wildcat junkie

I saw the picture I posted in the 1st post on the website and it was marked down for clearance. It has a little bit of a gap @ the back of the rear receiver ring & it is channeled for a military barrel. All of that can be filled W/color matched glas & it won't be obvious unless on is looking very closely & looking for it specifically. The bottom metal opening is perfect & that is the hard one to fill. I'll have the chamber area of the barrel exterior turned to duplicate the military profile anyway. Since I had an intermediate length M98 action stashed, I scraped up the $$$ & bought it for a future project. I'm getting to the point where I need to get these rifles built while I can still enjoy them.

I'm keeping it a secret from my son. It would be wonderful to surprise him with it when we go to the range in the fall to check zeros! I'll have 3 barreled actions to rust blue this summer counting this one, the 8mm-06 Ackley & Dads Krag. This one will be the priority.

Here's what I'll be working on over the spring & summer. All I'm lacking now is the 7x57 barrel which is ordered, paid for & due from E.R. Shaw in 12-16 weeks.

My package from Midway came yesterday. I laid out the parts & rubbed a little Minwax Antique Oil Finish into the wood to highlight the grain. It will look even better when it is sanded smooth & finished, but this gives an idea of the amount of fiddleback in the Black Walnut. A different angle. I've been working hard to get my gun building bench & R/C aircraft hanger into shape over the last week. I'm having foot surgery on the 24th & will have to stay off the foot completely for 6 weeks. Crutches & a "knee walker"! I'll have lots of arse time to spend at the benches building.

Probably the same guy that claims that the "7mm ought 8" is a magnum because ought 8 is bigger than ought 6 & his brother in law shot a der @ 3000yds W/one. Using FMJ for any game other than maybe a charging Cape Buffalo or elephant is asinine..

Why in the hell would I even want to shoot a modern inline when I have a.54 caliber round ball rifle that will shoot 2" @ 100yds off a rest & kill a deer as far as anyone would ethically shoot W/iron sights? And conicals are seldom as accurate as a patched round ball. I learned how to care & feed a traditional muzzle loader more than 30 years ago. I doubt that there are many on this forum that ever had the chance to shoot a good round ball rifle in a caliber suitable for big gamer W/a barrel that had the proper rifling. Thomson Centers Hawken & Renegades were mediocre at best. The only decent ones were the CVA Big Bore .54 & .58 Mountain Rifles & they never got the publicity that the TC did. This whole inline stuff is a marketing ploy to sell black powder substitutes by Bass Pro shops & their ilk. With black powder you don't need all the "modern" stuff. It is harder to ignite & therefore it less reliable. Go to a big ML shoot & see how many use substitutes in competition. As far as Friendship, I lived in Southern Indiana for 22 years not to awful far from Freindship. In the spring & summer one could shoot in competition almost every weekend. We shot for powder, patches, meat, etc. No trophies or medals. Flintlocks didn't get any special consideration yet they were more often than not the winners against percussion guns. I went to Friendship once & shot ML trap. The crowds were just too big for my liking. There was bumper to bumper traffic for miles. For the better part of that 22 years I lived in S Indiana I hunted exclusively W/muzzle loaders. I had 3 different squirrel rifle finally building my self a .36 cal Flintlock Tennessee rifle. I have two 12ga dbl barrel muzzleloaders that I hunted Cottontails with probably taking over 100 W/my dogs using them. I've taken pheasant & squirrels W/the shotguns too. I've taken a few dozen deer W/the .54s. I would burn up over a pound of powder a week shooting 100rds of ML sheet during the summer when I could afford it. We bought 10# lots of BP for $45 in those days.

Just did a .little research on BH209 Vs black powder. 10oz of BH209 is $34.59, GOEX ffg is $16.99 a pound. BH209 = $3.46 an oz, GOEX ffg = $1.06 an oz. BH209 costs more than 3x as much. Now factor in the cost of casting your own round balls vs expensive, inferior (@ ML velocities) conical bullets & it costs maybe 10X as much to shot "modern" muzzle loaders than traditional. Which guy is going to be deadlier W/his weapon?

Dupont AKA GOEX.. Back in the 1980-90s I shot competition. I used uo ob=ver 260# of lead casting my own round balls in one summer. When shooting on the line I would use either spit or "Moose Milk" as a patch lube. I would shoot about 40 round before build up on the p]breech face would have my ramrod showing 1/4" of build up on the breech plug face. I would then clean between the next relays W/a breech face scraper. Spit works just fine if you are going to shoot the round in short order. It doesn't hurt that my barrel has a 1 in 70" twist W/.015" deep rifling. My challenge still holds. I'll compete against any modern ML shooting off-hand W/my .54 round ball rifle @ a 9" gong 100yds distance. Loading from the pouch. Start W/an empty weapon that is ready to load. When the 1st contestant gets 10 hits, the contest ends.

That's my dream 22rf squirrel rifle.

The main concern W/temperature sensitivity in powders has more to do W/chamber pressure than Mv. When cycling the bolt of a DGR in the African heat, a spike in chamber pressure that results in a sticky bolt lift could prove detrimental to ones health when a quick follow-up shot on a charging Cape Buffalo is the situation that needs immediate attention. This is one of the reasons why African PHs prefer double rifles or, in the case of bolt actions, the 375 H&H. The sharp taper of the H&H case promotes easier extraction regardless of what chamber pressure has done to the brass.

Some powders are are temperature stable than others.

Gold chains too, gotta have the gold chains.

The 8mm-06 Ackley & possibly the 7x57 should be ready for deer season this fall. The other 2 will require the purchase of wood & that is some serous $$$, especially the Bastogne walnut.

Quickload is a tool just like "book data". I can not be 200% accurate for every rifle & load. It is to be used as a comparative tool & an estimate of chamber pressure when actual Mv is determined. I found significant decrepencies in actual Mv between a Savage AXIS II & a M700 in 7mm-08 W/the same 22" barrel length.

The same can be said for Black Powder if you know what you are doing.

I have 2 M98 actions on the shelf for my last 2 "dream rifles". Action #1 on my shelf: 1939 vintage Oberndorf M98K action. The best of the best when metallurgy, fit & finish are the priorities. 26" barrel chambered in 8X68S turned form a 29" Iranian Mauser barrel (in hand) from the same era. Again the best of the best in that configuration. 1904 Portuguese bottom metal W/a straddle floorplate. (in hand) The magazine box will be lengthened to 3.525" length & widened for the proper 60* stack of the 8X68S cartridges. Topped W/my 3-9X42 Kales scope. Timney Sportsman trigger, Dakota 3-pos M70 wing type safety. Classic "Express rifle" Bastonge Walnut stock W/ebony fore-end tip & grip cap, 1" Pachmayr Decelerator pad. Classic heavy "African plains game" rifle that will be capable of shooting 180gr bullets @ 3250fps, 200gr Hotcores @ 3150fps for medium game & 250gr Weldcores/solids @ 2700fps for anything up to Cape Biuffalo. Action #2 on my shelf: 1910 Mexican Mauser (FN Manufacture) small ring, small thread shank M98 action. Again, the best of the best in that configuration. Bottom metal will have a modified (military) sliding hinge floorplate W/push-button release. 24" barrel in a lightweight contour chambered in 6.5X55 & turned from the #2 contour blank 6.5mm barrel that I already have. Timney Sportsman trigger, Dakota 3-pos M70 wing type safety. Slim Claro walnut Monte Carlo stock W'short fore-end for high scope mounting to allow maximum + or - 3" PBR. Ebony fore-end tip & grip cap, 1" Pachmayr Decelerator pad. Topped off by a Leupold 3-9X33 ultra-light scope. Lightweight Prairie/mountain rifle shooting 129gr Nosler Accubond LR bullets @ 3100fps for + or - 3" PBR out to 325yds & "hold on hair" for medium game out to 400yds. Those 2 will complete the opposite ends of my all metric Mauser rifle battary: 6.5X55 7X57 8X57IS 8mm-06 Ackley Improved 8X68S All good company for Dad's 30/40 Krag, an ideal woods rifle for deer & Black Bear. I have recently been motivated to get these done while I'n still able. My son better learn to reload as none of these have ammo sitting on every local Walmart or gun shop shelf.

When the barreled action gets back from Dennis Olsen it will take an afternoon's work glas bedding it into the stoc to get it shooting. The only thing left will be rust bluing the metal, but it will be a perfectly functional weapon after it is bedded into the stock.If the rust bluing doesn't get accomplished by deer season I have some cold blue that will suffice in the mean time. I got my Norma MRP powder last Thursday so load development will be commencing shortly.

For me it all started W/muzzleloaders. I have built 7 "from the block", meaning a stock blank..

If you are referring to the 8mm-06 Ackley Improved, I originally built the gun in 2000. At that time, the barrel was turned too thin & it would walk the POI towards 11:00 about 1" at a time as successive shots were made. I never took a picture of it. This time around I am employing a barrel from an earlier rendition of the M98 that had a 29" barrel (pre 98K) that has more meat on the forward portion. This will allow a 26" finished barrel that will have more mass.IO am also using a hinged floorplate from a 1904 Portuguese. The stock will be recycled. The extra barrel length W/modern high energy powders will gain about 150fps & a given pressure. The loads cited in the post will be running @ about 62,800psi for the 8mm-06 Ackley & just under 60,000psi for the 7X57.

If you are using granulated powder, why not just use Black Powder?

Custom M98 Mauser built on a '44 vintage J. P. Sauer action, 26" barrel, Black Walnut classic stock chamber ed in 8mm-06 Ackley Improved topped W/a Kalles 3-9X42 'American" scope. Either 180gr Nosler Ballistic tips @ 3050-3100fps or a Speer 200gr Hotcore @ 2900-2950fps. The longer potential cartridge length will be efficient W/the longer, slimmer Ballistic tips so if the 108 BTs will shoot sub MOA they will get the nod, otherwise the 200gr Hotcores will serve. An alternate weapon that may or may not be in a shootable state of completion would be a custom M98 Oberndorf "Classic" Mauser built on as '60s era VZ500 action, 24" barrel, exceptionally figured Black Walnut stock, topped W/a 3-9X33 Luepold Ultra-light scope. It will be chambered in 7X57 Mauser loaded to modern pressure (60K) spec's. 140gr Nosler Ballistic Tips @ 3060fps will put it squarely between hand loaded 7mm-08 & 280 Remington performance.

Pyrodex sucks!

Pyrodex is much more hygroscopic and corrosive than real Black Powder. Before Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Company sold out to Knight, they did not recommend Pyrodex unless Back Powder was not available. I had a friend that destroyed a Rugar Old Army when Pyrodex ate out the threads around the S/S nipples due to less than diligent cleaning.. Unless I had fired it or gotten caught in a downpour, I would carry my Flintlock loaded for an entire season, leaving it in a concealed gun rack behind the seat of my truck to prevent condensation. It would always fire correctly when I dropped the rock. The idea that your load would shift when the muzzle was bumped is frightening. That is the way you check to see that your load is sufficiently light. If the load shifts when the muzzle is bumped it isn't safe. I quit using lead conical bullets for that very reason.

On pocket water, I tend to equate flyfishing W/"glorified cane pole fishing".

Early season flyfishing is mostly W/nymphs. Nymph fishing is a lot like drifting worms, in pocket water it can be a very short distance thing too. The main thing is to keep as much of your line out of faster/slower currents as you can. This will allow a natural drift through the feeding lanes of the trout. A poly-pro yarn strike indicator can help you see the line stop or twitch when a trout takes the nymph. Raise the rod @ any pause or twitch of the line. Use enough weight to keep your nymph just off the bottom. If you aren't getting hung up occasionally, you aren't getting deep enough.