Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I've been messing around with 577 caliber & had a chance to trade into this Snider for not a whole bunch. I think the former owner didn't realize he couldn't just walk into ass Pro & buy ammo. But I has a supply on hand! As seen, this one came from Nepal. Happily, the yak fat is already gone! The stock was bleeding a little, but I have a can of whiting (calcium carbonate) to help with that.

A little worm damage on the stock which can be addressed with powdered walnut & epoxy.


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Misc pics...

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Looking at this one I think the barrel was forged around a mandrel which means I'll be using very light loads. But a 440 grain bullet @ 1000 fps still carries a lot of energy! No pitting under the stock.

Bore is bright & shiny! Say what you will - yak fat is an excellent metal preservative!

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Slava Ukraini!!

looking good to me , i would have grabbed it up i think

Took it out for function test today & all went well. Fired cases resized easily = chamber is still in spec. I did a detail clean up to remove vestiges of yak fat & will try for group tomorrow.

You can see the twist pattern in this pic. SW


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Slava Ukraini!!

Any pitting in the bore Steve? That's a sure sign of a weak spot, bad thing is it most likely starts rusting in the welded joints.
Be careful, black powder equivalent loads for sure.

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"Like a tank with it's tracks blown off, my turret still swivels and my cannon fires, so whenever the fight kicks off, I'll likely live or die right there, where the fight begins and ends"
John Connor

Yak fat is an excellent metal preservative & the bore is pristine. One of the 1st things I did was pull the barreled action from the stock to look for pitting underneath. Not even one small pit. I cleaned up 5 of the Nepal rifles, and all had nearly perfect bores.

The only irregularity was the chamber being about .002" too short. I addressed that by putting cases mouth-down on a file and rubbing back & forth until they dropped in & fell from the chamber.

I also heard some of the twist steel barrels being taper bores. As well as I'm able to measure, I don't think that's the case here.

Not wanting damage to my homely mug, I take all safety issues seriously. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

glad to hear this is working out , one never knows on these , but you have a lot more experience than i do here

Firing for group today was a bust. Bullets drop from my Lee mold @ .575". As nearly as I can tell, the barrel is right at .580" +/-. Which had a lot to do with key holing and not getting on paper @ 50 yards.

But I have a .600 round ball mold & SwihartMark is saying he can make me a custom sizer for those.

Project temporarily on hold.

The Westpoint 22 did great, though! One hole groups @ 25 yards! SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

good to know something worked out

Good luck on the sizing die!
That bbl is a work of art, if not form. My granddad thought quite highly of twist bbl.'s. Nice to see an example of what he liked.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

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"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

You should have seen the detailed display of everything involved in making Damascus steel barrels at the museum in Liege. What a labor-intensive process!

If done right, it's a strong barrel. If not... things won't end well. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

im wondering if paper wrapped bullets might solve your problem , ive reead of them but not employed them so im strictly speaking off the hip on this - just a thought ,