GUNS Magazine March 1956 - Jeffersonian

BENCH REST
- BARRELS
I
BUILT
TO YOUR
SPECIFICATIONS
ACTION
CHROME-MOLY OR
STAINLESS STEEL
For the finest-
specify IAA barrels
JOHNSON AUTOMATICS
ASSOCIATES
INCORPORATED
HOPE VALLEY, RHODE ISLAND
-
SQUIRREL
FOXES-WOLF-CAT
At Your Dealer or Direct Postpaid
WEEMS WILD CALL
P. a BOX 7261 FORT WORTH 1 I, TEXA!
FAMOUS
"DETROIT"
BULLET
TRAP
Here's just what you need for developing better
marksmanship with your pistol, revolver or
rifle. With a Detroit" Bullet Trap you can
practice shooting whenever you feel like it.
Tested and proved by top-ranking pistol and
revolver shooters. Models to sto all pistol, revolver
and .22 calibre rim-fire rifle bullets. Also
"Super" model to stop 300 magnum cartrid es
u to 3000 ft. per second velocity. Four moctls
$8.45 to $42.50. Send for literature.
DETROIT BULLET TRAP CO.
26000 Capitol Detroit 28, Mich.
FINEST GUN MAKERS ON EARTH
(Continued from page 15)
told with the left hand too far forward,"
somments Price. This is probably a hang-
)ver from trap shooting, and hinders the
luick up-throw necessary if a fast bird is to
be taken from the tower. Cast-off, drop, and
length are all adjusted on the try gun until
the customer knows that it is his own fault
[or a miss, not the dimensions of the gun.
rhe individual dimensions all go onto the
xder chart which accompanies the gun from
rough metal forging to its completion in a
plush case. It is at the Harrow Road factory
that the rough metal forging becomes a fine
gun. Basis of the gun is the action body, a
chunky forging of solid steel. Action-maker
George Stidworthy is typical of the men
whose understanding of gun steel is almost
inborn. He has machined actions for 30
years, and has never used a drawing or a
blueprint. Actions for side-by-side double
shotguns and rifles, and the increasingly
well-known H & H over-under, are made in
the shop. Imported Mauser and military
Enfield actions are entirely remodeled to accommodate
the special cartridges used in
their heavy caliber magazine rifles.
Some power tools are used in action work,
but the most important single instrument of
the gunmaker is the file. Hundreds of shapes
and cuts of files are used to finish the action.
Action filer Frank Hill has never used a
drawing in his 54 years experience of action
making. Today he teaches the same skill to
teen-age apprentices, youngsters learning the
business from the butt plate forward.
If the action is the heart of a gun, its bar-
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GUN FINISHING PRODUCTS
Sun Rav Gun Stock Finish-Fast. Beautiful
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It's used exclusively by many stockers,
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X2SÑCOL BLUER FOR STAINLESS
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-en gold silver and platinum. $1.50
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X2 COLD PLATING SOLUTION for .mall steel brau
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for 4 oz. to S1S.00 me? . gal. - 2SÃ postage per kit.
SZ~IZPY~~~~H:~!~~~~~P~.
OZ~'%Z
Refer all orders to Jobbers.
California, Alley Supply Co., Lafayette, Calif.. Box 244.
New England States, Monadnock Sport Shop, Milford. N. H.
Popular dixcounte on all product* to the trade
Exceptional proposition for JOBBERS. Write!
BLEVINS GUN SHOP p=c-ia . -
Hoppe9s No. 9
Has a Way
- With Guns
-a way of keeping them truly clean.
Free of all primer, powder, lead and
metal fouling - and safely
protected from rust. Ask your
gun dealer for Hoppe's or
send us 15c for sample. Complete
"Gun Cleaning Guide"
FREE upon postcard request.
FRANK A. HOPPE, INC.
2313 No. 8th St., Phila. 33, Pa.
rels are the limbs. A double gun starts out%
as a pair of rough steel tubes, threaded and!;.?
plugged at one end for provisional proofing. ,::
They are sent to the proof house where eachF:;
barrel is overloaded and fired. If no fault is
found, they are stamped with the mark of :
the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers of
the City of London, and returned to the
factory. The outside of the rough blank is
grooved at intervals, which act as guides.
The metal between the grooves is filed and
the outside of the barrels gradually tapered.
Wired together, with the bores checked to
see if they are parallel, the breech lumps are
then brazed.
Shotguns are fitted to the actions and
definitely proofed, a second safety test with
an overload, before the insides of the barrels
are finished. After proofing, the barrels are
bored with a "spill bit." The rotating square
blade, sharp along one edge, has a wooden
bearer underneath and together they must
just fit the bore. Paper shims are inserted
between blade and bearer to cause the sharp
edge, lubricated with lard oil, to shave out a
chip of the patent "Hykro" (high chrome
content) alloy steel. The last few thousandths
of an inch are finished by lapping the bore.
Abrasive paste smeared on a revolving lead
plug mirror-polishes the bores.
The top and bottom ribs and spacing pieces
are soldered between the barrels, a delicate
operation since the thin tubes might warp
and destroy many hours' labor. The outsides *
of the barrels are finished with finer' and':
finer grades of emery cloth, backed up with,:?
wooden blocks to shape the emery to the deep' '
curves and corners of the barrels and lugs.
Chambering the shotgun barrels is done with
a hand tool, a simple chambering reamer with
a brass pilot, turned by a hand vise.
After checking out the fitting of shotgun
barrels, I asked Jacobs about regulating rifle;. .'
barrels, since big double rifles are Holland & :
Holland's greatest claim to fame. He replied';,..
by making an appointment out at the shooting
grounds, where all shotguns and double ,
rifles are regulated during manufacture.
There is a gunsmiths' shop at Northwood, and
the guns go through the work in the while,
rifled and sighted, ready for final finishing.
Regulating a double rifle is one of the
mysteries of the armorer's craft. Like most
such secrets, it is really quite simple in
theory-the mystery comes with the doing.
Regulating a double rifle is strictly a handicraft
art, cut and dry. The result is that
most double rifles are not capable of making
100 yard groups that even a child with a toy
.22 would accept. Occasionally a double rifle
will exist which will throw two shots, right
and left, into the same hole at 50 or 100
yards. Such a gun is a prize, a gem, a
treasure. It is also the darndest luck.
Double rifles are regulated for a specific
cartridge, bullet and powder load. If a
double is once got to shooting well with one
combination, vary any one of the ingredients
and the grouping abilities of the rifle will
change. H & H rifles are"careful1y made and
as good as any, but they will not group with a
properly bedded factory-made Mauser sporter
for accuracy. The reason lies partly with the
highly-stressed nature of double rifle barrels,
and the vibration characteristics of the tubes
as bullets of different weights and velocities