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We are in the last week of our fasting month, Ramadan. During this month we abstain from food and drink from before dawn to sunset. I am letting you all know this so that I have an excuse for what follows. My brother brought in a gas air rifle, which belongs to one of his friends. He said “Something wrong with it. He cannot hit anything” I checked the air tank, and it had about half, so I checked the barrel. Sure enough, it was blocked. I tried to get the blocked pellet with a cleaning rod, and got nowhere. So I took the barrel off, and took it to the workshop. I have a brass rod that just about fits in. I had a friend helping. I put the barrel in a vice - the vice jaws have protective linings. As I tried to hit the brass rod with a hammer to get the pellets out, the barrel started moving in the vice. I asked my friend to tighten it. He did. It still moved. I asked him to tighten it more. He did. Then it dawned on me that the barrel was getting flattened!!! I never thought the barrel steel was so soft!! We 11 pellets out of it, but, as a barrel it is completely ruined! As that was my fault, I ended up giving him another rifle as replacement. The rifle was an FX. That was screw up number one. I have a Sako small action, the barrel of which I gave to a friend. So I thought I will chamber new stainless steel barrel and install it on it. We have about 250 reamers. I took what I thought was a 223 Remington reamer, and chambered the barrel, installed it in the action replaced the factory stock with a synthetic stock, and bedded it. Left it for a couple of days, and today I installed a Leupold 6.5-20X Scope on it and was getting ready to develop a load for it. First load I tried was 20.0 grains of Reloader 7 and 52 grain Brawand bullet. The case came out looking a bit funny! It was larger than a 223, but not fully formed as an Ackley!!!??? It appears I picked a 223 Ackley reamer instead of a standard 223!??? Well, not all is lost. I thought I will fireform some cases, then develop a load for it. I have thousands of bulk 50 grain soft point bullets, so loaded some with 24 grains of Reloader 7. I fired 96 rounds so far, and was amazed how small the whole groups was. I have not got it back to measure, but will do so tomorrow and post pictures. | ||
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The mark of a true craftsman is not that he does not make mistakes. It is knowing how to cover them up that counts. | |||
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Islam asks a lot from the faithful during the month of Ramadan. I was running a project with high heat and humidity, and several of the men were Muslims from Senegal. Not even a sip of water all day! My shift supervisor was an American of black African decent, and I am from good Welsh coal miner stock (pasty white, with the skin cancer scars to prove it). So he asks me what it is like, being Simon Legree, from Uncle Tom's Cabin and working black men all day in the sun without a drink of water? I told him it feels like crap, but if I am Legree, then he must be Sambo the evil overseer. Now try and explain America's racial dynamics, slavery,and Uncle Tom's Cabin to some guys from Senegal in a 15 minute break. At least I baptized each man's towel with ice water. They were a good tough group, I could work without food, but I just had to have the water. Glad I belong to whimp faith. Just got to skip a few meals and eat fish on Fridays for Lent. | |||
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Saeed- I know that fasting makes me weak, both physically and mentally. We all make mistakes when not as alert as we should be. If you still want the .223, can you set back the barrel far enough to have a go at it? The air gun barrel of course, is toast. Many Blessings- Ramadan Mubarek! Doug Wilhelmi NRA Life Member | |||
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We keep several sets of hardwood blocks grooved for various barrel diameters for just these situations. They are coated with rosin just like you would do with barrel blocks when re-barreling. This gives great gripping power and even distribution of force.
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That air gun barrel will make a good custom tomato stake. You just have to thread or weld on an extension as required!  | |||
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Have you thought of putting the barrel back in the vice 90 degrees around from last time and tightening it a similar amount? You might need slightly square pellets afterwards but, if it doesn't work, what is there to lose? When I was a kid I left my father's old db shotgun and some dead rabbits under a small trailer hitched behind his tractor, to stop them getting hot in the sun. Not knowing the gun was there, Dad moved the tractor, bending the barrels up a couple of inches. He took the gun home and belted the barrels against a bag of superphosphate until they were almost straight again. That gun was extra good on rising quail afterwards. | |||
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I marked the barrel 223 and as you can see I have added ACKwith a marker pen. Will have to take the barrel off and add Ackley to it. | |||
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Walter has shot himself numerous times with break open air rifles. He used to check the pressure by cocking it, and placing his finger blocking the muzzle to check on the pressure! On several occasions there was a pellet stuck inside, and he gets it  Walter is the person who does this, repeatedly! | |||
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Generous advice there, sir. Having fasted on occasion, I'd not feel able to do very much at all of importance without water or food (except pray.) _______________________ | |||
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air rifle must have been a blaser  | |||
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I thought the general senses here was that fluted barrels dont shoot worth a $#!T...  ._____________________ Steve Traxson | |||
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Well, we do not know how well this rifle is going to shoot. But, we are really scratching our heads here. The brass is from once fired military ammo made locally. They primer pockets are not the same size - some primers go in normally, others I have to really squeeze in - some actually get a small ring shaved off them!! The bullets we got many years ago in bulk. I think they are made by Remington. They used to come in a plastic bag in a cardboard box! I will let you know how this rifle shoots - previous 223 Ackley we have built shot very well. | |||
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Amen to that! | |||
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With a good barrel, the Sako action (which tend to be very straight for that model, and the new McMillan stock, and your (mostly) careful chambering work, that rifle will serve you very well. May I ask, what twist rate is the barrel?  | |||
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Dillon sells a tool to swage military primer pockets as most military ammo is manufactured with primers swaged in: Dillon John Farner If you haven't, please join the NRA! | |||
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