quote:

Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
What does he charge per hour, out of curiosity?

$40/hr. He charged me $125 as a goodwill gesture.

Here's a bore shot:




You can see the ridge right at the bottom where it's brightest.

Umm, nope. Your photo skills are right up there with your bore slugging skills. Lol. I’m just yanking your chain, we have all done stuff like this but it was interesting to listen to your shared tale.

If it’s not bulged, I tend to be in the shoot it crowd. It’s not like you are going to dump case after case of ammo through it. Buy a spare barrel, keep it in the parts bin for “just in case”.

Having never slugged a barrel, nor ever going to, am I correct in assuming that the issue was because the brass rod was much too close to the bore diameter so when it got peened it got stuck? Would a much smaller rod have been fine?

If there’s any possibility that a gun has been damaged and is unsafe to shoot, any (prudent) gunsmith will say, “Don’t shoot it.”

Brownells even sells (used to sell) big, bright red tags that say “Unsafe to fire” to be attached to guns that leave a gunsmith’s shop without being thoroughly examined and test fired. For example, he installs a new buttpad, but doesn’t fire the rifle. Then the owner blows up the gun with an overcharge handload and sues the gunsmith for not warning him that his gun was unsafe.

That’s an extreme example and in my experience ’smiths don’t usually go to that degree of CYA, but if it’s something that could possibly affect the safety of the gun, e.g., the integrity of the barrel, I understand it perfectly.

Thank you for sharing this saga and continuing to post updates throughout the process. I know it's been something of a nightmare for you, and I'm sorry it worked out the way it did, but it's provided some valuable insight into this process that will hopefully help others. I'm glad that you were ultimately able to get it out...and I'm with you...I'd probably just shoot it at this point and hope for the best.

This ain't over yet. There was some brass swarf left in the rifle, so I cleaned it. Used a 30 cal cleaning rod to clean the barrel. NOPE, rod stops at the ridge. No way an 8mm bullet will pass. Looking for a replacement barrel. I guess a sloppy gunsmith saved me from a catastrophic failure. Finding someone else to change barrels.

Ouch. Better safe than sorry though. You must really love this rifle, I think I would have thrown in the towel awhile ago.

I had to look up swarf btw. Lol.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Ouch. Better safe than sorry though. You must really love this rifle, I think I would have thrown in the towel awhile ago.

I had to look up swarf btw. Lol.

I'm stubborn. Most of these rifles went to Turkey as aid in WW1 and were beat to death. This one escaped a lot of modifications & abuse in 131 years. I also paid half of what it's worth so I have some room to fix. I'll keep the matching numbers barrel in case I ever sell the rifle.

It might make a nice floor lamp....

How thick is the barrel? You could have it rebored to a historically incorrect, slightly bigger bullet on the same case. Though you'd have to load without proper dies, or spend big bucks on custom dies.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
How thick is the barrel? You could have it rebored to a historically incorrect, slightly bigger bullet on the same case. Though you'd have to load without proper dies, or spend big bucks on custom dies.

Beyond my skill set.

Here's what I've learned from this experience:

- When the dowel got stuck, the lead ball dropped out. It measured .314 in. That HAS to be original diameter of the ring in the barrel.

- Pounding on the dowel with a 4 lb hammer made it worse.


This is the first issue I've had with a surplus firearm since I started collecting. The only answer is replacing the barrel.


I'll update when the barrel arrives and when I get the rifle back from the gunsmith.

I bought another barrel off Ebay. A little disappointed when I received it:



Seller went all-out with packing tape.

That aside, it was OK, just dirty.



Bore is FILTHY.




Cleaned it up (CLP & Borescrubber):



The worst of the rust:






Chamber end looks good:




Bore looks very good considering its age:




Now to make an appointment with gunsmith #2...

Fascinating saga. Just curious, what did the first gunsmith do that was sloppy or wrong?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Fascinating saga. Just curious, what did the first gunsmith do that was sloppy or wrong?

When I got it back from him, the receiver & barrel were full of brass shavings. Sloppy work.