bullethead
Of the hard cast variety
Back in 1982ish as a young teenager I saved up and bought a Savage 340 E in .223 at a local gun shop.
It never ejected properly. The LGS had a new extractor put in it by a local g'smith and it just never was reliable and towards the last few times I fired it I had to punch every empty out with a rod.
I didn't use it for years and at about age 16 I ventured into my first "I am going to play gunsmith" and took the whole thing apart down to individual trigger pieces but I could never get the barrel off. I had no idea what I was looking for but I DO remember thinking that the chamber looked Oval or Oblong, lets call it Out of Round. It sat in pieces for years until I moved out at 18yrs old and it got packed away and forgotten about.
I found it again 2 days ago. Trigger pieces, front sight, barrel band, springs, screws all in a 100rnd CCI MiniMag plastic box, barreled action, and stock side by side and I had the bolt and magazine together in a tool chest that I use for gun parts.
I was actually impressed with young Me for actually putting all the small parts together AND labeling it!
Anyway I get to looking at the chamber end of the barrel and dang if it still looks Out of Round and I now see a crack in the metal (upper left side of metal above chamber in attached pic) which I never took the time or had and decent way of seeing all those years ago!
Maybe I can get it rebarreled with a faster twist. I doubt that I'd find an old replacement barrel and not sure that I'd trust the workmanship from that era if I did.
It never ejected properly. The LGS had a new extractor put in it by a local g'smith and it just never was reliable and towards the last few times I fired it I had to punch every empty out with a rod.
I didn't use it for years and at about age 16 I ventured into my first "I am going to play gunsmith" and took the whole thing apart down to individual trigger pieces but I could never get the barrel off. I had no idea what I was looking for but I DO remember thinking that the chamber looked Oval or Oblong, lets call it Out of Round. It sat in pieces for years until I moved out at 18yrs old and it got packed away and forgotten about.
I found it again 2 days ago. Trigger pieces, front sight, barrel band, springs, screws all in a 100rnd CCI MiniMag plastic box, barreled action, and stock side by side and I had the bolt and magazine together in a tool chest that I use for gun parts.
I was actually impressed with young Me for actually putting all the small parts together AND labeling it!
Anyway I get to looking at the chamber end of the barrel and dang if it still looks Out of Round and I now see a crack in the metal (upper left side of metal above chamber in attached pic) which I never took the time or had and decent way of seeing all those years ago!
Maybe I can get it rebarreled with a faster twist. I doubt that I'd find an old replacement barrel and not sure that I'd trust the workmanship from that era if I did.
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