I have sitting in my safe an all original HVA 1640 chambered in 6.5x55. The rifle has the aluminum bottom metal so I’m guessing it was made sometime in the late 50s to 60s. I purchased this rifle from Simpson Limited knowing that the barrel was toast, with intentions to re-barrel it in the same cartridge.
It seems this rifle has suffered some extreme event in the hands of a real moron. Starting 1/3 of the way down the barrel there begins a series of several SEVERAL bulges (pressure rings) clearly visible from the outside. I can barely imagine how this happened. Several squibs in a row? The bore repeatedly packed with mud and ice?
By my amateur eyes the action itself seems completely fine. I would like to re-barrel this rifle in 6.5x55 and load this cartridge to its full potential, since I understand the 1640 action to be considered a ‘modern’ action in terms of metallurgy and does not have the customary loading limitations of an older 96.
My questions are: is this action safe to use? And what might be done to ensure that it is/isn’t? How much pressure might be created against the action in an event like this? What would you do?
It seems this rifle has suffered some extreme event in the hands of a real moron. Starting 1/3 of the way down the barrel there begins a series of several SEVERAL bulges (pressure rings) clearly visible from the outside. I can barely imagine how this happened. Several squibs in a row? The bore repeatedly packed with mud and ice?
By my amateur eyes the action itself seems completely fine. I would like to re-barrel this rifle in 6.5x55 and load this cartridge to its full potential, since I understand the 1640 action to be considered a ‘modern’ action in terms of metallurgy and does not have the customary loading limitations of an older 96.
My questions are: is this action safe to use? And what might be done to ensure that it is/isn’t? How much pressure might be created against the action in an event like this? What would you do?
