bulging cases.

M

mr. nobody

Guest
if a rifle is head spaced correctly what else would cause a case to bulge? the smith called me tonight and said the rifle will shoot but it has a bulge in the case about a 1/3 of the way up from the rim on it. what could be causing it to do this? the barrel was very tight when he slugged it. could it be builing up enough pressure to bulge the case?

i know this smith and he is a great smith. i know he double and triple checks everything before and after he does something. this rifle has been a pain in the butt to say the least for me as well as him. it has larger than normal threads in the action. it is a older hall action. we used a hart barrel from killoughs this time that had a 1.20 chamber end on it. the smith even called hart and spoke to somebody there. long story there.

any ideals at all?
 
If the case is bulging 1/3rd of the way up the case from the rim, the chamber is bad and the only one the could have done it is your smith, if it is a new barrel. Set it back 1/4 inch if you have enough threads. If not, you have to go much more and and cut a whole new shank.
 
that was the problem. the sank was very short on this barrel!!
 
The next option is to thread the barrel in it's shorter configuration at some smaller diameter and then thread a bushing onto it. Then thread the OD of the bushing to fit your action.
 
there was a judgement call made to use this barrel. i made the judgement not the smith. i won't allow him to eat the cost of a barrel because i made a bad call. i told him i'd just get another barrel if worse came to worse.

i'm not crazy about the bushing ideal on a rifle. it just doesn't sound good to me.
 
Bill Myers does it with a lot of the guns he does. Partially so they can be indexed and partially so he can straighten up the action threads in some factory actions.
 
Mr. N,
I shoot a 40X with a Hart straight .850 barrel bushed into the action. It's shot over 70 IR50/50 and RBA 250's, over 20 this year with over 20,000 rounds through it. My buddy has the same set-up. He set the IR50/50 Unlimited Meters Agg. record this year with it(although Wilbur hasn't gotten around to adding it to the records on the website yet:mad:)Don't be afraid to use a bushing if you need it to save the barrel.
Todd Banks
 
How does a "short shank" affect the size of the chamber? How does adding a bushing to the barrel affect the size of the chamber? Why can't you just cut the old chamber off, move the shoulder, extend the thread to the new shoulder, and then re chamber.
 
I took it that the barrel profile was such that cutting it back that much did not leave a shoulder.
 
It would be a bit of a pita and more expense but I personally feel that a bbl nut ALA Savage is the best solution for rimfire actions with large dia threads. I use a Pacnor nut on my 40x but for the older Hall you would have to make one from scratch along with some sort of wrench for tightening it or else make the OD profile the same as the Savage nut which is what Pacnor did.

Ray
 
Not enough info for me to make any sense out of where the bulge is? I have one of the older Hall actions on one of my sporters, it's .875 X 18TPI threads. If I recall Allen used to advertise you could use an .875 diameter straight barrel and shoulder it on the inside, i.e. to bottom in the receiver.
Something just don't add up on this deal? Is the bulge on the rim or on the case body?
 
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Poor Chamber Job

I've done chambers with a reamer that had a chip in one of the flutes. Didn't notice, until after I had completed the job and did the final inpection with a jeweler loop. Found a gouge in the chamber. After firing, the extracted case had a bulge right at the same point the chamber was damaged. Only way to correct, was to cut off the damaged chamber and recut with a new different reamer.
 
I haven't been down to see the rifle yet. I was told the bulg was on the case body. The shot shell does extract. I'm thinking everything else is straight and works. There is not enough shank to bump up against the action if the barrel is rechambered.

I have a new 4 groove ratchet barrel shipping out today with a longer shank on it. I'll simply set this hart barrel back and when the day comes my suhl needs a new barrel I will use this .900 hart on it.
 
i called the guy who makes the hall action. he said the action will take a .900 barrel. he also knows that it was one of his first actions for rimfires. he tried to explain to me how to do it, but i'm not a smith. there is something about using something on the inside of the action instead of the outside front of the action.

can any smith's on here explain it in laymans terms? i'm also goingto have my smith call mr. hall tomorrow.
 
I guess he is saying that there is an internal shoulder at the back of the threads similar to a Mauser 98.
 
nobody,
That's what I was telling you in post 14. I guess you didn't read it, or I didn't explain it well enough? Whatever, you did the right thing by calling Allen and finding out. Good luck.
 
pacecil said:
How does a "short shank" affect the size of the chamber? How does adding a bushing to the barrel affect the size of the chamber? Why can't you just cut the old chamber off, move the shoulder, extend the thread to the new shoulder, and then re chamber.
Click to expand...

The barrel is smaller diameter than the action needs. There is a larger diameter step-up to chamber but the smith must have used most of it so that the only option is now the smaller dia. barrel which is too small. Apparantly the smith will not/does not know how to use a bushing to use a 3/4" tenon.
 
thank you kent. i'm not exactly the sharpest knife in the lot, but i'll still try to peel a apple when given the chance:D!!

it was late when i got off the train and my phone battery died this morning from making phone calls looking for information on this action the the propper way of doing it. mr. hall said to have my smith call him and he would talk him through doing it.

i really want to try this barrel. he said it was really tight when he slugged it and i just got to try it out!! if it doesn't work out i have a new shilens ratchet barrel in the mail right now. it shipped out last night. i found somebody who had one in stock and ready to ship!!

hey this is our hobby/love affair and it's only money. we sure as hell aint ganna take the money to the grave with us, so i'm going to enjoy mine right now!!!!
 
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