Bought a potential science project today

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Re: Bought a potential science project today

Post by pricedo »

Ranch Dog wrote:
pricedo wrote:Looks like I'm going to have to lump the Remlins into the same "kit" category as the Rossis.
No sight unseen buying without inspecting & testing first.
The Remlin "kit" paradigm will also mean having to do your Remlin stuff (polishing, honing, stoning, smoothing) before using the gun in the field.
Goodness knows I'm used to that from owning upwards of a dozen Rossis over the years. ;)
Well, wait and see. May be it was one of the rifles assembled with a majority of the CT parts stock.
Like with the Rossis everytime you open a Remlin box is pure pot luck.
You could find a pretty good rifle :D or the levergun from Hell inside :shock:.
You gotta go to a big store with lots of guns on the racks & personally chose "the pick of the litter".
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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Update:
The Remlin 1895G Guide Gun arrived.
At the onset of this adventure I asked the chap at the place I got it from (I've been dealing there for many years) to "pick me out a good gun" and that functionality and safety were top priority with cosmetics being second and they did pick me a good one.
Talked to the guy later and he said he went through a dozen or so guns and mine was the best functionally......a couple looked better but they weren't as smooth.........and he immediately sent 1 back as defective.
Remlin's senior gun maker (6 months service) must have made this gun cause the action is smooth as whipping cream out of the box and there isn't a buggered screw head on the gun........the iron sights are centered and the barrel and receiver appear to be true and straight.
The only trouble is that Remlins senior gun maker let his 5 year old brother do the checkering cause it was horrible.........aesthetically it would have been better to leave the stock bare but the checkering as terrible as it was does hold your grip.
The wood was respectable & I think Remlin borrowed the wood stain recipe from Rossi.
The gun loads & cycles Hornady LeverRevolution ammo as well as the 430 grain lead FP HSM ammo effortlessly.......and that's straight out of the box without adding a drop of oil or working the action beforehand.
I'll redo the stock (got the Birchwood stock kit on the way from Brownells) this winter but so far the gun is a keeper.
There is an ugly red plastic thing that passes for a magazine follower in the gun but I have a metal one arriving from SG as we speak.
The next phase will be the range test.
Report card:
1) Overall appearance - B+ (I like the look of the gun)
2) w/m fit - B (using the Pedersoli 86/71 as the desired A+ standard)
3) finish (wood) - C (would have been B+ if it hadn't been for the horrible chequering)
4) finish (metal) - A (nice rich bluing with no blemishes)
5) cycling - A+ (smooth as silk)
6) ease of loading - A (gate a bit stiff but no problems whatsoever)
7) balance & handling - A
8) sights - A (nothing fancy but nice clear, fast acquiring iron sights - I wasn't expecting Marbles or Skinner sights)

For a $500 mass production gun my Remlin is holding a solid B average right for now.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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I had problems today from a source I never had before and I've installed an awful lot of scopes over 45 years of shooting. The scope screw studs on the Remlin had very shallow slots and they were Locktited in!! There's nothing worse than Locktite in the hands of an idiot. :evil: Why would anyone with half a brain Locktite scope screw studs, especially ones with that shallow a screw slot? :evil: Looks like I'll be taking the 1895G to my gunsmith to get the 2 studs I stripped the heads on removed. Hate the idea of walking into that shop looking and feeling like an idiot.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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It sounds like the purchase will work out. Sorry to hear about the screws. Bummer.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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Ranch Dog wrote:It sounds like the purchase will work out. Sorry to hear about the screws. Bummer.
It's no big deal.
With all the fuss about defective Remlins I want my gunsmith to thoroughly inspect the gun butt to crown before I risk my eyes and fingers shooting it as some of the ammo I'll be shooting in it is pretty zippy.
I'll get him to do a trigger job on it to get the pull down to from where it is now around 5 pounds to around 3 pounds. The trigger is crisp but too heavy for my liking.
I had a couple more tricks I've used to get stripped screws out before like applying heat to break the Loctite bond and installing a scope base using the good screw holes to use as a drill guide to drill the stripped screw out but since the gunsmith is going to inspect the gun before I fire live ammo in it I'll leave that aggravation to him.
I have a Leupold Rifleman scope (2-7x33mm) I took off a gun I sold recently that I will install on the Guide Gun with the Warne QD rings.
I picked up a NIB Savage Alaskan Brush Gun (bolt action - I know its sacrilege on this board but I thought I'd mention it anyway ;) ) in .375 Ruger that has an 18" barrel the other day cause I really liked the looks and feel of it. I set it up with a 30mm tube diameter 1.5-6x40mm Bushnell Trophy scope (absolutely beautiful optics & sight picture clarity) again using the Warne QD rings as the rifle has the best iron sights I've ever seen on a gun. I had the scope and rings mounted on this gun dead on plumb and bore sighted with my Bushnell Boresighter in less than 30 minutes so I know that I'm not a Klutz.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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pricedo wrote:I picked up a NIB Savage Alaskan Brush Gun (bolt action - I know its sacrilege on this board but I thought I'd mention it anyway ;) ) in .375 Ruger that has an 18" barrel the other day cause I really liked the looks and feel of it.
I would like to see some pictures of it. I always thought this Brush Gun would be something I would be interested in if chambered in 35 Rem or 358 Win, like the Rem 600. I've always wanted one of those and if I run across the right one...
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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Ranch Dog wrote:
pricedo wrote:I picked up a NIB Savage Alaskan Brush Gun (bolt action - I know its sacrilege on this board but I thought I'd mention it anyway ;) ) in .375 Ruger that has an 18" barrel the other day cause I really liked the looks and feel of it.
I would like to see some pictures of it. I always thought this Brush Gun would be something I would be interested in if chambered in 35 Rem or 358 Win, like the Rem 600. I've always wanted one of those and if I run across the right one...
I'll get that digital of mine going ASAP.
You guys are probably starting to think that I'm full of beans :D with all this talk about guns and not a single picture. :mrgreen:
I'll line all the new additions to the family up and photograph them together>>>photobucket>>>>this message board.
With a 7.6 pound gun in .375 Ruger there is little danger of falling asleep on the firing line due to boredom.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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I ordered a Wild West Guns "Trigger-Happy Kit" and their "Bear-Proof Ejector Spring", the "WPM 95 Ghost Ring Sight" as well as their "Lever Action Spring Kit" from Brownells today and included a "Micro Grabit Screw Extractor Kit" with the whole shebang so I don't get held up by stripped filler screws again.
I noticed the cartridges with the heavy 430 grain lead bullets barely cleared the ejection port so the stronger ejector spring will give them a little heftier kick in the pants.
That gun should be pretty slick once I get it all set up.
Even as it sits it's a pretty solid little firearm.
It's probably the quickest pointing big game gun going.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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It is hard to argue with the success of the Guide Gun series and it seems that REP has done a pretty good job which is very good to hear! As soon as I finish out my testing of a new 45 caliber offering, the TLC460-300-RF, I'm going to be selling mine. I just sold my 444P which is the Guide Gun chambered in 444 Marlin. I also have Guide Guns in 35 Rem (336D), 44 Mag (1894P), and 1894S (45 Colt). I just haven't take the big bore GGs hunting in years, cleaning them way more than I was shooting them.

The original Savage "Brush Gun" was the 99 chambered in 375 Win. I have been thinking about this one but I've tried to slow down on what I've been buying.

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I do have the Marlin 375 and it is one of my favorites. In fact, I owned three Marlin 375s at one time, one NIB with all the hang tags but decided I liked the one that I hunting with and would never shoot the others. The only thing that has held me back is that I've owned two 99s in the past, a 300 Savage and 308 Win, and both of those rifles had little accuracy potential despite a huge amount of work.
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Re: Bought a potential science project today

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The fellow I bought the Guide Gun from told me that he had been getting a few initial complaints because of cosmetic stuff like w/m fit & checkering not being quite as good as their 20 year old Marlins but that the brief disquiet melted away when the somewhat disgruntled owners discovered how accurate their new 1895s were.
Apparently the NYS made Remlin 1895s are on the average more accurate than their Connecticut made ancestors.
I suppose the new CNC machining can take credit for that.
I also find that gun owners aren't as full of the milk of human kindness as we should be and we had the new marlin workers in our collective cross-hairs and skinned, quartered, butchered, wrapped and barbecued on the spit before they were finished their first day at the brand new Remlin plant.
How many of us learned a technically complex trade after a day, a week, a month or even a year? If the honest truth were told, not many.
I don't know but I'm reasonably certain that you weren't flying international flights on Boeing 747s after your first week on the job. And I wasn't Chief Project Engineer on a major construction site a week after I graduated either.
Maybe we should give these new Remlin employees the same latitude and look at this file again in a years time and see how they are making out.
The gun I got would never be confused with a Pedersoli or a Turnbull even viewed from 20 feet but it is a decently built, functional and quite huntable Guide Gun.
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