Action Trueness Test On My Old Remington 721 I Just Bought

Charles, I appreciate that, the only problem with going to 6.5x55 is the bolt face and extractor. The extractor is in good shape, I would rather not get into it if it is fine. While there is only about .008 difference, it might present a problem if this bolt face is on the low side of the manufacturing tolerance.

I have a 6.5x55 Ackley Reamer, the one we did Ed Bernabeos Rifle with. It is just what Dave Kiff calls a minimum spec.

I have been out in a Shipyard working all day, and thinking about this project. I have about decided to go with 30-06. ...........jackie
 
What about a stock.?? I have always liked HS Precision Stocks, but I am not locked into that. I just think it would be a great blend of the old, and the new. I also like the Sendaro barrel profile, the one that has a typical chamber end shape, and then is a straight cylinder at about a .900 diameter. That might not be a Sendaro in fact, but I think that profile looks good.........JACKIE
 
4Mesh, who ever had it before installed a comb on the butt, and refinished it with some type of shiney stuff, probably sprayed on. There is also a Texas longhorn's head carved on the other side. That add on comb might have been a item you could buy. The grip and forarm are checkered, I have no idea if it was added, or Factory.

Thwere is also a recoil pad, looks like a pro installed it.

Who ever did it did a decent job, if the finish was better, it would look sort of neat, but not quite what I have in mind.

Maybe I should strip it and see what the actual wood looks like. .........jackie
 
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The 721 stocks were never meant for scope usage ... the drop is excessive. I would replace it along with the barrel, bottom metal, trigger...
 
I look at your whole project like this. Even if you do it over 100%, the best you will have is a nice rifle that ultimately has more value to you than it would have to most others. And probably, sounds like, it's not going to have any increase of value past what you put in it. Most likely less. So, with that in mind, and the fact that you have lots of guns to plink with if that mood ever strikes, I would think that doing something that looks nice, keeps some original parts, and gives you something that someone ELSE might look at and appreciate, will mean more to you than it means to yourself. That said, I just can't see an H/S stock in the mix. I'm assuming you are talking about the synthetic ones. If they made nice looking ones, then I retract that statement. But, I've never seen a nice looking one. I've owned em, like the function, just never really enjoyed them aesthetically.

Now I know you're not a whole lot like me! hehe. But, I've shot a BR rifle or two in my day, and I know if I was in your shoes, building a gun like this, I'd be kidding myself if I thought for a minute it would get any trigger time. I have rather nice BR rifles that were thrown in a closet and will never see the light of day again. I can appreciate it having sentimental value to you, and I can even understand wanting to do what you can to make it shoot well. At the end, it'll probably shoot 1 agg, and it will be put away to be appreciated in other ways than at a bench.

Do you even hunt? I personally do not any more. If I shoot something, it is for varmint cleanup around the buildings. Anything not causing damage to a structure or garden around here is welcome to live and let live. They're even welcome to eat the corn and knock it down if they want.

The checkering, I'm not positive, but I'd bet even money it was original.
 
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I had a little time today, so I set the action up and trued the face and threads. I had to take the major diameter from the originol 1.062 to 1.090 in order for the pitch diameter to clean completely. The threads appeared to be tapped crooked, (or how ever they did them), they ran almost true up by the lugg abutments, but the further out you got, the worse they got. I also bored out the ID of the recoil lug to fit trued the faces.

I took pictures of before, during, and after, Geram is going to help me post them later.

It will surprise many of you how I set the action up.

I called Lester Bruno, he had a Krieger 1-10 twist 30 cal in stock, Fluted, (by Krieger), in Remington Varmint Taper. I have it coming...........jackie
 
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Jackie do the thick recoil lugs work better than a stock one . thanks Max
 
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My opinion is a surface ground factory recoil lug is just as good as a fat one. Have you ever seen one that was bent by recoil? I haven't.
Butch
 
Descriptions

1....Maddie The Dachund Hound, (the definition of spoiled rotten)
2.....Old Action before trueing
3.....Action #
4.....Action Face, notice the indentions where they butted against a stop for raceway broaching. That's my best guess as to how they got there.
5.....Barrel Code. Oct, 1949, same age as me.
6.....Action, pretty rough.
7.....truing rod inserted. (I forgot to show indicators on each end of rod)
8.....another view
9.....Action faced and threads chased. You can see ID threading tool.
10....Finished
11....Dummy tenon machined for installing action for inspection of work.
12....Action screwed on, checking mandrel inserted to check runnout of work.
13....Another view
14....Indicator on checking rod
15....Resurrection

As a note, after all work, with action screwed onto tenon and indicator placed on checking rod, there was less than .002 runnout hanging out 12 inches from face of action. This is the correct way to inspect you work. The indicating-checking rod is an item I made that fits snug in the action bolt way, measures .703.

You can see how I trued the action bolt way up in the chuck. This is where a Set-True Chuck really comes in handy. You use the Set-true feature to indicate close to the action, and you tap the action with a dead blow to move it in the soft jaws to get the farther out end true. Sounds complicated, but it takes about 5 minutes to get the bolt way dead true like this.

Of course, a 4-jaw can take the place of the Set-True 3-Jaw. This procedure does show that you do not have to have a bunch of fancy jigs and fixtures to chuck an action up accurately in order to perform the functions required in getting the face and threads true with the bolt way. Just basic machine shop skills can get the job done.

Anybody have any questions, I will be glad to answer them.......jackie
 
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Butch thanks I thought It might have something to do with vibration. Thanks Max
 
Max, I have seen a lot of Rem 700's apart, and I have never seen a bent or distorted recoil lug. The Factory Remington 338 Ultra Mag and 416 Rem Mag have the same lug as a all other 700 series. Ever seen one bent?

Not saying it can't happen, but I am using the factory lug.


I do not surface grind them. I turn a piece that has just a small interferrence fit with the ID of the lug, I then tap the lug up on it, and using a last word indicator, I tap it around untill it runs truly square. I then take a very light cut on each side, since it's all on the same set-up, it is as true in all around thickness as you can get. A thousanth or two is usually all it takes.

A friend got a thicker lug from a major supplyer. I measured the thickness around it, and found it to be no better than a Remington. Just Thicker........jackie
 
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jackie schmidt said:
You can see how I trued the action bolt way up in the chuck. This is where a Set-True Chuck really comes in handy. You use the Set-true feature to indicate close to the action, and you tap the action with a dead blow to move it in the soft jaws to get the farther out end true. Sounds complicated, but it takes about 5 minutes to get the bolt way dead true like this.

Of course, a 4-jaw can take the place of the Set-True 3-Jaw. This procedure does show that you do not have to have a bunch of fancy jigs and fixtures to chuck an action up accurately in order to perform the functions required in getting the face and threads true with the bolt way. Just basic machine shop skills can get the job done.
Click to expand...

I'd not have thought of doing it that way. With the very slow spindle speeds associated with thread chasing it shouldn't shift from imbalence though the rest of the action is cantilevered out quite a ways. I'll try that in the 4J next time I have an action to true. I've been using a relatively "standard" homemade fixture that holds a round receiver in a collet with the usual 8 bolts for alignment.

Modifiedreceivertruingfixture-RS.jpg


Takes me quite a while to get it aligned using my homemade mandrel and bushings. This was brand new Savage 10 (.308) that was out .008 on the receiver face with threads eccentric by .018". The threads didn't "point" the same direction as the bolt bore, but I didn't measure it because it was corrected automatically when the threads were chased. There are straight factory actions, but they happen more by concidence than robust manufacturing processes.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Fitch
 
That's correct Fitch, all the operations on an action are really light cuts, and keep in mind, I check everything afterwards. If, after you do the work, and it still doesn't run the way you want it, then you have to trouble shoot the set-up.

That is where a lot of craftsmaen go wrong. They assume that things are ok, but you do not know unless you are willing to put it through a inspection procedure. That is an everyday occurance around my Shop. The people that write the checks can be very untrusting.:rolleyes:

I just look at everything from a machinist viewpoint. "I have to make that run true with that, without disturbing that". Simple.

Man, that Savage is bad. Sort of makes you wonder how they do them. And, as bad as that is, they shoot quite well.

My next big hurdle is finding someone to do a nice blue job on the action.........
 
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Jackie
you might give Bruce Thom a call and see were he gets his actions blued. they are a rich black looking blue and it is oh so nice. Butch Lambert's pierce action is also a very nice deep color. Thats the look that i like anyway. Thanks for sharing all this Jackie. Very interesting!! Lee
 
Jackie,
please bear with me,I'm not a machinist.
The truing rod that allows initial set up in the lathe,is that diameter custom turned for every individual action? How tightly and evenly does it fit inside the action being worked on? Is there any evidence or question about the whole action being warped or bent from heat treat?
Thanks for your contributions to BR central,great thread for somebody like myself that has never seen it done.
Joel
 
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