wildcat junkie

I called Marble Arms this morning & they are sending me 4 new 3/32" beads for the cost of postage. How that's great customer service.

IT"S GETTING THERE! I'm still rubbing in coats of boiled linseed oil & buffing it with a cloth. The bad news is, it takes forever! The good news is, I can go ahead & hunt with the gun and keep rubbing/ buffing. Once the metal is done rust bluing I can assemble the weapon and hunt with it. Every day when I come in from the woods, I'll give it a coat of boiled linseed oil. That will help preserve the metal finish too. It is starting to take on the sheen I'm looking for, but there are still a few pores that haven't completely filled yet.. I got a rust blue cycle competed last night. The way it took color, I think 4-5 cycles will get it dark enough to suit me. The last one I did took 9 cycles.! I'm hiving some fun with it on this thread. My Dakota Arms 3-position shroud/safety left Rochester last night. I'm hoping it gets here today so I can fit it & start rust bluing it. I'm running low on solution so I want to have all the parts ready so as to not waste solution by throwing the pads soaked in it away. I wasn't going to do the safety right now, but I scraped up the $$$ to buy the safety. I found it for less than $150 shipped from Brownells. I'm hoping to have it done by Saturday morning so we can have a watermelon smashing session on the 200yd rang at the local club. We'll be taking the 30/40 Krag, (with a new taller front sight & new loads) Curtis' 7mm-08 AXIS II, the 8x57 Oberndorph Classic, and the 8mm-06 Ackley. Maybe I'll get some videos?

MAUSER SOUP! How long do you usually cook one of these? Hmm I wonder if it's done yet? Stick a fork in it I think it's done! I hope I can get all this rust off! Phew, I hope it doesn't start rusting again! Wouldn't that be awful? How would I go about that?.

This would have been a lot easier with a milling machine, but since OI have more time than money & have learned how to use a "German mill" (mill file) It took me about a hour to get the sided flattened and perhaps another 45 minutes to file the rabbit cuts on the sides & another 45 minutes to remove the dovetail, grind the length down & fit the tang into the ramp slot. So about 2 1/2 hours of hand milling & fitting work was involved. To start with I used my wide "safe file" that has the teeth ground off the flat sides leaving only the edges that cut. This allowed me to start a cut along a flat section of the side of the sight post & continue it about 1/2 way along the side.I was able to file to a point where the sides of the dovetail were clamped in the vice. After nipping off the little excess material outboard of my cut, I was able to turn the sight 180* & flip it up for down to clamp on the portion I just milled away.I was then able to mill the rest of the material away on that side. Here is one side with the material rough cut away. Note that no material beyond the original flat dimension has been removed. The same process was used to rough off the other side. I then clamped the sides of the dovetail in the vice & used a regualr mill file to dress the sides down to a consistent .125" thickness. I then went back to the "safe file" which just so happened to be the right dimension for my rabbit cuts. I needed a thickness of .055" for the tang that would fit into the ramp slot so I filed one side to reduce the thickness to .090" (.035" rabbit) and reduced the thickness from the other side to .055". (another .35") Here is the result. Not that the dovetail is still intact albeit scarred from the vise jaws. Since the front will be ground down to match the original, I clamped this portion in a pair of vise grips and removed about 95% of the dovetail on a disc sander. I finished up with a mill file clamped flat in a vise to work the bottom over the file to remove the last few .001s of material. I then clamped the vise grips on the rabbit section to grind about 90% of the material from the front of the sight. That left me with perhaps .010 or so to file flush with the ramp after I pinned it. Here is the semi finished product. I'm sorry to say that I got a bit careless (lazy) & rather than go out to the garage to get a narrower file, I tried to finesse the side thickness with my wide mill file and flattened the sides of the 3/32" bead slightly. I'll go to the local hobby store sometime this week & get a piece of 3/32 brass rod to fabricate & solder on a new bead.

One of the shortcomings of the Krag is the horrid military sights. Even if you can see well enough to shoot, they are generally calibrated to the 220gr RN military ammunition. There are a few "no drill" receiver sights available such as the Pacific K-2. I was fortunate to score on on e-bay last summer. Even these will sometimes not allow enough adjustment to bring the POI down far enough.. When I recently cooked up some modern (low pressure) loads with the Hornady 30396 FTX 160gr bullets, I was indeed about 4" high at 50yds with a 6:00 hold on the bottom of the 8" bull. The solution was a taller front sight. Something in the neighborhood of 1/16" taller would do. I did some searching & found a Marble's front sight that ended up being .55" taller when I was finished with i, but it took about an hour with some precise file work to get what I needed.. Here is the Marbles .570" (from the bottom of the dovetail to the top of the bead) front sight and the front sight leaf from the Krag. The front sight is not the original military sight. The gun was "sporterized", probably sometime in the early part of the 20th century. The original sight measures .425 top to bottom and the Marbles sight, after the dovetail is removed will measure .480". That is .055" taller Since the sight radius is 26 1/2" and 50yds is 150 x 12 = 1800", the factor is 1800/26.5 = 68. That being the case, the .055" taller sight will lower the POI by (.055 x 68 = 3.74) 3 3/4", just about perfect to allow a bit of adjustment for a 3" high 100 yd zero. I will post some pictures of the file work involed later.

GERMAN!

I think I'll boil it for a while after supper.

What do you recon I should do now?

I've had a large, bench seat ladder stand with a tin roof in what should be a good location for 12 years now. It is located on the Western edge of a 15 acre section of my woods that was selectively logged off in 1999.There are several "transitions" as far as cover in that area. A small marshy area to the South, a slightly elevated knoll with hardwoods on the east slope & cedar on the crest/West slope. There is a hardwood area with oaks to the West and North with hemlocks in between. The logged over area is so thick you can hardly crawl through it! The deer travel patterns crisscross through the area. Directly to the South, about 50 yds from the stand is the end of a 250 yd shooting lane that stretches out in front of my tripod where I have killed several 2 1/2 year old & 3 1/2 year old bucks & several mature doe, yet the only deer that have been killed from this stand were 3 yearling bucks taken by my son. It seems that mature deer would avoid the stand when it is occupied, yet they would often be observed from the tripod frequenting the area when the stand is empty.. This year, a few weeks ago, we decided to shift the stand location slightly to offer better concealment. I went out today to put a new bench seat back in the stand so I snapped some pictures. This stand is so comfortable, we call it "The Penthouse Suite". In the picture below, near the left margin, you can see the new stand location tucked into a white pine tree that is right next to a hemlock. I cable tied several hemlock boughs to the roof supports to offer even more concealment. The stand was previously in the maple that is about 30' to the right & slightly behind the new location. You can see how exposed the stand would have been in the maple. Here is the entry trail to the stand. It is only about 12 yds off a horse-trail. This is the view looking back from the stand. There are a few narrow shooting lanes between the entry trail & a wide open expanse looking over the horse-trail to the front. I am posting pictures from the stand as well as a deer's eye view . As we rotate to the left now there is a rather long stretch of horse-trail that offers a good field of fire. In the center of this picture you can see the "Y" intersection of the horse-trail that comes down off the cedar knoll. This trail is used heavily by the deer. Concealment is excellent from this angle as you can barely pick out the stand in the center of the shot. At about 9:30 from the stand is a shooting lane with another narrow lane to the left. From the deer's view on these, concealment is excellent. Again, these areas see a lot of deer infiltration. I shot the majority of my deer in these areas of the horse-trail from the tripod that is about 250 yds to the left. Finally, perhaps the most heavily used area at 9;00 from the stand. Over a dozen deer have been taken over the last 15 years from the distant tripod in this general area of the horse-trail. The view from the ground again seems to show excellent concealment for the new stand location in the white pine/hemlock trees in the distant center. You have to look very closely to pick out the stand from this angle. I'm hoping that the concealment factor will improve success out of this stand. We won't start hunting this area until just before Halloween.That when the bucks start cruising the area.

IMO the M700 BDL is still stuck in the '70s with the overall lines, glossy finish and sights. High end guns are almost always matte finished wood & rust blued steel that has a satiny sheen. High gloss is not a good finish on a hunting rifle. I would go for the M700 CDL. The Winchester M70 Super Grade is nicer yet. It has better wood, controlled round feed bolt, satin finish and NO SIGHTS! I think the M70s are now made by FN & I would expect the QC to be far better than Remington.

I was using a 6:00 hold on that 8" bull so the gun is shooting about 4" high at 50 yds with the rear sight screwed all the way down, That would be over 7" high at 100 & it would top out about 9" high at 175 yds. Way too much trajectory to allow for to suit my tastes. The front sight s a .055" thick flat plate with a 3/32" gold bead that is pinned to a ramp of sorts. It is .425" from top to bottom. I can get a .570" high Marble's sight like the one bellow. cut the dovetail off & file the sides flat to fit the slot and pin it like the original. That should end up about .470" high which will drop the POI at 100 yds by about 6 1/4". That will allow me some adjustment on the receiver sight to bring it to 3" high at 100 yds. That will be about the top of the trajectory & it will hit dead on at around 200 yds. 50 yds will be about 2" high and at 15 yds it will drive tacks.

I hope these bullets hold together better than the others. My Mv is just a hair over what the 308 Marlin Express churns up. I was about 300 fps above the envelope for the 30/;30 bullets.

Got out to the range today. One of the things I wanted to accomplish was range testing some incremental loads worked up with the Hornady FTX 30396 bullets designed for the .308 Marlin Express. These are tougher construction than the 30395 bullets designed for the 30/30. After having the 30395 bullet disintegrate on a 120 yd hit that struck a whitetail buck's neck vertebrae, a conversation with Hornady determined that I was exceeding the design envelope of that particular bullet by several hundred FPS. The 30396 bullet was designed for the Mv that the Krag was churning out, but the pointier ogive gave me concern as to whether the bullets would suffer in accuracy due to the longer jump to the lands that would occur. I loaded 5 rounds each in 2 different OAL (3.100" and 3.150") with powder charges of 50.0, 50.5 and 51gr of Alliant Reloder 17. I had no sight black & the brass bead, great for in the woods on brown fur, was quite difficult to see on the targets. As the sun receded I was able to get a better sight picture & was able to get off a pretty good group @ 50yds. 50gr of RL-17 2 3.150" OAL seemed to be the sweet spot for the old Krag. I did have 1 flter that was probably my fault, but it plunked 4 shots into a nice tight group considering that I was using iron sights..

You just demonstrated how little you know about investment casting & metallurgy in general.

If you want something that won't "blow up" get a LR M98 Mauser. Soft/tough core with hard carburized outer skin. You can "swell one up" & even perhaps spit out the barrel. but the actions themselves have a reputation of holding together no matter what.

Savage AXIS II in 7mm-08. All the gun you would ever need in NYS. Sell the junk glass that comes with it on e-bay & use that towards a Leupold VX-II 3-9X40. Use the mounts & rings that come with it. You should be able to get in for around $550 when all is said & done.

Stick a knife straight in just behind the jaw below the ear.

All of my scoped rifles are sighted in for maximum PBR + or - 3". W/ most medium velocity cartridges (2700-3000 fps) that is 275 to 300yds. I can easily pick out a gap wider than that through my scope at 50 yds or more to shoot through at all but the closest ranges. At any range that is closer than that, I can pick out a gap to shot through with my naked eye before I raise my rifle.

Don't get me started!

My son wasn't going to hunt this year until I showed him the "Big Hammer"! Now he bought his license & even applied for a doe tag in 6C. Iv'e got about a dozen watermelons that din't quite ripen before leaf spot got to the vines. Ought to make for a fun day on the 200yd range. "SLEDGE-O-MATIC"

Got the 1st coat of oil rubbed in today.Thinned about 50% with turpentine to allow more penetration. The figure will come out more as the grain is filled.

Just for fits & giggles I used my 1-4 x 20 Leupold on my Mossberg 835 to shoot trap. I had no problem @ 1X getting on target & judging lead was very easy. I don't remember what I shot, but I certainly didn't feel like I was handicapped.

There's no reason to use iron sights over a properly selected scope at any range unless the gun won't mount a scope over the center of the action or the weapon in question is a muzzle loader.

Out of 3 M700s that I bought new, 2 were tack drivers & the other would not shoot better than 3" groups @ 100yds no matter what I fed it. The other 2 shot 3/8" to 5/8" 3 shot groups at 100yds. I did a chamber cast & found that the chamber was .004" off center. The rifling did not even appear on 1 side of the casting and on the other side, it extended all the way to the case neck portion of the chamber. The casting was done in such a way as to show the 1st few inches of the barrel throat ahead of the chamber. When I contacted Remington about this their reaction was that the off center chamber would not affect accuracy & that 3" at 100yds was "acceptable" accuracy! They offered to have a look at it under warranty, but after the phone conversation, & advice from others that had experience with Remington warranty service, I traded it in on a new M700 CDL.

At 2:40 there is a multiple stock lathe that uses a similar concept to the ones I mentioned in an earlier post about early gun making machinery. The ones I was referring to where less sophisticated but the concept of a master with multiple stocks being turned simultaneously is the same.