Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[GrizG]

I have changed scopes, bedded actions, free floated barrels and had trigger work done. Have also "played" with different bullets/loads/cartridge length.

Most of the time I can resolve the problem, but not always.

Usually if I sell a gun, it is to buy another that I want more.

I am reluctant to play with any gun that shoots well, and the same goes for any saw that runs well. Better to leave well enough alone than to screw things up!

That said, I can't leave stuff alone that I don't think is up to par! I started getting saws ported by others when my 044 would outrun my 046! Professional porting resolved that issue fast! (Thanks to Bret, AKA Spenser Paving). I remember marveling at how well that 046 would pull a 28" bar in Oak.

I've got one rifle that has been a problem... A mid-60s vintage Ruger .44 Carbine. I finally figured out that the problem is the jacketed bullets for .44 magnums today are too small for the .44 magnum rifles of that vintage. SAAMI bullet diameters are .429 for pistols but .432 for rifles (groove .429 and .431 respectively). I cleaned up all the gun issues with little effect. I tried a bunch of different bullets and powder charges but that gun remains a 40-50 yard gun for whitetails and nothing more. Anyone know who makes a rifle spec jacketed bullet? Lead isn't too good in a gas operated gun!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Well that’s very interesting!

I have both of Marvin Clark’s books and I think I’m going to start reading one soon if I can find it in the garage.

Never heard that part though… And I’ve read about them on some online forms as well.

Assuming thing that they were together for most of their lives that they were… A couple?

From what I understand of what some of the old timers around Kodiak told me. Yes they were a couple. Although they themselves didn't mention it to people. Morris did 90% of the guiding and Pinnell did all the house keeping, cooking at base camp, (an old shut down cannery), book work, logistics, and some guiding. Bill also often wore a dress whet he went to town for supplies.

No matter to me. Dosent change the fact that they were nice people and top of the line Brown Bear Guides!

 

[sean donato]

My youngest son who is really into guns was asking me about all the guns I’ve owned over the years and I told them or all the ones that I’ve had and sold. He doesn’t understand why I would sell a gun. I said one thing that will cause me to sell a gun immediately is a centerfire rifle that doesn’t shoot accurately. I don’t have the time to screw around with trying to fix all of the small issues to make it to the right so I’d rather just take a small loss on a trade in and move on.

I’ve also had a few shotguns that shot blatantly low and moved those along too.

I had the same issue with a Mosin nagant I bought. Thought I'd pull a brittish with it like my dad did back in the day. Had the barrel cut to 24" re crowned, then had it set in a synthetic stock, pillar blocked and beded, scope rail mounted and a timney drop in trigger. I topped it with a Simmons 4-12x50 scope. (Yeah I know junk scope) took it to the range and managed 2" groups free hand. Good enough for deer. Took it hunting that year and missed a doe. Not once or twice but 3 times. She never even spooked once. The third time I missed I literally threw the gun out of the stand I was so mad. It sat in the cabinet ever till my younger brother showed some interest in it. Told him he could have it. He did a bunch of work to it and it still shoots like crap. Tossed a few different scopes on it, tried a different scope mount ect. Some guns are just lemons.

 

[sean donato]

Finally got the wall thimble in for the chimney. I had to fabricate a tin shield as the one it came with was short by 7 inches. Nice thing about this set up, is this outer shield can go straight against wood as it encases a section of triple walled stainless pipe in the middle of it. So my sloppy hole in the block I filled up with spray foam. Now I just need to cut new holes in my tin wall covering to match the new much bigger hole I put in the wall and all is good.

 

[sean donato]

Well this part went faster then I expected.
Done!
Crappy part is now I have a goofy adapter that goes into the stainless pipe, that's black pipe. I may run and get stainless pipe to go from the furnace to the chimney. The book says to run a double walled stainless or single walled black pipe from the furnace to the thimble. Don't know what the difference between stainless single and black pipe single wall would be.

 

[Cowboy254]

What happened?

Will you do your own bonfire, just for family and friends?

Can't get insurance for it anymore unfortunately, lest little Aiden, Jayden or Brayden gets a cinder in his eye and his parents sue (which incidentally is rare in Australia). So now everyone gets nothing.

Didn't mind doing it even though I have no heavy machinery so it was a lot of manual labour but now I get more fishing time I guess.

 

[svk]

From what I understand of what some of the old timers around Kodiak told me. Yes they were a couple. Although they themselves didn't mention it to people. Morris did 90% of the guiding and Pinnell did all the house keeping, cooking at base camp, (an old shut down cannery), book work, logistics, and some guiding. Bill also often wore a dress whet he went to town for supplies.

No matter to me. Dosent change the fact that they were nice people and top of the line Brown Bear Guides!

Wow, that’s wild!

Just think of all the people that probably went through their business over the years and nobody had a clue. And in that day and age it certainly was for the best!

I have pictures of the cannery complex. Really amazing spot!

 

[Philbert]

This year I got all our firewood from the local cemetery.

Mostly deadwood?

Philbert

 

[JustJeff]

Mostly deadwood?

Philbert

It's the dead standing that would have me all heels and elbows!

 

[sean donato]

I'll have to grab a pic tomorrow after work, I ran and got another load of logs from mom and dad's tree line removal this evening.

Before that me and dad ran to get a few titles changed over to my name. The trailer title was fine, but the one for his 87 f350 is a mess. It was originally a Virginia truck, that was bought at auction. For some reason the pa title for it has it listed as a motor home, 80k gvw, gas engine and dated like its was issued for a new vehicle. The notary is going to look into it, but it looks like it's going to be an uphill battle.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

My youngest son who is really into guns was asking me about all the guns I’ve owned over the years and I told them or all the ones that I’ve had and sold. He doesn’t understand why I would sell a gun. I said one thing that will cause me to sell a gun immediately is a centerfire rifle that doesn’t shoot accurately. I don’t have the time to screw around with trying to fix all of the small issues to make it to the right so I’d rather just take a small loss on a trade in and move on.

I’ve also had a few shotguns that shot blatantly low and moved those along too.

IMOP If a firearm doesn't shoot straight directly from the manufacturer/maker its a piece of ****! I agree! It shouldn't need any special work done to it to make it shoot straight!
A firearm that doesn't shoot straight. Is just an object to hit someone with!

 

[sean donato]

Forgot to mention... got the 026 back home. Dad tried to kill it. Turns out it has a cracked fuel line. Rebuilt and lightly ported this saw about 10 odd years ago. So I'm taking the fuel line being junk as a sign to replace the fule, impulse line, and carb boot. Dad has my 359 husqy right now and I'm not keen to let him keep it....
Don't know how many of you have used the walbro spiral diaphragms on the wt series carbs. I'm a big fan of them with my rc engines. Basically immune to ethonal, and they don't degrade like normal diaphragms.
Win win for me since this saw stays at dad's till it doesn't run right. Need to get a new filter for it too, the flocking is falling oit of this one. Sadly none of the dealers around here stock any of the parts, and I wasn't paying shipping so everything is coming in on a stock order save the air filter. Got to find one of those yet.

 

[MustangMike]

IMOP If a firearm doesn't shoot straight directly from the manufacturer/maker its a piece of ****! I agree! It shouldn't need any special work done to it to make it shoot straight!
A firearm that doesn't shoot straight. Is just an object to hit someone with!

Now adays it is easy to find guns like the Ruger American Rifle that come from the factory with bedded actions, free floated barrels and adjustable triggers.

When I first started buying bolt action rifles, there were no such things. Trigger pulls were commonly about 6 lbs, actions were not bedded but were just inlet into the wood, and almost all bolt actions came with fore-end contact at the front end of the stock. If the temperature or humidity changed, or if you used a bipod to varmint hunt, your point of impact would change.

Brownells Acraglas became my friend for bedding actions, which then allowed me to free float the barrel. My friend (a part time gunsmith) reduced the trigger pulls to about 3 lbs for me.

It did not always improve accuracy, but it did make them easier to shoot accurately and far more consistent, especially if varmint hunting with a bipod.

Judging from the # of aftermarket triggers I see for sale I don't think my problems were unique.

 

[Sierra_rider]

Forgot to mention... got the 026 back home. Dad tried to kill it. Turns out it has a cracked fuel line. Rebuilt and lightly ported this saw about 10 odd years ago. So I'm taking the fuel line being junk as a sign to replace the fule, impulse line, and carb boot. Dad has my 359 husqy right now and I'm not keen to let him keep it....
Don't know how many of you have used the walbro spiral diaphragms on the wt series carbs. I'm a big fan of them with my rc engines. Basically immune to ethonal, and they don't degrade like normal diaphragms.
Win win for me since this saw stays at dad's till it doesn't run right. Need to get a new filter for it too, the flocking is falling oit of this one. Sadly none of the dealers around here stock any of the parts, and I wasn't paying shipping so everything is coming in on a stock order save the air filter. Got to find one of those yet.

So I'm not the only one here that has to look after their old man's saws? Mine is pretty good with mechanical stuff, so I generally don't have to work on his. That being said, he always wants me to grind chains for him...my response is that he knows where I live and he's more than welcome to sit in front of my chain grinder anytime he feels like it.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Wow, that’s wild!

Just think of all the people that probably went through their business over the years and nobody had a clue. And in that day and age it certainly was for the best!

I have pictures of the cannery complex. Really amazing spot!

Unfortunately they tore it all down! When I worked for the ADF&G on a saImon weir near there. I use to explore the old cannery and out crop buildings quite a bit. There was a lot of history there!

 

[tfp]

So I'm not the only one here that has to look after their old man's saws? Mine is pretty good with mechanical stuff, so I generally don't have to work on his. That being said, he always wants me to grind chains for him...my response is that he knows where I live and he's more than welcome to sit in front of my chain grinder anytime he feels like it.

+1 my old man is allergic to sharpening chains as well. When I consider what my hands feel like every morning, I can't really blame him, his are probably 10x worse. I should look into a grinder.

 

[svk]

I had the same issue with a Mosin nagant I bought. Thought I'd pull a brittish with it like my dad did back in the day. Had the barrel cut to 24" re crowned, then had it set in a synthetic stock, pillar blocked and beded, scope rail mounted and a timney drop in trigger. I topped it with a Simmons 4-12x50 scope. (Yeah I know junk scope) took it to the range and managed 2" groups free hand. Good enough for deer. Took it hunting that year and missed a doe. Not once or twice but 3 times. She never even spooked once. The third time I missed I literally threw the gun out of the stand I was so mad. It sat in the cabinet ever till my younger brother showed some interest in it. Told him he could have it. He did a bunch of work to it and it still shoots like crap. Tossed a few different scopes on it, tried a different scope mount ect. Some guns are just lemons.

Your experience may not be out of the norm. From what I’ve read a lot of those older military guns and even older American hunting rifles were not made to very good specifications either, especially military arms made during a war where quantity was definitely more important than quality. 2” groups were probably then best you’d get with an average gun.

I used to have an 1891 argentine Mauser (in 7.65 Mauser) that shot pretty well though.

I have several boxes of nagant hunting ammo that I got from a friend who passed . Those guns used to be $79 and now they’re way up in price too. I figured eventually I’ll come across one that’s not an arm and a leg and I’ll pick it up.

Plus as Mike has mentioned, the trigger pull on older guns is usually way too heavy.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

+1 my old man is allergic to sharpening chains as well. When I consider what my hands feel like every morning, I can't really blame him, his are probably 10x worse. I should look into a grinder.

Grinder=

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Now adays it is easy to find guns like the Ruger American Rifle that come from the factory with bedded actions, free floated barrels and adjustable triggers.

When I first started buying bolt action rifles, there were no such things. Trigger pulls were commonly about 6 lbs, actions were not bedded but were just inlet into the wood, and almost all bolt actions came with fore-end contact at the front end of the stock. If the temperature or humidity changed, or if you used a bipod to varmint hunt, your point of impact would change.

Brownells Acraglas became my friend for bedding actions, which then allowed me to free float the barrel. My friend (a part time gunsmith) reduced the trigger pulls to about 3 lbs for me.

It did not always improve accuracy, but it did make them easier to shoot accurately and far more consistent, especially if varmint hunting with a bipod.

Judging from the # of aftermarket triggers I see for sale I don't think my problems were unique.

Roger. Trigger adjustment or weight of pull can definitely make a firearm easier or more comfortable to shoot I agree. Triggers often do need adjusting or replacing with an upgrade. IMOP Trigger pull is a personal opinion issue. Not everyone likes the same pull. I also agree that a good trigger is key when it comes to long distance shooting. As you mentioned when varmint shooting. However, like you said. It doesn't make the arm shoot straighter. IMOP, A properly adjusted trigger makes the shooter shoot better.

 

[svk]

I had a Ruger #3 in 30-40 krag. It was the second most accurate big game rifle I have ever owned (700 Sendero in .300 win mag was the most accurate). Trigger was so light and crisp.

One time I climbed into a deer stand and an old white faced doe watched me get up there and get situated. Shot her at 160 yards and it was lights out with one shot. She was as large as the 6 point buck I shot two days later.