Written by James Stuart, this article appeared in the Sept/Oct 2009. #201 issue of the Fouling Shot.
While reading the article by Joe Weist in Fouling Shot #187, on the 41 Swiss I got to thinking about the rifle I purchased back about 30 years ago. I was able to find some ammo from a company in Texas and to shoot it.
Well the 41 Swiss bug that Joe got also got to me and I had to have one. Looking around in the gun shows did not turn up anything, so I went to plan B, whatever that was. I went to the internet and typed in 41 Swiss rifles and all kinds of information was there. I also purchased a book on Swiss rifles and did some emailing with Joe.
Being that I spent 43 years in maintenance with the requirement always being to do it cheap, fast and easy got me to thinking. The 41 Swiss is really a 44 caliber. I was thinking about having a barrel made up for my Handi Rifle, but when I called to get cost it was not cheap.
While thinking about the Handi Rifle I came on an idea. As I had just ordered some extra barrels for one of my Handi Rifles from H & R, one being 44 Mag., the thought was, could I rechamber it? I measured the orig-inal 41 Swiss shell I had in my collection and looked up dimensions in the Cartridges of the world book and it looked like it could be done. An e-mail to Joe for his input confirmed it was possible. This would be easy! Since I had ordered the barrels already and delivery was to be 8 to 10 weeks I had time to get moulds, reamer, cases etc. This was going to be easy.
While reading the article by Joe Weist in Fouling Shot #187, on the 41 Swiss I got to thinking about the rifle I purchased back about 30 years ago. I was able to find some ammo from a company in Texas and to shoot it.
Well the 41 Swiss bug that Joe got also got to me and I had to have one. Looking around in the gun shows did not turn up anything, so I went to plan B, whatever that was. I went to the internet and typed in 41 Swiss rifles and all kinds of information was there. I also purchased a book on Swiss rifles and did some emailing with Joe.
Being that I spent 43 years in maintenance with the requirement always being to do it cheap, fast and easy got me to thinking. The 41 Swiss is really a 44 caliber. I was thinking about having a barrel made up for my Handi Rifle, but when I called to get cost it was not cheap.
While thinking about the Handi Rifle I came on an idea. As I had just ordered some extra barrels for one of my Handi Rifles from H & R, one being 44 Mag., the thought was, could I rechamber it? I measured the orig-inal 41 Swiss shell I had in my collection and looked up dimensions in the Cartridges of the world book and it looked like it could be done. An e-mail to Joe for his input confirmed it was possible. This would be easy! Since I had ordered the barrels already and delivery was to be 8 to 10 weeks I had time to get moulds, reamer, cases etc. This was going to be easy.
To get a reamer made, Joe was kind enough to send me some fired cases and bullets he uses as well as some cases with the bullets seated. In the meantime I looked in the NEI catalog and found some bullets that looked like they would work along with the ones I had. I ordered #266 and #267A without gas checks, both cut in one double cavity mould. Delivery was to be about 4 weeks.
I also ordered some 8X50R cases and a set of 41 Swiss dies from Lee. I wanted to wait to order the reamer until I had the barrel to get bore sizes from it so in the meantime the cases and dies arrived and so I set about forming cases. Joe had suggested using a case length of 1.560” as it will hold the bullets better. I found that by using a .427” expander I made in my lathe I could expand the case neck and then cut them to around 1.700”.
I also ordered some 8X50R cases and a set of 41 Swiss dies from Lee. I wanted to wait to order the reamer until I had the barrel to get bore sizes from it so in the meantime the cases and dies arrived and so I set about forming cases. Joe had suggested using a case length of 1.560” as it will hold the bullets better. I found that by using a .427” expander I made in my lathe I could expand the case neck and then cut them to around 1.700”.
NEI 267A and 266 I then ran them through the Lee sizing die and trimmed them to length without any case loss. I ended up making my cases 1.558” length and they will hold 55.8 grains of water. Fifty cases were formed in this manner. I was still waiting for the barrel when the mould came and so I was off to the Lead Shed in the back yard to cast some bullets.
Along with the NEI mould I had a PC mold #44265CP and a Lee #430-310 .The NEI #266 bullet cast of 23-1 alloy came out at 310 grains and the 267A at 335 grains of the same alloy. The PC mould weighed 275 grains. The Lee cast 300 grains from #2 alloy. Sizing of the bullet would wait until I had the barrel to slug for size.
In the meantime I read all I could on chambering a barrel and talked to a gunsmith friend. He told me to do it by hand and use lots of oil and it would be easy.
I was still waiting for the barrel so we took a three week trip out west. I was hoping the barrels would get there before I got back but no luck. A call to H&R confirmed that they were waiting for some material for one of the barrels I had ordered so it would be 2 or 3 weeks more. By now it had been about 5 months. The barrels did arrive and the 44 Mag. barrel was slugged and found to have .4305” groove diameter and with precision gages the bore was found to be .423”. The twist as best I can determine is 1 in 38”. The length is 22,” it has open sights, the chamber end is 1.112” diameter and muzzle end is .789”. It’s a nice heavy barrel.
Now I had all the information to order a reamer. I sent samples and letter to a reamer manufacture and was turned down so I called Dave Manson at Dave Manson Precision Reamers, 8200 Embury Rd., Grand Blanc, MI 48439, 810-953-0732, email dave@mansonreamers. com and asked him about my project. He said to send the samples and he would quote the reamer. In about 3 weeks an email arrived with a drawing and cost. A call to Dave with Credit Card info and approval of the drawing got the ball rolling.
I now had to wait for the reamer to arrive. Delivery was to be about 8 weeks.So far not so fast a project, but it was fairly easy on my part, so far.
The reamer came by the Big Brown truck, it was in a nice wooden box and the reamer is a work of art.
Being that I had by now determined to chamber it myself I went to the shop, made wood blocks to clamp it in the vise and got the oil can out. The reamer did its job for a few turns and then just kind of spun without cutting. Being I had never done this before I could not figure out why. I called my gunsmith and talked to him a bit and determined to take it to him and see what was wrong. He looked it over and tried to ream it himself with the same results I had. After some time I left the barrel and reamer with him and he said he would put it in his lathe after finding the cause of the problem. The project was becoming not so easy at this point.
About an hour later he called me and said he had found the problem. The extractors are hardened! By now the reamer had a burr from trying to cut the hardened extractor, but with a diamond file he was able to fix the reamer as good a new. What a testament to Dave’s material and craftsmanship.
At this point what he was going to do to help now turned into $100 to anneal the extractor and finish the chambering job. I told him to go ahead.A couple to days later I picked up the barrel. I decided to do a chamber cast to get further dimensions of case length and leade length. The casting showed the case length may be able to be as long as 1.587” and the lead was .436” diamete
I took one of the cases I made up and drilled and tapped it so I could measure bullet seating length with my overall length gauge.The NEI #266 would seat out to 2.279” to touch rifling, the 267A touched at 2.508”, the Lee 430-310AF seated to 2.105”.
Clearly some of these lengths will not work as the bullet is not even in the case mouth but that leaves lots of room to play with.Now after about a year and a half I can load some rounds and do some load development and shooting.|
Load development was a guess as to where to start as factory loads are not available. I decided to start with a published load as a start and used one that is in the Cartridges of the World. The load was 10 grains of Unique at a stated velocity of 1050 f.p.s. with 320 grain bullet. I also decided to keep as many things as possible the same so CCI 200 LR primers were used with all loads. Cases were trimmed to 1.255” to 1.256” and all bullets sized to .430” and lubed with SPG. Bullets were cast of 23-1 alloy. Twenty-five rounds were loaded with the 267A at 2.103” and 25 rounds with bullet #266 at 2.003 OAL. I wish I could say the test shooting was small groups but that was not the case. I started shooting at 25 yards. The 330 grain bullets printed three shots into 5”, and all keyholed. The 310 grain bullets printed 3 shots in 4” and didn’t keyhole. The cases showed no sign of over pres-sure. This was not what I had hoped for but it was a beginning. Much more load development will be needed to get something called a small group.
I learned a lot with this project. It was not cheap or fast or even easy.
I would like to thank Joe Weist for his help and input to this project.
Next, maybe I’ll rechamber a 223 H&R barrel to 225 Win. or maybe a 45-70 barrel to 577-450 M-H? Or make my own lugs and make my own barrels for the Handi Rifle. Or….
Along with the NEI mould I had a PC mold #44265CP and a Lee #430-310 .The NEI #266 bullet cast of 23-1 alloy came out at 310 grains and the 267A at 335 grains of the same alloy. The PC mould weighed 275 grains. The Lee cast 300 grains from #2 alloy. Sizing of the bullet would wait until I had the barrel to slug for size.
In the meantime I read all I could on chambering a barrel and talked to a gunsmith friend. He told me to do it by hand and use lots of oil and it would be easy.
I was still waiting for the barrel so we took a three week trip out west. I was hoping the barrels would get there before I got back but no luck. A call to H&R confirmed that they were waiting for some material for one of the barrels I had ordered so it would be 2 or 3 weeks more. By now it had been about 5 months. The barrels did arrive and the 44 Mag. barrel was slugged and found to have .4305” groove diameter and with precision gages the bore was found to be .423”. The twist as best I can determine is 1 in 38”. The length is 22,” it has open sights, the chamber end is 1.112” diameter and muzzle end is .789”. It’s a nice heavy barrel.
Now I had all the information to order a reamer. I sent samples and letter to a reamer manufacture and was turned down so I called Dave Manson at Dave Manson Precision Reamers, 8200 Embury Rd., Grand Blanc, MI 48439, 810-953-0732, email dave@mansonreamers. com and asked him about my project. He said to send the samples and he would quote the reamer. In about 3 weeks an email arrived with a drawing and cost. A call to Dave with Credit Card info and approval of the drawing got the ball rolling.
I now had to wait for the reamer to arrive. Delivery was to be about 8 weeks.So far not so fast a project, but it was fairly easy on my part, so far.
The reamer came by the Big Brown truck, it was in a nice wooden box and the reamer is a work of art.
Being that I had by now determined to chamber it myself I went to the shop, made wood blocks to clamp it in the vise and got the oil can out. The reamer did its job for a few turns and then just kind of spun without cutting. Being I had never done this before I could not figure out why. I called my gunsmith and talked to him a bit and determined to take it to him and see what was wrong. He looked it over and tried to ream it himself with the same results I had. After some time I left the barrel and reamer with him and he said he would put it in his lathe after finding the cause of the problem. The project was becoming not so easy at this point.
About an hour later he called me and said he had found the problem. The extractors are hardened! By now the reamer had a burr from trying to cut the hardened extractor, but with a diamond file he was able to fix the reamer as good a new. What a testament to Dave’s material and craftsmanship.
At this point what he was going to do to help now turned into $100 to anneal the extractor and finish the chambering job. I told him to go ahead.A couple to days later I picked up the barrel. I decided to do a chamber cast to get further dimensions of case length and leade length. The casting showed the case length may be able to be as long as 1.587” and the lead was .436” diamete
I took one of the cases I made up and drilled and tapped it so I could measure bullet seating length with my overall length gauge.The NEI #266 would seat out to 2.279” to touch rifling, the 267A touched at 2.508”, the Lee 430-310AF seated to 2.105”.
Clearly some of these lengths will not work as the bullet is not even in the case mouth but that leaves lots of room to play with.Now after about a year and a half I can load some rounds and do some load development and shooting.|
Load development was a guess as to where to start as factory loads are not available. I decided to start with a published load as a start and used one that is in the Cartridges of the World. The load was 10 grains of Unique at a stated velocity of 1050 f.p.s. with 320 grain bullet. I also decided to keep as many things as possible the same so CCI 200 LR primers were used with all loads. Cases were trimmed to 1.255” to 1.256” and all bullets sized to .430” and lubed with SPG. Bullets were cast of 23-1 alloy. Twenty-five rounds were loaded with the 267A at 2.103” and 25 rounds with bullet #266 at 2.003 OAL. I wish I could say the test shooting was small groups but that was not the case. I started shooting at 25 yards. The 330 grain bullets printed three shots into 5”, and all keyholed. The 310 grain bullets printed 3 shots in 4” and didn’t keyhole. The cases showed no sign of over pres-sure. This was not what I had hoped for but it was a beginning. Much more load development will be needed to get something called a small group.
I learned a lot with this project. It was not cheap or fast or even easy.
I would like to thank Joe Weist for his help and input to this project.
Next, maybe I’ll rechamber a 223 H&R barrel to 225 Win. or maybe a 45-70 barrel to 577-450 M-H? Or make my own lugs and make my own barrels for the Handi Rifle. Or….
