416WSM on Siamese Mauser & 416/348Ackley Improved on Martini

[Rule 303]

Hope so - the English profile is a Geoff Slee pattern, which I have on both of my Enfields. I also have a Geoff Slee on my 45/100 Martini. Geoff was a great talent and sadly missed.

Yes Geoff is sorely missed. Because Cam's stocks are from Geoff's pattern is the reason I ordered a couple at the same time. Both are on Enfield's, M17 in 358/338RUM

Figured stock imports would cop scrutiny nowadays. Been at least 10 years since I brought them in.

 

[BlueFlyer]

While I am waiting for parts to arrive for the Siamese Mauser I welded a new bolt handle on my 243AI that is built on an Omark 44 range rifle action - single shot bolt action with 60deg lift. The original knob had minimal clearance to the scope. this one is about 1/2" longer. I have also made up an alloy bedding block for it.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

While I am waiting for parts to arrive for the Siamese Mauser I welded a new bolt handle on my 243AI that is built on an Omark 44 range rifle action - single shot bolt action with 60deg lift. The original knob had minimal clearance to the scope. this one is about 1/2" longer. I have also made up an alloy bedding block for it.View attachment 620827View attachment 620828
View attachment 620829

Very nice! Wish you had stuck the bolt handle on my Mauser. The twit who welded it (before I purchased the action) didn't get it lined up properly and overheated the back end of bolt, distorting slightly. Was a chore truing everything but it cycles slick now.

 

[BlueFlyer]

Cam from Hatchers just sent me through some photos of the rough machined stock - this was one of his lower end blanks at Xx grade. A bit of a split personality!

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Interesting. What is the wood? I would advise pinning that one through the wrist. The "split personality" makes its split there. Here's the jig I built to hold the drill bit when I pinned my 98 Mauser. Most use 1/4" threaded rod but this stock wrist was too thin. Didn't want to remove that much wood. Instead I used 3/16" straight stainless rod and roughed it up with grinding wheel before gluing in place with JB Weld.

 

[BlueFlyer]

What is the wood?

It is walnut out of the middle east.

 

[BlueFlyer]

Correction - the walnut blank is from New Zealand.

 

[BlueFlyer]

The stock for the Siamese Mauser is still in transit, so I thought it was time to fit and chamber the barrel to the Martini. The barrel I am using had been chambered for 416Taylor and the shank thread was 1" x 12tpi. The Martini thread is 1" X 14tpi, so the shank had to be cut off and then start again.

You will see in the photo that the barrel was set up in the 4 Jaw chuck with a 3mm aluminium tig rod as the clamp point. The Al rod allows the barrel to pivot when adjustments are made at the spider.

When I clocked the bore to be straight the remainder of the 416 Taylor chamber was 0.020" off centre. Luckily the 416/348AI is a larger diameter than the 416 Taylor so I was able to bore out the old chamber and make the new start point concentric. When the bore for the chamber was set up, the muzzle end was also 0.060" out of concentricity. All you can do is mark the point (centrer punch mark) when the muzzle is high so that the barrel is pointing up rather than to the side or down when screwed into the action.

Not sure of what you call my reamer holder design, but I saw it on Youtube and it made sense to me. It is totally floating as the reamer holder has a square end and the tailstock insert has a ball end which allows the reamer to follow the bore. I also have a electronic scale set up on the tailstock so I can precisely control the depth of the reamer cut.

I finished up with closing on the go gauge, but firm resistance when I put 0.002" of paper on the go gauge. The 0.004" feeler gauge prevented the action from closing.

Hopefully I can finish the job by cutting the extractor grooves tomorrow. No feed issues to sort on this rifle.

 

[BlueFlyer]

Found time to cut the extractor features on the barrel today. The horizontal cut was easily done with a 2mm slitting saw on the vertical mill. For the vertical cuts I cannot stand the barrel up in the mill, but I have a vertical slide that I can mount to the cross slide of the lathe.

I used a 3mm slot drill to make the cut. I did not hava a collet small enough so mounted it in. I used an old cordless drill keyless chuck that I held in my collet chuck, not optimal but it worked.

The 577/450 extractor is way too wide for the 348Win case. To get it narrow enough I used a toolmakers clamp to squeeze it in and then heated with a propane torch to set the new width.

All went together and now the block closes and the case ejects.

The next step is to make a hanger to maintain connection for the forend stock. From experience with my 45/70 Martini it needs a recoil slot cut into the barrel to cope with the recoil loads. Silver soldered luggs are not sufficient. I am also working on a nice piece of walnut for it.