Second Cup on the go, nice mornin' here,.....and more irrigation to hang on the trellises later.
Forward,....
The #5s have VERY sloppy 7MM chambers, and are notorious for brass seperations. That trait, in an action that does not handle gas well, rates poorly. There ARE ways to anneal, massage, fireform cases to play well, typically with cast gas checked bullets,....and neck sizing only.
The Mauser like upper hand guard is retained by a deformed looking receiver ring. The full radius mortise that the guard slips into makes a great crud trap, once the guard's removed.
I've built several #5s into BPCRS. Every one of em's been ugly, due to the fact that I don't monkey around "Re-profiling" that goofy asymetric reciever ring. This whole business of annealing, milling, and than re-heat treating these old actions has never struck me as being very bright, and I don't really care what Larry Potterfield has to say about that, one way or another. I generally try to discourage the practice, after spending alla' that time, and money, you still just have a sporterized military action. The "Narrowed tangs" add one notable feature,.....structural WEAKNESS, as compared to the beefy original Military tangs, with they're mortised Butts and Forends.
Up until the arrival of the #5, The RBs all had extractors, A sliding "bar type", and the very skookum rotary type. The Swedes came up with a novel swinging variant, that's probably the BEST of any of em',in terms of large rimmed cartridges. The # 5 sports an "extractor ejector" That was an upgrade from the only so-so reliability of the first gen, 7mms bar type EXTRACTOR. I don't have one in front of me, but the #5 setup is an interesting and clearly highly engineered part. It's a fussy, complicated little thing, with springy character, to snap over the rimless case head. It rides in an inconcentric groove in the block,which gives it a bit of a vertical lift, as well as swinging tangentally. There's a bumper set in the trigger guard that (theoretically) provides a final "snap" to kick the expended case out. When converted to handle a large rimmed cartridge, they're prone to giving some problems, case heads insinuating themselves behind the extractor being to the fore.
On the plus side, these ARE very finely built and finished arms, and the Artillery Carbine version has always had an inordinate appeal to me.
Bottom line, a REAL Black Powder RB action is plenty strong enough (and than some)for ANY BP cartridge that will fit between it's side walls, and makes up into a nicer looking piece.
Hard to figure rollers going as scarce as they apparently have, there were buckets of stripped actions and parts sitting around, not all that long ago.
GTC
Last edited by crossfireoops; 04/13/14.
