In 2016 I got a call from wife's cousin who told me he was cleaning out house of wife's aunt after her death and he had found a rifle in the attic and that no one on wife's side of family wanted it so he offered it to me. He didn't know what it was or anything about it so not being one to look a gift rifle in the muzzle we got in the car right away and drove to town.
I walked in and saw it laying on the living room carpet and knew it was old a hundred years ago but what struck me as how nice a condition the stock was in. I picked it up and opened the bolt to see if it was loaded and when I closed the bolt it seared off. Closer examination revealed some good ole boy had attempted to do a trigger job on it and took way too much off bottom of striker surface. If you very gently closed the bolt it would sear up but a couple ounces on the trigger and it seared off.
I brought it home and looked down the barrel and it really looked dark. I took a cast 45 cal bullet and tapped it into the muzzle to get a seal and set it up with muzzle in a jar and filled the bore with Ed's Red Bore Cleaner ( 1/3rd Mercon Dexron Transmission Fluid , 1/3 K1 Kerosene and 1/3 mineral spirits. I have also used off road diesel when I could not find K1. I left it muzzle with bore flooded to back of chamber for two weeks to work on what I thought sure to be rust.
What got me was I could not get the bolt out and it took about two weeks to find a you tube on it's bolt removal which requires three different screw drivers and a vice with padded jaws to disassemble it.
Drained the bore and got the bolt out and bore still looked to be a basket case so I started working on it with a 44 cal bore brush and to my surprise bore got to looking very good fast as the gunk came out. Furthur research indicated the ammo loaded for 41 Swiss had exposed grease grooves so every time rifle fired it left grease in the barrel.
Finally I got some very fine polishing cloth and made half a dozen passes on it and it was really looking good now and I knew I had something that would fly again.
Did the research and found out cases can be fabricated from 348 Winchester brass or 8X50 French and I figured the 348 brass would take to being opened to 429 better than the 8MM stretching that far so I order 348 brass by Jamison.
I ordered 41 Swiss dies by Lee and by measuring etc I figured out ammo could be loaded with them for that rifle by backing the dies up off the shell holder. I made a custom expander on my lathe and opened the cases right up and trimmed them back to 47MM with the above tool.
348 before trimming
348 after trimming
Note: About six to eight seconds should take shoulder and neck to a light blue. You do not want dark blue or to turn the case RED as you have just ruined your case for long life. I fabricated a collar in order to grip case to turn it in lathe as rim precludes chucking up in lathe.
Annealing case neck with propane torch needs to be done before running them in dies for final sizing to 10.4X47 as the shoulders are HARD. Note: The inner blue sharp flame is directed below the shoulder. What can't be seen is case is in a holder held in a electric drill turning about 30 to 45 rpms. When you get the light blue just point the drill downwards and case falls onto a towel for cooling. DO NOT DROP INTO WATER ! ! ! ! ! !
Both cases trimmed to length, case on right is how it comes out of the die, case on left is how case looks after it is fired formed.
It was a little tricky as these cases did not want to go into chamber and when I pulled it out it appeared rust was in the chamber which I confirmed with a bore scope so I polished the chamber to remove the rust and the case base fits perfectly.
The bore was measured and the grooves are right on .429 so I loaded five rounds up with Sierra 180 gr. 44 Mag bullets in and went out and fired three of them with a sandbag over action and last two from shoulder and then the ship hit the sand.
I was diagnosed with heart problems and had four cardiac procedures starting off with attempted stints and ended up with triple bypass surgery Oct 2, 17 and that put everything on hold till Saturday past and I pulled out all my stuff and started loading with 2400 powder and 240 grain Sierra 44 Mag JHP handgun bullets. Started with 13 grains and increased it .4 or .6 every shot and got up to 20 grains with no problems.
This is her, note 1X1X1.400 high aluminum block on muzzle.
Close up of block. I added a pin to top with a set screw as I knew the front sight was set for 275 meter battle sight so everything shot closer was going to be way high. My plan now is to fab a steel block and once I figure out load and front sight height I am going to mount a M14 front sight on it. With the in front sight I will be able to target it at 100 yards and figure out best load then fab the block close to the correct height. The reason I chose M14 sight is it is adjustable for windage where the sights on the Vetterli are not and it is wider and easier to see.
Next session will consist of 256 grain flat nose cast bullet for 44 Mag to see how it shoots. The plan is I want it to shoot POA/POI at 100 to maybe 125 yards. After that it is strictly down hill. I might try it at longer range for kicks but right now it would be good for hunting in this area.