New member saying hello, and some questions...

[RC20]

I agree on don't change it. Keep it.

And living in Alaska for neigh onto 63 years, my take (and the experts) on bears is best left to pepper spray.

Fish and Game carries shotguns, when I worked in the wood our MO was to have a buckshot round in the chamber and next 3, then a round or two of solid.

Idea was that you shredded the face, then killed it.

If a person gets tangled up with a bear, the report is, it was so close I never even got the gun up. Pretty rare but it does happen.

Pistol is good as a noise maker, often that is enough to scare one off.

One guy had an AK74. He got the bear, penetrating shots and 20+ rounds. NO witness so could not tell if he had to or not. Still its short, handy and fast.

I have had one bear encounter, my fault. Black bear and I had garbage under my trail (bagged but they can smell). No harm to either side though I am glad I clinch up when things get dicey, the broken louver on the crank open window scared the living daylights out of me.

Hunted and fished and berry picked for most of those 63 years.

I left them alone, they left me alone and I was noisy in the woods and never encountered one hunting.

[Rusty_Old_F250]

I would leave it as is if the barrel is OK. Someone did spend money on the Redfield rear sight. Is it an Redfield Olympic or International?

--fjruple

Not sure, how would I tell?

Just to clarify my earlier post, I wouldn't mind getting an m1917 bolt fitted to the receiver, and modifying the magazine, but I prefer not to rebarrel it. I was hoping reaming the barrel to a slightly larger bore would be a "simple" fix. Once a new barrel gets added to the mix, I might as well pick whatever caliber I like. Which would be fun, I have to admit...

After some consideration, I think I'll stick with .303 for now, there has to be some way to make this work. I'd be as happy as a pig in poop if I could get the rims to stack themselves right with a healthy shove, and after some closer examination it appears that's what the feed rails are suppose to do.

That and the engine in my truck gave up, so that will be taking all spare funds for the foreseeable future. The engine has 15lbs of oil pressure dead cold!! Not good, not good!

Sam

---------- Post added at 04:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 PM ----------

RC20, I appreciate the input. It's good to hear from someone who has spent some time around the alaskan woods, all my buddies say I need to carry a pair of .50 AE pistols at the minimum!

Sam

[browningautorifle]

reaming the barrel to a slightly larger bore would be a "simple" fix.

Re boring a barrel to .323 from .311 would be harder than anything else you've suggested...you have to take the barrel off, bore it to spec and re-rifle it. It can't be done by a gunsmith. He can do a chamber but not rifle a barrel, that's a long bed machine with moving parts...usually long and it lives in a factory...

[fjruple]

Not sure, how would I tell?

Just to clarify my earlier post, I wouldn't mind getting an m1917 bolt fitted to the receiver, and modifying the magazine, but I prefer not to rebarrel it. I was hoping reaming the barrel to a slightly larger bore would be a "simple" fix. Once a new barrel gets added to the mix, I might as well pick whatever caliber I like. Which would be fun, I have to admit...

After some consideration, I think I'll stick with .303 for now, there has to be some way to make this work. I'd be as happy as a pig in poop if I could get the rims to stack themselves right with a healthy shove, and after some closer examination it appears that's what the feed rails are suppose to do.

That and the engine in my truck gave up, so that will be taking all spare funds for the foreseeable future. The engine has 15lbs of oil pressure dead cold!! Not good, not good!

Sam

---------- Post added at 04:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 PM ----------

RC20, I appreciate the input. It's good to hear from someone who has spent some time around the alaskan woods, all my buddies say I need to carry a pair of .50 AE pistols at the minimum!

Sam

Sam-- The best way to tell if a barrel is good is to shoot it and see what groups you get. If you can get them within a 5 or 6 inch circle at 100 yards you are good to go. I have seen Pattern 1914 with dark bores that shot rather well. Converting a Pattern 1914 is not just a switching of M1917 parts with the Pattern 1914 parts. It will take a professional gunsmith to get them to work. The last 3 Pattern 1914 rifles that I purchased and rather cheaply were rifles were the owners attempted to convert their Pattern 1914s to M1917s. While the rifles looks like kissing cousins they are different. If your barrel is bad and requires replacing, I would just buy a new Pattern 1914 barrels from critiron. Its the cheapest way to go. Who is the manufacturer of your Pattern 1914?

thanks

fjruple

[RC20]

RC20, I appreciate the input. It's good to hear from someone who has spent some time around the alaskan woods, all my buddies say I need to carry a pair of .50 AE pistols at the minimum!

Sam

Don't get me wrong, I always carried a pistol, but I knew it was best a noise maker. Only if it was an aggressive Black Bear would I have shot one outright.

If I got treed and there was no give up I would have tried it at some point (before Bear Spray)

If its a Brown bear and it charges you, best roll yourself into a ball and play dead if you don't have or can't deploy the bear spray.

Some common sense stuff like staying away from Salmon streams, or stay with around crowds. Don't go trolling through the brush in those areas.

I camped out in areas by myself a fair amount. Never an issue. I always put any food 50 feet away and sealed.

[Rusty_Old_F250]

fjruple - Mine is a Remington, 73xxx serial

RC20, I agree, most of the bear problems can be avoided with common sense. I like the idea of a pistol as a noise maker, I suppose a rifle could serve the same purpose. Staying near a buddy is definitely part of the plan! From talking with my friends, the locals don't have many issues with the bears, as my friend said "you'll be fine as long as they're not hungry!"

Then a few days later they sent over a picture of two bears in the front yard, chowing down on an elk(?) carcass 50 yards from the front door!

Sam

[fjruple]

fjruple - Mine is a Remington, 73xxx serial

RC20, I agree, most of the bear problems can be avoided with common sense. I like the idea of a pistol as a noise maker, I suppose a rifle could serve the same purpose. Staying near a buddy is definitely part of the plan! From talking with my friends, the locals don't have many issues with the bears, as my friend said "you'll be fine as long as they're not hungry!"

Then a few days later they sent over a picture of two bears in the front yard, chowing down on an elk(?) carcass 50 yards from the front door!

Sam

Sam--

I was born in Anchorage while my father was stationed at Elmendolf AFB in the early 1950's. He was an Army guy assigned to a joint Army/Air Force to construct air fields. He related to me several incidents involving the Kodiak Bears. He showed me a picture of one whose hide cover the side of a one story house. He also related to me a story were two of his unit members checking out M2 Carbines to hunt a Kodiak. The searchers found both of them mauled to death with two empty carbines. The bear was found over a mile away where it had bled out. Both very dangerous and stupid.

--fjruple

[Rusty_Old_F250]

Man, I wonder what they were thinking? I've heard the m1's had issues penetrating heavy winter clothing on enemy soldiers, sure wouldn't be my first choice for a Kodiak!

Back to my .303, I have still been having feeding issues, the third round down wanted to rimlock. I tried a few things, including the old mag box and follower, and had mixed results. So I took the old mag box out to the garage and used the acetylene torch to weld on a bit more material where the feed rails meet the receiver. I filed it smooth and it definitely made an improvement. But now the second round wouldn't always come up high enough for the bolt to grab it. So I put it back in the vise and made a few other tweaks to make the mag box fit the receiver better and ran some 400 grit sandpaper over a few spots. Worked better, but still not perfect. I tried the new follower, that seemed to clear it up. The new follower in the modified mag box seems to be the best combination yet. We shall see...

I took a bunch of pictures but my iPhone won't let me post them, I'll get on the pc and upload them tomorrow

Sam

[Rusty_Old_F250]

Here's the mag as original,
Attachment 89615

After some material was added on each side
Attachment 89616
Attachment 89617

Used a couple files to form it
Attachment 89618

The finished feed rails
Attachment 89619

Some further experimenting yielded this, to help seat the mag flush into the receiver.
Attachment 89620

Seems to work pretty well

Sam

[RC20]

Bears: Kodiak Island is a different story. The two GI killed sounds like an Urban Legend but .....

Ok, Kodiak Island has a lot of deer. Just North are two Islands with Elk (all imported, not natural)

Kodiak is also prime Brown Bear aka Grizzly, coastal type. Big bruisers.

If they hear a shot they know there is likely to be a dead deer at the end of the noise, ergo, you need to move quick.

There are a few other areas that are bear dense. Poly Creek across the Inlet is one of those . Down Cordova way another one.

But again, I am lived and or worked from South East pan handle to the North Slope. Never had a brown or Grizzly encounter. I have seen them, but not run ins.

A group of people of two or three, a noise maker, bear spray and common sense and ok.

Now what I fear is two legged predators. Few in the woods, lots in town.