Bill Calfee
Gun Fool
I'm back to .043" headspace....
CYA friends:
I'm a nervous wreck.....I'm shaking so bad it's hard to kit the right keys.....
I'm in possession of one of the baddest barrels I've ever seen, and when I work on it I feel like I'm in the process of destroying the thing.
Man, I'm so thankful I don't do this for a living any longer......
I used to be able to stand the pressure........but them days are long gone.
______________________________
Anyway.
It's a long story as to how I've arrived back at .043" HS, which I'll tell in some detail over the next few days..
But first:
Remember I said I may have an ace-in-the-hole solution?
Anthony DiOrio called me a couple of days ago to give me his solution to the problem.
Just like other CYA members have helped......Hawkeye, Deveng, Bang, etc.
After we talked for a few minutes he then made a very gracious offer.
He said he'd send me a bolt body with a .004" longer bolt nose, so I could get back to .043" HS.
He did not have to do this.
As a matter of fact, when I came in from the shop he had called on my answering machine saying I should get the bolt body today.
But.............................
I initially thought the firing pin was striking just outside the extractor slot, against the solid breech face of the barrel.
It wasn't......it was actually striking almost entirely on the right side of the lip of the extractor slot...
So there's no way I could leave the barrel like this, not even with .047" headspace....
And if I'd used the .004" longer bolt body from Anthony, the firing pin would still be striking at the same place....with .043" HS.
_______________________
So I had to do something, someway, somehow, without ruining this killer Muller.
I'm a nervous wreck.........I'm done for today......
I took a picture....
____________________________
CYA friends, especially Hawkeye and Deveng:
Remember I listed my extractor slot width as .080"?
For some reason, I don't remember, I cut .125" slots in this barrel.....which I almost never do, unless there's some unique circumstance......??
So that messed up Hawkeye's and Deveng's calculations....
But then I got lucky.......cause the firing pin was sitting its width, .037", inside the right side of the extractor slot.
So the calculations by Hawkeye and Deveng still worked........and perfectly....
I'll explain all this in detail......later......
And here's the best part:
I added only just over .0015" to the leade engraving........two or three tenths less than .002".....
If this .0015" longer leade engraving ruins this killer Muller........................then we're all in big trouble....
The rest of it turned out, by blind luck, absolutely perfect.......
You know, the firing pin now strikes on 100% solid barrel breech face.....
But even if it didn't, even if it did strike the lip of the extractor slot, it wouldn't matter now, cause the .002" I removed from the breech face of the barrel widened the secondary lip as much as any cone breech setup........
_____________________________
PS:
CYA friends, you're looking at a fool.......cause I'm going to put the thing back together, and head to the range...
Cause I wouldn't sleep tonight if I didn't.......
I'm too old for this..................................
_________________________
CYA friends:
I'm a nervous wreck.....I'm shaking so bad it's hard to kit the right keys.....
I'm in possession of one of the baddest barrels I've ever seen, and when I work on it I feel like I'm in the process of destroying the thing.
Man, I'm so thankful I don't do this for a living any longer......
I used to be able to stand the pressure........but them days are long gone.
______________________________
Anyway.
It's a long story as to how I've arrived back at .043" HS, which I'll tell in some detail over the next few days..
But first:
Remember I said I may have an ace-in-the-hole solution?
Anthony DiOrio called me a couple of days ago to give me his solution to the problem.
Just like other CYA members have helped......Hawkeye, Deveng, Bang, etc.
After we talked for a few minutes he then made a very gracious offer.
He said he'd send me a bolt body with a .004" longer bolt nose, so I could get back to .043" HS.
He did not have to do this.
As a matter of fact, when I came in from the shop he had called on my answering machine saying I should get the bolt body today.
But.............................
I initially thought the firing pin was striking just outside the extractor slot, against the solid breech face of the barrel.
It wasn't......it was actually striking almost entirely on the right side of the lip of the extractor slot...
So there's no way I could leave the barrel like this, not even with .047" headspace....
And if I'd used the .004" longer bolt body from Anthony, the firing pin would still be striking at the same place....with .043" HS.
_______________________
So I had to do something, someway, somehow, without ruining this killer Muller.
I'm a nervous wreck.........I'm done for today......
I took a picture....
____________________________
CYA friends, especially Hawkeye and Deveng:
Remember I listed my extractor slot width as .080"?
For some reason, I don't remember, I cut .125" slots in this barrel.....which I almost never do, unless there's some unique circumstance......??
So that messed up Hawkeye's and Deveng's calculations....
But then I got lucky.......cause the firing pin was sitting its width, .037", inside the right side of the extractor slot.
So the calculations by Hawkeye and Deveng still worked........and perfectly....
I'll explain all this in detail......later......
And here's the best part:
I added only just over .0015" to the leade engraving........two or three tenths less than .002".....
If this .0015" longer leade engraving ruins this killer Muller........................then we're all in big trouble....
The rest of it turned out, by blind luck, absolutely perfect.......
You know, the firing pin now strikes on 100% solid barrel breech face.....
But even if it didn't, even if it did strike the lip of the extractor slot, it wouldn't matter now, cause the .002" I removed from the breech face of the barrel widened the secondary lip as much as any cone breech setup........
_____________________________
PS:
CYA friends, you're looking at a fool.......cause I'm going to put the thing back together, and head to the range...
Cause I wouldn't sleep tonight if I didn't.......
I'm too old for this..................................
_________________________
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