Looks like a real good day and a change of pace. I'm with you on your comment concerning shotgunning. I'm very careful around it as that is a big step with a heavy price of consumption. Next thing you know, you are going dove hunting in Argentina!
My Rossi's have been sitting idle, I've been working with bolt guns the last couple of months. I knew this would happen with the work I'm doing with NOE on the 300 Sav, 308 Win, and 7.62x39. I had bought a Savage 110 in 300 Sav and a Mossberg 800A in 308 Win last year in anticipation of this work. I have several 7.62x39 rifles, two bolt rifles.
I wanted a representative Savage bolt rifle chambered in 300 Sav but despite the tens of thousands of early 110s, they just don't come up for sale. In a year's time, I've seen "zero" listed on Gunbroker. There are a few 1920s that surface but they typically are very used. I really need a scoped rifle to test the ability of the bullet I designed and they typically have not been modified for that use. The scoped 1920's that have come across the auction sites have been real beaters.
As it works out the 110 I purchased, a beautiful rifle, is actually a 110WLE manufactured in 1992. It is a 300 Savage but it's not. Savage built 1,000 WLE's, a mix of 250 & 300 Savage chambers plus the 7x57 Mauser. The WLE's use the long action and all 1,000 have long throats to accommodate what they perceived to be a need for making these cartridges something they are not. The longer throats allow the use of heavier (longer) than spec bullets. The idea is that the 250 Sav could throw what the 243 Win was throwing, the 300 Sav doing the same as the 308 Win, and the 7x57 well… it has always been a question of "is this a short or a long action".
The Savage 110WLE concept must have worked well for the intent as my 300 Sav bullet, the TLC310-165-RF, does not fit the chamber length. Instead my 308 Win bullet, the TLC310-180-RF, is a perfect fit. I guess this all okay but I'm so bored that it is not okay. I want a 300 Savage bolt gun to be a 300 Savage bolt gun. I thought about sending my Savage 10 FCM 7.62x39 back to Savage to be rebarreled to 300 Savage. They said to send it in and they work make it a real nice 300 Savage. I was tempted as I don't like it's .308" groove as that makes shooting cast bullets in this 7.62x39 impossible. I had thought about lapping it enough to bring that groove to .310" but I know enough that the project will not end well and I will have ruined a very expensive Savage.
Back to the 300 Savage situation. In the meantime, I ran across a 99% Remington 722 that has spent its life in Central Texas at a very reasonable price. The 300 Savage 722's were only manufactured in 1949. It also has a very nice period Weaver K4, the K4 was introduced in 1947, so I'm pleased with this vintage package. I found a 1949 Texas license plate on my place so I figure it is some kind of a sign that this all was to made to be? The 110WLE has been given it's walking papers.
Jump to the 7.62x39; I have three: the Mini-30, Savage 10 FCM, and the Zastava Mini-Mauser. The Mini-30 has always had a short throat. It has always had issue with bullets longer than that of the 123-grain offerings. It will not chamber them. So, it really does not like my 150-grain offering. If it comes back with a note that Ruger chambers them without all the freebore in the 7.62x39 spec, they might do that to make them more accurate with the 123-grain bullet, I will get rid of it.
The Zastava Mini-Mauser is good to go. At least Zastava cuts a chamber, bore, and groove on spec! Really makes it easy to work with.
The 10 FCM. Really perplexed over what to do with it. What makes it tough to deal with is that it is a sub-MOA rifle. I've never truly owned one. The bottom line is that it will not be over a lifetime. Sooner or later, sending .311 jacketed bullet down a .308 groove will not end well especially with the typical copper jacketed steel core bullets the 7.62x39 shoots. Cast bullet design is tough in that it has a really long freebore leade to take all the 7.62x39's freebore down to the .308" groove. So I was sitting there pondering my two "long chambered" Savages, this 10 FCM and the 110WLE, and thought "if the 308 bullet is better fit in the 300 Savage, maybe the 300 Savage bullet is a better fit in the 10 FCM 7.62x39. At least the .310 diameter is appropriate for the .308 groove." Well… in fact, it is a perfect fit. The first shots out of this rifle with the TLC310-165-RF were max loads and it remains a sub MOA rifle! This rifle will stay and spend it's lifetime here on the ranch shooting a 300 Savage cast bullet. Savage created a 7.62x39 in the spirit of the WLE and they don't even know it!
Then there is the 308 Win and my TLC310-180-RF. I made a emotional buy last year because I knew the 308 Win work would be coming up. I bought a late sixties Mossberg 800A. The emotional side was that the 800A was the first rifle that I purchased with my own money as a kid. I moved a summer's worth of lawns and worked at a gas station constantly around school to buy it. It served me for decades. The 800A was a very accurate rifle with a chromed lined barrel but you have to live with the trigger that it comes with. It is not adjustable and most attempts to correct it fail miserably. That is the emotional side of the buy. It looked very clean but I didn't try the trigger, it is 6.5, almost 7#s! When I got it home and pulled it apart, I found that the stock was cracked in half as well. Disappointing but a bit of work with pins and epoxy cured that. The rifle is at MOA but it is almost impossible to shoot five shots from the bench and not throw one. There is no way to accuracy test a cast bullet. I talked with the last 800 guru on earth and his advice is to turn the rifle. He said he misses one out of four trigger jobs, which requires the replacement of the sear and a sear will cost more than the rifle is worth as they must be machined from stock. I'm not that emotionally attached to the rifle. It is on the consignment rack.
So I have a couple of borrowed 308 Wins here at the ranch for bullet testing; a Remington and Ruger, which buys me a little time on the 308 Win. The consideration was a Savage 11 Scout or the 14 Classic Walnut. Part of the push to the Savage was the accuracy I see from my 10 FCM. Honestly the 11 Scout is too tactical for me with the M1A magazines and such. I like the cleaner lines and center feed of the discontinued 10 FCM. In that I like a Scout, I started to look at the Ruger Frontier. The trouble is that all of them are pre-adjustable trigger rifles so you are looking at $150 for the drop in replacement on a rifle that is already at a premium price (walk in is going to be a grand). I decided if I could find a 10FCM at a good price I would buy it as I'm already very comfortable with the 10 FCM. The good thing is that all the tactical shooters have stopped buying the 10 FCM in anticipation of the 11 Scout. The problem has been all the 10 FCMs have a pretty high start or reserve on the auction sites. Low and behold I bought a like new 10 FCM for $450 yesterday. That settles the 308 Win question to my satisfaction.
That's the last two weeks to a month in the life of a cast bullet designer slash bullet tester. Really a lot of time sitting on a bench in the reloading room pondering things. It all came together Friday after I spent the day catching up on yard work from our tropical storm like rain we have been having. I had just come into the house near dark and wanted to go hog hunting with the 10 FCM and TLC310-165-RF. As life has it, the hogs came to me. From my porch I could see them working on a pole line sendero a quarter of mile from the house. I grabbed the rifle from the rack and headed out. My wife has been hobbled up with a broken ankle for six weeks but she was able to watch her Ranch Dog "work them". All that pondering paid off for a rifle that might have been doomed otherwise.
The next evening, Saturday, I came back in from more yard work on the other side of the house and my wife said "your hogs are waiting". Sure enough, they wanted more of the 10 FCM and 300 Savage bullet. A sow paid the price.
if you have stuck with me through this you are bored too!
