Eating a little Crow!! Update!

[pyscodog]

My gun smith buddy is having a lunch of crow today. He bought a Ruger #1 in what he was sure was 38x55. He bought the rifle from one dealer and another dealer had bullets, dies and four box's of loaded ammo. When he got home, he ordered 200 pieces of brass. He called that evening telling me what a steal he got on the rifle and components. Well, today he was kinda humble. Said he fired one round through the rifle and the empty came out pretty messed up. Thats when he figured he should do a chamber cast.(Which I thought he should have done first) Turns out its a 9.3x72. Needless to say, he was lucky there were no mishaps and now he says he's going to rebarrel it to the original caliber he thought it was...38x55.

 

[AWS]

If it was stamped 38-55 on the chamber end of the barrel I'm, curious how they made a 9.3x72R out of it 9.3x72R at .364" vs a 38-55 at .376-.378". It must have been interesting to run that much of an oversized bullet down the bore.

I would ask him to double check the chamber casting again as the 9.3x72R is a near obsolete cartridge with pretty expensive brass. I would suspect if the brass came out looking damaged it is a 9.3x74R which is a pretty popular euro hunting round that Hornady loads ammo for. Other than the bore size and length 38-55 brass is a pretty good fit in a 9.3x72R chamber and I doubt it would look damaged after firing. I make 6.5x58R cases from 9.3x72R others I know make the same case from 38-55 cases they just end up a little short.

L to R

38-55/375 Win, 35 Whelen, 9.3x72R

 

[pyscodog]

What he originally told me was when he looked in the chamber end, he could see 55. I think he assumed it to mean 38x55. I think, truthfully, and IMO, he was getting such a great deal on the rifle that in the heat of a good deal, he really assumed to much. He also said he didn't do a complete cast of the chamber and is also guessing at the 9.3 caliber. He knows better than to assume anything and as hard to admit as it was, said he is going to do a full chamber cast so he knows what it really is. He told me this morning he is sending it to Douglas and having a new barrel installed in 38x55 since he bought so many components. I'm sure I am probably leaving out something, but trying to remember everything he was telling me this morning. But I think I am repeating what he said pretty close. I know his "Great" deal isn't so great today.


Just talked with a friend that is also a friend of the gunsmith. He saw the fired 38x55 case and said about 3/8" up from the rim, it was really swelled out. He described it as an upside down pop bottle.

 

[pyscodog]

Well, my smith got his rifle figured out and shooting today. Turns out, it was a 9.3x74, but that was just the start. He bought some factory ammo and fired a couple of rounds and soon figured out the head space was way off. He started to pull the barrel and found it barely hand tight. YIKES!! So after doing his checks, he got the head space where it needed to be but now the chamber is short, so he has to get a finish reamer and recut the chamber. Now!! New chamber, headspaces correctly, we go to the range today. The little No.1 is pretty dang accurate with a Redfield 1x4 scope! Shooting 295 grain bullets it was printing three shots around an inch. But I can tell you first hand, it really ain't that much fun to shoot. Kills on both ends. And he said these are light loads. But all in all, it turned out to be a fun project and he has a very nice rifle now!! He says its going to be his close range deer rifle this season.