As I am new to this site I will repeat a question made elsewhere about the FBW actions.

Does anyone here own one? (Besides myself that is)

I would be interested in some exchange about these actions; their weak and strong points with other shooters here.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

I owned one many years ago (mid 1970s) which had been stocked and barreled by Harold Fuller of Cooper Landing, Alaska, for .45-2 7/8" Sharps. The action was sloppy and the falling block lever had lots of play in it; it needed to be shimmed up (and Harold said he could do it). The biggest problem, though, was the little tiny extractor. I had a lot of trouble extracting fired cases and was always afraid I'd break it right off. I disliked the action so much that I sold off the entire rifle. A good gunsmith should be able to tighten up such an action if desired but you're still stuck with that midget extractor. As I recall, the actions were being made in Fraser, Michigan, at the time.

Revdog,

Thanks for the post.

The FBW I own was built in the early 80s. The action has always been tight and the extractor has never given me any problems in two different chamberings.

I used it in the old Coors Scheutzenfests as a 30 Herrett LN and it is now doing very well as a 44/63 Ballard.

The only weak point in the action I have encountered is the mainspring which will break after only 2500 or 3000 rounds are fired. By now, there are no replacement springs available so I made a jig and ran off a bunch of new springs myself.

These springs are for sale, cheap. All I want to do is keep these rifle shooting.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

Have one in 45/120 3 1/4 inch.Haven't shot it yet but it's certainly a nice gun.You can see my bad pics of it here-
http://community.webshots.com/photo/56259045/56260689gbxhQa

Brian.

PS-My action was made in Maybee,Mich.

[ 01-02-2003, 11:33: Message edited by: Brian M ]

Oh, yeah, I always thought the mainspring was weak and sloppy, too. Wish they had used leaf springs instead of those flat coils. My rifle was beautiful with a steel buttplate, a shotgun style stock of superior walnut, and a hand-made and rifled 32" octagon barrel that was 1 1/8" across the flats, 32" long; the whole works went about 14 pounds.