C.O.R.N.Y. virus, Dakota variant....

A

Al Nyhus

"It'll never work!"
Test results aren't back yet but it seems the Dakota variant of the C.O.R.N.Y.* virus has struck me once again. :eek: Cyclical in nature and with random timing between contagion events, the one constant seems to be a generally clueless nature as to the initial symptoms and a remarkable decrease of awareness that the next event cycle is about to overtake me.

The latest bout struck while taking a couple of my grandkiddlets to ride the indoor Ferris wheel at my local sporting goods store. A quick wander through the gun section was in order and that's when it hit me. There in the 'Used Rifles' rack, the virus was waiting to pounce. I recognized it from 30 feet away and knew right then that no matter what it said on the barrel or what shape it was in, this latest Dakota variant of C.O.R.N.Y.* had me by the throat. Again.

Savage 112 Series J, single shot, walnut stock with Wundhammer palm swells, beautiful shape, chambered in 25-06. I've had several of these over the years (two 22-250's and a Swift) and have always loved these early 'big' Savage single shots. Compared to the Savages of today, these are head and shoulders above in terms of quality. The 'J' series are an 'intermediate' length action (in actuality, a long action) with their own special screw spacing. They were made from '75-'78 and chambered in 222, 223 ('76), 22-250, The King (220 Swift), 243 and 25-06. It's been shot very little and obviously ineffectively cleaned as the barrel is a copper mine. I've been soaking it with Wipe Out for several days now and each patch comes out with heavy blue coloring followed by powder fouling. The blue is staring to decrease so over the next few days I'll get in there with the JB and get it cleaned to bare metal before taking it to the range. Naturally, the gun is apart and spread all over my gun room...a sure sign of raging C.O.R.N.Y.*:D

I plopped this scope on there as it's a unique one and fits the gun. It's a fixed 12X that Nikon produced for Nichols back in the early '90s. Wonderful glass, 1/8" clicks with target knobs. The late George Myer did work for Nichols and told me about these scopes. Nichols failed in the market place but not before I snagged one of these through George.

Good shootin' :) -Al

*Cool Old Rifle Needs You

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Al Nyhus said:
Savage 112 Series J, single shot, walnut stock with Wundhammer palm swells, beautiful shape, chambered in 25-06.
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I have one of these in .222 Rem. Got it on a trade back in the very early 80's. It was my first heavy barreled longish range rifle. Killed lots of rabbits shooting from high points out in the AZ desert off an old even then Harris bipod. Had a Weaver T series scope on it and it provided my initial education on ballistics. A friend was FDC in the army and schooled me on how trajectories and ballistic calculations worked :) At the time they had just transitioned from FADAC artillery computers (which required a separate trailer with generator to run) to a small HP handheld devices (fancy calculators).
 
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He posted "single shot". Mine is as well. It's a long action and mine always seemed funny with a tiny little .222 fed into it.
 
WSnyder said:
I have one of these in .222 Rem. Got it on a trade back in the very early 80's. It was my first heavy barreled longish range rifle. Killed lots of rabbits shooting from high points out in the AZ desert off an old even then Harris bipod. Had a Weaver T series scope on it and it provided my initial education on ballistics. A friend was FDC in the army and schooled me on how trajectories and ballistic calculations worked :) At the time they had just transitioned from FADAC artillery computers (which required a separate trailer with generator to run) to a small HP handheld devices (fancy calculators).
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Too cool. :cool:

If you're ever looking to 'rehome' that 222, I'm your Huckleberry. ;) -Al
 
Al Nyhus said:
Too cool. :cool:

If you're ever looking to 'rehome' that 222, I'm your Huckleberry. ;) -Al
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You betcha! I'll put it in the memory bank ;)

So many memories with this rifle and the ballistics education was quite eye opening. I wanted one of those HP calculators bad but it wasn't available for civilians (at least not the ballistics version). I wonder what those things cost the .gov at the time??? I had to resort to hand calculating ballistics from the equations in the Sierra reloading manual which in the long run probably was better for understanding the whole concept.
 
in my limited experience the single shot/solid bottom recvrs are the only decent
cf rifles worth having from savavge.
 
Like you, I'm nuts about the old "J" actions. I currently have three and one came from you, chambered in 220 Swift. It is a shooter. Don't know why you chose to move it, but I'm glad you did and that I took advantage.

Rick
 
Greyfox said:
Like you, I'm nuts about the old "J" actions. I currently have three and one came from you, chambered in 220 Swift. It is a shooter. Don't know why you chose to move it, but I'm glad you did and that I took advantage. Rick
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Rick, that's a good shooting Swift! Wish I still had it but glad you're enjoying it, sir. :) -Al
 
I mentioned that the barrel was a pretty coppered up...but little did I know how fouled it was! :mad:

After four days, the copper is finally out. I threw everything I had in the chemical cupboard at it....Butch's, some vintage Shooters Choice Copper Remover, TM bore cleaner, Wipe Out, household ammonia, Kroil, a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone (which works really good, by the way ;)) and a couple more I won't mention in case my town's Hazardous Materials Response Unit should get wind of it. :eek:

In the end, it boiled down to simple elbow grease and brushing/patching...followed by aggressive use of JB... followed by more brushing and patching...followed by over night soaking with Hoppe's Black Powder Gel. And repeat. As it progressed, you could see that it was layers of powder fouling over copper, then more powder and copper, etc. Once down to bare metal, I finished it up with a final round of JB on a new bronze brush working over the first 5-6" ahead of the chamber with 10-12 strokes for each full stroke down the barrel. After the final JB'ing and cleaning, the throat feels really smooth with a patch. I might take a peek with a bore scope. :eek: Or not. ;) Don't know how many patches I used but the process killed 6 new phosphor bronze brushes. The dead brushes got recycled to JB victim duty.

Cleaned a couple decades of gun oil out of the inside of the bolt, removed and cleaned the extractor and ejector, shortened the ejector spring a couple of coils and plopped the trigger in the ultrasonic cleaner. Back together, the trigger easily adjusted to 1 3/4 lbs. and a .004 Teflon washer between the trigger lever and sear took care of any wander in the let off.

I've got some cases on the way and should be able to get to the range with it this week as temps will be in the 40-50's all week.

Good shootin'. -Al
 
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I've gone to

Remclean to tackle the fouling. I use it on a brush and 10 or 12 strokes will clean the carbon and copper from a full match day's shooting. Yes, I'm one of those who shoots all day without cleaning. It seems like some sort of oil with a JB like substance in it. It's effective! I use The Sharpshooters supply solvents too but I keep looking for quicker methods of cleaning.

If you haven't watched Lou Merdica's Youtube on cleaning, it is worth the watch. :)
e
Pete
 
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