The possessed rifle

[offshore44]

So I have this rifle that the wife selected for me several years ago. If there are evil spirits, this rifle is possessed by a particularly mean spirited one. In two years time, the rifle has been dropped into a campfire, the stock has broken at the wrist, the bolt handle has broken off, it is impossible to keep a scope zeroed on it, the rifle has discharged when closing the bolt, the trigger is horrible, the sling swivel studs have pulled out of the stock at inopportune times (hence the momentary trip into the campfire) and groups the size of pie plates at all reasonable ranges.

With that being said, I decided to go "unload" all of the ammo that I had worked up for it. I have another .308 Win rifle that is displaying a real penchant for accuracy and consistency. The down side is, it really goes through ammo. Kinda like a fat boy goes through potato chips. I scrounged through all of the misc. ammo cans and boxes to gather up all of the loads for the bolt gun. Plinker loads, plain based loads, gas checked loads and paper patched loads of various configurations. None had ever shot worth a darn before. Into a cardboard box they went, in zip lock bags or loose in layers. Why not? I knew they were all safe to shoot.

So the wife and I get out into the woods and get the camp set up. Built a fire, after doing some Elk and Deer scouting in the area. All is well and we were happy campers.

I grabbed a chunk of firewood (a bolt of seasoned spruce), stapled a paper dinner plate to it and walked off towards a steep bank to set a target. Even just burning ammo, a target is a good thing. Figured that I would work on form whilst unloading the unwanted ammo.

Reach into the cardboard box, grab five rounds and fill the magazine. Concentrate on form and pull the trigger. Rinse and repeat. Didn't worry about heating the barrel or anything like that. Why; the rifle was possessed and was destined to become a parts gun for another project.

After burning though a goodly number of rounds, I finally got to the layer that was paper patched. (you-all probably thought that I would never get to this part of the story, huh?)

After banging off about twenty rounds of various paper patched loads, I decided to go take a look at the paper plate. Moseyed on over and to my surprise, there was a nice round group about 3" in diameter low and left of the plate center. Hmmm, what's up with that methinks. Wander back to the campfire and drink some water, and mess about a bit. Grab the rifle, that has cooled down a bit by now, and give it a quick check. The barrel is very clean, no antimony wash at all and nothing else in the way of fouling either. Grabbed another handful of paper patched cartridges and started to bang away again. These were some of the stouter loads that I tried with little success awhile ago. After about the fifth or sixth magazine full, the bolt of spruce just blew up. About half of one end just lost it's all-togetherness. Hmmm... Walked down to the beaten zone with a stapler in hand to fix my target and what did I discover? A nice round group the size of a quarter on the paper plate. Holes in the bolt of spruce that started out at about .30 caliber and grew to about half an inch on exit. Lots of wood splinters and small chunks.

So now I have a possessed rifle that really wants to shoot paper patched. Only a vague idea of what the load it likes is, it would be one of several in the log book with a full case of powder and a patch that doesn't go to the ogive. ...and list of repairs to be made to bring the rifle up to snuff, if I keep it. Oh well, I guess everyone needs a project.

[MBTcustom]

Its a trick. Dont trust it!
Its merely luring you into another 5 years of head scratching and cussing.

[Taylor]

No,don't give in.You have to beat this thing.Don't let it show you who's boss.Take charge.

With that said,I worked hard for 3 years trying to get a muzzle loader to shoot,I did,and she's a fine shooter now.I am also on the 3rd year of working with a H&R handi in .223. I'm finally making good progress on it too.Back to basic's.Sometime's it just take's a while to find what she like's.

[RPRNY]

That rifle a red-head by any chance?

[leeggen]

So that's where my x-wifes attitude went! Sure glad she went to you and is leaving me alone.LOL Glad you finally are getting close to giving that rifle another chance.
CD

[facetious]

The things we under stand will never come close to the things that we do not.

[Lonegun1894]

I for one understand rifles a lot better than I understand women. Oops, was that not where this conversation was headed?

[Taylor]

I understand my wife completely,if I'm wearing my hearing aid's.

[GhostHawk]

I think you and that rifle need to have a face to face, heart to heart talk.

I think if your smart you'll stack the odds in your favor.

Bonfire, holy water, and cross in hand I would sit that rifle down and tell it the facts of life.
Tell it exactly what you will, and what you won't tolerate.

Tell that rifle that if it doesn't get into harness and start trotting in the direction you indicate that said rifle is going to go on said bonfire. When the fire burns down it will be washed in holy water, then sledge hammered to destruction, then hauled to some town 60 miles away and sold for scrap. MEAN IT!

Remember that you are in essence entering into a contract with an unholy rifle.

Good luck!

[offshore44]

The rifle is a Parker-Hale 1200 Safari. Not the Midlands one, the Birmingham 1200, made on Spanish sporting Mauser actions. Some had FN actions, but those are few and far between.

Concidering that I can replace it with a new Zastava Mauser for less than the cost of repair...that's sounding like a much better option. I hate to get beat by a piece of machinery though.

Maybe I'll keep it as a public service - to collect all of the ill temper and bad attitudes that plague us from time to time.

[303Guy]

If'n it were me I would study the damn thing to figure out just what makes it shoot those paper patch rounds and not the others. Just got to know!

[Grizzly Adams]

"Kinda like a fat boy goes through potato chips"
I resemble that remark 😒

[docone31]

Paper tends to make the casting fatter. Perhaps the bore is a little large for the caliber.I know, my rifles print better with paper. My 03-A3, my 7.62, my Ishapore. I do size the wrap at .309. I learned that trick with some old Herters 165gn sized to .309. Definately worked with paper.

[DR Owl Creek]

Just another example of why you should always give a gun a girl's name...

[offshore44]

If'n it were me I would study the damn thing to figure out just what makes it shoot those paper patch rounds and not the others. Just got to know!

I know what ya' mean, 303guy. Some observations on the beast: The bore is mirror smooth. Parker-Hale used hammer forged barrels; they were an early adopter of that technology. IIRC, and I can look it up in my records, the major diameter of the bore is pretty fat, something like 0.3095 or there-abouts. The minor diameter is also larger than 0.300, something on the order of 0.302+. The rifling is shallow. I remember having to beagle the living daylights out of my mold to get the bore riding section of the nose to be just a hair larger than bore diameter with 16:1 alloy. I patch with cotton vellum. Even with out post patching sizing, the patched bullets would fall into the case if the cases were un-sized. The chamber was very generous. A case fired from the Parker-Hale wouldn't go into the chamber of my StG-58 with the match chamber enough to even let the bolt begin to close more than slightly.

Your right...I really need to make a pound cast of the Parker-Hale when I do the pound cast of the StG-58. A comparison of the two would be very instructive. Oh, and the Parker-Hale seems to have a longer than normal free bore.

On the up side for comparison purposes the twist rate on the two rifles are almost identical at 1:12 (P-H) and 1:11.75 (StG-58).

Interesting stuff.

[Harter66]

When you described the chamber I thought you were talking about my 110LH.....

I've a 03A3 that has been uncooperative just as you've described excet that you can add 3 J bullets to the mix . What to my eyes should appear w/ a case full of H4831 and a half patch ? 3'' groups,and thats been rattling around going on 12 yrs. I load for 5 standard run of the mill off the shelf 06s , 2 actually have nominal chambers but are on the tight side not 1 of them will take brass from any of the others. 1 is long from rim to shoulder another from rim to neck.then there's the fat shoulder and the correct shoulder but full body. Why a pump rifle has a near match chamber is a mystery to me ,that rifle is so fussy some days it won't even take its own brass back.

The 110 gave me fits until like you I just went and ''burned up the ammo'' to get brass to start over with. I had ''1 lot'' of 150 LC42 loaded GI and I had whittled it down to the last 80. I'd have a load that'd put 3 together then toss the other 2 off over there a foot in opposite directions. Rings ,mounts,scope,bedding,w/w/o slings, bbl pressure ,free float.No Joy. So I sit down and burn those 80 up . what turns up ? A 3'' group at about POH,at 10:00 and 14'' away another 3'' group, and another down about 7:00 w/7-8 just off over there. The brass fell neatly into 4 groups from 186gr to 207gr that matched numbers w/the holes in the targets including the 7-8 odd fliers. For that rifle every case gets weighed into 1.5 gr lots . Viola' a load that brings joy 5 touching .....stepped up .3gr more it opens to an inch at .6gr its over 3''. the Chrony says 2690fps is 5 touching ,2710 is 1'' ,2750 is close to 4''@100 ,by 2800 its out to 18'' w/J 150s 165,168,180s fair no better. With cast and PP'd it just thrives and the heavier in its 1-9 twist the better it likes it.

Matched cases made it happy loads turned down to barely above start loads of 4350 made her sing like an angel.

[offshore44]

Update on the possessed rifle: It's going into the back of the safe, to be replaced by a Remington 700 SPS Varmint rifle. 26" barrel for using slow powders and a 1:12 twist for shooting cast. It'll be my first push feed rifle. Well, except for the auto-loaders that is. Lots of aftermarket parts to play with.

The Parker-Hale is being relegated to "experimental" status. Maybe I can figure out what it's deal is, eventually.