Shootaway asking if a novice can chamber a barrel, got me thinking of this.



Years ago, we decided that we have had enough of waiting for anything to be done from outside sources, and wanted to setup our own gunsmithing workshop.

We had plenty of desire, but not much in the way of experience - read that as NONE whatsoever!

But, we had Walter.

Walter was the only qualified gunsmith we have.

And because of the dire need of finding someone more qualified as any of us, we somehow forgot that Walter tends to leave a string of disasters behind him that look like a nasty tornado.

One of his most memorable lapses of intelligence was the cause of him shooting himself in the thigh with a shotgun!

I know, it is very hard to imagine anyone doing this even intentionally, but, our Walter is rather special, and has the talent for it.

What happened was he was working in Germany years ago.

Someone brought him a shotgun that has a problem with the trigger.

Apparently it would not fire.

And to get at the triggers, Walter said he had to remove the stock.

And as we all know, it is very hard to close an over under without a stock, unless you turn it around facing you.

Walter could not find a snap cap.

So what else can one put in the barrel?

Yep!

A loaded skeet round.

Walter turns the barrels towards himself, and snaps the action shut.

The gun goes off - HE FIXED IT!

And half his thigh was blown off. Missed his reproduction parts by inches!

Luckily for all of us, he survived that minor incident, to provide us with many more "did you actually do that?" moments.

I am not going to relate any more of his adventures here, but will get back to our first chambering job.

We ordered an EMCO lathe from Austria.

It just so happens that the lathe was arriving while Walter and me were enjoying an African safari in Zimbabwe.

So I gave some money to Walter's son, who happens to be called Walter too.

And as you might guess, that old saying that the apple does not fall far from the tree is true here too.

Walter Junior, trying to save money, decided to ask a friend of his who has a pickup truck to help deliver the lathe to my house, instead of getting a commercial company to do it.

Apparently they planned to have a big party with their girl friends with the money they save.

The truck had removable sides to the loading back.

They got the lathe to my house, on the borrowed truck.

The lathe is very heavy - at the airport they loaded it for them, and it never entered their heads that they need something to unload it - see what I mean about the apple does not fall far from the tree??

So some improvisation was in order.

They decided to put planks at 45 degree angle from the truck to the ground, and roll the lathe down.

They gathered enough people to help push the lathe to the side of the truck.

As the lathe changed the center of gravity of the truck, the truck keeled over on its side!

Eventually they did manage to to get the lathe down, and the truck the right way up again.

Of course, we did not know this as we were on safari.

We got back, and asked a friend who runs a workshop with several lathes to help us install it.

He knows Walter very well.

I asked him "Heinz, how long will it take you to install and level the lathe?"
"It depends. Is Walter going to be there?"

"He will, if you need his help"
"Can you send him to do something else? I can do the job much quicker without him around"

Heinz came over in the morning with all the equipment he needs, and in no time at all the lathe was moved into the workshop, and leveled perfectly.

Now, as Walter is our only qualified gunsmith, we called him to come over quick, as Heinz wants to say hell.

Walter arrived soon after. They started talking in German with Heinz, so I told them to shut up and talk English.

Walter "Very good Heinz. You did a great job installing the lathe"

I said "Heinz specifically wanted to install it without you here"
"WHAT? Is that true?"
"Yes. If you were here we will still be arguing how to unpack the lathe. Now you have it ready to teach Saeed how to operate it. And when you fail, I will send one of my mechanics to show him"

"You do not have a very good opinion of your fellow Germans ha?"

"I am just repeating what Saeed said"

We decided to start in the workshop next day afternoon.

We have old, discarded barrels, and we thought we will practice on one of these.

The only reamer I had at the time was one for the 6mm Remington BR.

Walter arrived. Ice cream, chocolate, cake and coffee was ready for him.

He likes to eat while working. And his preferred food is anything with sugar.

I said "Here, here is an old barrel, and here is a reamer. Cut the chamber end shorter, and then you can chamber it with this reamer."

He was busy eating, and had that funny look on his face.

"What is the matter?"
"Did I tell you before that I have never chambered a barrel before?"

"WHAT? You said you worked in Germany?"

"Yes, but only fixing shotguns"
"And shooting yourself with them you mean"

"Yes. That too. But it was not meant to happen. But, don't worry, I think I know how to chamber a barrel. It is just like drilling a hole, isn't it?"

Our workshop was getting crowded, as everyone wanted to see what Walter will do.

Walter got to work.

He installed the barrel in the lathe, and cut a bit off it at the chamber end started cutting the chamber.

A few minutes later, I could see that the reamer was going in too far.

"Did you measure how far you are cutting?"
"Measure what?"

"Measure that you have gone in far enough but not too far?!"

"What do you mean too far? There is still more to go."

"OK. stop. Let us check how far a case will go."

I put a 6mm BR Remington case in and it disappeared into the barrel!!?

I got a 243 Winchester case, and that went in all the way too!!

"Well done Walter! You screwed up your very first chambering job"

I wish we had a video camera in the workshop! There was so much laughter, it was unbelievable.

After that had died down, I called Dwight on the phone, and told him what happened.

He gave me an earful! Of us being nothing but bloody mad! And that we were going to get ourselves hurt, if not killed.

He basically said we should leave lathe work to an expert.

That wasn't going to happen, as we planned to become experts ourselves.

I spent a bit of time on the phone with Dwight, getting some pointers on how to chamber a barrel.

And as the old saying goes, we learn from our mistakes.

That was Walter's first and last clambering job.

Dwight suggested I get a few more tools to help, which I did.

Then chambered a barrel for our only reamer, the 6mm BR Remington on a Remington 700 action.

The job was finished, so we headed down to the shooting room to test it.

Walter "What are we going to tie it to?"
"Tie it to what?"

"Something down the tunnel"

"Why?"

"Because we do not know if will work or blow up! That is why"

"We are not going to tie up to anything. I will shoot it. I will load a low velocity round and see what happens"

I did, and everything looked good.

I loaded a full round, and that worked too.

As soon as word got around that we are ready, requests for rifles to be built kept coming in.

We have over 180 different chambering reamers now, some are factory rounds, and many are wildcats.

Thanks for the good story.

Now, that's funny; except for the shooting in the leg part. Does Walter limp?

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Now, that's funny; except for the shooting in the leg part. Does Walter limp?

No.

Only the flesh got damaged.

He tells people he was bitten by a shark!

He said it is more romantic than shooting oneself!

OMG Saeed !
I know Walter.
But his name is not Walter.
It's Leo.
And he doesn't speak German.
He speaks French!
And he didn't shoot himself. He cut off his thumb when the lid of the dumpster he was emptying a chip tray into slammed closed on it and smashed it beyond repair. But Leo thinks it's very cool to have had a dumpster cut off ones thumb. Dumpsters are very dangerous - - - - - appliances? He's never linked the story to sharks though. I suppose it all stems from the fact that there are so few sharks in Montreal. Other than a few guys named Vinnie, Sal and Pierre. LOL

I remember many moons ago Saeed shared a pic of a 380WIN (i think) with an odd double shoulder. Seems someone drilled to far and ruined a perfect chamber that was Ok with a Go-No Go gauge.

quote:

Originally posted by The Dane:
I remember many moons ago Saeed shared a pic of a 380WIN (i think) with an odd double shoulder. Seems someone drilled to far and ruined a perfect chamber that was Ok with a Go-No Go gauge.

Yes.

Reminds me of the Herter Magnums!

You really should publish a book about Walter's exploits. Sounds like it would be some fun reading.

No attorneys where you live ?

I actually had a client have a 308 win reamer cut with a double ( dif angled ) shoulder angle . He insisted it made his throat last longer . He could actually get about 8000 rounds ( his count ) before he get fliers .
Who knows , he paid his bill and never complained .
He demonstrated how it also lined up the cases using a funnel with 2 dif angles , the funnel always found center and a normal funnel would just tilt any which way .