Ranch Dog
.410
I bought a used, early 800A, chambered in 308 Win to use as a "test mule" for a 308 Win cast bullet design that was commissioned by NOE Moulds.
This is a very early rifle, my guess is 1966, with the whitetail deer cut into the checkering. Like anything I buy, it all came apart. The barrel/chamber was examined with impressions. The barrel is a SAAMI spec with a .300 bore and .308 groove. The chamber is also cut exactly to the SAAMI spec.
Before taking the rifle apart, I saw a hairline crack coming out of the bolt track and continuing through the grip and slightly into the stock. Once the barrel was off, I saw that it originated in the are that is between the magazine and trigger guard wells.
I'm not sure if a new stock will ever be part of the plan as I would like to keep the rifle's original stock so I went to work on a repair. What I did is "stop" drill the crack in several locations and then filled the cavities with epoxy.
The hole on the left was not filled completely as it is exposed when the bolt is closed. It was completed with walnut stained Plastic Wood. The forward part of the crack was drilled large so that the outside radius was at the magazine well cutout. The hole size fit the diameter of some aluminum round stock I have and was then epoxied in place.
I was also able to spread the crack in this short portion and completely fill it with epoxy. The stock was clamped together and left 48 hours. Once dried, the areas were sanded smoothed and the rifle reassembled.
I'm teaching a friend of mine to handload as he received a Lee Loader as a gift. I assembled some rounds rather quickly using the Speer #2017 HCRN and Varget. I start all my load development at 25 yards, it they don't go through or cut the previous hole, it is not worth pursuing. I honestly wasn't expecting much but was extremely happy when the rifle shot through the same hole. After shooting at 50 and 100 yards the rifle produced a 1.316 MOA group at 200 yards!
The trigger "scales" heavy at 5# but it just doesn't feel like that, being much lighter on the finger. I would think that the 200 yards shooting would put a stop on any further worry about the trigger. I did take it apart, detailed in another topic on this forum, but there just isn't anything to adjust unless you want to get into searching for replacement springs of a different tension. That is how I see it but would entertain work based on anyone else's experience. Here is my 800A, nothing fancy for sure.
It will be a cast bullet gun, here is the design that I developed for NOE. Heck, this might be the only Mossberg that has had a cast bullet designed specifically for it!
I should have my copy of the mold in a couple of weeks and the rifle/bullet combo will be put on a feral hog immediately. I use a water quenched Lyman #2 alloy, probably push it with 43.5-grains of Varget for 2485 FPS at 48.0 KPSI.
This is a very early rifle, my guess is 1966, with the whitetail deer cut into the checkering. Like anything I buy, it all came apart. The barrel/chamber was examined with impressions. The barrel is a SAAMI spec with a .300 bore and .308 groove. The chamber is also cut exactly to the SAAMI spec.
Before taking the rifle apart, I saw a hairline crack coming out of the bolt track and continuing through the grip and slightly into the stock. Once the barrel was off, I saw that it originated in the are that is between the magazine and trigger guard wells.
I'm not sure if a new stock will ever be part of the plan as I would like to keep the rifle's original stock so I went to work on a repair. What I did is "stop" drill the crack in several locations and then filled the cavities with epoxy.
The hole on the left was not filled completely as it is exposed when the bolt is closed. It was completed with walnut stained Plastic Wood. The forward part of the crack was drilled large so that the outside radius was at the magazine well cutout. The hole size fit the diameter of some aluminum round stock I have and was then epoxied in place.
I was also able to spread the crack in this short portion and completely fill it with epoxy. The stock was clamped together and left 48 hours. Once dried, the areas were sanded smoothed and the rifle reassembled.
I'm teaching a friend of mine to handload as he received a Lee Loader as a gift. I assembled some rounds rather quickly using the Speer #2017 HCRN and Varget. I start all my load development at 25 yards, it they don't go through or cut the previous hole, it is not worth pursuing. I honestly wasn't expecting much but was extremely happy when the rifle shot through the same hole. After shooting at 50 and 100 yards the rifle produced a 1.316 MOA group at 200 yards!
The trigger "scales" heavy at 5# but it just doesn't feel like that, being much lighter on the finger. I would think that the 200 yards shooting would put a stop on any further worry about the trigger. I did take it apart, detailed in another topic on this forum, but there just isn't anything to adjust unless you want to get into searching for replacement springs of a different tension. That is how I see it but would entertain work based on anyone else's experience. Here is my 800A, nothing fancy for sure.
It will be a cast bullet gun, here is the design that I developed for NOE. Heck, this might be the only Mossberg that has had a cast bullet designed specifically for it!
I should have my copy of the mold in a couple of weeks and the rifle/bullet combo will be put on a feral hog immediately. I use a water quenched Lyman #2 alloy, probably push it with 43.5-grains of Varget for 2485 FPS at 48.0 KPSI.
