Hepburn project

[marlinman93]

Had this Hepburn for years now, and finally getting going on it. My friend Gordy called this morning to tell me he had fit the Green Mountain .40 caliber #4 weight barrel to it. It's now a 34" #4 weight full octagon. I also had Gordy cut it for an old Lyman windage globe front sight, and add target bases at 7.25" spacing on the barrel, so I can put a scope on occasionally, or to work up loads more accurately. But it will have iron sights 99% of the time, until my eyes get too bad for them.
The Green Mountain barrel came nicely finished on the exterior, and better than any I've ever purchased previously! It wont take 30 minutes with some sandpaper and oil to get it ready for me to rust blue it! It could probably just get blued even, as it's very smooth!



Gordy left it apart for me so I can polish it, and then I'll put the barrel back on and reassemble it. Need to cast some bullets soon also, so I have more selection to choose from when working up loads!

This is a double set trigger action, and has really great triggers!

[koger]

Cant wait to see if finished.

[marlinman93]

Cant wait to see if finished.

Me too! I'm going to get the barrel final polished, and start bluing it today. Since I'm not touching the receiver or wood, I'm going to try and not make the finish on the barrel look too new or too dark. I'll have to just sneak up on it and stop before it's too nice.

[marlinman93]

As I figured the barrel didn't take much work with emery paper and a block. But it did take a bit more than planned as when I began sanding some of the machining marks appeared to show more as I polished. So took about an hour or so to finally get rid of the marks.
I scrubbed the barrel well with hot soapy water in the slop sink, and gave it two coats of rust blue today. Will probably get two more on tomorrow, and then maybe boil it if it look dark enough? I don't want to go too dark, as it will look weird with the patina on the receiver and stocks. So I'll stop short of the deep dark rust blue I try for usually.

[marlinman93]

Got it back together tonight! Bluing is a little darker than I was going for, but I guess that's better than too light, or grayish colored?










Need to get out to the shop tomorrow and cast up some of my favorite .40 cal. bullets, so I can load up more .40-65's. All I have are some lightweight bullets around 200 gr., and 315 gr. I want to cast some 410 gr. Snovers for loads also.

[koger]

Looks great to me Val.

[Red River Rick]

Marlinman93:

Very nicely done, especially in that Hepburn action.

I have a heavy octagon GM .40 cal barrel that I'm putting on a Hi-Wall action. I'll be chambering it in 40-90 SBN.
Hopefully I'll have it all done before summer shooting starts.

RRR

[GARD72977]

That 34" barrel looks great!

[marlinman93]

Thanks. I considered a .40 caliber with more capacity, but that would mean more dies, and expensive, tough to find brass. Since I have a couple other single shots in .40-65, and came into a huge supply of inexpensive brass, I figured another .40-65 might be a better choice.

[Bakebfr480]

Looks good!

[missionary5155]

That is a handsome looking Hepburn ! Now the fun begins.

[BFJ]

Great job, nice looking. Range report please.

[gnoahhh]

Well played, Vall!

[marlinman93]

Hope to get some range time next week as the weather appears to maybe cooperate if the weather guessers are right!

[beltfed]

marlinman93
What is the twist of the barrel?
beltfed/arnie

[marlinman93]

marlinman93
What is the twist of the barrel?
beltfed/arnie

It's a 1:16" twist Arnie. Should stabilize a bullet up to around 460 grs. I think. I have a Lyman Snover I use in the same twist with a Douglas barrel on my Ballard, and a Rolling Block.
Have a Accurate mold that also drops a 435 gr. and will try that also.

[725]

Gorgeous

[Gtek]

Is it really done if it does not have a wooden case to live in? I clicked the purple, don't know what happened.

[marlinman93]

Is it really done if it does not have a wooden case to live in? I clicked the purple, don't know what happened.

Pretty sure I've got another case I built for another single shot that it will work in. Just a question of whether the 34" barrel isn't going to make it too long?

[marlinman93]

I got 150 bullets cast, and lubed. I didn't have the sizer die I needed to size them to .412" as I wanted, so took my extra .410" sizer and made a polishing dowel to open it up. Cut a chunk of oak dowel, and used my jeweler's saw to cut a thin slot lengthwise in the dowel. Wrapped it with 320 grit, and gave it a coat of Kroil. Then just kept polishing it as I moved back and forth, not ever exiting the die. Took a couple tries before I could push a .412" bullet into it with just finger pressure, but it's there now.
Assembled it back in my Lyman sizer, and lubed up all my bullets I cast last weekend. Will try to get to the range this week, after installing my target bases for my old 10x JW Fecker target scope, so I can test accurately.
Going to start breaking the barrel in shooting some 4198 loads I've had good luck with, and later switch to Swiss 1 1/2 and work up a charge for BP shooting.