Bought a legendary Brno #1

[BBMF1]

G'day from Downunder.

G'day All , I have owned many an average model 1 brno when I still had my gun store all the old cocky's would bring them in to upgrade to a model 2 and my standard practice was to shorten them to 16" barrels and thread them for hush puppies , generally I found the well worn barrels performed better with high velocity winchester bunny ammo and of the hundred or so that passed through my doors I have never had one brought back because of poor accuracy .

Regards Paul .

[barrabruce]

BBMF1
What sort of accuracy you talking of?

I’ll be happy if I can get this one to shoot more consistent as it only 2 small and one larger bulge in the barrel.

I could chop it back more to get past the 3rd bulge but I’ll have to measure it to see how short it would be.
I think the chamber has seen better days after 70 years.
I have read that 1" at 50 is average and I use only 5 or ten shot groups.


I found my home-made whack’em paco toolout I made and forgot about.
I don’t need it for my other 22’s.
It puts a eps point but make the drive bands tapered.
They feed into the chamber the last bit with feel so I it may help.
Tried a few of the worse performing ammo to see if it helps them at all.
Time will tell.
Thanks all.

[BBMF1]

G'day from Downunder

G'day barrabruce , generally 1/2" at 25 yards for 5 shots , depending how much usable barrel length you have behind the bulges I would try to shorten the barrel to get rid of them and set the barrel back a half inch and run a reamer in to give it a fresh chamber and you should be good to go if not look for a model 2 barrel to replace it with .

Regards Paul.

[barrabruce]

Well I would have to cut back another 6 inches from the barrel which would make it ten.
Then set back least 1/2 an inch and maybe a bit more for clean crisper rifling.
That just leaves a couple of small bulge-Etts near the chamber end.

That is if I had a reamer of match specs.
Which I don’t have.
And most advertised reamers are generic labeled.
Like match reamer.


Errghh may get away with a dodgy d reamer if I could make one right.

I don’t know how I could then put a long bloop tube on it to make it legal.
If I welded, it will warp and buggar the rifling.
If I threaded and pin and welded it it may be o.k.
But I think I would have to take it to a gun shop and you know how dicey those ******** are for a start.
Let alone pay them to do anything.
No I haven’t had the pleasure of any decent work done by one.
Same people only 30 yrs older.

So I would be looking at a lucky second hand barrel or most likely something which I would have to work on or a new one.

I would like to mess it up myself a few times before I have relent and give it to someone else to sprout a packet of lies for so so work.
I can do that myself.
Let’s see if I start with a 24 inch blank that lets me have at least 8 goes before I would have to concede defeat.

[303Guy]

I worked with this fellow who got himself a single shot - probably a Slazenger, and chopped the barrel down a fair bit then made an extension tube to bring the barrel back to length. This tube was then a long skinny suppressor which worked very well. It screwed on and had a an inner tube that formed the first baffle but I don't remember what else it had. It may have been a series of these tube that extended rearward or just two. Anyway, he had refitted the front sight on this extension tube.

You know, you speak of distrusting gunsmiths. Well, I took my 512 to a guy to fix the excess headspace problem. The way the Remington bolt is made it would be an easy fix. True the face on the cocking piece, fit a new bolt body which it needed and make a spacer. But no, he welds a lump of seagull doo onto one of the locking faces and grinds it to a bearing face which now looks like a lump of weld, partly flattened. Ok so now it only locks on one face. Sure, it works but it's wrong and it looks bad. He says to me the gun is just a wall hanger, not worth anything. But he still charged me for his work! He showed me other work he had done. He was actually very good when he wanted to be!

[barrabruce]

303 guy
Sounds good but all You need to do is strap a coke bottle on the end of your gun.
I seened in the movie shooter.

And that’s why I paper patch too!

I would have to see if it there is a legal to attach a bloop tube permanently a gun that long to make it legal over all length.
I have seen pistols with welded pipe on them to make them over 4" when they changed some rules.
But the ones I saw had a weld all around them.
I suppose accuracy doesn’t count for much on a belly gun.
They ain’t getting my guns! Was the cry.

[BBMF1]

G'day from Downunder

G;day barrabruce , I suggest you google Sprinter arms down here in South Australia and speak to them in regards to your problem , they are barrel makers and Keith has stacks of barrels on hand and is fairly reasonable and does a good job .

Regards Paul

[barrabruce]

Well dragged it to the range today for some shooting this morning.
My excuses are there was mirage and my glasses kept fogging and going out of focus.

Now to the nitty gritty.
I played with the bedding a little more and hacked some off the stock,so,it feels more comfortable for a left hander.

A couple of groups of cc1 std conforms to it didn’t change much at 50yrds.
I shot off my bean bag and towel as I feel better shooting that way for now somewhat.

Attachment 281127
Still shooting at the 5cent Mark.
Next I tried some ammo with my sizer/bump die and they were all given the same or there abouts the same whacks and things so it all should even out.
Cci std one flyer Attachment 281128
Sk bumped shot better one flyer off shot 3" awayAttachment 281129
WW subsonic hp Attachment 281130

Some improvements for sure.
Then I put 0n the tuner and dial it in a little.
I didn’t shoot a lot with it so I may need more range time but am pleased how it’s shooting now.
May not move it at all.

bumped ammo with turner set on 3.0 groups at 50 yards.

CCI STD Attachment 281131
3 in a cluster at 1 o’clock.Attachment 281132

Eley with and without tune only 2x5 shot groups shot. Didn’t want to waste ammo.
Attachment 281133Attachment 281134
Seemed to change the group from horizontal to vertical.

So I will conclude that bumping helps with this rifle and the buttmaster 2000 seems to work as well.
It seems to like the Eley edge but I think it could be obsolete now.
Have to thy the Eley green box again too if I can find some more.
But the cci stds are good enough bumped if I can figure out a way for consistency and don’t mind a rouge one.

Cheers.
Bruce.

[barrabruce]

Oops forgot this one.Attachment 281135
10 shots a couple rouge ones but it is about as good as I can do at the moment.
Cci bumped and tuner .
Tin can accuracy .
Now to learn to shoot offhand to take up 303 guys bet.
Ha

[303Guy]

My late dad's 22 Mauser has been producing groups petty much like your Brno. Then with one ammo it shot a decent group, that being Eley Club. I now have a few reasonable groups. Not great but good enough to bag a rabbit out to 75yds.

So I'm suggesting keep trying different ammo. Look at this group. It's only 25m though but it's a 1.5 MOA nine shot group (excluding the first shot) for a rust damaged bore.


That's from my first 'group' with this rifle a few months ago.

[barrabruce]

I suppose 1.5" would be about the kill zone of an average rabbit for a head shot.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
It’s been a long time.
So theoretically both guns should be good to go.
Reality states it will probably blow out more that.
But they usually spread out a bit more then go to sleep and string vertical more than horizontal.
But that could be just parallax errors being taken out of the equation too.
One hundred yards was a long shot for me at night with most 25-50 yards and the wind usually died down mostly.
Day time well you take it as it comes.
Maybe a single shot adaptor and hand feeding could tighten groups up a tad more.
I wonder how the EPS points go for hunting with that little flat and teat.

[Jniedbalski]

If you want a new stock and can’t find a burno one try a jw15 Chinese stock. My jw15 is almost a exact copy of my burno #2

[barrabruce]

If you want a new stock and can’t find a burno one try a jw15 Chinese stock. My jw15 is almost a exact copy of my burno #2

Yes I have put a feeler out to a bloke who lost one to a flood through his house.
See how I go.
His shot well after he took some of the rough out of it.
Can’t remember but probably 1/2" at 50 yards.
How does yours perform being a proper made copy?

[303Guy]

Well unless I can find a hollow nose ammo that shoots OK in the Mauser I'll just shoot it on the range. The Mauser works perfectly fine as a single shot although one has to be careful in laying the round on the magazine or it can tilt and not feed. I wasn't actually loading into the chamber which I could do in the field. I never magazine feed on the range. Although, they had a competition on which I would be able to participate in and that would require magazine feeding - or would it? Time wise probably.

Anyway, how are your eyes? I was struggling even with a scope. I know my bad shots were not me because I could see the shots hitting away from point of release. Thinking about it now I realize that after the first few shots, the group did not get bigger. Damn! I should have fired another group. Anyway, I'll reserve the last of my Eley Club for the Mauser for the next session. I'll change the scope to one that I can see better with to try eliminate a variable.

Looking back at your groups, you have some nice ones with Eley. I wonder what effect changing ammo has? I noticed a tendency for the first few shots to open up with an ammo change.

[barrabruce]

Eley seems the go.
Costing me 3x as much thou so I haven’t wasted any shots yet.
Glad I have wasted a brick of cheaper ammo so far or there abouts.

I do suffer from eye fatigue and a bit of dehydration and I get floating debri across my vision.
Or is that just my cataracts getting formed properly.

It does take a bit to recondition the bore And I’ll be sticking to what I can get easily.

At least I have tried some of this entry level target ammo.

I haven’t used any in my good gun yet it could prove expletive expensive.

I think I have narrowed my narrow choices down thou.

I have just machined gunned the groups down when the conditions have settled.
You can work a right handed gun pretty quick without distubing your left hand and eye position and sight picture.

I don’t understand why they take all day with a proper rest to fire a shot.
I suppose because they are paying $1-1.5 a shot.

I can load Pb cast 30-30 cheaper.

Bahhh humbug.

[303Guy]

Well this guy said SK shoots real well in his rifle and the stuff is cheap and it's available. I'm hesitant to just buy 500 rnds but on the other hand I have several rifles that it might work in. My 510 seems to like several different ammos and so does my 512 so it won't be wasted. OFFICIAL 300 cost me NZ$26 for fifty! It doesn't shoot any better than cheaper stuff and produced a middle of group flyer.

I'll be seeing an eye doctor one of these days. I do have dry eye syndrome so that might be the cause of my eye issues but they sure get tired quickly. I've lost my off hand touch unfortunately because there one doesn't need 16 year old eyes. Oh well, I'll just keep doing the best I can. Mind you, there was this youngster at the range with a fancy new rifle and he wasn't coming close to me.

I don't feel smug about it though - I would actually like to help him if I could. I like to see these youngsters shoot well. On the previous session there was this youngster with his pride and joy Brno I think and he was not doing well at all. I noted he was resting the barrel on the rest. I mentioned it to him and he took it on board. I didn't get to see how he shot after that.

[Jniedbalski]

Yes I have put a feeler out to a bloke who lost one to a flood through his house.
See how I go.
His shot well after he took some of the rough out of it.
Can’t remember but probably 1/2" at 50 yards.
How does yours perform being a proper made copy?

. My jw15 would do 1/2 in at 50 and 3/4 to a inch at 100. This is not all the time and I could only do it with eley match ammo. 25 or more years ago I was paying 20$ to 25 a box for it. Standard cci did well but the eley did the best.

[barrabruce]

Thanks.
I modified the tuner some
I think I may get finer adjustments out of it.
Think I might rename it Barbara or some such.
Attachment 281328

[Mk42gunner]

Well, that just may improve her attitude...

Robert

[MOshooter]

Congrats, nice find!
I hope one day to find a BRNO rimfire.
Currently I own a 452 American and 452 Ultra Lux. I haven't had the time to really sit down with the 452 Ultra Lux w/ the 28.6 inch barrel and really work on groups. I've done a lot of shooting with the CZ 452 American 22 lr. and very impressed with accuracy, the American shoots well under 1/2 MOA 5 shot groups at 100 yards consistently.

Again congratulations on the BRNO