Husqvarna Hybrid

[mdevlin53]

I have had this boltless rifle kicking around since I bought it at an auction for 15.00. I have tried everywhere to find a bolt with no luck. I noticed that the Husky bolt was close and tried to modify it to fit the old action but the trigger is just to far out of alignment to work. Then I had a thought would the barrel fit on the Husky action. So I took both barrels off and to my amazement the threads were the same. The gunsmith I use for scope mounting and repairs accepted the job of indexing the barrel and setting the headspace. When I get done I will have a Model 25 in 9.5x47r. I will keep those interested posted on the machine work and then the minor modification to the stock. This could end up being a nice shooting little rifle.
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[JHeath]

Good job, making your own fun. You can shoot that all day and get more joy than with a shiny new overpowered rifle that cost 50 - 100 times as much.

[mdevlin53]

Well she got back from the smith and the barrel is fitted. I have it assembled but there is still some work to do. I had to make a few minor adjustments to the stock and fit a barrel wedge. I am not sure when I will be able to get to the range to shoot it but when I do I will post a range report. She is light and sholders nice and I like the sight picture. the rounds are a full case of BP with an SPG lubed .375/250grn boolit.
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[mdevlin53]

So here is the range report on this rifle. I took it to the range several weeks ago ant the accuracy was nonexistent. I had loaded up to different boolits. one was a little conical pistol boolit from a lee .375 mold and the other was a 250gr RNFP I got at BACO. both of these were loaded over full cases of BP. Seems that when I loaded them neither was very close to the rifling. I could barely keep all the shots on the backing let alone the target.
Today I went with a new Idea. Rather than using a full case of my limited supply of BP I went with 9 grains of Unique and set the boolits out to touch the rifling. This load is one I use for my 38-55 with good results. The results were in my estimation pretty good, or at least as good as my old eyes and iron sights can do.
If you look closely at one of the targets you can see some indication of a tipped boolit but I think it is the fact that the backing is a bit damp as the humidity has been very high these last few days and the cardboard is a bit on the soggy side.
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25 yards 250gr RNFP SPG lube 9gr Unique Wolf primer Bertram brass (the 30-30 are from my Husky but that is for another thread)
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Same load at 50 yards

[Dan Cash]

MD, you have put together a very interesting rifle. I am sorry it is not delivering top accuracy for you. You don't say, or I have missed the bore dimensions and twist. Looking at your targets, you bullet may be on the small side. If a fatter bullet is not readily available, consider paper patching. That would let you achieve virtually any bullet diameter and should work really well.

Your action is quite robust but let me try to dissuade you from the use of smokeless in this rifle, particularly small volume charges of energetic propellants like Unique. I believe it is an invitation to disaster.

[mdevlin53]

The action on this rifle is probably from the 30s and was designed for smokeless loads. This same action was chambered in 32-20 and 30-30. the barrel is another story it is probably from the turn of the century, I agree smokeless loads cold be trouble but this load is relatively mild. I thank you for your concern though, its always good to have a second opinion in these things.
As for accuracy a better shooter might have smaller groups but the 2 inch group at 25 might just be as good as I can do. the sights are quite simple with a small v in the rear and a triangle post up front. At 50yds the group opened up a bit but with some practice with the sights and trigger I think I can shrink it down a bit.
The land to land dimension is .375 and I am shooting a .376 boolit. I have some .379 that I use in my 38-55 I might consider using them if I can't get the group size down. I have not checked the twist yet. It is a bit of a moot point as I need a rather longish boolit to get it to reach the rifling in any case.

[Dan Cash]

With .375 land to land, .376 is not big enough. .379 or .380 would be more like it. Could be bigger still. Good luck with a fine old gun.

[nanuk]

.375 land to land would give you somewhere about .384-.386 groove diameter.

I'm guessing a PaperPatch would bring out the accuracy in that rifle

[mdevlin53]

Sometime when I type my mind slips what I meant to type was .375 groove to groove that's why I chose .376 to be .001 over. I usually go a thousandth or two over groove and have good results. As I said I have some boolits at .379 but I thought they would be a bit much. I never used any that were .004 over groove. I may have to see about a custom push through. I would paper patch but then I would need to get some cores at someplace around .365.