My Uncle
My uncle collected guns. Not in the way most think of gun collecting. He would collect a gun in all available calibers. One such being the budget Savage rifle 340 (NOT the 340D).
For some reason he thought these were fairly good guns and I guess they were. They had some serious quirks but he really liked them. I remember going to all the Montgomery Ward’s in south and central Texas looking for one of each caliber, and to my surprise, he found them.
The available calibers were:
1. 22 Hornet
2. 218 Bee
3. 225 Winchester(later dropped and the 22/250 added which he also got)
4. 222 Remington
5. 223 Remington
6. 30/30 Winchester
He was a collector, but he liked to shoot them also. He really liked the 22 Hornet and the 218 bee for their use of very little powder and quiet report. The problem was that he could not get either of them as well as the 225 or 30/30 Winchester to shoot worth anything.
The 222, 223, and 22/250 would shoot great with most loads they would print into ½ inch. The rimmed cases more like two inches. He was not satisfied with this from these rifles.
I think I was about 16 or 17 and I remember how he researched and asked guys at gun shops, but from his records that I have he came up with the idea of not pushing the shoulder back on the rimmed cartridge, which included the 225 Winchester.
From his records and my remembering my shooting these rifles, the groups shrank to the ¾ to one inch size. My son now has these rifles, and I’m gunna ask if I can borrow the 30/30 as it seems like it would be a great cast bullet gun. I remember going hunting with my Uncle Art using that rifle to take a nice four point buck down in Falfurrias.
These rifles had some short comings. One was that the bolt had one forward lug and one rear safety lug (from what I remember) this made the action what is called stretchy. Case separation was bad from my uncle’s record on the rimmed cases.
On two different entries he only got three reloads with some 218 Winchester brass. That was the way things went until he stopped pushing the shoulder back when he resized the cases. The records show that eight or ten became the norm with one lot of 30/30 giving 13 reloads before the primer pockets became too loose.
The second short coming was that although Savage included a scope mount with the rifle, they were CHEAP to the MAXIMUM. You could sight the rifle in bump it a little and it would be off. My uncle cured this problem by making his own scope mounts (He was an aircraft machinist for the government).
Other that these problems, and if you took the time to adjust your sizing die right, these inexpensive rifles shot pretty good.
The reason I am writing this is because in another thread on this forum, some people complained about the bad accuracy they were getting from their Ruger #3 in 22 Hornet. Maybe you should try not pushing the shoulder back when you resize your cases.
My uncle collected guns. I have a glass cased set of Colt Government models in every caliber made at the time. 45, 9mm, 38 Super, and 10mm. That was the type of collector he was.
He's been gone now twenty years, but I sure learned a lot from him.
ACC
|
   
   
|
|
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Drm50
