Bill Holmes Rifle

[Casting Timmy]

Has anyone on here built the Bill Holmes rifle? I'm trying to solid model it out and I am seeing that his prints are missing a few dimensions.

Just trying to see if anyone has built one or seen one.

Thanks
Tim

[heathydee]

Which rifle are you interested in Timmy?
My avatar features a falling block rifle which gained some inspiration from Holme's plans as far as the one piece stock is concerned . I did study his falling block plans but found they were not descriptive enough ; lacking dimensions , and in a couple of points mechanically unworkable .

[Casting Timmy]

I was thinking about doing the bolt action rifle in 308, but tips from your build would be appreciated too

[Casting Timmy]

Do you do your own heat treating or who did you get to heat treat for you? If you had someone do it how much did it cost and how long ago was that?

[heathydee]

In the falling block build I used 4140 at 28 to 30 Rockwell .No heat treating . Easy to machine and plenty strong enough as is . The rifle was proofed at around the 95k psi mark times 3 with no change of headspace and no damage , other than gas cutting from leaking primers , on the easily replacable firing pin retainer . There are a couple of pictures of the rifle in an album on my home page here .
Video here .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpQKw4mR8wg

[Casting Timmy]

It is really frustrating trying to figure out the dimensions from his book. He left things out in the drawings and doesn't talk that much about them in the text.

I have read that some people have ben using the preheat treated steel and having good luck with it like you. Do you shoot a lot of jacketed loads they the rifle? Have you checked head space any more after shooting threw rifle for some time? At this point in time I don't think I will use his book, I have a couple other books by current authors I might look at instead.