Interesting rifle as I continue to look it over. I slugged the bore and came up with a groove diameter of .3195" as near as I can measure the slug I drove thru it. Also counted the number of grooves--7! I counted the grooves in the bullet several times as this number seems odd. I used a magnifier as I did it. Tell me I'm not seeing things! Also, the casings came from Buffalo Arms and I opened the necks in an 8mm expander die, lubricating the expander button and inside of the case neck. Did three cases with no failures. Then I took a Lyman #319247 162 grain cast bullet (wheel weight metal) sized to .319 and seated it in a casing so that the overall length of the dummy cartridge was 2.57" . Got this measurement from "Cartridges of the World". With some hesitation, I pushed it into the magazine tube, held my breath and pumped the forarm. To my great amazement, the dummy cartridge cycled, chambered and ejected! No jam up! While riding on this luck, I made up another dummy cartridge and tried to insert two in the magazine tube. No go! Took the spring and follower out of the tube and all the follower needed was cleaning and lubing up a bit! Put it back together and two dummy cartridges loaded easily in the tube. Now the moment of truth! I pumped the forearm once: fed, loaded and ejected. Repeated as fast as I could. Not a hang-up at all!
Did the same with a Lyman #323470, 168 grains, sized to .320" . Loaded to the same OAL. Same result in the test from the magazine tube. Not a hitch in the experiment! Looks like I have a rifle that will handle at least two cast bullets with ease! If this is not supposed to happen, don't tell me! Half the fun of owning these old rifles is shooting them, even if the rifle in question is 94 years old! Thanks for putting up with my reports!
Greg T.
Hayward, Wi