.236 Navy--The Hard Way

[elk hunter]

Very interesting. I love it when a plan comes together. I do love old/odd rifles and cartridges. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the 6MM Lee Navy rifle and cartridge.

[toot]

the SWISS, you never hear of them exploding.

[pworley1]

Thanks for a well written post.

[john.k]

A Ross wont explode either ,provided the bolt is correctly assembled.....the Ross Mk III has the strongest lockup of any military rifle.....unfortunately its very easy to assemble the bolt wrong...its also very easy to see the lugs arent turning............anyhoo,I saw pictures online of a blown up Lee straight pull,and it was quite obvious the 30/40 Krag case had the extractor groove cut far too deeply.............the 220 Swift case is a very heavy case designed to stand much pressure. ,and very much safer than grooved rimmed cases.

[ndnchf]

Thanks for the follow up. My hat is off to you for all the hard work to get here. Very few people are willing to expend the time, effort and treasure to make long obsolete ammunition like this. I have no experience with this cartridge, but being a retired Navy man, anything Navy grabs my interest.

[Bent Ramrod]

Thank you all for the encouraging comments. One does get a sense of independence by making one's own cartridge cases. But it can be a lot of work.

My friend Dave had a Ross, in .303, with the scarfed-out chamber done to reduce extraction difficulties in the trenches in WWI. Bolt pull was very difficult and the ejected shells were hideous to behold. Too asymmetric for neck sizing and they would have come apart after a FLS reload or two, for sure.

He asked me to see if I could do something about the difficult bolt pull, so I threaded one of the ruined cases, attached a threaded rod, coated it with Clover 320 and spun the lap in the chamber at slow speed for a minute or so. I did nothing whatsoever to any of the rest of the rifle.

After cleaning the abrasive out of the works, we repaired to our favorite railroad cut to test the job out. Bolt pull was very smooth and easy; no problems with ejection. Effortless, as a matter of fact; after each firing, we noticed that the bolt had unlocked itself an was slightly out of battery. It never came further back (and the ammo was pretty stiff loads; some Middle Eastern arsenal's offering for its British surplus rifles) but it was kind of unnerving. The shells were still pretty cobbly,and were no more oversized than before, but that friction had helped keep the bolt in battery during firing. I don't think he ever shot the rifle again; I certainly didn't. Whatever is wrong with that design is beyond my powers of analysis.

I have a beat-up Mannlicher straight-pull that requires a lot of vigor, both on loading and ejection, but at least it doesn't try to pull any fast ones on you. No thing of beauty, though, and I've never been tempted to reload the ammo. The Winchester-Lee looks rather classy compared to both of them. I see now that Savage is offering a straight-pull bolt action. Be interesting to see what happens there. One would think that the perfection of the autoloading principle would have finished straight-pull bolt actions, but they certainly have their admirers.

[Ray1946]

Thanks for the great article on the 6mm Lee Navy. After reading the article, I 've talked my self out of wanting a 6mm Lee Navy. I enjoy straight-pulls and their unique action, the Swiss with their Schmidt-Rubins and K31s. The Mannlichers had stiff actions and fought an even tougher war(WWI). Thanks again......................

[john.k]

Ive noticed Ross MkIIIs do come open slightly on firing,but go back into position again.........people watching the rifle comment on it too.......considering the reputation the guns have...........however ,Im quite confident on my ability to assemble the bolt correctly.

[Gavetta]

great article.real nervous about shooting my lee navy.will continue to admire but not shoot.