Haha, great minds think alike- we both have the noses of our calipers intruding into the pics.
With Lord MacAllan egging me on, I just spent the last 2 hours re-reading this entire thread (with time out to order some esoteric gun parts). It beat anything on TV all to hell, and got my juices flowing again regarding this project. I'll unabashedly follow Dan's lead and go with a .22 rifle set up for both rimfire and centerfire. I hit upon using my Springfield M2 as the vehicle: spare bolts are available, as are one piece firing pins. The pins and forward (non-rotating) halves of the bolts are easily converted to centerfire, and the locking lug on the rear (rotating) halves are adjustable for headspace making a matchup between rim thickness, existing chamber, and bolt face a snap. The extra bits weren't exactly cheap, but MacAllan scotch is a great lubricant for rational (irrational?) decision making. In the end, its utility as a rimfire rifle won't be compromised in the least and those extra bits will look good under glass if the project fizzles.
Digital Don't-Tell-Me-It-Can't-Be-Done Dan deserves a "Laurel, and Hardy handshake" for his work on this project.
