Enter ‘The Cast Bullet Kid’
Derek had once told me of the project and his trials and tribulations with the ‘stout’ barrel dimensions. Some years later (present time) we were talking at the range and he told me he was having a clear out with his rifles and giving some away to his family. I asked if he still had the Pygmy, if he wanted to part with it, and the rest is history.

The rifle: Action
The Pygmy is the quintessential Kiwi cobbled together “bitsa” (bits a this, bits a that) creation. Not surprisingly the rifle is based on a Lee Enfield action; MLE/Long Tom to be exact. Given the availability of these actions in NZ and the benefits of not having to make alterations to the bolt head, etc. this was a logical choice. The magazine well has been blinded off top and bottom rendering the lit-tle rifle a single shot and considering its intended use was on the range this too is a nice logical and easy option. What is rather dinky is the spring loaded feed ramp installed at the front of the action in order to facilitate ease in chambering a round. As the bolt closes the loaded round rides onto the feed ramp and is guided into the chamber. The feed ramp then depresses as the bolt passes over it and allows the bolt to fully close and lock. Nice work there boys.

Barrel
The action wears a No. 4 Lee Enfield barrel in 2-groove configuration and this barrel proved to be the Achilles Heel for Derek in his attempts to get the rifle to produce target quality grouping. Two-groove 303 barrels are famous for rather generous internal dimensions and this one is no exception. While the bore is spot on at .303”-.304”, the groove runs a very large .317” which is a full six thousandths of an inch over specification. The enormously oversized groove diameter did not allow for accuracy better than approximately 100mm (4 inches) at 50m/55 yards. It does not take a great deal of imagina-tion to understand why when launching traditional 303 bullets of .311”-.312” diameter down a .317” groove. The bullet effectively rattles down the barrel. As such the Pygmy project, after a fair amount of experimenting, was shelved and remained that way for many years.

The spring-loaded feed ramp

Bullets
I was not fazed by the oversized groove diameter and was confident with a correct fitting bullet the rifle had the same potential as any other. While the main-stream bullet mould manufacturers do not cater for .317”-.318” diameter bullets, I knew that Jim Allison of Cast Bullet Engineering (CBE) in Australia had a huge range of designs and would be able to help. As it happened my CBE 313 220GC (220gr) mould produced bullets in wheel weight alloy that measured .3165” so I figured this bullet would be a good starting point.

Shortly after acquiring the rifle Jim released his new 316 175GC (175 gr.) bullet so I ordered this also as the 175 grain bullet would be a better match to the case capacity of the Pygmy. Both bullets are bore riding designs where the bore diameter nose section is the greater part of the bullet and the remaining rear section is groove diameter. This design of bullet excels in 2-groove Lee Enfield barrels as the ratio of lands/grooves is 5/8 bore, 3/8 groove meaning that the greater part of the bearing surfaces are bore diameter and provide a huge amount of support for the bullet nose aiding in keeping the projectile perfectly aligned.

In addition to the extra support the wide lands give the bullets the 2-groove barrels are also more accommodating of undersize bullets. This is because the bullet has so little groove to upset into and so much support from the bore that misalignment that might occur in other types of barrels from too small a projectile does not man-ifest itself. This is rather handy in view because of many of my bullets being a shade ‘light’ on girth.

Jim also then released his new 316 240GC (240gr) bullet, another bore rider and this too is very well suited to the Pygmy barrel. Also tested at the very beginning of experimentation was the Lyman 311466 Loverin style bullet in both the round and flat nose configuration (I have a mould that has been altered). Neither bullet performed at all well and trials with these projectiles were ceased.

Dies
The Pygmy came with the original reamers (since used to cut a clone in Australia by a fellow cast bullet shooter), 70 cases and a pair of dies; seater and decapper. What I really needed was a sizing die. Enter the good folk at Lee Precision in the USA. I am a huge fan of the Lee collet neck sizing system and Lee offers a custom die service. For the meager sum of $55.00 US they will knock you out a collet and seating die to your specs. This is very good value for money in my opinion. All Lee Precision requires is two fired cases and two of the bullets intended to be used in the rifle and they make the dies to suit.

I sent them both and requested that they produce the sizing mandrel in the die that case necks reformed to an inside diameter of .3155 after the opera-tion. This gives me 0.001” inch neck tension with bullets of .3165” diameter. A real bonus was that when I loaned the Pygmy reamers to a fellow member of the Cast Boolit internet forum in Australia to make his own 303 runt rifle, he cut me a case forming die and sent it over when he returned the reamers to me. I was all set now for cartridge load-ing and case forming. Not bad for someone who swore he would never own a wildcat.

Woodwork
Being a project rifle the original woodwork was not flattering and was a standby until the rig proved itself. The original fore end was very short and the butt stock had a transplanted piece of wood for a check piece. All in all, not very pretty. I sourced a new and suitably longer fore end with a Schnabel tip and checking that suited my stock crawling tendencies much better. Via the purchase of a ‘dunger’ sporterized No1 MkIII rifle I scored a beautiful butt stock with a pistol grip and rollover Monte Carlo check-piece that really sets the rifle off. Added to the butt stock was a rubber recoil pad to bring the ‘pull’ of the stock out to the correct length for my gorilla arms.

Sights
The rifle came furnished with a set of home made scope mounts. A lot of work had gone into making them however I was not sure they were up to the job. Instead I fitted a ramp mounted bead foresight at the muzzle end and attached a spare PH5A aperture sight on the back. This set up works splendidly and is 100% reliable.

Load development
There is no published data for this cartridge — go figure. The only data I had was a page of notes from the diary that Derek kept from his early testing. As I have no access to pressure testing equipment, “conservative” has been the word of the year for all loads to date. A fellow member of the Cast Boolit forum was good enough to run some powders, projectiles and the case specifications through his “Load from a Disc” PC program. He came back with ‘nominal’ data for AR2205 (H4227), Bench Mark 2 (BM2) and W748 – all powders I keep on hand and use in other cartridges. From the outset the AR2205 was always going to be rather limiting as it is a very fast rifle powder and I stopped load development with it early on as accuracy was poor and velocities very limited. The remaining two powders have proved very well suited indeed. Based on the case capacity and projectile weights I firmly believe that AR2219 (H322) would be the all round best powder for the Pygmy round and this has been reported by the Pygmy shooter in Australia. His rifle likes the powder under a 174 grain projectile. This is not a powder I keep so I have developed loads based on BM2 for the CBE 316 175GC bullet and W748 for both the CBE 313 220GC and 316 240GC projectiles. Load data is shown in the accompanying table.

Projectile Diameter SD Heat Treat Brinell Weight in WW Alloy Powder Charge Velocity OAL
CBE 316 175 gr. GC .03165" .249" Yes 24 177 gr. BM2 25.0 1850 fps. 2.14"
CBE 313 220 gr. GC .03165" .315" No 9.8 221 gr. W748 23.0 1500 fps. 2.36"
CBE 316 240 gr. GC .03165" .338" No 9.8 237 gr. W748 24.0 1500 fps. 2.31"

These loads are those that have been settled on in terms of the best accuracy for the given projectile. All the usual indicators of pressure show moderate loads at best. Note that for the heavier projectiles the velocity is a rather modest 1500 f.p.s. only. While this may not look very impressive it should be remembered that the 9.8 BHN alloy is very soft and even at lower velocities will readily expand on game. Further, these ballistics more than duplicate those of the 32-40, a cartridge long considered more than adequate for deer size animals at reasonable ranges and the penetration of bullets with sectional densities this high is very good. All loads produce very workable field trajectories when sighted at 100m. Given the results above I decided the 175 grain bullet would be used in my field load for small/light game due to the flatter trajectory, and the two heavier bullets would be reserved for larger game and target duties based on how well the bullets would hold up over longer ranges and their sectional density for game.

Accuracy
Before I even considered taking the Pygmy to the rifle range I gave it my usual Lee Enfield accuracy work over. I have four LE action rifles and every single one of them has a distinct preference for a pressure pointed barrel. The Pygmy was no exception and in addition to this I bedded the action from the Knox form at the front to the very rearward section of the receiver. The barrel pres-sure point was created by placing bedding compound in the barrel channel at the tip of the fore end using a card-board spacer between the barrel and woodwork to generate some upward pressure. Once the bedding com-pound had cured the cardboard was removed. Through a process of trial and error and lots of trips to the rifle range the above loads were developed all of which will group into 25mm (1 inch) at 50m. Some do much better than this and the initial testing with the new CBE 316 240GC bullet produced a three shot group at 50m consisting of only two holes cutting each other. True testimony to 1) how accommodating 2-groove barrels can be, 2) how the bullet must fit the barrel and 3) why Derek’s experiments with traditional .311”-.312” bullets showed very aver-age results.

And now for something furry
My very good friend Glenn was due in the country from Alaska and I had offered to take him hunting for a wallaby. This seemed the perfect opportunity to ‘blood’ the 303 Pygmy so I loaded it up with the CBE 316 175GC bullet. Glenn chose his .54cal muzzleloader and we set out south for Waimate. The following morning we crossed the stream and began climbing the steep terrain looking to get some alti-tude under our belts and into the tussocks where the wal-labies would be sunning themselves.

50m group with the 175 gr. CBE bullet

Jeff shows off his first ‘roo with the 303 Pygmy

About half way up the ridge we were working I paused and told Glenn I thought we should be into some game soon and that we should take one side of the ridge each and split up. As I was in guiding mode I gave him the sunny side and away we went. Within literally minutes a resounding BOOOOOM echoed around the hills and three wallabies rocketed over the ridge in my direction fleeing the mighty 54 round ball gun. Glenn had downed his first ‘Southern High Country Mouse’ and I carefully crested the ridge to locate him and help recover his trophy.

I waved and caught his attention and immediately a wallaby bounded into the view and stopped for a look at me approximately 100m away. The Pygmy swung up and the bead, surrounded by the ghost ring (target aper-ture removed for hunting), settled on the ‘roo just as the little rifle barked. At the report the animal faltered and disappeared over the ridge.

After 5 or 10 minutes of searching the blood soaked tussocks the well proportioned buck was located and car-ried up to the top of the ridge again for display to the Alaskan visitor and mandatory photos.

On we went and another target presented itself to the Pygmy; this time a shade closer at 80m and allowed for a sitting shot. After a couple of wayward shots at a very obliging wallaby with a lovely big white spot on its chest for an aiming point, the third round connected and the ‘roo flew over backwards into the tussocks and stopped dead. Love that rifle.

Moving on into the next basin a small wallaby bolted around the head of the gully and stopped immediately opposite me for yet another shot at an honest 100m again. Poor old Glenn was missing out as he was look-ing elsewhere. I settled the bead on the base of the head of the wallaby and as the shot echoed around the hills it dropped on the spot. When I recovered the animal I found the bullet had entered the head just behind the right eye and exited the left.

The rifle accounted for two more ‘roos that morning and barked at many more as I tried some running shots (none of which were successful, I might add). Glenn downed a dozen with his .54 caliber muzzleloader. He is hooked on ‘roo shootin’.

How far the wee rifle has come from the dark days of the early 70’s when it was ‘born’. A mild recoiling, soft speaking, hard hitting, accurate little rig has really come into its own. One day I would love to get it feeding from a magazine but in the meanwhile the single shot config-uration suits me just fine.

Huh, mum was right. Good things do come in small packages. 􀀁

I did a batch of the 38-72 round nose bullets since in the M.S. spool magazine I didn’t have to go with a flat nose as in the tube magazine. To run through a spool magazine, this round nose bullet worked perfect with a felt wad or a heavy card wad stuck to the base with old Lyman black magic lube. Seated to the base of the neck and with the front band tapered, half of which blended with the nose ogive, I was ready to bet on 1400 m.v., hoping the long range leaf would suit this load at 50 yards.

I was ready at the coops with tools and components in hand to work it out right now with the turkey shoot that same afternoon my goal as the final proof. (Editor’s note: The “coops” was an old chicken coop that Frank’s Uncle Will had turned into a private indoor range.) To show how a round nose shoots a heluva lot flatter than a flat nose, it came out that the 125 yard sight hit too high and the 50 yard sight was almost right and just a little more velocity, or near 1400 m.v. allowed my favored center hold good on game or bulls eyes. The vibrations seemed more favorable since the groups then seemed slightly rounder for five.

So here I was, unexpectedly now, with a load right about on at 50 that the faster flat nose standard load also matched for on at 50, even though quite a bit more powerful. The barrel node and vibration factor seemed to be quite significant also but this condition remained quite uniformly favorable from that stiff pipe full stock Mannlicher Schoenauer.

By the time I got over to the shoot, wolfed down a couple grilled dogs and a cold cider, the third round of 20 shooters was about over and looking at the targets that cool October day. I knew some hot shots were present and every one was in the pot and on the big bird both. Right away I was wondering whyunhel I hadn’t brought the “Match Rifle” sweet Swede with such nice pots being won. The old rolled Indian blanket over a log, on which you laid the back of your hand, in which you held the rifle, was the way I’d sighted in, so no alibi there. By the time I was out six bucks the sun was sliding fast behind the hill behind us with the target now in deep shade, and the last round had 26 “last hope” shooters.

I drew ticket #26, with two shooters shooting at a time on two targets. Most were shooting in a hurry, so I waited for my pair-up man to shoot first. The guy with the spot scope says, “Wow!” very loudly. The shooter says, “Where is it?” The spot scope guy says, “A fat ten, and might go an X.” The Shooter says, “We eat turkey tomor-row, by gorra!” The spot guy says, “Yah, and you can pay me back that 10-spot you owe me.”

About then my careful squeeze as the bead sight pic-ture looked perfect broke, and I says to myself, “If this shot goes where it should, I’m in business.” Although I knew that if the other guy was in for an X, I’d have to be lucky as hell as usual.

The spot scope guy was very quiet, but when I got up he says, “What un-Goshen is that kind of gun? And you’re the last shooter. Well, I’ll be.” Both of us were sat-isfied it was a tie nipper X, but it was by then too dark to shoot it off, so we took 13 bucks apiece and since the shoot sponsors had done so good that day they gave us each a nice dressed bird. They ate turkey, by gorra, the spot scope guy got his 10 bucks back and the little Mannlicher Schoenauer made money and meat the first match. The others said, “What dumb luck, shooting in the dark. That mill town Duke kid is spooky.”

For the rest of the dressed turkey season, (the only kind up north at that time) the little M.S. with the medium load, just a little more powerful than a standard 38-55 original load, held its own, about matching the high Swedish 9.5x57 previous years score to put me well ahead using the 38-72 round nose bullet, tapered to fit the throat. This load was actually just about equal to the old 38-72 which never was given the H.V. boost for the original black powder M95 Winchester, although they did put out a smokeless load with a jacketed 275 grain bullet.

When that load didn’t draw flies in that depressed period, nor had the 38-72 been very popular from the first day, I managed to pick up a stash of the very nice .377” jacketed 275 grain round soft nose bullets in case I got into a “frequent lazy spell” or caught at a “time to go huntin’” and nothing yet cast and had to load up in a hurry.

Among the fellow’s stuff that came with the M.S. I found the original open rear sight with two leaves marked 100 and 200 meters and so I got hot to try a full fireworks factory duplicate load, or close using the 275 grain jack-eted bullet.

The 9.5x57, 20” barrel Austrian alpine classic was touted primarily as a medium bore Africa/India (or European boar) handy piece and was respected to the degree that all the European ammo plants made the one standard load of a 270 grain soft nose and a solid at a muzzle velocity of 2150 f.p.s. for quite a load from such a relatively light carbine, as rifles went at that time. (This cartridge and rifle was held as 80% of a 375 H&H Mag. at 30% of the price, 50% handier, and you had to get 20% closer.) The Brits called it the 375 x 2-1/4” Nitro. The metric was called the 9.5x56 and/or 9.5x57, all one and the same unique cartridge.

Brought out in 1910, the case body is one of the least tapered of any bottleneck case with only .005” on a side or from .470” diameter at the base to .460” at the shoulder, which was a fairly steep angle to the neck diameter of .400”. This was the Steyr solution to use the Mauser case head size for a fair diameter bullet with adequate headspace bearing on the shoulder angle. Although quite a radical case design, it fed flawlessly from the slick spool magazine, also a feature of the precision made Mannlicher Schoenauer rifles. Boxer 30-06 cases are easily sized back and necked up to fire-form to 9.5x57.

The case volume at easy pressure is very favorable to a first rate heavy bullet woods load. Over the years I have used loads in this case ranging from a round ball indoor plinker or outdoors for rodents or small game, up to the 375 H&H 300 grain jacketed slug at 2000 m.v. using post WWII components. This case apparently is quite efficient. The advantage of using 30-06 brass is that the shoulder can be located to exactly suit the head-space in your individual rifle for easy openers.

The 275 grain old 38-72 jacketed soft round nose is designed for woods use at 1300 impact velocity. At 2000 m.v. it was a woods bomb. The original 275 grain swaged lead round nose bullet at 1425 m.v. from a 26” M95 Winchester barrel with black powder reflects that the “Big Red W” (Winchester) was not what you’d call“up with the progress” in the world’s small arms race. Be that as it was, Uncle Will had also come by a pile of boththe swaged lead nice round nose bullets and also the jacketed 275 grain soft nose bullets. (I had also acquireda stash of the 38-72 jacketed bullets.) The 38-72 Winchester M95 tuned to black powder was one spin in22”. In the 12” twist of the 9.5x57 with normal .006” deep grooves we got near 1500 m.v. using fast bump-up #80,or good old “lots of loads to a can” Unique with these .378” swaged soft bullets for better accuracy than revealed by the M95, 26” barrel. (We tapered the front bands of this factory lead bullet to suit our taper throats.) Using the jacketed .377” bullet in the 12” twist revealed much better accuracy than from a M95 shot at original 1425 m.v. with its 22” twist. The 38-72 jackets were thin compared to the 375 H&H 270 grain jacketed bullet of .375” diameter.

This Mannlicher Schoenauer with a .378” groove diameter was more accurate with the .378” 38-72 jacket-ed bullet than with the .375” 270 grain bullet and the .378” 38-72 jacketed bullets came free, which didn’t encourage me to cast when the shop shelves then were sagging under the weight of those pretty 38-72 precision jacketed jolters.

With the original open sights back in place and my bench work reload tools on location to do it up quick withthe 38-72 jacketed loads, I soon had a 2000 m.v. load that liked the 275 grain bullet and was on at 100 with that leaf and a real impressive whumper in the tough oak log butts. At the 50 yard turkey shoot range I had to see a little black over the front bead to center the group on the 100 yard bull using the low 100 meter rear sight. Using the 200 meter sight at 100 yards, the impact was five inches high which is a very flat trajectory for a short range rifle when you consider it from a practical utility viewpoint. This trajectory would indicate close to 2000m.v. using iron sights. Impact velocity at 200 yards would be about 1500 f.p.s., or about equal to the 38-55H.V. jacketed load’s muzzle velocity, and this with a 20 grain heavier 38-72 jacketed bullet. While probably notan ideal brown bear load, or even for polar bear out at 200 yards, up close such a load would not be the worstto be caught short with and in the North-East area of my concern, you wouldn’t have to back away from anything known.

Using 270 grain 375 H&H bullets which were not as blunt nosed as the 275 grain 38-72 round nose bullets, with the same charge put the group higher at all ranges. British factory 270 grain loads that came with the rifle, shot against my handloads, were about on at 100 yards with the 100 meter sight but not as accurate. I was convinced that I had a very good 38-72 275 grain jacketed bullet woods load. (Often I would use jacketed bullets if invited to a camp that scorned cast.)

Having satisfied myself that I had a heluva jolting choice of “jacked” loads for this little rifle from the 300 grain Holland & Holland solid on down to the 255 grain 38-55 jacketed bullets, all hard to get in those days, when the factories, buy a long shot, didn’t encourage reloading, I got back to that cozy, comfortable 275 grain nice round nose form 38-72 plain base bullet at 1400 m.v. in a moderate alloy. Tapered on the two front bands with the rear end a full .380” diameter I had a match grade taper neck and throat fit both, not to mention an exact bore ride nose favor. When orient indexing all steps from mould to loading into chamber and using all dies involved free floating for self centering, I actually enjoyed the full accuracy potential of this pure sporting form of fusil, tested indoors. Some top coops opiners were quick to point out, “Who the hell would ever believe such a gun could do that?”

I then used that same load in the classic “Sweet Swede” 9.5x57 and got the same results and reaction from the coops counselors. Needless to say, I stayed lucky with that little M.S. 9.5x57.

As ever, Frank Marshall Jr.

and then Parker Processed. The easiest check is the finish of the bolt way in the action. Actions were blued or Parkerized prior to the final reaming to size of the bolt way. If the bolt way is bright, it has not been refinished. The exceptions are the 1903 Modified, 1903 A3 and 1903 A4 models that were finished as components then assembled.

The nickel steel actions are much easier to machine, square and true than the case-hardened actions. Unless you are planning to shoot matches requiring a rapid fire stage, the slightly lower cycling smoothness of the nickel steel action is not a disadvantage. Also, the stretching of the action and deformation of the bolt locks of the nickel steel actions add a safety margin for those reloaders who create ammunition over the sane 48,000 CUP limit. The newest double heat treated Springfield action was made over 70 years ago, and the last “war emergency” nickel steel action was made in 1945.

Barrels are very controversial concerning their accuracy potential. The favored barrel for collectors is the “star gauged” model from the 1920’s and 1930’s. The bores and grooves were checked for finish and consistency for use on National Match and Sporter rifles. These barrels were not specially manufactured but rather normal service barrels that had been compared to a stan-dard and found to meet certain criteria. Today’s medium priced target barrel is made of better material and held to more rigid tolerances than the star gauged barrel of the pre-World War Two years. The choice of a modern production barrel, with a 1 in 12 inch twist, will allow you to use 180 grain boattails at normal speeds and maintain stabilization at 1000 yards. Groove diameters of .3085 and .309 are not “bad”. It has been reported since the early 1950’s that a smoothly finished barrel of .309 inch-es with a 1 in 12 inch twist gave excellent performance at the 1000 yard range even though it may not make the smallest groups at 100 yards from a bench rest. Cast bullet shooters have had very good performance with ‘03A3 two groove barrels due to the smooth bore finish and .309 or .310 diameter grooves that require less bullet sizing. The wide lands displace enough bullet metal for low gas cutting and support the nose of the bullet. Interior finish and consistency of land and groove dimension for the length of the barrel are of greater importance than an average groove dimension of exactly .308 inches.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is relatively com-mon to find new replacement Springfield barrels for the 03A3’s at gun shows and parts dealers. They are mostly two groove Remington, but I have also seen two and four groove Springfield Armory and a few six groove Smith Coronas (manufactured by Hi Standard). Most appear to be replacement barrels coming into the country from Asia, still in the preservative and waxed paper.

The criteria for workmanship in rebarreling have changed somewhat. Gunsmiths have more than 90 years of experience to draw upon with the Springfield. There are two issues that must be dealt with. One is that replacement barrels are NOT headspaced. They were made to have a final headspacing done once they are screwed into the action. Springfield barrels are held into the receiver by compression of the rear barrel flat being compressed onto the front of the receiver. This stretch-es the rear of the barrel uniquely to that barrel and action combination. Therefore, final headspacing is required. Secondly, if you are redoing a 1903 you have to address the rear sight sleeve.

Ric’s “NRA” match rifle, built from a modified Remington ‘03. Buttplate is a checkered steel 1930 Winchester “marksman.” Sling swivel is close to the toe of the stock so the sling does not have to be readjusted from parade posi-tion for use in the sitting or prone positions.

The easiest is to center the barrel in a lathe and turn it down using the old barrel as a pattern. Now you can reinstall the sight sleeve after making the cut for the locking pin.

Head spacing to minimum dimensions does not lead to greater accuracy. Some of these reports may be due to the increased velocity and wind bucking ability that these dimensions allow. This increased velocity is created by increased pressure upon firing. This head spacing question was investigated by the Springfield Armory in the 1920’s. What does have the greatest effect is the care and workmanship of the chambering operation. The careful workman who makes a chamber of consistent diameter and taper that is concentric with the bore and places the leade of the chamber in the proper relationship for the bullet will always shoot tighter groups. The short head spaced chamber only helps by forcing the case to self-center in an excessively large chamber or out of round chamber. In combination with a tight throat, the cartridge is supported by the neck of the case and the base of the case against the bolt face. This does not make for consistency and accuracy in a rifle.

If you are making a production class rifle, such as within The Cast Bullet Association rules, you need an arsenal barrel, action and sights. Unless you have very, very good and young eyes, I recommend the 03A3 action and rear sights. Most 1903’s have the #6 sight aperture and some as small as #4. The aperture is a long way from your eye and that makes the front sight very fuzzy even in bright light. I can not see the bull on most targets through that little hole. General Julian Hatcher has some interesting comments in his note-book on aperture sizes. The large 03A3’s sight is not as much of a disadvantage as some people seem to think.

There are two areas that keep the Springfield from being a “modern” rifle; trigger and lock speed. The trigger is two staged and I know of no safe way to make it a single stage. The original trigger can be tuned for a two pound first stage and an additional one and one half pound second stage. This is light enough and can be made crisp enough for everything but the most ardent benchrest shooter with familiarization. I have used three brands of aftermarket triggers that are of the falling sear construction. They work well and are the “de-rigor” item for those who don’t want to learn the military trigger. The “speed lock” stronger firing pin springs will speed up lock time, but it is still slow. It greatly increases bolt lift force from about 22 pounds to over 30 pounds. The biggest draw back to the two stage trigger is in the offhand position. It forces you to use good trigger control and follow through.

The questions of how and where to bed the metal to the wood has been solved. The quality of wood and lack of skilled stock makers has ended the idea of carving out perfect bedding. The two-part epoxy resin with a strengthening material gives a better fit and a stronger stock. You can even take the rifle apart to clean the action and not have your sight settings change.

There are several points to address in preparation for the use of bedding compounds. The wood must be dry and free of linseed oil and tung oil. While these are good finishes, they are not promoters of tight adher-ing of epoxy to wood. The bedding compound may pull away from the wood during firing or removal of the barreled action from the stock. Other finishes need to be of rough texture and if you are unsure, remove all finishes to the bare wood. Stock bolts and other metal fittings should be bedded permanently into the wood. You can not create the best bedding in one pour. All bedding compounds shrink with curing. Light sanding between pours creates a snug fit and stability.

The best method is to bed the areas around the front action screw, the recoil abutments, and the action areas ahead of the magazine well first to provide stability. Then snugly bed the rear, or tang, screw. Original armory stocks are semi-pillar bedded with a metal piece surrounding the rear screw to prevent strong armed privates from crushing the stock. Seat the recoil lug screw firmly and draw the tang screw up just snug. The idea is to allow the recoil lug to square the action. The tang screw should just stop the action from being bent downward upon screw tightening. There are several areas that require clearance after the bedding. The front action screw needs at least 0.010 clearance all the way around. This means you will have to go back and under cut around the threaded shank on the recoil lug. At the rear, I like to put the metal spacer in permanently and let the screw float inside. Also the bottom of the recoil lug must have clearance to prevent binding.

Up pressure pads at the tip are, or at least seem to be, a matter of individual rifle preference. Most full stocked rifles appear to group better with the tip having four to seven pounds of upwards pressure on the barrel. This pressure pad should fit the bottom contour of the barrel and be an arc of between 90 and 120 degrees centered on the vertical axis. One inch length of pad is enough. Due to barrel contour, any longer pad increases pressure as the barrel lengthens with heating. NRA-type sporter stocks and aftermarket stocks appear to shoot as well with or without pads. Original NRA Sporters are tightly clamped into the forend with the sling swivel band. The contour of the Springfield barrel is much heavier at the midpoint than modern styles and this may have an affect on tip pressure requirements.

The action should be fully supported. The magazine box is also used for recoil absorption and must be carefully bedded if the rifle is to be a repeater. Small pads poured under the trigger guard assembly screw holes will prevent the trigger guard from sinking into the stock. The top of the magazine box should have a slight clearance from the bottom of the action. This provides some compressibility between action and trigger guard. Stability is greatly increased if you create a single shot without a magazine cut out and the lower surface of the action is fully bedded into the stock. Single shots require a feed ramp for the case head to slip under the extractor hook as the bolt is closed.

1930s National Match Springfield with type “C” stock

Stock styles and sizes seem to be the most individualistic of all components. There are several elements that should be considered. The shooter that competes in rapid fire stages should have as short of pull as possible without having to move the head to operate the bolt. The firing pin hitting the nose or cheek slows the bolt manipulation operation and the tearing eyes make the front sight blur. The average shooter of the 1920’s was 5 feet 8 inches tall and shot a rifle with a 13 1/4 to 13 1/2 inch pull. But that includes a stock with more drop than is normally used today.

A rifle used for prone slow fire needs to be straighter than a rapid fire rifle and length of pull is not as important. Prone, the key is consistent eye placement, consistent firing hand placement and keeping the vertical plane of the line of bore and line of sight perpendicular to the earth.

The choice between the classic straight comb and the Monte Carlo comb is relatively complex. I feel that it has a lot to do with the relationship between eye, cheek and shoulder pocket, with their various distances, angles and relationships. The Monte Carlo allows the shooter to have more drop at the heel with higher cheek support. This could be helpful in matches with off hand, sitting and kneeling stages. The key is to insure that the face support, the top line of the comb, is exactly parallel to the bore line. A forward sloping comb makes it impos-sible to have consistent eye to sight alignment. The fore end shape also had an effect upon rifle handling. A broad flat fore end with a front to rear taper, or semi-beavertail shape, assists in maintaining vertical align-ment so important in 600 and 1000 yard shots. A pear or double elliptical shape fore end allows a slight leverage advantage to cant the rifle to the right for added speed in sitting and kneeling rapid fire. This tactic also assists in the reloading phase with a reasonably tight sling.

The basic shape of the 1927 National Match stock, or the Type "C", is excellent for the all around rifle that must work for every position. From Springfield Armory, they were made very full in the pistol grip and cheek contact areas. Individual adjustments can make the basic design very usable for almost any shooter. The Winchester Model 70 Match Rifle's "marksman" stock of the early 1950’s is an excellent example of the refine-ments possible to the Type “C” stock.

Placement of the front sling swivel also varies with the use of the rifle. If the sling is to carry the piece, i.e. hunting, it must be placed forward enough to reduce the height of the barrel when walking. Flexible shooters who can assume a very low prone or sitting position, require the sling to be farther forward than older shooters. The sling swivel can be used as a hand stop if you use a heavy shooting glove. The current “inline” prone position used by self-loading rifle shooters is not practical for bolt manipulation. The elbow hits the knee and the shooter must shift their weight and center of gravity to the supporting hand side to keep from hitting the ground with their nose. Therefore, assume a natural (at least to us older folks) and comfortable prone position and then mark and install the front sling swivel to use as a hand stop.

There are three choices for butt plates. The mil-itary plate works well for most people, but is not very secure unless you can find a National Match coarsely checkered plate, or a finely checkered 1903 plate and sharpen the checkering. If you are building a new stock, consider the NRA Sporter butt plate that is still available from The Gun Parts Corporation. It works well but dictates the shape and size of the stock. Lastly, you can use a rubber butt plate and reshape to your heart’s content.

Springfield rifles are a wonderful piece of Americana. They can make excellent target, hunting and plinking guns. While they may not be on the front line at Camp Perry or the national benchrest matches, they can be very competitive at the local level. It appears that no one is willing to spend the thousands of dollars needed to make a really competitive rifle because it is “just a Springfield.” 􀀁

Leading increases with velocity. When smokeless powders made the scene near the turn of 1900 they dramatically boosted bullet velocities beyond the capabilities of black powder. They also exceeded the ability of bullet lubricants to keep up. The Lisle Wire-Patched Bullet approached the problem from a “more velocity needs more lubricant” perspective. The wire winding on Mr. Lisle’s bullet held lubricant along nearly the entire length of the bullet’s bearing surface, not just in a few narrow grooves. This additional lubricant was apparently at least partially successful in reducing leading at some higher velocities, prompting the inventor to claim the design con-tributed to greater accuracy and longer barrel life.

The design, at least theoretically, also resulted in less recoil than an all-lead bullet of the same caliber and length because the lighter wire windings replaced some of the bullet’s lead. As a function of physics, the lighter the projectile the lighter the recoil, all other factors being equal. And a lighter bullet requires less powder (equating to less recoil) to achieve the same velocity as the heavier bullet. A reduction in perceived recoil with Lisle’s bullet, however, would be entirely a matter of the shooter’s opin-ion.Physics also applies to the inventor’s claims of flatter trajectory: less lead makes for a lighter bullet, which results in less drop at a given distance than an all-lead bullet of the same length and caliber. Shooters can easi-ly determine a flatter trajectory on paper targets, leaving less to subjective argument.Clearly then, not all of Lisle’s claims for his bullet’s performance can be dismissed as merely snake oil promises.

WINDING UP

Early Lisle bullets had a winding of very strong cotton or similar fabric, but the inventor found it lacked sufficient strength. After some trial and error, National Projectile Works settled on manufacturing the bullets by first casting the lead in bullet moulds, then rolling them in a machine to ensure roundness and to open the shanks to accept the wire winding. “Patching machines” next wound the bullets with coils of cotton-covered copper or soft iron wire and swaged them to size. Lubricating the bullets and then loading them into cartridges finished the operation, except for final packaging. In addition to the winding, at least some of Lisle’s bullets also featured an extended copper gas check on the heel that formed a high base.

“The .22 cal. wire wound bullets were a revelation because they cleaned the bore after every shot and firing could be maintained indefinitely,” Elmer said, “but the bullets were too expensive to produce and were discon-tinued.”

For a time Hensley & Gibbs manufactured their own version of the bullet, winding coils of copper wire, inserting them into bullet molds, and then introducing the molten lead. According to Elmer, his father’s experiments proved the wire must be wound onto the bullet after casting in order to achieve best accuracy. Besides, pouring molten lead onto the coils burned away the wire’s cotton covering, “which defeated the main purpose of the wire patch,” he said.

WINDING DOWN

Elmer began casting bullets at National Projectile Works in 1901 and worked there until 1904; his father left the company in 1906. Owner D.H. Armstrong moved the company to Napa California, where he continued to manufacture the wire-patched bullet at least as late as 1911.

“The wire-patched bullets were made in all calibers popular at that time and were in great demand by shoo-ers,” Elmer wrote in 1942. “I am a strong believer in the efficiency of the wire-patched bullet and am sure if they were manufactured again they would quickly be adopted by most shooters due to their great reduction in recoil, flatter trajectory, longer life of barrel and better killing properties.”

Whether the wire patched bullet failed to live up to Lisle’s claims or it succumbed to the advent of metal jacketed bullets that require no lubricant at all is historically moot. While many shooters today enjoy casting their own bullets, mixing their own lubes, and even paper-patching their own bullets, the wire-patched bullet is forgotten. It certainly seems too complicated for the casual hobbyist to manufacture at home, at least by Lisle’s method. However, perhaps a CBA member with too much money and time on his hands might find a new challenge in duplicating Lisle’s odd bullet.

One has to wonder, though, with the current resurgent interest in shooting the older cartridges, where those old “patching machines” might be…