( I left a couple a thousandths long) - it worked good enough for this experiment, for now.

PS. It ought to be LOTS of fun with 400g bullets!

Excellent!

What bullet and powder charge did you use to fire form those?
Or was it COW and pistol powder?
Whatever you did, you did it well.

From the scratches on the shoulder/body of the case below the batch,
I see you were loading it like a shell holder action by taking the bolt out
and then inserting the bolt with a cartridge held on the bolt face?
Ejector blade scratched the case.
Cosmetic scratches only.
When are you going to load it from the magazine box instead of from behind the box?

Polish up three pieces of the brass and get some Hornady Custom or CH4D dies made for it.

Most common case trimmers will work, for the H&H based case, common pilots for you too, for .41-cal.

Nice throat on that chamber cast.
You can see where the parallel-sided free-bore ends, and the leade starts.
Very good throat for the cartridge, I would say.
That is the kind I like.

Good job.

Yeah, my second, well actually third chamber cast (I did it twice the second time around) came out much better than my first! And I was happy to see the free bore and figure out that it will be fine with 400g bullets.

Yes, I loaded like a shell holder because I could not crimp the case and I didn't want to risk pushing a bullet back by loading from the magazine. I'm going to get after that burr in a minute or two.

I sent an email to Ben Syring to find out where to send and whatnot.

The only case trimmer I have is a Wilson, that uses case holders - I was hoping some other caliber case holder might work but I might be up the creek on that one...

Thank you for ALL of your help RIP, you are a Wildcat Gentleman of the highest order possible!

Here is a close up for you, RIP.

I just HAD to know.

So, I had to open a box that was already sealed for moving, and get a 400g Woodleigh, just to make sure...

A 400g Woodleigh next to my fire-formed, trimmed case.



And, slid in to the cannelure for 3.300" OAL and 2285 FPS (H414) or 2339 (with 101.5% of RL 17), according to QuickLoad...



3.300" works for me!

PS. I know it's a cheap digital caliper but, you'd be surprised how downright accurate the thing is, considering a caliper is only so accurate in the first place...

UPDATE!

I loaded a 400g Woodleigh dummy round to 3.300" and it chambers perfectly without jamming the rifling!

What an awesome outcome!

I'm, in, Texas....

Darn is it humid!

Congratulations.
If I had to trade my Kentuckian "status"
I'd saddle up and be "Gone to Texas" too.
Good luck in your new digs.
Keep on prospecting and wildcatting, Pardner.
Hope you strike it rich.

Thank you Sir!

Look what I found not 5-miles from my house!



Its a crappy iPhone photo but I will get the DSLR out and get better photos in a few days!

Fallow deer and zehbra farming, nice exotic combo.

There ought to be some place nearby to blood the 404 Express FNB.

A little bit better shot.

More critter pics...