Several months ago a good buddy owed me some money for some work I did. I showed up to his house to get paid and he was going to have to go into town to get some cash from the bank. I didn't care much so we elected to sit in the garage and watch a World of Outlaws race on the tv with some cold Busch. After a while he said, "Hey, wait! Instead of cash do you want a gun?" Does the Pope crap in the woods? Of course I would rather have a gun. He runs into the house and comes out with a 1977 Ruger M77 in .30'06 that appeared to have never been used and was in near mint condition. Shut the front door. I reckoned the rifle to be worth about $600 and the bottom end and much more depending on condition. It came with Ruger's proprietary rings for a 1" scope and that was all that was on it. He had come by it when his girlfriend's father died. As they were cleaning out his house his children had divided his firearm collection but no one wanted this one and they were going to throw it out. So my buddy took it and wanted to give it to me. He didn't owe me that much money. I told him so but he thought I should take it with the gentleman's understanding that he can borrow it whenever he liked.
Both of my scopes are lent to other people (I do most of my shooting with irons) so I had to borrow a scope for it until I get one back. I took it home and cleaned it up. It had sat on a shelf in a smoker's home for 30 years. The bore was filled with smoke tar and dust. When I swabbed it it came clean as a whistle and shiny bright. The bolt, having been used little and not broken in by use, was still very stiff. Once we got her cleaned up we went to the range and she shot several excellent groups (-2moa using only a sling for support) with '80 HXP for ammo. The was one problem, she didn't like to give up the spent case. When I would turn the bolt it would stiffen at about the 2 oclock position just as the bolt face began to cam out of battery. I was certain it was ammo related. when we measured the spent cases they were only marginally longer than the original case length for HXP and had not signs or deformation, high pressure, or the usual suspects. Hmm.
Still thinking it was ammo related a buddy and I worked up a budget handload for it. HXP brass with run of the mill CCI primers, 47 grains of Varget and a 155gr Nosler CostomComp HPBT put the round at about 32 cents and about 3/4moa. We had a slightly more accurate load using H4895 and a 165gr SMK but it was about 42 cents. As we are sorting out the handloads through the rifle, now freshly cleaned, the extraction issue popped up after about ten rounds. Hmm. Back to the drawing board.
Sitting in Tater's garage trying to figure it out I finally called my buddy who had traded me the rifle. I asked him if anything was weird about it when he got it. He said that when he first picked it up he couldn't open the bolt, he had to tap it open with a piece of 2x4, and when he did a really corroded and greenish black looking piece of .30'06 came out. It had been sitting, for 30 years, with a round in the chamber without anyone touching it. When I got it I had run a chamber brush into it that had come out dirty, but I had done it again till it came out relatively clean. It was here we discovered the issue. My chamber brush, being a fairly new one, was tapered to be shaped like a .308 case. when we laid it on top of a scale drawing of a .30'06 it only touched about 40% of the drawing. Using a dental mirror, a bright light, and some geeing and hawing Tate and I got a view of the chamber towards the neck end. Sure enough, it was bronze in color.
To devise a method to polish the chamber we took a fiberglass arrow and cut the tip off, using a dremel to cut a slot, we inserted a piece of rag coated in JB borebright and attached the arrow to a drill. We conservatively named our instrument "The Peter North Device". Using TPND we then began to clean out the chamber (using an occasional side to side motion with a gentle stirring to produce the best results) one patch at a time. After a few tries the cloth patches began to come out black (a good sign) and smooshed into the shape of a .30'06 indicating that we had made it all the way up to the neck. After a couple long nights and some gomming around we had a long-action rifle that cycled slicker than snot on a doorknob. The end result was a day in the rain at Red Brush where the old 77 put up several moa or sub moa groups and held tough despite being wallowed around in the wet ground. Hooray me.
In a day where fiberglass stocks and short actions are the soup de jour, and every manufacturer is cheaping up their rifles to get into the entry market, it is nice to have a well-blued rifle in your hands with a good piece of cut-checked walnut. Make no mistake about it, ol' Huff don't baby his guns and this one won't see anything more tactical than a leather 1907, but there is no reason why a working gun can't look good doing it. It will try to post picks when I clean and inspect it tonight. I may even see if Tater can send a pic of The Peter North Device in action.
Both of my scopes are lent to other people (I do most of my shooting with irons) so I had to borrow a scope for it until I get one back. I took it home and cleaned it up. It had sat on a shelf in a smoker's home for 30 years. The bore was filled with smoke tar and dust. When I swabbed it it came clean as a whistle and shiny bright. The bolt, having been used little and not broken in by use, was still very stiff. Once we got her cleaned up we went to the range and she shot several excellent groups (-2moa using only a sling for support) with '80 HXP for ammo. The was one problem, she didn't like to give up the spent case. When I would turn the bolt it would stiffen at about the 2 oclock position just as the bolt face began to cam out of battery. I was certain it was ammo related. when we measured the spent cases they were only marginally longer than the original case length for HXP and had not signs or deformation, high pressure, or the usual suspects. Hmm.
Still thinking it was ammo related a buddy and I worked up a budget handload for it. HXP brass with run of the mill CCI primers, 47 grains of Varget and a 155gr Nosler CostomComp HPBT put the round at about 32 cents and about 3/4moa. We had a slightly more accurate load using H4895 and a 165gr SMK but it was about 42 cents. As we are sorting out the handloads through the rifle, now freshly cleaned, the extraction issue popped up after about ten rounds. Hmm. Back to the drawing board.
Sitting in Tater's garage trying to figure it out I finally called my buddy who had traded me the rifle. I asked him if anything was weird about it when he got it. He said that when he first picked it up he couldn't open the bolt, he had to tap it open with a piece of 2x4, and when he did a really corroded and greenish black looking piece of .30'06 came out. It had been sitting, for 30 years, with a round in the chamber without anyone touching it. When I got it I had run a chamber brush into it that had come out dirty, but I had done it again till it came out relatively clean. It was here we discovered the issue. My chamber brush, being a fairly new one, was tapered to be shaped like a .308 case. when we laid it on top of a scale drawing of a .30'06 it only touched about 40% of the drawing. Using a dental mirror, a bright light, and some geeing and hawing Tate and I got a view of the chamber towards the neck end. Sure enough, it was bronze in color.
To devise a method to polish the chamber we took a fiberglass arrow and cut the tip off, using a dremel to cut a slot, we inserted a piece of rag coated in JB borebright and attached the arrow to a drill. We conservatively named our instrument "The Peter North Device". Using TPND we then began to clean out the chamber (using an occasional side to side motion with a gentle stirring to produce the best results) one patch at a time. After a few tries the cloth patches began to come out black (a good sign) and smooshed into the shape of a .30'06 indicating that we had made it all the way up to the neck. After a couple long nights and some gomming around we had a long-action rifle that cycled slicker than snot on a doorknob. The end result was a day in the rain at Red Brush where the old 77 put up several moa or sub moa groups and held tough despite being wallowed around in the wet ground. Hooray me.
In a day where fiberglass stocks and short actions are the soup de jour, and every manufacturer is cheaping up their rifles to get into the entry market, it is nice to have a well-blued rifle in your hands with a good piece of cut-checked walnut. Make no mistake about it, ol' Huff don't baby his guns and this one won't see anything more tactical than a leather 1907, but there is no reason why a working gun can't look good doing it. It will try to post picks when I clean and inspect it tonight. I may even see if Tater can send a pic of The Peter North Device in action.
