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The Sporting Firearms Journal

Number 124

July-August 1989 Volume 21, Number 4 ISSN 0162-3583

Page 18.. .

Page 36.. .

FEATURES

The Fraser Highlander Single Shot Rae A hard look at a handsome import.

Emil J. Koshollek - Master Metalsmith

What 63 Dead Brown Bear Can Tell Us Part I - Which cartridges are best for the big bears? An Ideal Autoloading Pistol A veteran pistolero looks to the future.

Tuning the Modern S&W Revolver Troubleshooting techniques for S&W fans. Improving the Savage 24 Trigger

The Effect of Bullet Spin on Terminal Ballistics

by Frank de Haas

by Ludwig Olson

by Layne Simpson

by Ken Waters

by Richard L. Aldis

by Bob Ingram

by R.J.P. Fortier

16 18 He set the standards.

22 25 26 3 2 A do-it-yourself project.

34 HOW important is it?

Reboring and Re-rifling Rebarreling is not always the best choice. 36 by Mike Thomas

DEPARTMENTS

Spotting Scope by AI Miller Thanks; The Great Gun Control Con; Listen Up, Friends of Animals! 4 Famous Riflemen

Benchrest Report

Dear Editor Alaskan Field Report, Another Hagel Fan, The Time Is Now!, Adios!

Air Rifles An Overview of Airgun Competition.

Capitol Watch

6 Ad Topperwein.

8 Fred Sinclair.

10 12 14 Senate Ban Moving,

by Sam Fadala

by Skip Gordon

by Jess Galan

by Neal b o x

Product & Service News Lohman, Navy Arms, Simmons Outdoor Corporation, Bell Design Corporation. 5 5 ProducTests 56 Shiloh Paper-Patching Kit, Perugini & Visini Double Rifle, Blue Spectre. Book Reviews 70 Ruger No. 1 Rifle.

COPYRIGHT WOLFE PUBLISHING CO. 1989

The Farquharson falling block rifle is one of a pair made by John Saunders and the craftsmen of London Guns, 303 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, Victoria 3103, Australia. Chambered for the .600 Nitro Express, it is fitted with a 24-inch barrel made of Bohler steel, stocked in English walnut (from one of the oldest trees in New Zealand) by stocker Ross Waghorn and engraved by Jeff Brown. Both rifles are housed in a fitted trunk which also contains matching accessories. Mr. Saunders is planning to market field-grade versions of the Farquharson actions, as well as complete rifles, sometime in the future. Photo courtesy of London Guns, Victoria, Australia.

On the cover

DEAR EDITOR Alaskan Field Report

Phil Shoemaker’s article in Rifle No. 122 was quite good. I would agree that 80 to 90 percent of all Alaskan hunting could be done with a .30-06 or 7mm Mag. I would lean toward a larger car- tridge if I chased bears - but I don’t. Even so, a friend of mine has stopped two different brown bear charges with his .30-06.

I carry a .300 Winchester Magnum but have begun to think about going back to my .30-06. Sure would be cheaper and easier on my shoulder.

One cartridge that may be ques- tionable is the .308 Winchester. Three different friends have had poor results on caribou. I don’t know what loads were used. Another man I know

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stopped a brownie charge with one, though.

Phil should have emphasized bullet selection more. My friend with the .30-06 stopped his bears with Rem- ington Core-Lokt 180-grain ammo. I’m sold on Nosler Partitions - especially in any high speed magnum. Three hunters using standard Federal ammo in 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum failed to kill large caribou cleanly with good hits at less than 100 yards! Federal Premium cartridges with Nosler Partition bullets are very good, however.

Further, I’ve not been impressed with 165-grain .30-caliber Speer Grand Slams. They act no differently than non-premium bullets when used on caribou and blacktail deer. By the way, the blacktails seem harder to kill than caribou or moose. But I’ve only shot one moose so I’m no authority there.

My tests with Barnes bullets (165, 225 and 250 grains) in a test box have caused me to leave them home. The 165s weren’t as accurate as most other brands and there were irregularities in their jackets. They all had a tendency to shatter in my test box and didn’t penetrate as well as Remington Core- Lokts or Noslers.

I haven’t tried any of the newer brands of premium bullets.

I highly recommend synthetic stocks, stainless barrels or corrosion-protective coatings. Hunts are so much more en- joyable when one doesn’t have to coddle his rifle day after day. My H-S Preci- sion built rifle has been great - rain, shine and snow, like we get on the Alaska Peninsula.

Finally, people go for scopes that are too big. I really like the old 3x Leupold and the 1-4x or 1.5-5x variables. Com- pact 4x’s are good too.

Thanks for the fine magazine.

D.O.D., Sand Point AK

Another Hagel Fan

As a shooter, handloader and all- around gun nut, I would like to take

this time to say thank you to the publishing and technical staff of Rifle and Handloader on their jobs well done in putting together two fine magazines. Keep it up!

In regard to Bob’s Trophy Pointers in Rifle No. 121, I can’t tell you how much it means to me to know of one writer who has the intestinal fortitude to call cow chips what they really are. Rest assured any product given a favorable review by Bob Hagel will have a very high probability of being tried by yours truly.

J.T.Z., Glenwood Springs CO

The Time Is Now!

Everyone in the U.S. was touched in some small way by the tragedy that struck in that school yard in Stockton, California. Events such as this bring forth the worst fears in people every- where: that our children, family, or close friends may fall victim to a similar violent fate.

Constantly lobbied by gun control organizations and bombarded daily by a varied offering of negative, irrespon- sible journalism, our elected represen- tatives are responding in a manner calculated to divert these pressures elsewhere and to provide instant gratification to those gun control and action groups who are loudly demand- ing some sort of regulatory response.

We gun owners and enthusiasts should be mounting a massive letter campaign to strangle our present postal system. If you have never written to your US. congressmen or senators, or to your representatives in state and local government, now is the time to start speaking up for your rights. If we do not respond to the planned laws and restrictions, we are aiding those groups who are so dil- igently trying to disarm us. We must act now, for time is of the essence, as we face a future of increasingly restric- tive state and federal gun laws where our children and grandchildren may never know the pleasures of shooting sports we enjoy.

Write your local, state and federal

10 Rifle 124

representatives. Keep your letters short and factual but fully expressive of your thoughts and feelings on this matter. Letters should be written to the editor of your local paper for inclusion in the editorial page.

Letters should also be written to the board members, chairmen and pres- idents of the firearms manufacturing companies, encouraging them to resist the temptation to knuckle under, such as was seen in the recent decision by Colt to cease sales of the AR-15 rifle to the general public.

I urge you to speak up; write those letters or face the very distinct possibility of being written off.

T.B.H., Littleton CO

Adios!

I am taking the trouble to write only because your pre-addressed envelope for my subscription renewal just arrived.

I will not be renewing my subscrip- tion to Rifle, or Handloader either.

The letter that begins on page 14 and finishes on page 68 (Rifle No. 123) is the reason for my dropping these sub- scriptions.

Please note that when sufficient blood is released from the circulation, the body becomes unconscious. This is not a theory. This is a fact. Many that are hit in the torso do not fall over and are not knocked back; in fact give no outward sign that they are hit. This is not a theory, it is a fact. Conversely, many who are hit in non-vital areas, and even those who just think they have been hit, do collapse immediately. This is not a theory, it is a fact.

Tunnel vision “analysis” that fails to take into account the psychological fac- tors, the physical disruption produced by the bullet, or for the sake of expe- diency ignores the majority of gun- fights (those with more than one shot hitting the target), insults the in- telligence of anyone who understands wounding mechanisms and has some appreciation of human anatomy.

Too bad you were unable to attend the Wound Ballistics Seminar put on by the Phoenix Law Enforcement As- sociation in Phoenix on February 11, 1989. Possibly if you had, you would have been able to sort out the fallacies of this letter and save your magazine some embarrassment.

M.L.F., Presidio of San Francisco CA 0

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11

Savage a 24 Trigger

Bob Ingram

OR MORE THAN 40 years, the F Savage 24 series of combination guns has made it possible for shooters to have a durable, versatile utility gun without denting the budget. The various rifletshotgun combinations can be selected for everything from pest control to turkey or deer hunting. Their light weight, simplicity and handy size would make them ideal for beginning shooters except for one real problem: The kindest word that can be used to describe the trigger pull is “atrocious.”

When I went looking for the right gun for my pre-teen daughter, I decided that the many favorable points of the Model 24 - and especially the 24-C - far outweighed that one problem.

Blessed with a fair amount of mechan- ical ability, I assumed I could adjust the trigger in my garage workshop. I finally did, but not before making a number of false starts.

The trigger, as the gun comes from the factory, has a tremendous amount of overtravel and a heavy, gritty pull. I don’t know what the original pull weight was. My scale wouldn’t register that high. The first step was to polish the sear (an extension of the trigger) and hammer engaging surfaces. That removed the gritty feel but the pull weight was still off the scale.

The Savage trigger is ideally shaped to control both sear engagement and overtravel with the aid of headless ad- justment screws. I carefully measured the location and angle of the necessary holes, then blunted my centerpunch

Trigger modifications made it possible for Bobs daughter to achieve consistent accuracy with the Savage 24-C.

trying to make a drilling mark. That trigger was hard! I tried grinding through the surface hardening and found that was equally impossible. Somewhere there are probably special drills that will work but they aren’t in the average home workshop. Such unexpectedly tough metal contributes to the durability of the gun but it put me back to square one.

I spent a lot of time just looking at the action and finally found a solution to the overtravel problem. The trigger extends down through a narrow slot in the metal frame. I installed a trigger shoe and adjusted it to bear against the frame a t the instant of hammer release. That simple modification elim- inated overtravel. Somehow, through added weight or some change in mechanical advantage, it also reduced the weight of pull to a measurable 73 ounces. That was still too heavy for ac- curate rifle shooting so I looked for other ways to reduce it.

I first looked at the possibility of shortening the mainspring. That turned out to be part of the rebounding

Rifle 124 32

hammer safety system so I left it alone. The only way left to lighten the pull was to reduce sear engagement. In order to do that, the part of the trigger that extends forward of the sear had to be built up. The only stress there is slight, due to the compression of the trigger return spring.

The other likely solution, grinding down the sear, was considered too hazardous. If too much was removed, there was no way to replace it. Then too, because of the trigger pivot loca- tion, shortening the sear could change the angle of engagement - in the wrong direction. After considering and rejecting several alternate possibilities, I glued in a shim with Super Glue.

That was a cut-and-try proposition, but I got lucky the first time. I chose to reduce the sear engagement by ap- proximately 20 percent. The pull weight was reduced to 54 ounces. That was more than I really wanted but it was a level I and my daughter could live with. The sear engagement re- mained solid and safe. The trigger shoe made the apparent pull somewhat lighter than the scale reading.

My daughter now had a riflehhotgun combination with a reasonable, safe trigger. To complete the preparation, I cut the stock to fit with the addition of a recoil pad. I didn’t grind the pad down to the lines of the stock. As she grows, I will have to add wood and the large pad distributes the shotgun recoil over a greater area. It looks tacky - in fact, it looks horrible -but it is comfortably effective.

Far left, the uncomplicated action of the Savage 24-C features coil springs. After compressing the main- spring assembly (upper left), remove it and employ a drift punch to free the hammer pin (lower left) and hammer. The trigger assembly (below) can be dropped from the frame after the pivot pin i s popped out.

The mating surfaces between the sear and hammer notch (left) can be polished lightly with a hard Arkansas stone prior to mounting shim and trigger shoe (right).

Anyone who would like to make similar trigger adjustments to a Savage combination gun, without all the preliminary trials, can adopt the following procedure. However, you must be aware that this modification is not approved by Savage, and will void any warranty that may be in force.

As always, when working with firearms, be sure the gun is unloaded. Then snap the forearm off and remove the barrels. Set them aside in a safe place until the work is completed. Open the shell storage trap (or remove the buttplate) and remove the stock through bolt. Remove the stock and lay the action on its side. Use any forked tool of appropriate size to press the mainspring plunger forward and down. As soon as the seat is clear of the frame, the entire mainspring assembly can be lifted out. Be careful when releasing spring tension - those small parts can jet into the next room in the blink of an eye!

Next, drift out the hammer pivot pin and lift the hammer straight up out of the frame. Remove the trigger guard. Drift the trigger pin out and remove the trigger, along with the return spring, through the bottom of .the frame. Now, polish the sear engaging surfaces with a hard Arkansas stone. Ifthe surfaces are extremely rough, the work may go faster if it is started with a soft stone, but the final polish re- quires a hard one.

Cut a shim from brass, copper or other available metal. Make it a little bit smaller than the forward trigger ex- tension, the part that projects in front of the sear. Those WHO are comfortable with solder or epoxy can employ one of them to attach the shim. I used Super

Glue for non-porous materials and it worked just fine. The proper thickness for the shim will be found by trial and error. I recommend using a thickness that will reduce sear engagement, as measured on the hammer notch, by about 30 percent. That will be too much but will allow grinding or filing to the proper thickness. It is much easier to shave a shim down than to remove and replace one.

&-assemble the action, starting with the trigger and trigger spring. Dry fire a few times to test the modification. If pull weight is too light, file down the shim a tiny bit a t a time. Remember, the trigger shoe, when attached, will give an apparently lighter pull. When weight and smoothness of pull are satisfactory, replace the stock and butt- plate. Cock the hammer and slam the butt against the workbench a few times to see if the sear engagement is safe. If the hammer jars loose and falls, thin the shim some more and live with the extra pull. When the sear holds against shocks, install the trigger shoe.

Set the shoe high enough on the trig- ger that it prevents firing altogether. Then lower it in very small increments until it butts against the frame at the instant of hammer release. That effec- tively eliminates overtravel, making follow-through on a target much easier. Replace the trigger guard, barrels and forearm and the gun is ready to use.

This trigger modification can be com- pleted in one afternoon or evening. The improvements can be made with the tools found in most home workshops and don’t require any radical alteration of the gun. The only thing that could be easier would be for Savage to drill and tap the trigger before it leaves the factory. 0

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