Mumble Mumble Mutter Mutter......

[muffett.2008]

Great day at the Range yesterday.....took a couple of No.5's out for a bit of a run on the falling plates.

The BSA 1946 went like a train, once I adjusted the sights, but the 1945 Faz gave me lots of grief.
This rifle and it's mate spend a lot of time in the safe, years between outings in fact.

Well I had long forgotten that the Faz would not handle anything other than factory ammo.

For some reason the chamber was cut fractionally short, not 7.7x54 short, just a few thou. in the shoulder, enough to stop my full length sized cases chambering.

Now before you ask, yes I do separate brass for individual rifles, but with over 50 L.E's remembering whats what can sometimes be a bit of a pain, 'specially as the H barrels in my Lithgows are all pretty tight and can mix and match without much trouble, as opposed to my Brit's that seem to do weird things to brass.(even the light Lithgow barrels of the interwar years are pretty good, whereas the war year ones leave a bit to be desired.)

Now I full length size depending on cases using either a press mounted die for the run of mill rifles, or a vice die for the more finicky ones, but with this Faz, I had to make up a seating base to push the case just that fraction further into the die......having totally forgotten this, I caused myself all sorts of grief and did some serious swearing at myself, made worse by forgetting how much my No.4T bites if you crawl up the scope, I guess it's like a Ghurkas kukri, gotta draw blood, in this case mine.

So all in all, a bit of a painful day, always been tempted to unscrew the barrel and run a chamber reamer in to sort this problem, it might happen, but then again, in another few years and with a bit more age, I will have totally forgotton again.

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[henry r]

make a tag and tie it too the trigger guard so you don't forget.

excluding the two annoyances it sounds like a fun day out.

[muffett.2008]

Found a bit of time to check the Faz out....not happy, the bolt has all the load on the small lug, which appeared to be undersize anyway.
Further investigation showed the bolt was stuffed.
The lug had been filed to attempt to overcome the bad chambering problem, to the stage where the bearing contact from the main lug could never be corrected, further scrutiny had me die test the small lug, mainly because of the filing on the bolt body either side of the lug....this showed fractures which allowed the body to flex at this point......an accident just waiting to happen.

Boy am I pleased this rifle would not chamber any rounds.

So a major repair was on the cards.....first to correct the chamber without removing the barrel. Using a length of copper pipe, I drove the square end of a 3/8 drive extension, the same size as a finish reamer into the pipe, tapped the sides flat and whallah, a one foot extension that allowed me to ease out the chamber to the correct depth, took only minutes to bring the reamer shoulder to the breech face, giving me a standard chamber.

Having already checked the receiver locking lug recess and finding it ok, I matched up a spare No.4 bolt body, good even lug contact, good headspace on a "o" bolthead, good protrusion.....well you get the picture, so now with a bit of luck this rifle is all set to go bang this weekend.

[30Three]

sounds like you've saved yourself a potentially very bad day by sorting out the Faz' no5 properly. Maybe it'll see the outside of the safe more often now!

[muffett.2008]

No, it's unlikely to see much range time, I picked up this rifle back in the '60's when a couple of lads on the range were banging away with it, if I recollect, they were in all sorts of strife with it...using Mk.8 ammo and it looked like they strained the friendship a bit.
Swapped it for a 98k mauser….used to buy them in half dozen lots from COBB and Co. and Ken Burton back when things were cheap.

Gave it a cursory check and dumped it in the safe....it looked like a nice collectable, still does.
Since I've spent a bit more time with it, I found a barrel bulge, almost unnoticable but shows up with a profile gauge, you can just feel it with the fingers.

So I guess she will always be a safe queen....unless I get rid of it, but with it's problems I would hesitate to put it back into circulation.

[mrclark303]

I would personally have little faith in the action body, so it would be an interesting conversation piece wall hanger for me.

[tbonesmith]

Go on, pull the barrel out and fix it!

[mrclark303]

Trouble is, from my perspective, it's hard to know what stresses and strains the action body has been subjected to over the years..

Especially a No5 body with lightening cuts, I just wouldn't trust it.

[CINDERS]

You could go the whole hog and get a mob to NDT test it to look for hairline fractures not visible to the eye I'm sorta on Clarky's side in so much as you do not really know its past life and peace of mind is everything.
I know you look after your gear Muffett it is the people before you that I have issues with that banged away oblivious to the recoil load being taken on just one point I would not wall hang it as No.5's are a collectible considering just how few were made over the whole lee line of millions but getting a clean bill of health would be a high priority before you invest to much of you skills to sort the issue out.

In my trade there are allot of people in the ground who thought that checking things out thoroughly was for the birds.....

[muffett.2008]

You lot worry too much, I do crack test,( I have access to aircraft grade gear) how do you think I found the bolt problems.

It got a run today...needed to correct the front sight and away she went, might redo the trigger pull though, bit heavy, but a most satisfying clang on steel plates at 200yds.