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Dies and Lock Rings I gave up on the conventional press, hold the die in place with heavy ram pressure and lock it down thing about 1978, mostly because it took too long to change dies. I purchased a Bonanza CO-AX press and have never looked back, I still use that same press today. I think...

Here is the deal. There is material on the bolt lugs so that you can true the receiver and remove material from the lugs to maintain headspace if you aren’t changing or setting back the barrel. If you are setting back the barrel and re-chambering or installing a new barrel the extra material...

That is rust, it is not anti-seize. Nic.

Here is photo of an action from a new Remington 700 PSS. The customer said that it wouldn't shoot and wanted it re-barreled. If you look the action, the face is not so square and is pretty rough. The locking lugs look pretty rough and the threads are shot. The second photo is his barrel on...

Give them at try, if the price is right how can you go wrong? If the throat of your chamber in not too long try some Speer 125 grain TNT varmint bullets. Don’t laugh, they shoot very well despite their heritage, they are cheep and thus represent a great value. If you want really great .30...

For many years (a long time ago) the armorers at Fort Benning, Quantico and Lackland AFB used a pull through reamer on the Match M1 rifles for their respective shooting teams. The process was cut the chamber short, fit the barrel to the receiver, install the pull through finish reamer, and cut...

Those are super available from many places. Grainger, J&L, MSC, Allied, Fastenal etc. A box of 100 will be less than a pounder at the pub. Nic.

I advise my customers to go with a custom action if; A) they intend to one day seriously shoot competitively at registered matches or B) they don’t own a Remington 700, 40X or XP 100 action already and want to have the best set up they can have. I further explain to my customers that it is cost...

Squish 'em and Squish 'em Good! Bill, Thanks! I've been having a very tough day and you just made it much better! Nic.

Judging from the questions you’ve asked I say you had better leave things alone. If your bolt lugs and receiver abutments are that far out you will create a serious headspace problem if you start filing on bolt and trying to lap them in. To do this sort of job correctly you need the proper...

UPS Overnight Shipping I ship with UPS using the overnight option and tack the cost of shipping and insurance on the bill to the customer. Ever since UPS said that they would only ship handguns overnight because they were loosing too many with the other options I started shipping all firearms...

This works for me I use the Indicator Rods from PTG. They work great but you need two .0001 test indicators at the same time to use one correctly, one near the barrel at the head stock and the other at the right end of the Indicator Rod towards the tail stock. I adjust the run-out of the one...

I have independent recollection of a Texas Gunsmith that had some BR Rifles stolen from his safe. I am reasonably sure that I read about the theft here, about five years ago. Nic.

Real Machinist Rock! I second Jackie in a major way!!! Young people finish up at the various Tech Schools or Colleges in our area with degrees in Machining Applications. Some are sharp on writing code but couldn’t square up a billet or cut an internal thread to a shoulder without a thread...

I learned to be a Gunsmith through a very circuitous route. My father shot on the all Air Force Pistol Team for a great many years when I was a kid so I got to hang out with the armorers and ask questions. In high school I took Machine Shop classes and worked after school in my teachers...

I have to wonder about the bullets. Some newer reloaders think that XX grain, XX cal. bullets are all the same even different styles of the same weight from the same manufacture and even between different manufactures. There can be a great deal of differences like bearing length, jacket...

Dennis, I've got one in the shop right now, a stainless 77/22 with the factory heavy barrel. The customer when presented with all of the options and has elected too have it bored out larger and sleeved for the factory barrel. With the trigger hanger hanging way out there and the receiver being...

Pudding? I like chocolate! There is no pudding in the proof; there is only the proof of putting something to the test. Hence the proof is in the putting. The pun police, Nic.

Keith, In my shop I have a Southbend 9A with the shorter bed about 24" between centers; this is a great lathe and used all the time. It was built just after the Korean War and saw very light service in an instrument repair shop before I purchased it used in 2000. With that said about 8 steps...

Cheechako the compound needs to be set at 291/2 or 30 degrees. If you don’t you can’t pick up, chase and extend the thread. It is best in my opinion to use the compound to cut the tread to depth. The cross slide feed method results in a V shaped chip that is hard to control or break and tends...