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Thread: My Rifle Action

  1. #161
    Boolit Master
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    Analysis of this action would be a fairly simple task taking only a few hours to a few days by someone familiar with the process. The analysis can tell you the stress at the weak points. If any issues are found it is simple to add metal or eliminate stress concentrating features. If it is found the weakest points are 4 or 5 times stronger than they need to be there is not much left but normal testing.
    Proof testing is done even on very strong designs just to insure that hidden defects due to material flaws or workmanship do not get into the finished product.
    More testing depends on what customer might want or expect or what the designer deems adequate.
    I worked for a military contractor with its own testing facility. Very little that we did would be applicable to a consumer quality firearm other than life cycle testing.
    All the so called lab testing kicked around in previous posts is not very relevant.
    Some of that testing is:
    1. Resistance to humidity and corrosion
    2. Vibration testing in multiple axes
    3. Shock testing in 3 axes
    4. Centrifuge tests

    Many of the tests are totally irrelevant because there is no reasonable requirement. You might test the loudness of operation for a military weapon. For your home built single shot who cares?

    What you might care about is simple life testing.
    You might be happy with 200 to 500 rounds fired in normal range shooting.
    You might be happy wit 100 round for a deer rifle.
    If you are building a prairie dog rifle more life cycle rounds might make you happy.
    This does not have to be a formal process. You can just use the rifle and keep an eye on its condition.
    Last edited by EDG; 03-17-2018 at 02:52 AM.
    EDG

  2. #162
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by bonny View Post
    True map55b, but i was wondering if anyone had done it. Rimless rounds being very common now (sadly), and the .223 rem would not over stress the action. The extractor is held in position by a flat spring, so i was thinking that as the round is inserted the extractor would move downwards until the lip fell into the rim of the case ? Might be wrong about that though, would not be the first time.
    It can be done, and more easily with this kind than with some others. But it usually involves some tricky work, and more chances of something going wrong, so it is best avoided if you can. Have you ever seen the German 5.6x50R round? I rebarrelled a BSA small Martini for it, with a fast-twist barrel for heavy bullets, and I think it is probably about the ideal rifle for our greyhound-sized roe deer. Of course if you badly need to use the same .223 ammunition that you have for other rifles, that is a non-starter. But if you just wanted to use dies and reamers that you already have, there is no reason not to use the 5.6x50R case with them, in a shortened version.

    Unless it is down-loaded, that would give considerably higher pressures than the OP had in mind for his rifle. Well, it puts more steel and probably better steel in the right places than a lot of single-shot actions people do use for high pressures. In particular it doesn't bring the hammer slot too close to the round block mortice. But the firing-pin is the sensitive spot. The one pictured is extremely good for use as intended, with the means of getting it out particularly well conceived. But a blow-out proof one, possibly set in from the front with a screw-in disc, would be advisable with the .223.

  3. #163
    Boolit Mold
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    Thanks BIS, i was also thinking of the .30-30, nice low pressure round, with a rim, low noise and easy to get ammo for. I could also make it a square hole rather than round, as i noticed a slotting head on the back of a friends bridgeport. I have done it before with files , its not as labourious as you would imagine and the square hole would be stronger.

    I did consider the 5.6x50r, and the hornet, but larger bores i find more interesting and useful.

  4. #164
    Boolit Master Moleman-'s Avatar
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    Since I'm stubborn I was looking to build one of these actions only with a square locking block and a neidner style firing pin in 357Max or 444x1.8" for use in the limited firearms zone here in MI.

  5. #165
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by bonny View Post
    Thanks BIS, i was also thinking of the .30-30, nice low pressure round, with a rim, low noise and easy to get ammo for. I could also make it a square hole rather than round, as i noticed a slotting head on the back of a friends bridgeport. I have done it before with files , its not as labourious as you would imagine and the square hole would be stronger.

    I did consider the 5.6x50r, and the hornet, but larger bores i find more interesting and useful.
    It can be done, and I've done more laborious work for least reward. It's worth buying new coarse and fine files for the job, and flat ones, narrow enough not to be misaligned by the other round corner, is easier to keep right than a square one. I believe I would temporarily epoxy steel L-brackets, used to strengthen wood joints, to top and bottom to help keep the alignment right. Slightly rounded corners would actually be stronger than sharp ones, but I don't think it would be practical to do that to the depth and small diameter you would need, with end mills alone.

    But as for strength... There is nothing wrong with a square mortice, if there is plenty of good metal around it. But one of the good things about the design under discussion, is that a round block and mortice is extremely good at avoiding local stress points. If you wanted to build lighter than the design illustrated, that would be an advantage.

    An item in my white elephant collection is a block of hard, high melting-point wax, made to carve or machine rather than mould models to be used for lost wax investment casting. I had a carpenter cut a ¾in. square mortice with his morticing machine, which is like a powerful drill press with a drill inside a non-rotating chisel with four cutting edges. There is a shrinkage factor from wax to steel, and it is hard to predict how that will affect the size of a hole in it. So you would have to be prepared to size the block to fit the hole.

  6. #166
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moleman- View Post
    Since I'm stubborn I was looking to build one of these actions only with a square locking block and a neidner style firing pin in 357Max or 444x1.8" for use in the limited firearms zone here in MI.
    If you want a .44 cartridge longer than the Magnum, the .445 Super Mag, at 1.61 with the .455 Magnum head might be a good alternative to one made from the .44. I don't believe availability of brass would be any better, and possibly worse. But you can probably get off-the-peg dies and reamers.

  7. #167
    Boolit Master Moleman-'s Avatar
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    Ballistics in Scotland. 445SM is also in the list of possibilities but I'm leaning towards 357Max. I ended up with some of the short Hornady 444 cases and I've made a dummy round with a 1.8" case length (the max case length for use in the DNR zone I hunt). I also have a few rifles chambered in 44x1.8" and one in 44x1.6" (based off of 30-06/308 type cases) I'm also debating rebarreling a Marlin 336 to 445SM if 357Max doesn't work out and if done that would leave me pretty heavy in similar 44 rifles is why I'm leaning towards the 357Max. I've got several 357AR (Max-Rimless) semiauto rifles but no bolt or single shots. Done with a reamer similar to a SAAMI spec a single shot could also shoot 38 and 357mag. Still in the gathering stage of the build. I've got barrel blanks in 44 1:20 and 1:16.5" and 358 1:14" (same one I use on the 357AR), wood for the stock if I don't just use a lever action buttstock and some of the 4140 prehardened needed for the receiver and parts.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check