A friend from a neighboring state called to tell me that he has a friend who is having a problem with a gun, and could I possibly help him?

I said sure, give him my number and ask him to call me.

Next day I got a call, and from the conversation I gathered that this gentleman bought himself a Steyer Scout rifle in 243 Winchester.

He said that was his first mistake, as he really wanted a 308 Winchester chambered rifle, because of the availability of ammo.

Undeterred, he got himself loading dies and components to load his own ammo, despite the fact he had never done so before.

In fact, this was his very first rifle.

He also got a set of scope mounts and a scope.

He said his problems were that his reloads will not chamber - the bolt will not close on them.

And having managed to get some factory 243 ammo, he could not get the rifle to shoot to point of aim.

"It is shooting very low" he said.

I asked him to bring his rifle and ammo, and I will see what I can do to fix it.

He dropped the rifle at my house while I was out.

When I looked at his ammo, I could see there is a bulge in the reloaded ammo - all of them.

Something did not seem right here.

I got my calibers to measure the bulge, and guess what I found??

He had loaded 257 caliber bullets into a 243 Winchester!!!??

OK, one problem solved.

Now I know why he could not chamber his rounds.

I took the bolt out of the rifle, to check bore sighting it.

The scope was pointing way too high.

Checking that, I found that the front scope was touching the Picatiny rail, and the front scope ring could not be tightened fully because of this!!

I was scratching my head!

A really nice gun, but....

I called my friend and told him the story.

After what seems like ages, him laughing so loud, he said "do you like that rifle?"

I said "what do you mean do I like it?"

"Do you have any 308 rifle you want to swap for it?" he said.

"Sure, why?"

"I will come over this after. Have whatever rifle you want to swap for this one ready, and if you have a couple of boxes of military 308 ammo, that will clinch the deal"

I have a number of cheap German made rifles in 308 Winchester, so put a Redfield scope on it, 50 rounds of military 308 ammo, and now I am the proud owner of a brand new Steyer Scout in 243 Winchester.

I changed the scope on it, and put a Leupold 3-9 Lightweight on it.

They are nice rifles!

Gotta love it when a plan comes together!

quote:

I am the proud owner of a brand new Steyer Scout in 243 Winchester.

One should make a deal like that once a week.

But they do not come along that often.

Great deal! My son has a camouflage one in 308 and it is very handy.

Amazing story with a good ending... both parties were happy.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

I am the proud owner of a brand new Steyer Scout in 243 Winchester.

One should make a deal like that once a week.

But they do not come along that often.

Actually, I have dozens of rifle I got in swaps with others.

A man brought a Remington 40X in 6mmBR Remington.

He said it is not shooting very accurately.

I know him very well, so I said “ I bet there is nothing wrong with the gun. It is you who cannot shoot it well”

He laughed, and basically said show me.

I took 5 of his cases, and loaded them with a load from the book.

I fired them, and they clustered into one ragged hole!

I loaded the same 5 cases, same load, and gave it to him to shoot!

Got 5 seperate holes!

He said he does not like the trigger - 2 ounce Jewel!

I had a Remington BDL HB in 223 Remington in the gun rack, and asked if we could swap.

I did not argue with that!

Nice trades.
I figured you were going to say that he rechambered it to 308 and was trying to fire 308 bullets down a 243 hole.
I think it was Ackley who told of a guy who did that to a 6.5 Japanese; he was firing 30-06s from it without issue. He actually hand ground the pilot down because it was too big.

It wasn't Ackley, it was in the Dope Bag column of an old American Rifleman. The fellow chambered it with a .30-'06 reamer, after he had turned the pilot down, held it on the far side of a tree while he pulled the trigger to test fire it, found that it held together and took it deer hunting and actually killed a deer with it. He then brought it to the gunsmith, because it was "kicking too hard". The gunsmith looked at it and told him that he had brought the wrong rifle, that it was a 6.5, not a 7.7. The owner replied that he had only the one Jap rifle, and this was it. Upon checking, the smith found that he was right. He then sent it in to the NRA for testing. The NRA, who would do things in those days, sent it to the H.B. White Laboratory for testing. They fired it by remote control, both commercial and military loads, and recovered the bullets, which were pictured with the article, together with unfired bullets for comparison. Their trip through the .264 bore had lengthened them considerably. The bolt was hard to open, but afterwards the headspace was within normal limits.

In testing military action strengths, P.O. Ackley put the Arisaka action through all kinds of torture tests, but never succeeded in blowing one up. He did succeed in blowing the barrel off the action, however.

A friend found a type 99 in the trash dump when we were kids; we tried to blow it up with various powders, but nothing happened but some very mangled brass.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
A friend from a neighboring state called to tell me that he has a friend who is having a problem with a gun, and could I possibly help him?

It does sound like he could use some good mentoring. Hopefully he is not discouraged with the experience and will go out and shoot with some friends. We get new guys at the local matches sometimes and we try to help them out and encourage them to come back. Hopefully they have fun, even if they are unprepared and have improper equipment.

in 80 i sold a guy a mod29 and warned him about recoil. he brought it back and said it shoots low and wanted his $$ back. i said if i can prove its u and the gun is ok will u keep it. he said sure but its the gun. i loaded it and handed it to him with the first 2 chambers empty. first try the bbl almost hit the dirt he was flinchin so bad. i told him to try again and second time same thing. i said i thought u don't flinch. he looked kinda redfaced and left.

quote:

Originally posted by jpl:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
A friend from a neighboring state called to tell me that he has a friend who is having a problem with a gun, and could I possibly help him?

It does sound like he could use some good mentoring. Hopefully he is not discouraged with the experience and will go out and shoot with some friends. We get new guys at the local matches sometimes and we try to help them out and encourage them to come back. Hopefully they have fun, even if they are unprepared and have improper equipment.

Great attitude. They need encouragement and mentoring as they are obviously interested enough to start in the first place.

Having said that, there are some people, no matter how well intentioned, who should never be let near a firearm they are few and far between however.

About 15 years ago we had a pistol match. 26 shooters, 25 targets. "use whatever handgun you desire"

Some close 10' on the run, two shots per 3 targets, most varied ranges 25 feet, to 75 yards. I did exceptionally well with my .30 Carbine Blackhawk.

When it was over, Mike and some buddies brought his scoped .44 mag Super Blackhawk to me with 5 shells. "would you shoot my last shells and see what's wrong with my gun?" "my shots are all over the target, a few even missed it completely". Re" 4 square.

"sure but I've never shot a pistol with a scope before"
I shot 'em, 75 yards, nice 4" group. Even I was amazed. "sorry Mike, it's not your gun, scope or loads". "They do seem to be mighty hot loads, what did you load in them?" "250gr, 25gr H110" when I looked it up in the book later at home it showed 2-3 gr over max. A couple months later I saw him and he said the barrel had split and Ruger replaced it n/c.

George