Rolling Block Question

[Gerry N.]

I have a Navy Arms Baby RB in .22 Hornet. The chamber is so grossly oversized the heads often partially separate on the first firing. Does anyone here know a gunsmith in the North King or South Snohomish County area of WA. who could set the barrel back a thread or two and recut the chamber? Short of that what would be a good cartridge to rechamber to, .22 Jet?

It's a real shame to have such a cute little rifle that's only a wall hanger.

Gerry N.

[Cap'n Morgan]

It sounds as if you have a serious headspacing problem. An over-sized chamber should not result in head seperation, unless combined with too much headspace.

Since the Hornet is a rimmed cartridge it should be easy to check the headspace with a caliper.

[John Taylor]

I can take care of it but I'm a bit south, Puyallup.

[JSnover]

Puyallup, how tight is the lockup when the hammer is down? After pulling the trigger, are you able to pull the breech block back at all?

[38-72]

Send it John Taylor. He has worked on of my guns and does a great job.

[Gerry N.]

Well, I'll tell ya......................it's a small world. Just last July I had Mr. Taylor ream out a .45 T-C Seneca barrel for me. It had a badly pitted barrel he reamed to .50 smooth and now at 50 yards it plops .480 Roundballs cast in my Jeff Tanner mold right into a 4" bull with disconcerting ease. No more fussing, just load and shoot. He does good work at reasonable rates.

As soon as I get some shekels accumulated, I'll drive right down there and hand the rolling block over.

Thank You, gentlemen, for your help.

Gerry N

[NickSS]

Thats good to know where in Puyallup is he located???

[Gerry N.]

Thats good to know where in Puyallup is he located???


I'll bet a dollar against the hole from a donut, if you PM'd him he'd tell you his address and telephone number. That's the kind of guy he is.

I don't like publishing other folk's data on open forums.

Gerry N.

[atr]

John,,,
do you think you could help me with mounting a scope base on my RB 7x57???
thanks

[Gerry N.]

It sounds as if you have a serious headspacing problem. An over-sized chamber should not result in head seperation, unless combined with too much headspace.

Since the Hornet is a rimmed cartridge it should be easy to check the headspace with a caliper.

When the breech block is in battery on an empty chamber there's no movement at all, with the hammer back to safe there's less than .0002" as a .0002" feeler will pull out, but an .0003 will not.

With a new unfired case in the chamber, there is no light under a strait edge held across the breech.

I'm still of the opinion that the chamber is oversized and more oval than round.

I'm curious if it is doable to rebore and rechamber to .25-20 WCF. That would be fun to play with.

Gerry N

[Cap'n Morgan]

Gerry,
Any chance of actually measuring the diameter of the chamber? Perhaps a picture of a fired case? If it is oversize it must be pretty bad to result in a blowback. Even a 22LR in a 22WRM chamber will normally only result in a bulged case. Perhaps somebody ruined the chamber trying to convert it to a K-Hornet using a drill?

If reboring the chamber is indeed necessary I would go for the 218 Bee.