Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Help on Rolling Block project

It's not as easy to fix excess headspace on a Rolling Block as just setting the barrel back!
You need to correct what caused the excess headspace, and that can be the hammer and block pins, plus wear to the block. Blocks usually end up after decades of shooting (especially the #5 7mm) with the block face not being true perpendicular to the bore. So if you set the barrel back it results in the rifle's headspace issues fixed, but rims will bend each time you fire from the block being angled to the bore. So the face of the blocks need to be trued after you install new pins. Then the barrel headspace can be set and they're back like new again.
I personally would not use most of the cartridges listed in the original post in a Rolling Block. Most are much higher pressures than the original early 1900's 7x57 those rifles were chambered in, and could result in an accident after firing. I stick with rimmed cartridges in my builds, and mostly old "hyphenated" rimmed cartridges. I have Rolling Blocks in .44-77BN, .45-70, .40-70 Straight, .40-50 Straight, .38-55, .32-40, and some other chamberings.
I love old Rolling Blocks, and love building off surplus military actions too. I've built a half dozen over the last decade, and still have some spare receivers to build more! This was an old Husqvarna military action I rebuilt and put new barrel and stocks on. It's a .40-50 Sharps Straight:

Vall, that was my concern too with my #5 early on: were the pins worn/bent? I drifted them out and carefully mic'ed them and checked them in a comparator and they're perfect, and pin gauges in their holes confirm no wear there either. I took it one step further and used feeler gauges to determine if the breech block is parallel to the barrel face and near as I can tell, it is - maybe a thousandth or so tighter at the bottom than at the top, certainly within the realm of living with it.

The action defines the word "tight" - the hammer radius is snug on the breech block radius. If it were any tighter it would be detrimentally tight. My sloppy chamber is just that and not a result of bent/worn pins which is why I proceeded with making it shoot.

As for your cartridge recommendations I'll bow to them, but I still feel that moderately loaded 7x57's and sanely loaded .357 magnums and Maxi's are ok too. My thinking is geared toward an astute handloader feeding it, and if a hotrodder gets ahold of it and goes crazy what'll happen is it won't grenade on the first shot but will loosen up radically very quickly after very few shots - the beauty of soft steel that yields and bends without shattering. (The very behavior of early 98 Mausers that were also made of unsophisticated steel alloys, and nobody complains too much about their strength.) Of course a limiting factor with any cartridge selected is always brass strength also.

For some reason I can't explain, the 256WinMag has always intrigued me.
I know finding loaded ammo is tough but Buffalo Arms has some occasionally and
Hornady still makes that 60gr flat nose bullet. a 60gr bullet going 2500fps
ain't nothing to sneeze at.

I have a few Rolling Blocks ,one is .22LR, one is original Swede 8x58R and I am currently building a full Custom #5 action in 405 Winchester Heavy Barrel . I dodecagon milled the top of the receiver , and section of the barrel leaving the bottom 1/2 round for the forend , cut a wedding ring in front and then tapered the barrel to a Boss section at the end , that I may want to Magnaport later. I have some Nice figured Black Walnut to make the stock and forend out of. It is a work in progress.
Looks like I will have to rent a Chamber reamer as I haven't found one for sale other than PTG and not a fan of those.
Rich

"I love old Rolling Blocks, and love building off surplus military actions too. I've built a half dozen over the last decade, and still have some spare receivers to build more! This was an old Husqvarna military action I rebuilt and put new barrel and stocks on. It's a .40-50 Sharps Straight:"

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That is a lovely build.

Your comments on the pressure is something that's I've considered from the start. That is also why I was thinking 30-30/7-30/357 since factory ammo would be well below the pressure limits and in line with/lower than 7x57. I also have a good amount of 30-30 ammo, so would be easy to hand load for me. I like the 30-30AI thought mostly from a brass longevity aspect. But, if I decided to sell it, then the 357 would be the easiest to move. I sometimes just decide to get rid of things.... I'm in that process right now.

I guess you could also say that I enjoy the planning/dreaming part of a project. I just have to make sure I don't overthink it.

I’ve always liked the Krag cartridge. Not sure why? Never owned one. I just think it’s a cool cartridge.

The original pressures were quite low I believe. Low enough for old single lug actions anyway.

Good luck. Look forward to some finished pics!