I started a batch of bolt bodies and firing pins about 4 years ago. I run out of mill time and didn't get the pins finished. I was just going to build them because some customers wanted them and at the time, a sale was a sale and a service to the customer. About that same time Calfee started running his mouth about the same stuff he still does and turned me off to finishing them, and basically just screwed anyone out of one that wanted one. Kinda funny, because he thinks that his continuous barrage of BS will convince me to do them and in reality, it stopped the project. I decided if he ever just dropped it for a time, I would go ahead and finish them. As it turns out, he seems to never stop, so we were probably a heart attack or a stroke away from getting them built.
In the last few months I looked at them again when I had some time and decided to make some enhancements to the design to correct some inherent flaws in the PAS design. I updated my design on the computer, picked around and found all the parts I already had and built a few more. There are at least 3 areas of concern in the current implementations of the PAS design that need addressing that can be fixed, and I think I have them taken care off. There are a few that are still inherent that cannot. I am far from done, but I may have (or just take) the time to finish them out. I may try to get them done on the next batch I send to heat treat and melonite.
I am not going to make a list, decide on a price, cut a deal, etc etc etc until they are done and tested. IF they don't work to my satisfaction, they will just go away. When they are finished, I will see how many come out, decide on a price and go from there. So as Paul Harvey used to say, "that's the rest of the story". (Yes, I really am, or at least feel, that old that I remember Paul Harvey)
Jerry,
I've been trying to decide how excited to be over the prospects of a new Stiller built RFBR action.
At this point my interest in RFBR is only that the sport grows and prospers. For years I was driven by the thrill of competition but that has passed.
The sport has been good to me, and I hope many others find the same enjoyment as I have from the sport.
All my encouragement about building new rifles and actions is the "build it and they will come" thing. A new action will cause more rifles to be built and more shooters to shoot them.
The same if you make your new series of rifles. More rifles more shooters. It will be a net gain for the entire sport.
As everyone knows your support for the sport is unparalleled, you as a sponsor, builder, supplier, and competitor has made a real difference in the popularity of RFBR.
I understand your feelings about the PAS and SAP thing and how it has divided competitors.
For a long time, I thought it was a good thing. I thought it helped perpetuate and motivate competition. Now I'm not so sure.
I took the SAP/PAS thing kinda like the Ford/Chevy thing in drag racing.
Back in the early 60s in Nashville Tn. There were guys that were dye in the wool Chevy guys and there were just as many guys that were dye in the wool Ford guys.
When they got together Friday nights at the local drag strip it was on. Winners had bragging rites until the next Friday night.
A funny thing happened. While these Ford and Chevy guys were duking it out this strange newcomer entered the scene. First it was a 413 Dodge Wedge later a 426 Dodge wedge.
This beast had of all things,
an automatic typewriter transmission.
No one thought Chevy and Ford would be knocked off their pedestal. But around Nashville that is what happened.
I'm hoping your new action will not be looked at as simply as PAS/SAP but as a new paradigm, a Hemi if you will.
TKH (4628)
