DeHass mentions that rolling blocks firing their heavier smokeless chamberings stretch cases more than other actions. These would have been 7 Mauser, .30-40, etc.

Anyone here shooting such cartridges in an RB care to comment on this?

He attributes the stretching to the breech forces on firing taking up the last bit of slack in the joints between the breech and hammer, the hammer and its pin, and that pin and the frame. It occurs to me that with the hammer pin so far back, the action is similar to both the rear locking bolt gun and the various lever guns, and these actions are also noted for stretching cases.

That said, the rolling block hammer cams forward the breech a bit, and the hammer spring is very stiff. This leaves me wondering how much slack there is to take up. Also, the rear lock up isn't so far rearward as on the other actions mentioned.

Anyone shooting, say, a 7 Mauser in both the RB and a falling block? To compare case life would be interesting.

Karl

The more the flex in the bolt the more the stretch. As an extreme case if a H&K G3 didn't have fluted chamber the head of the case would be torn off !!I have a RB, by Lone Star Rifle, but I won't use hot loads. From all the comments I've heard about RBs in 7 x57 I wouldn't doubt that the dimensions of the cartridge have changed along the way.

I'm not sure of the year, but I think it was around 1948, there was a sidebar in an issue of the American Rifleman that stated that Remington Rolling Blocks used a different headspacing than what was considered standard. Why they did this was not specified, but it was recommended that Remington rolling blocks in 7x57 not be fired until the headspace was checked out by a gunsmith.
Paul B.

mete, how do you like your Lone Star RB?

I stopped by his place once and was very tempted to buy one of his .30-40's. He's a great fellow, but I still wonder if this is too much cartridge for the action.

My Lone Star RB is in 45-70 but since my shooting has been substantially reduced I would like to sell it .It is beautifully made,with fantastic color case hardening.The original RB was made in at least 4 sizes and chambered in numerous cartridges.The lone Star should be able to handle the 30-40 if you didn't go above 40,000psi. The Krag ,remember has only one locking lug thay's why the lower pressures.

I found this to be true in old RB's chambered for the 7X57mm Mauser using factory ammo! Not only does the case stretch, but the casehead sets back more on top than on the bottom, resulting in a casehead out of square with the case body!! And, it is true that the headspace specifications for the 7X57mm used in the Rem. RB's is "more generous" than that of current rifles so chambered. However, this did not seem to cause problems when using the relatively low-pressure original U.S. 175-grain RN 7X57mm ammo.

Sharpe wrote that the old US 7mm ammo ran about 39,000 as measured with crushers. Modern US loadbooks push the cartridge right to the SAAMI limit of 46,000 CUP, nearly a 20% jump. He also said European stuff ran close to 55,000. He also claimed he'd hit his RB with European proof cartridges of 70,000. He didn't say in what shape the cases were after that. I do wonder, though; the RB just doesn't look quite that strong to my eye.



As for cases out of square, I remember reading something about that on the late talk.shooters.com, but other owners replied their cases were not left out of square. I wonder if yours simply left the factory a bit out of square? Perhaps Remington built most with a bit of a forward slant on the breech face to compensate. On the other hand, for a military action, who cares if the case is mangled. Soldiers don't handload.