7.62x39 Customized by Bill Truitt

D

DoveHunt

Guest
Not sure if this is the place, but looking for some advice

Bill Truitt put together a 7.62x39 bolt action Charles Daly together for my son Wil last year for Hunting. This little gun is sweet for a small hunter. Wil just turned 9 this year and killed 2 deer last year when he was 8 with it. Both went down quick, one was 140 yds the other 240 yds.

Bill put together this gun and some loads for us, and since Bill has not been well we have not been able to get any ammo that shoots as good as the load put together so I am considering selling this rifle. Anybody have any advice as to what the value might be?
 
Sir,
You really haven't given us much info. What is custom? The Chas Daly came in that cartridge. What kind of stock does it have? We need a photo.
Butch
 
Stock cut to fit young small shooter, stock bedded, bolt lugs lapped, trigger, barrel floated. Not sure , but think he did some other work. Really don't want to sell, but don't have the equipment or the experince to load, and do not know the formula Bill put together.

All I have for Pics right now are from Hunting.
 

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It's not rocket science. If you are smart enough to have the bolt open in the pics then you are more than smart enough to reload you own hunting ammo.
 
You will go a long way looking for a better rifle for a young person. It has much more value to you. Lots of reloading info out there for it. They were available with either .311 or 308 bore. The key is the right bullet diameter.
Butch
 
DoveHunt said:
Bill put together this gun and some loads for us, and since Bill has not been well we have not been able to get any ammo that shoots as good as the load put together so I am considering selling this rifle. Anybody have any advice as to what the value might be?
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I would think Bill would have given you the load data , or you could get it from him if you asked. Doesn't the loads Bill made for you give load data . Bullet weight and Manufacturer, Powder and weight etc.
Even if you do not want to get into reloading yourself there are a lot of people in the area where Bill is located that could probably help you out.
It seems surprising to me if you think so much of the rifle he built for your son you would be looking into getting rid of it simply because Bill is not available to reload for it. Since it is a relatively unusual caliber I wouldn't think it would be worth nearly as much to someone else as it is to you.

Dick
 
As Butch said accuracy problems with the 7.62X39 rifles are usually due to a mismatch between bore and bullet size.
Its a very common situation with the 7.62X54R as well, and the Finns have gone through many changes of bore and bullet dia specs to work out the best combo for accuracy.

Even if the rifle is not the tack driver it was when using over the counter ammo, its likely far more accurate than a stock version of the same rifle, and you aren't likely to find a better one.

If it were mine I'd look into the various types of sporting ammo available and try to find reviews on their performance from users of BA rifles in this chambering. Then experiment till I found the over the counter load best suited to the rifle.
 
I had not heard of

that particular cartridge being chambered in a "Civilian" rifle so went to look for one on the internet. I was able to find some. I would think it a great cartridge for Deer that are not too far away. I can see why it is great for a small person to use.
 
They are a wonderful Kids first deer rifle. With an improved shoulder it is a 30PPC. I built one based on a 7.62X39 MiniMauser and chambered it 270X39AI. It is just a wonderful deer cartridge to 300yds for a young person. It is very accurate and has little recoil. The reamer is available for loan.
Butch
 
Dick Grosbier said:
I would think Bill would have given you the load data , or you could get it from him if you asked. Doesn't the loads Bill made for you give load data . Bullet weight and Manufacturer, Powder and weight etc.
Even if you do not want to get into reloading yourself there are a lot of people in the area where Bill is located that could probably help you out.
It seems surprising to me if you think so much of the rifle he built for your son you would be looking into getting rid of it simply because Bill is not available to reload for it. Since it is a relatively unusual caliber I wouldn't think it would be worth nearly as much to someone else as it is to you.

Dick
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Unfortunately I have not been able to reach Bill have tried email, phone, etc. and many others that know Bill and have recieved loads etc. from him the past have not been able to reach him either. When we recieved the gun last year he gave us just enough to get through hunting last year with plans to make a few adjustments and put together some more loads in the off season and I had not gotten any load data yet. I do know it is the V-max bullet, but not sure if it is .308 or .311. I picked up some factory Hornady and P.C.I that load with the V-max and shot this weekend and had a lot of "flyers". Certainly not the group We got from Bill's loads(1" at 100yds). From research online it appears there is a little bit of demand for this Mini Mueser action in7.62x39 and according to Charles Daly website it is no longer avialable through them.

I did get a response from Bill a few months ago from a link on You Tube saying he had some ammo and would get it to us, but that he was not "well" and did not know when that would be. I have not been able to reach him since. I really hope he is ok since myself and Wil realy enjoyed working with him and he went out of his way for my son last year to get this set up for hunting.
 
DoveHunt,

Do you have any loaded rounds left for it? If so, how many. If you have five rounds, PM me for my address and send them to me. I should be able to duplicate them for you.

Hovis
 
DoveHunt said:
I have not been able to reach him since. I really hope he is ok since myself and Wil realy enjoyed working with him and he went out of his way for my son last year to get this set up for hunting.
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It is my understanding that Bill is recovering from a serious operation and his recovery is not nearly as fast as was hoped.

Dick
 
Remington is now the manufacturer?? of the MiniMausers. I believe they are just rebadging them. I believe the mod. 798 and 799 are the mauser Remington clones. That is why Chas. Daly does not have them available. Dick, Our Walmart has no rifles so I guess a Remington 700 in 30-06 is rare and not readily available.
Butch
 
lapua does make a hunting load for this round, and yes rem is now the "importer" of rebadged rifles.

i have a left hand 223.....cd

mike in co
 
Butch Lambert said:
Dick, Our Walmart has no rifles so I guess a Remington 700 in 30-06 is rare and not readily available.
Butch
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Butch
I guess it is all in where you live ours has a 30-06 and a couple other rifles 6 or 8 total and 6 or 8 Shotguns and 22's in another case. They also have a large display case of ammunition and a sign that says something like "Due to the current situation ammunition sales are limited to 2 boxes per day per person"
All this came to me as a big surprise when I was looking around the other day, I was quite surprised they sold rifles at all.

Dick

P.S. I see you are in Texas it surprises me that rifles would be more available here in Md
 
Years ago an in law brought a rifle to me to ask if I knew what caliber it was.
The rifle was a short barreled MAS 36 carbine that looked sporterized but had the look of a factory or arsenal job.
I noticed right off that it had a non standard aftermarket thumb safety mounted behind the bolt end cap, the originals followed the french practice of having no safety latch.
I'd told him that as far as I knew the rifle was a 7.5 french chambering, but later he told me that he'd taken it to a surplus store and they'd tried the French cartridge and it wouldn't fit.

I'm not entirely sure what this rifle could have been, I suspect it was a VietNam war trophy.
I looked into this later on and found that there were commercial sporters built on the MAS 36 action, with added safety catch, and these were available in a variety of common European chamberings from 7mm Mauser to 7.5 Swiss.
I also found that many captured French rifles were rechambered or rebarreled to 7.62X39 by the North Vietnamese for issue to non combat personel and weapons crews as well as for training and guard use. These used the same sort of added thumb safety.

The Chinese also rebarreled many captured Japanese Arisakas and older Mausers to 7.62X39 and once marketed a copy of the G33/40 Mauser carbine in 7.62X39.

The 7.62X39 is in about the same class as the .30 remington or the .30-30 when those are loaded with lighter bullets. The loads suggested for each when using 125 grain bullets give about the same velocity as the standard Soviet load. Plenty good for Deer and feral hog, except maybe Hogzilla, at any reasonable range.
I would suspect that to get the best accuracy from these rifles the bullet profile should be matched to the throat of the individual barrel.

I have an old SMLE action I've considered barreling for the 7.62X39, its a fairly common conversion.
 
HovisKM said:
DoveHunt,

Do you have any loaded rounds left for it? If so, how many. If you have five rounds, PM me for my address and send them to me. I should be able to duplicate them for you.

Hovis
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Thanks Hovis I have kept all the Brass, but only have 3 rounds of Bill's loads left and since "Youth Day" for deer is Saturday Might have zero by Sunday.

Wil is still waiting on his first buck. He got 2 does when he just turned 7 ..2 does last year at 8 and 1 doe this year with a muzzleloader...He has been patient and passed on a bunch of small bucks so this year should be the year.
 
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