Does anyone know a good gunsmith in the Centeral Kentucky area. I have an FN Mauser with feeding problems I would like to get fixed.
Bryan

Why does it need to be there? There are a good number of smiths within USPS range that can help.

Jim

How far is Keene from Grayson County?

115.6 miles per Bing Maps.

That is a pretty good trip. It might be easier to ship. Then, Jim's suggestion applies. But if you don't mind the drive I can help you.

Rusty

7x57,
I understand the pleasure of visiting the gunsmith in person and transporting the rifles yourself.
I only have to drive about 50 miles to get to roughone's shop.
I used to have to drive 3 hours each way to Murfeesboro, TN, but that gunsmith is going into his 4th year of medical school this month!

roughone was smart enough to get a mechanical engineering degree early in life, and he is still putting his brains to good use. Hands too!

We here in Kentucky need to support Kentucky gunsmiths, especially the gifted ones!

Here is the latest work he has done for me, I picked it up this morning. A piece of cake for him:

Ruger No.1 with a .395-caliber barrel.
It is 42.5" long, same as a bolt action with 22" barrel, weighs 9 pounds even, as shown. Heavy 26" barrel suits the Ruger No.1 well. Muzzle diameter is 0.710":



Neat shim under the front of the Ruger quarter rib,
turned from a cylinder of steel, inside and outside contoured then cut for a perfect fit,
of the rib from a .416 Rigby's fatter barrel
with new screws and studs:



Front sight (gold patridge/sourdough) will need some filing at the range to get elevation right with an NECG peep sight:



Barrel band sling base is better attached than Ruger factory version:



The last two pictures show the amount of epoxy needed to nicely fill in the gap between forearm and barrel, glass bedded.
This is a heavy .395 barrel, but it is much slimmer than the original .416 Rigby barrel:





BTW, roughone is good at feed jobs.
He has sorted out any bolt action feed problems I have had.

RIP,
Thank you, Rusty after the holiday I will give you a call.
Bryan

Rusty,
Will you be open this this coming Tuesday if so I will stop by with my rifle?
Thank you,
Bryan

Rip I do hope there is something more then just a screwdriver holing that rifle off the rocks.

Yes it may be just a Ruger But a damn nice one at that. I would not want to see that rifle get a scratch

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
Rip I do hope there is something more then just a screwdriver holing that rifle off the rocks.

Yes it may be just a Ruger But a damn nice one at that. I would not want to see that rifle get a scratch

kcstott,
Yep love those "nice" Ruger No.1's.
No scratches on this one yet.
Notice the little plastic cone under the muzzle.
I save those from empty cans of WIPE-OUT foam bore cleaner, just for this purpose.
The "levitation" is at the muzzle on the plastic cone, and at the trigger guard on the plastic handle of the screwdriver.
Two-points of fixed levitation over the plane of the sidewalk.
The third point is the rubber tip of toe of the buttpad touching the sidewalk.
Three points determine a plane.



Disclaimer: No rifles were harmed in the production of this photograph.

Bryan,
I will be in Tuesday. I will have to run to town for a little while in the morning, but should be back before you get there unless you start out real early.
Rusty

I brought my rifle to Rusty on Tuesday the 5th of July to have the feeding problems fixed, the bolt handle reworked and a trigger installed. Rusty called me Saturday morning to tell me that my rifle was ready I picked it up yesterday and I couldn't be happier with the work that was done and I didn't have to use the USPS .
Bryan

Good man! You and Rusty!
Rusty amazes me with his brilliance.
I have many more missions lined up for him, yet to sorty.
I hope he doesn't get the big head and start charging like the prima donna smiths.

Rusty is working on the 404/.416 Rigby Improved Plus, for me right now.
This is going to be on a Dakota 76 African in an MPI stock, with McGowen barrel.
Then he has accepted another mission, whenever the parts arrive,
for continued work on the "49-bore/.500-caliber/.338 Lapua Magnum Improved of 2010."

RIP,
You giving up on the .395 bore or just wanting to try something different?
Bryan

Bryan,
Rusty was the first to put a barrel on this rifle"



It was a .423/.338 Lapua Magnum 2.7" in 2006.

There is a long story here.
I bought the action from Brownell's in 2005.
The action threads were boogered.
I sent it back to Dakota.
All they could do to fix it was re-cut the action threads to a larger size,
that of the Nesika Bay action they also produce,
and charge me $200 more, plus shipping both ways, for my trouble.

It is a one-of-a-kind now, Dakota M76 Nesika Bay African.

Then Rusty put the .423/.338 Lapua Magnum barrel on it.

The only stock I could find was an MPI.
Dakota won't sell their synthetic to you unless you buy a walnut one "with upgrades" on a rifle they build from scratch.

That MPI stock was atrocious. I glued an oak block in the butt and had Rusty cut it and install a Pachmayr 1" Decelerator to 14.5" LOP.
Then he glass bedded the .423/.338 LM 2.7" barreled action into it.
The filling, sanding, reshaping of crooked forearm, and repainting is still an ongoing project for me.
I would not wish it on any competent gunsmith, who has better things to do with his time.

I soon found that the rifle could do no better than a 404 Jeffery ballistically.
I wanted to rebarrel it.
Rusty was off doing R&D engineering for Remington by then.

It got rebarreled for the first .395 Tatanka, by Kevin Jenkins in July 2007,
which he was kind enough to do in a rush before he went off to medical school.
It worked great until I got that batch of soft brass from Quality cartridge, properly headstamped though it was.
Normal loads became sticky in the .395 Tatanka.
The Ruger No. 1 above has a polished chamber that will allow me to work harden the .395 Tatanka brass.

The .395 Tatanka barrel will go on a CZ in a Kevlar stock. It will get rechambered with a smoother polished chamber.

The "Dakota-Nesika African" action will become the new wildcat rifle: "404/.416 Rigby Improved Plus" aka "404 RIP."

So, no, I am not giving up on .395s, still my favorite caliber.

That third project in line for Rusty is a .395 Tatanka CZ 550 Magnum.

Rip
I'm not sure how you keep up with all the different wildcats and their loads. Good luck with all the projects you have going now, I hope to meet you at Hill Top one of these days.
Bryan

Bryan
It is hard enough to keep straight on paper. When there are a couple of these projects in the shop at the same time I have to check everything two or three times to make sure that I don't put wrong reamer in the wrong barrel.
Once my youngest was in the shop watching. I decided to let him learn some hacksaw technique. I needed a piece of steel about 12 inches long. I placed it in the vise and started the cut. When he took over I moved out of the way. After the cut was well started, I noticed that we were cutting a barrel that was for a project of my own. Now I have the makings of a project involving a 15 inch 38-55.
Stuff happens.
Rusty

Bryan,
Rusty and I will be firing some "404 RIP" loads into the berm by his shop Saturday morning.
You are invited.
Gotta see how he did with that chamber,
using a .395 Tatanka reamer and headspace guage for case body,
and a 404 Jeffery reamer for neck,
and a 404 Jeffery throat reamer only as needed.

Rusty's youngest son is a talented knife maker already.
That hacksaw training must have been when he was a toddler.

McMillan is puzzling over whether they can make the Winchester Safari stock fit a No. 6 Sporter from Pac-Nor.
Comes standard for a No. 5 sporter like Winchester uses.
I told them to make the barrel channel as big as they can.
I have put a bigger barrel than a No. 6 in a McMillan stock.
All it does is void their warranty, works fine.
Surely either I or Rusty can handle it,
for the "49-10."

Since Rusty seems to check this thread occasionally, I'll post parts pictures as they become available.

Duane Wiebe's XRM boxes:





The recoil stops I made for the follower spring in the "49-10" M-70,
from "spring steel" and idea supplied by Rusty,
at the drop of my hat,
should do the job just fine:





The follower "steel-stop" is not buried in JB Weld.
The floor plate steel-stop is bigger, and buried completely under JB Weld.

From looking at the standard-sized magazine well of the Tupperware stock for the M70 shown,
yes, the XRM box will require stock work to be able to insert the box.
The XRM box is wider at the bottom than at the top.

I have not scrificed a Tupperware stock for this yet.

The dotted line drawn with sharpie on the side of the XRM box shows where the side is folded inward on a diagonal line.
It is wider below the diagonal, angles inward above the diagonal.

There is a hole drilled in the front wall of each box!!!
Complex box shape, "trapezoidal" is an oversimplification.

A couple of knives made by Rusty's youngest son when he was at least 10 years old:

404/416 RIP fired today as a salute to a deceased friend of 7x57.
Condolences.
The chamber is good.

RIP,
Thank you, I'm glad all went well with your rifle.
Bryan