Italian Vitterli 1874/1886

[Humpy70]

Just became the proud owner of a 1874 Torino Arsenal rifle reworked in 1886 by Torino today.

So far I have figured the sear surface on the striker is very dangerous and needs to be TIG welded to restore the sear surface as closing the bolt without holding back of bolt down it will sear off with a out of battery bolt handle. If I can get it to hold about a 1/2 pound on the trigger will set it off.

That I can take care of. I will get a buddy to TIG weld the sear surface and build it up about .050" and then stone it off. I will not attempt to fire it till I am sure it is not going to sear off out of battery.


My problem is that I can't figure out how to get the bolt out of the rifle. Just to the rear of the magazine cut off is a another area. At 3:00 on the bolt there is a slot that looks like it is for a screwdriver. On the same piece about 12:00 there is something that looks like it needs to move forward into a opening on the mag cut off ring.

Have the bolt apart, just can figure out how to get the bolt body out??????

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Is there a key affair at the rear of the bolt, lying crosswise to the bolt? It should be hooking onto the extractor and holds the square top part from being pulled out. The key needs to be driven out to one side but it doesn't come out. Then the bolt will remove.

[Humpy70]

Found out all about it with some great pics.

Yesterday's Weapons Forums View topic - Vetterli bolt removal - a photo tutorial

Apparently it takes two screwdrivers pushing two different directions while rifle held in vice! ! !

[browningautorifle]

Don't get how you came to that , although you may have to doctor it and smooth it up to function correctly. That was the cross piece I was talking about though.

[Humpy70]

Update: I got two screwdrivers and while I pushed forward on one I pushed on the one at 3:00 and nothing. Then I realized it would probably work better pushing wards and it started to move.

Got it up to where the screw is exposed and got out my Brownell's screwdriver kit and found the right screwdriver and after soaking started working it back and forth and it moved. Soaked it some more and it moved more and finally came out.

I put that little sucker in a magnet parts bowl immediately and along with the block that came out after I took a steel bristle wheel to bolt and got off all the dried up oil and rust from probably a hundred years of disuse.

I then started working on the bore and to my surprise I am seeing shiney spots appear but I don't have a 44 cal brush so I wrapped patches soaked with Ed's Red (ER) and made a bunch more passes and more shiney area appeared.

I took a 45 cal cast bullet and tapped the ogive into the muzzle and squirted ER down the chamber end and it did not leak so I filled the entire bore all the way to the end of the chamber with ER and I am going to let it soak for a week which should loosen anything.

[browningautorifle]

dried up oil and rust from probably a hundred years of disuse.

Yes, that was where I was. Once I removed the rust it worked by fingers.

a 45 cal cast bullet

I had to make ammo for mine, a center fire, and used primed 348 cases cut at the shoulder and filled with FFF black. I poured a wax plug and used a 240 gr .44 bullet and with iron sights could keep them on 18" square at 200 yd offhand. Throw in the bullet, chamber the blank and touch off. It was a decent barrel too...lots of fun.

[Humpy70]

Thought I would give you guys a update on how the resurrection is going. Got delayed due to spinal surgery and four heart procedures ending up in tripple bypass.

As of today the Vett is sporting a M14 front sight which now allows me to shoot POA/POI at 100 yards. Here is how I mounted it.

Note the factory front sight is not center of the bore line. To get zeroed I had to have the new sight a tad left.









As of today I can obtain POA/POI at 100 yards shooting a 257 Gr. Lyman cast bullet over 17.5 gr 2400. Made cases from Jamison 348 Win brass.

Bore cleaned up beautifully.

[Humpy70]

First off to save a ton of typing do a google search for "Suicide by Italian Vetterli" and this will give you lots of good info and pics of what I have learned and where one needs to be to successfully reload ammo for this fine old weapon for many years to come.

First off genuine Vetterli 10.4X47 dies can be had from CH for like $152.00. Had I known that two years ago I might have sprung for them but all I could find was 41 Swiss dies by Lee and I have loaded about a hundred rounds with them and they will work up to a point and are about 1/4th the cost of the CH dies.

One major problem in reloading the Vetterli has been confirmed by an avid Vetterli shooter in Italy and that is the necks on fired/resized cases don't hold the bullets well and there is a tendency for the bullets to FALL down in the case and this will result in colorful language for sure.

Others have surmised that 44 Mag dies can be used. Yes, No and Maybe. In repeated practice the 44 Mag dies are about .003" to big so what is a body to do?

Yesterday I ordered a Lee trim die for 41 Magnum pistol and the plan is to convert this trim die to a neck size die by opening the base to where is it .004" smaller than 44 Mag TC dies.

Here's a pic of the problem you are likely to encounter:



Note fired case is on the left and the new case is on the right. A close look will show the neck is really opened up on firing and what I described above happens.

I have two fixes planned, first is I have a Lee 41 Mag trim die inbound and I will grind the inside base area to where it will resize the neck down about .004 smaller than the Lee or 44 Mag dies will which should have as much grip as a 7.62 NATO round on their bullets.

I also have inbound a set of 348 Winchester FL dies and I plan on cutting off the top of the FL die and opening it up to the small dimension as I am also seeing a gradual expansion of cases bases and a few don't want to open and release the fired case and have to be tapped out with a gentle taps with a rod. Basically it will be converted to a body die that I will FL size with every few loadings to restore orginal base dimension. If it doesn't size it small enough I will remove a few thou from base of die to all case further up into the taps to squeeze it down.

I am stress relieving necks with propane torch about every third round. Basically I try to move brass as little as possible in order to get longer case life. If I can I set things up to where the brass doesn't move over .002 on firing so it takes very min force to restore it to where I want it.

Bottom line is has been a labor of love to resurrect this 144 year old girl to shooting condition and is worth the effort. Take a looksee at the Suicide article above for much more info and pics.

[sshackle]

Thanks the info. I am working on getting my 1870/87 Vetterli shooting. I posted it and photos yesterday. I order a Lee die for 330 gr. .430 bullet the i plan to alter for a heeled bullet. I bought formed brass from Ammunition Artifacts.