C.O.R.N.Y. virus, Dakota variant

[AlNyhus]

Test results aren't back yet but it seems the Dakota variant of the C.O.R.N.Y.* virus has struck me once again. Cyclical in nature and with random timing between contagion events, the one constant seems to be my generally clueless nature as to the initial symptoms and a remarkable decrease of awareness that the next event cycle is about to overtake me.

The latest bout struck while taking a couple of my grandkiddlets to ride the indoor Ferris wheel at my local sporting goods store. A quick wander through the gun section was in order and that's when it hit me. There in the 'Used Rifles' rack, the virus was waiting to pounce. I recognized it from 30 feet away and knew right then that no matter what it said on the barrel or what shape it was in, this latest Dakota variant of C.O.R.N.Y.* had me by the throat. Again.

Savage 112 Series J, single shot, walnut stock with Wundhammer palm swells, beautiful shape, chambered in 25-06. I've had several of these over the years (two 22-250's and a Swift) and have always loved these early 'big' Savage single shots. Compared to the Savages of today, these are head and shoulders above in terms of quality. The 'J' series are an 'intermediate' length action (in actuality, a long action) with their own special screw spacing. They were made from '75-'78 and chambered in 222, 223 ('76), 22-250, The King (220 Swift), 243 and 25-06. It's been shot very little and obviously ineffectively cleaned as the barrel is a copper mine. I've been soaking it with Wipe Out for several days now and each patch comes out with heavy blue coloring followed by powder fouling. The blue is staring to decrease so over the next few days I'll get in there with the JB and get it cleaned to bare metal before taking it to the range. Naturally, the gun is apart and spread all over my gun room...a sure sign of raging C.O.R.N.Y.*

I plopped this scope on there as it's a unique one and fits the gun. It's a fixed 12X that Nikon produced for Nichols back in the early '90s. Wonderful glass, 1/8" clicks with target knobs. The late George Myer did work for Nichols and told me about these scopes. Nichols failed in the market place but not before I snagged one of these through George.

Good shootin' -Al

*Cool Old Rifle Needs You

 

[AlNyhus]

I mentioned that the barrel was a pretty coppered up...but little did I know how fouled it was!

After four days, the copper is finally out. I threw everything I had in the chemical cupboard at it....Butch's, some vintage Shooters Choice Copper Remover, TM bore cleaner, Wipe Out, household ammonia, Kroil, a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone (which works really good, by the way

) and a couple more I won't mention in case my town's Hazardous Materials Response Unit should get wind of it.

In the end, it boiled down to simple elbow grease and brushing/patching...followed by aggressive use of JB... followed by more brushing and patching...followed by over night soaking with Hoppe's Black Powder Gel. And repeat. As it progressed, you could see that it was layers of powder fouling over copper, then more powder and copper, etc. Once down to bare metal, I finished it up with a final round of JB on a new bronze brush working over the first 5-6" ahead of the chamber with 10-12 strokes for each full stroke down the barrel. After the final JB'ing and cleaning, the throat feels really smooth with a patch. I might take a peek with a bore scope.

Or not.

Don't know how many patches I used but the process killed 6 new phosphor bronze brushes. The dead brushes got recycled to JB victim duty.

Cleaned a couple decades of gun oil out of the inside of the bolt, removed and cleaned the extractor and ejector, shortened the ejector spring a couple of coils and plopped the trigger in the ultrasonic cleaner. Back together, the trigger easily adjusted to 1 3/4 lbs. and a .004 Teflon washer between the trigger lever and sear took care of any wander in the let off.

Am finishing up an interior renovation on a house now (paint, new trim work and refinish the wood floors....of course, there's a Dec 17th closing date ). Plus, there's two full days of dyno testing at the race car shop later this week on the schedule. Got some cases courtesy of jepp2 and will take a day off this week to get the range with it as temps will be in the 50's all week.

Good shootin'. -Al

 

[slancey]

That's a great story. Keep up updated on the loads.

 

[jackieschmidt]

That is a nice looking rifle.

odds are it will be a fine shooter.

 

[AlNyhus]

That is a nice looking rifle.

odds are it will be a fine shooter.

Jackie, I'm kind of a slut for these 'J' series Savages.

They were Savage's version of a 40X for the blue collar, working man....never had one that didn't shoot well. The coppered up barrel shows that many guns from that era simply just didn't get cleaned effectively.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[Bill K]

Loved your story. And yes, those old rifles were fine rifles.

 

[AlNyhus]

We're on borrowed time up here for weather and there's nothing worse that looking at a rifle all Winter wondering if it's going to shoot.

Today was 46 degrees, sunny and winds 14-18 from the 9 o'clock direction....pretty good conditions to test in at our range as anything going L-R is going to be a 'weather report'. My supply of BIB 88's is dwindling so I defaulted to the Sierra 87 PSP flat base/lead point bullet. While not exactly a BR bullet, this Sierra will shoot to 1/2" or a bit better in every good .25 I've worked with. Powder was the old standby IMR4831. Three shot groups today just to see if the barrel had promise....no loading at the range, just loaded some at home stopping a full grain below book max.

It shot pretty well at 51.0 (.523) and 52.5 (.469) and the 53.0 shows promise...just needs more powder. A little weather report on all the groups. Anyway, I can put it away, redo the bedding over the Winter and get it back out next spring for some more in depth work. I believe it can be a legit 5 shot 1/2" gun with a bit more massaging. The chamber is nice on the body but big at the neck (.293) and long on the neck length (2.525 on the 2.494 SAMMI max). I was able to jam the Sierras with .050 of the bullet in the case neck, though.

Sierra 87's:

Sierra 87 and BIB 88:

As a little bonus from Sierra in the box of bullets...a chunk of walnut shell. Now we know what they use to polish their bullets!

All in all, a pretty good day.

 

[AlNyhus]

My 3 year old grandkiddo Cal seems to have 'claimed' it. He saw it in my gun room and pronounced: "Grandpa, that's a big gun. That will be my gun when I'm bigger, okay?"

He likes to help me clean case necks and organize brass. He has his own chair and little tool box with some 0000 steel wool and a can of Never Dull in it. When we were done, he had to measure my thumb....good stuff!

 

[Adam in WI]

We're on borrowed time up here for weather and there's nothing worse that looking at a rifle all Winter wondering if it's going to shoot.

Santa brought me some snow shoes last Christmas. The range is always open...

 

[RGRobinett]

My 3 year old grandkiddo Cal seems to have 'claimed' it. He saw it in my gun room and pronounced: "Grandpa, that's a big gun. That will be my gun when I'm bigger, okay?"

He likes to help me clean case necks and organize brass. He has his own chair and little tool box with some 0000 steel wool and a can of Never Dull in it. When we were done, he had to measure my thumb....good stuff!

These - especially the last - are necessary steps in precision hand-loading! RG

 

[spike-55]

like you i used to love the old model "J" series. had 3 of them for a long time. unfired .222 and 22-.250 and my favorite the 25-06. kept them till about 6-7 years ago and sold them at Tulsa gun show for much more than i acquired them. always loved the feel of the stock in the palm and the triggers were actually pretty good, like them better than the accu-trigger. sweet gun, hope she shoots dots!!!
stan

 

[AlNyhus]

Time for an update.

The verdict is in on the barrel and it's pretty harsh. My suspicion that the horrible fouling was simply due to poor cleaning by the previous owner turned out to be completely wrong. Finally had a bit of time to get in there with the bore scope this morning and here's what we've got. Young kids, older folks or anyone with a heart condition may want to leave the room as these images are pretty graphic. Parental caution is advised.....

This is the chamber neck area. Fired brass had this swirly-ish look to the necks...now I know why.

At the end of the chamber neck as it transitions to the throat/leade area. SAMMI spec for the 25-06 chamber length is 2.494. The brass I used was 2.485 long. Checking the chamber with a case length gauge shows it to be 2.525 in length. So...what you're seeing here is .040 of hard carbon fouling at the end of the neck (2.525-2.485= .040). I've JB'd the beejeezus out of it but it obviously is still in there...the product of decades of shooting.

Ahh...the throat/leade area as it transitions to the rifling. looks like some alligator shoes an OG mobber on 'The Sopranos' would wear!

Not to be outdone, about 4" up from the rifling origins was this little nugget...like a hunk of coal in a Christmas stocking. Not that it makes any difference at this point!

That it still managed to shoot 1/2" three shot groups with a hunting-style bullet (Sierra 87 SP) just amazes the heck outta me!

Good shootin'. -Al