After talking to Mike at North fork Bullets, He needs a barrel cast of a couple of barrels so he can measure the dimensions. This is the only way we can get him to produce his high quality CPS and FNS bullets for us. He would love to have a barrel cast of the new Ruger #1 in 450-400, 3" so he can verify the dimensions of those barrels also. He will not produce the bullets until he has these casts in hand.
Please, If you have either of these two weapons and can do so, please send a barrel cast to Mike.
Thanks a lot.

Mike talked to me about slugging the barrels on mine. While I am sure that slugging a barrel is pretty straight forward, when you hear the description of what you do and consider that it is a brand new rifle that you are doing it on, I must confess that I got cold feet. I wonder why Butch would not do it? One, he probably knows what he is doing. Two, it would be a service to all his .450/.400 customers. Has anyone -- a customer of his -- ever asked him?

MJines: That's a good point AND idea. I've never done one myself either, and I, too, am a little apprehensive of trying it the first time on a new $15,000. rifle. Also, another question: when I am loading a regulation load for my new Searcy (82 grains of IMR-4831), I see that the case is not completely full - a little powder rattle. Is this right, or have I mis-weighed a few loads ? And, are you other folks using any filler with this load ? I think the case is sufficiently full that it doesn't matter, but what's your thoughts ? Thanks.

Mike said he asked Butch to slug a barrel or two but that has not happened yet. There is nothing to it but someone has to get it done.

Frank, I have been speaking with both Ray Atkinson and Butch and they both seem to think fillers are not necessary in the 3" version. I had some Westley Richards ammo that rattled a bit when shaken so at least some of the factory stuff has some breathing room in the case.

Why don't a couple of us who bought rifles from Butch ask him to slug one. I will send him an email on Monday (although I think he may be off hunting). Would be nice if a couple of others would ask too.

Am I gessing correctly here that we are doing all of this so that Mike can get exact bore dimensions on "Searcy" rifles? If so, I understand.

Otherwise he'd be wise just to offer these bullets in .408 and .411 that would cover 99.9% of all .450-400s

For example, I slugged the bore on my Jeffrey's 450-400 (this took a toal of 5 min to accomplish) and got a hair over .408 as a measurement, thus I ordered Woodleighs in the apropriate diameter....

...Northfork sohuld follow suit and offer bullets in the same diameters as Woodleigh...Keep it simple!

JW

Jeff
It is not as simple as it seems.

Because NF solid bullets only touch the barrel with the ridges, and the ridges can "fold" into the grooves, if the bullet is the least bit undersize it will not grip the rifling enough, and thus not be stabilized.

Since the shank of the bullet does not touch the barrel, and the bullets do not "slug up"
from the pressure of firing the relationship between the demensions of the bullet and barrel are fairly critical.

Or just use Woodleighs

Just a note I have some barnes .411 solids in classifieds.
e

WHY DOESN'T SOMEBODY ASK BUTCH FOR THE NAME OF THE BARRELMAKER.

THEY OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS WIITHOUT SOMEONE POUNDING THE HELL OUT OF HIS NEW RIFLE .

IIRC, these are Pacnor barrels, but I might be mistaken...

jeffe

Yes they are Pac-Nor barrels. If you have any questions regarding barrel diameter please refer your questions to Pac-Nor.

The shop in Boron is very busy at the moment and they are short handed while Butch is away in Botswana. They do not have the spare people to be taking a gunsmith off the floor to answer these diameter questions right now. They have been inundated with calls about this.

One of Butches guys called me and asked me to post this. Butch should be back in a week or so.

Thank you for your consideration.

I think Jeff Wemmer hit the nail square on the head ...... KISS !!!

What if my barrel measures .4105, JudgeG's measures .41125, MJines measures .41075, & someone else's measures exactly .411, how will Mike at NorthFork determine what the bullets will be ? I'd be real surprised if the PacNor barrels were all perfectly uniform; that being said though, I know you can pay a little extra & get barrels that are uniform to within 1/10,000th of a particular prescribed bore size (at least at Douglas - air gauged). Maybe that's what Butch does.

I spoke to the folks at Searcy's and they gave me Pac Nor's information. I call them on Tuesday and they will slug a barrel when they get one. They did not have one in inventory at this time. As soon as they do, they will slug the bore and I will send it to Mike.