PART ONE
To review the story just in case someone might have missed it, I have a 1950 vintage Win 94 with probably an over sized chamber.
It’s been splitting cases since I got it and we need to find out why. We discussed it here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30839 and a couple other times too.
I also asked questions via the forum:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31013
as well as from a couple forum members via email and PMs.
Thursday:
Well, attempt #1 to do a chamber cast was an absolute failure.
I used a cat food can and pinched it really good even before Don suggested it.
Put it in a pot of water and got the Cerrosafe melted post haste.
Then I tried to pour the Cerrosafe into the chamber with the can. Unfortunately there isn't enough of a funnel effect to get past the receiver walls to pour it into the chamber.
I tried dipping a 444 marlin case into the stuff but there just isn't enough volume in the can to fill the case. Then I tried pouring the metal into the case and that worked, but by the time I got it to the chamber it had started to solidify.
Tried heating the case and that didn't help much.
What would work is a metal cream separator cup. I've got one made from plastic and it has a really long funnel that would work great, if it were metal.
Back to the drawing board.
Thursday evening:
Attempt #2 was a disaster.
I pinched the can more to make a longer narrower funnel and that worked.
Only thing was I couldn’t really see what I was doing so I got the new longer narrower funnel in too far and poured the Cerrosafe down into the action. Locked it up solid.
That is my fault because I didn’t listen to Steve Young’s advice. He said to remove the bolt, I didn’t. By this time it was late in the evening and my BP meds were hitting so I had to call it quits. Get back to it in the morning.
PART TWO
Friday Morning:
I got every thing set up in the basement where I had more room to maneuver. Got most of the action out of the rifle and set it in my gun vise. Because of the blob I couldn’t close the bolt so I couldn’t remove the lever pin and remove those parts. Then I cranked up the propane torch and carefully melted the blob inside the receiver out.
I tried to tap the Cerrosafe in the chamber out with my cleaning rod, but it would not budge.
When my wife got home we attacked it again. I unscrewed the forearm band screw and slid the forearm and band out of the way. I tried to warm it with her hair dryer, but it wasn’t hot enough. Then I fired up the propane torch again and gently heated the breach area till the Cerrosafe softened.
As I did this my wife was tapping on the cleaning rod to push it out.
One of the problems with it sticking was I got my plug too far from the chamber. I had about 2” of Cerrosafe into the rifling. That didn’t help much.
It’s out now. What a bloody fiasco. I’ve done some pretty difficult things in my time, but this simple task turned into an almost nightmare.
Now I need to really clean the innards to the rifle to get the small specks out. And I’ve got to fabricate or buy a tool. I found out the cartridge guides are loose. And of course this being a pre-64 they tighten from the inside.
I suppose once I catch my breath I’ll try it again, but I need to learn to listen to those (Nate Kiowa Jones and Griff) when they give me advise.
Anybody know of a pre-made screw driver for the cartridge guide screws in a pre-64?
PART THREE
Friday Evening:
After catching my breath I went back to the project.
I first put a cartridge in the chamber, sorry Griff I don’t have any dummy rounds, then pushed a patch in from the muzzle till it touched the bullet. Then from the chamber end I pushed it back forward about an inch. Then I put the rifle in my vise so I’d have both hands and eyes free.
Having the gun disassembled was a blessing because I could look through the action from the bottom side and watch what I was doing.
I used the propane torch to heat the Cerrosafe and found it gets it melted quickly and for some reason it stays molten longer.
Then using a pair of water pump pliers to hold the Cerrosafe can I carefully poured it into the chamber.
After that I put the rifle back in the gun vise and waited a few minutes before pushing the casting out of the chamber. This time it came out pretty easily.
After that I sat and worked on my drawing getting it ready for the measurements. From what I’ve read and been told an hour after the casting solidifies it will be almost exactly the same diameter as the chamber you made the casting from.
A nice close up pic of the casting.
So I did the measuring with both my micrometer and dial caliper. I got better more consistent results with the caliper so that’s where these measurements came from.
As you can see from the numbers this chamber is way over the SAAMI specs in the drawing Griff posted in the other thread. I believe this confirms my theory that this chamber is far enough out of specs as to be the cause of the split cases.
Also notice the chamber neck is longer than in the SAAMI drawing. Compared to a real cartridge it’s almost an 1/8” longer. But as you can also see, there is virtually no lead. I have some .309” copper plated bullets and some .311” cast (Lyman 311041) that will not chamber in this rifle. The bullets are hitting the rifling.
Now to decide how to deal with this.
Joe
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