A Long, Long Time Ago In A Place Far, Far Away

W

Woodhunter

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In response to the thread "Barrel chambering, is it as simple as??" below photos are submitted.

Yup, we don't do it this way anymore.

Yup, not a Benchrest Precision way to chamber a barrel.

However, way back in the dark ages many thousands of hunting rifle barrels were chambered this way.

ry%3D400


Photo of P.O. Ackley from the back of his “Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders”. Pretty small lathe, note the lathe dog used for a reamer handle.

ry%3D400


This is my old 1937 9 inch South Bend. I chambered my first barrel on this one in a similar method back in 1962. This little lathe was used in my dad’s truck repair shop for turning commutators on starters and generators. Later I got "really precise" and used the 4 jaw and a Last Word Indicator to dial in the barrel outside diameter, not realizing the bore did not run true to the O.D.!! Such was the world of a 15 year old budding mechanic in a redneck shop. Tailstock spindle alignment? What did that mean?
 
Woodhunter

A lot of very good rifles, both hunting and Benchrest, have been made on lathes that are sneered at today. I think it's 90% the man and 10% the equipment.

And, I've also noticed that many things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the invention of the Internet.

Ray
 
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Naw I just set this up for a photo. 5 lathes in the shop, the SB is just a collector piece. The gray blob in the photo background is a 13x36 Jet.

I chamber on a 14x40 with 1-9/16 spindle bore, spiders, long stem indicators, floating holders, all that nonsense. I don't do any BR stuff, just simple hunting rifles.

Funny thing though the first barrel I chambered back in 1962 was a 257 AI on the little SB. 26 inch No. 4 Douglas, M98. Would do 5/8" at 100 with 87 grain Hornady's. Made a fair Whitetail rifle. Not bad for a green 15 year old kid using junk tools.
 
Some years ago (1962) after graduating from the penna. gunsmith school I bought a brand new american clausing 10" lathe. I set up my little shop and I was ready to go! About that time there was an old fellow down the road who was quite an accomplished tool maker and gunsmith who my father thought I might like to meet. I can still remember going into his shop for the first time and seeing what looked like a bunch of old worn out equipment. The old boy then proceeded to show me some of his work. At the time I could not see how that was possible. I had failed to realize that my education had not just ended but was just beginning! After quite a few years of gunsmithing and working in "fly by the seat of your pants" small machine shops I haven't graduated yet! I fully agree with giving the equipment 10% of the credit.
 
After WW-2. there were thousands of 8mm Mausers being imported. There used to be a reamer kit that allowed a shooter to ream the chamber to 8mm-06 while the barrel was in the action. It came with a reamer, a T-handle, a headspace gage, and a set of instructions. When I was a kid back in the '60's, one of the men that worked for my Dad did several of these.

I think Brownells is who sold that little kit. Crude, but affective........jackie
 
jackie schmidt said:
After WW-2. there were thousands of 8mm Mausers being imported. There used to be a reamer kit that allowed a shooter to ream the chamber to 8mm-06 while the barrel was in the action. It came with a reamer, a T-handle, a headspace gage, and a set of instructions. When I was a kid back in the '60's, one of the men that worked for my Dad did several of these.

I think Brownells is who sold that little kit. Crude, but affective........jackie
Click to expand...

By the way the barrel in the photo is a take off M98 I yanked out of the scrap barrel, it has a 8mm-06 chamber.
 
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Years ago, in another life, I collected US Martial arms. I got to know many of the high-roller collectors and, every so often, was able to look at 100% new condition untouched rifles and handguns from the 1860s and 1870s. The workmanship was unbelievable considering that much of the work was done by hand and the power tools that they did have were driven by water or steam. The very best replicas made today cannot come close to them.

Ray
 
martin zuck said:
Some years ago (1962) after graduating from the penna. gunsmith school I bought a brand new american clausing 10" lathe. I set up my little shop and I was ready to go! About that time there was an old fellow down the road who was quite an accomplished tool maker and gunsmith who my father thought I might like to meet. I can still remember going into his shop for the first time and seeing what looked like a bunch of old worn out equipment. The old boy then proceeded to show me some of his work. At the time I could not see how that was possible. I had failed to realize that my education had not just ended but was just beginning! After quite a few years of gunsmithing and working in "fly by the seat of your pants" small machine shops I haven't graduated yet! I fully agree with giving the equipment 10% of the credit.
Click to expand...

+1

I had the exact same experience hanging around with a local tinkerer while I attended gunsmithing school. I was fully convinced that I'd go out and set up a shop "just like the school machine shop."

My real education began the day I graduated (well, the day I got expelled actually......even then the system didn't accept my style of expression very well ;) LOL)

al
 
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