Gentlemen,
Has anyone ever heard of a Korean made rifle receiver called the Bosca Brill? I may have misspelled it as I was given the action name verbally and I've spelled it like it sounds. If you know of it, where can one be located and what is your opinion of it. All comments will be appreciated.
Regards,
'puck

Dear HockeyPuck,

The action you describe was known as the BBK 602 action and was a Korean copy of a Magnum Mauser action. The action was cast and some of the early ones looked like river sand was used for the mold. They required a good deal of work but some pretty good rifles were built around the action. It was, as you might assume, a reasonably priced action.

Tom

I don't think BBK-02 is in production anymore. However, BBK-01 is still available through Olympic Arms. It is also called UltraMAG BBK-01. I just bought a new one not too long ago and paid less than $600 for it. It is a large magnum action that is good enough for the 505 Gibbs. The bolt diameter is around .725" and it has the three-position safety. It is in the unfinished stage but a little bit of sanding and finishing will smooth it up. Here are some pictures of my action. Good luck!

I made a deal with Brill about 1985 to polish an action for them for display in return for an action. One of those "Send two rough ones and get one good one back" deals.

I sent both back. They weren't salvageable. Those were a couple very early ones and looked like they'd been cast on a charcoal grill in a back alley of Seoul.

The Bauska action: This one was also done in Kalispell, Montana, several years ago. That effort was superbly well financed, however, they (none of us were involved) did not have a good operational plan, failed to stay focused, and ran out money while fighting alligators. In a way, we learned from their mistakes and did most of the hard work before we spent the first dollar of development.

Our team used their effort as a case study and we think they went wrong by selecting the wrong suppliers, and by failing to look for synergy between casting, machining, polishing and heat-treating. Also by being distracted with clothing and accessories.

Jack,

I did not know that the BBK action was available back in the 80s. I was still in high school chasing girls then so no wonder I did not know anything about it.

Anyhow, I don't think they still making it in Korea, as my action was made here in the US. According to Olympic Arms, the BBK-01 has a Rockwell C hardness of around 42 but I would like to verify it just for sure. Is this hard enough for a big bore action? My action will be turning into a 505 Gibbs based wildcat so a lot of metal will have to be removed. Thanks for any info you can give me.

Mingo---

I don't know what alloy or what heat treat the actions have now, so I really cant say.

My advice is be satisfied with shooting the rifle like it was designed to do. The Enlish went to big cases to REDUCE pressure, not raise it.

"There is no difference in the degrees of dead..."

Paraphrased from O'Conner talking about Keith.

Thanks for the information, folks. You've answered my question completely. Appreciate the timely response.
'puck

Thanks Jack for the reply!

According to Olympic Arms, my action is made of 4140 chromoly and no additional heat treating is required.

I believe 4140 chromoly has the following chemcial composition:

C 0.38 - 0.43
Cr 0.8 - 1.1
Fe 96.785 - 97.84
Mn 0.7 - 1
Mo 0.15 - 0.25
P Max 0.035
S Max 0.04
Si 0.15 - 0.3

It's tensile strengtt at yield point should be around 100,000 psi. However, I am not sure how they quench the casting though, as it would have affected the material properties of the end casting.

Thanks!

The original name stood for Brno-Bauska-Korean; Brno for the design, Bauska for the gunsmith who commissioned their manufacture, and Korean for the country of manufacture.

George

I think it was in about 85 or86 that I was shown samples of these in rough form. They hoped to sell me a whole bunch of these. I declined. Bauska printed up a hell of a brochure but that was about the extent of it. Regards, Bill