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View Full Version : A strange rifle followed me home...



KYCaster
10-15-2007, 12:34 AM
I think I'll keep it.

The roll stamp on the barrel says, "Wards Western Field Model EJN 753 Cal. .308". Left side of the reciever says "Made in Belgium" with a couple of proof marks on the reciever ring. It looks like a commercial '98 Mauser (no thumb cut on the left side of the reciever) with bolt handle and safety (two position) made to clear a scope. Cheap Bushnell Sportview 4X(?) scope in Weaver rings. I ASS-U-ME it was made for Montgomery Ward sometime in the 50's-early 60's.

I found it in a pawn shop about six months ago and the price was right (really cheap) so I gave it a new home. It sat in the safe until last Thursday. I got it out and looked it over...lots of crud in the bore. The stock rubs on the barrel on the right side with a pretty good gap on the left.

I whittled out the barrel channel...now you can stick yer pinkie in there...plenty of room on both sides. Spent two evenings cleaning the bore, alternating Hoppe's, Ed's Red and Sweet's...finally got it where I can see some rifleing.

I ran a slug through it...here's where the strange part starts...twelve grooves, .3055 bore, .3095 groove. Some kind of funky micro-groove rifleing...ya think maybe Marlin built this thing?

So, anyway, time to load some ammo. Looking around for boolits I find some 311041 from the GB...302 on the nose...too small. Lee 312-155-2R...all I have have already been size to .309...too small. 314299...301 nose, too small. 311332...301 nose, too small. Lee Soup Can, PB version...that oughta work. 312-190-FP GB...306 nose, 313 bands...that'll do, but I don't have any sized. 314-195-2R GB...306 nose, 314 bands, there's another one that'll work, and I have sixteen of them sized to .312 and lubed with Dan's Bull Shop Speed Green...PERFECT!!!

I have plenty of brass, about 500 pcs. of once fired IVI 69 headstamped from way back when I had an M1A, sized, trimmed and primed, ready to go. I also have some LC 89, once fired, so I used a couple of these to make up some dummy rounds. Fired case chambers OK. Run em through the sizer, bell the mouth quite a bit and chamber it...it comes back out .3435 at the mouth. Add up the boolit, (.312) case neck thickness, (.0148, .0158) and I get .3426, plenty of clearance, should work great.

With a little trial and a lot of error, I find that 2.700 OAL gives me .010 or so into the rifleing, that sounds about right.

OK, what powder to start with?..."THE" load of course. I search the powder stash and find I don't have any Red Dot.:oops: Well, then, the OTHER load...16gr. of 2400. Load up ten rounds of that then something a little stouter, 22.5gr. of Reloader 7. That's all the .314-195-2R I have sized, so I need something to season the bore and check the scope setting, so I grab the Soup Can. Load a round with 8.0gr. of Trail Boss, seat it to 2.380 OAL and run it in the chamber to make sure everything's OK...can't close the bolt...:confused:

It took a while to figger that one out. The IVI brass worked fine in two different M1A's and a Spanish FR8, but wouldn't chamber in this gun. I found some 148gr. jacketed that I had loaded many years ago for the M1A and it wouldn't chamber in this gun. I would have tried a factory round but I can't remember ever owning a factory .308 round, and I'm not about to go out and buy a box just to see if it works in this gun; after all, It's not going to see any of those copper thingies as long as I have it.

After a little investigation I find that the shoulder is the culprit...I can jump up and down on the bolt handle and get it to close on an empty case and it comes out with the machining marks at the front of the chamber clearly visible on the shoulder. So five minutes or so on the belt sander and the sizing die is .020 shorter...another .005 to get things reasonably squared up and I can get the shoulder set back with the die just shy of contacting the shell holder.

So now what? All the boolits I have that will fit this gun are loaded in rounds that won't chamber in this gun!!![smilie=b:

I just moved into this place so lots of my stuff is still in storage. I have my Lyman sizer full of BSSG but no bench space to mount it and all the H&I dies are packed away in some other dimension, so I check and it has a .311 die in it and a top punch that's reasonably close...that'll have to do. Clamp it in the vise and size a few.

Load up twenty rounds with 16gr. 2400...ten rounds 22.5 Re7...ten rounds Soup Can with 8.0 Trail Boss and its off to the range.

Forgot to bring the chrono, so no speed data. Started with the Soup Can to condition the bore. Fired one round just to see if the scope was anywhere close, then stuck up a target and the next five went into .650.[smilie=w:

Moved to fifty yards. Three rounds of the .314-195-2R with 22.5 Re7 went .950. Five rounds with 16.0gr 2400 went .795. The last four rounds of the Soup Can went into a horizontal string .468 high X 2.833 wide.

At 100 yds. five rounds of the Re7 load went 1.462 and a ten round group of the 2400 load measured 2.070.

In a very short time this project has gone from extremely frustrating to very satisfying. With a little tweaking I think this thing will shoot pretty good.

Like I said, I think I'll keep it.

Jerry

EMC45
10-15-2007, 07:04 AM
Nice. Very nice.

Bass Ackward
10-15-2007, 07:20 AM
Jerry,

Sounds very satisfying to ya. And if you ever get tired of it, you have an action for another project.

Sounds like a money gun just as it is. :grin: I always wrap the butt rather poorly with electrical tape. Sucks them in every time.

KYCaster
10-15-2007, 10:34 AM
Bass: I've always been partial to camo duct tape.:redneck:

Jerry