This is what kepted me waiting ....

[Don McDowell]

Last Hornady catalog I got said they'ld make a set of dies 2.6" or less for 185$, just needed the demensions, some fired cases, and the reamer drawings.

[Kurt]

I will call them in the morning Don. That will save cutting down a 77 die.
TNX.

Kurt

[Don McDowell]

Kurt I was browsing my Redding catalog, and they say to call them they may just have the old obsolete die set in stock and if not they'll sure take a look at building one....
Think you'll have that gun running in time to meet me in Raton Wednesday evening?

[Kurt]

I would have to run pretty fast just to make Lodi by the 22 of Sept!!

Don.

I have a pretty hard time getting myself worked up making the Nationals with all the bickering going on whth the guys shooting there.
They all say how much fun they have and then turn around and start cutting each other down and stabbing each other in the back about what they dont like.

[Don McDowell]

Heck you got time to come to Raton, midrange starts Monday, do some dinkin in the colo mtns and such drift on north to Ekalaka and still have a week at home before going to Lodi..

[Kurt]

I would like to spend time there with you and Carol but I figure by the time Lodi comes around I might have the 100 shooting if I stick with it.

[Don McDowell]

Yeh it'll be good to see what you can get done with that 100.
I'm hoping everything holds together so I can at least get the creedmoor at Raton next week.... Sure wanted to do the midrange , cuz I don't think this lil 44 would take any guff off on nobody at those powder burn close ranges..

[Kurt]

Up date on the .44-100 Rem.

Here is an exchange I made with a friend of mine.
I'm going to bore you a little and maybe your thought.


Some update on the .44-100. Sometimes you have to step back from your usual ways of doing something and follow the lead from some one else.

When working with wild cats like the old .22 varminter (.22-250) .25-06 and the .35 whelen you had chamber reamers made and found brass close and run them through the die and from there you crammed it into the chamber or made some more dies to swage down the case bases and again shoot them in the chamber till they fit.

Well with this 100 Rem it hasn't worked like the old bottle necked cases no matter how much I shot these, they just wont shrink down to the point where I can let the rifle extract the fired case.



Well your comment of lapping the throat Stuck with me and I got the bore scope out again and changed the batteries and took a long slow look at the chamber walls and I saw some rough ripples in the wall left by a rough spot in the reamer. They didn't look to bad even under the high magnification but I loaded a couple rounds and shot them and I used the bore scope because I don have a magnifying glass as strong as the bore scope has out side in the sun to look at the case walls. I could see slight indents wash board ripples, very slight but they were there. They even scratched the case wall when I inserted the case.



I took a 1/8 X 36" brass brazing rod and soldered it into one of the fired cases primer pocket and I got out some coarse NAPA valve grinding compound and slowly spun it with a drill keeping the compound wet and working the case in and out for about three minutes. Cleaned the chamber and soldered a new case on the rod and went to work with 400 grid because the chamber still had reamer marks and the case would still stick but I did have a big improvement.

The work with the 400 grid got it so the extractor pulls a unfired case back out of the chamber now and I can seat it with the thumb like it should go in.



Now maybe in the morning I will shoot some and see how they act and see how much metal I removed lapping the chamber.



Kurt

[Lumpy Grits]

Way to go Kurt
Best of luck on this 'mod'.
Gary

[Kurt]

Well I did some good last night lapping the chamber.
Cases chambered with a little pressure by thumb but I did not have to cam them in and only one case had to be pushed out using a rod. But a big improvement. I think I will make one more pass using 600 grid clover lapping compound and that should finish this project.

Today I put the MVA scope on the rifle and went to the 200 yard line and after shooting a few rounds finding the paper I shot two groups with carefully loaded rounds using Alcan Max Fire Mag primers because they were still in the RCBS hand priming tool and 94 grains of 1.5 KIK with a 1/4" lube wad sandwiched between 2 .012 poster board wads.
I shot one 7 round group using the KAL Elliptical .431 PP bullet.
And one 5 shot group using the .432 prolate bullet from a Brooks mould..
I have to say that my heavy barreled .308 will have some competition keeping up with this rifle

Below is the 7 round group with the KAL bullet. 3 shots doubled at 6 o clock 12 oclock and 2 oclock.



The 5 shots with the prolate below I moved the sights over a little but not enough but any way 2 shots doubled @ 2
Now time needs to be spent to see what it dont like
If I held the ruler vertical that group is 1-1/8"