Limpid Lizard

My slowly being built Siamese is going to be in 30/40. I had Kiff grind a floating pilot reamer with a Palma throat, and have a #3 contour Pac Nor 3 groove 1 in 12" barrel on the bench. Out of the Siamese, the difference between 30/40 handloads and a 308 should be negligible. That throat should be perfect for 150- 168 grains. I also have a Richards Microfit stock I wish I had never bought. One thing to remember about sporterizing, you do not want to remove the serial number. Those squiggles on the bridge of a Siamese are the serial number. LL

Does it vibrate with the chuck off? Do you have a spider? If so, have you removed it? These lathes are often equipped with unbalanced chucks and spiders. I do not know what RPM you are getting vibration at, but high speeds are the realm of collets. LL

Plinking with an Israeli Mauser the day of the last picture.

It's the Selway River in North Idaho. We spent a couple of days this fall in an area called Three Rivers. The Selway and the Lochsa join the Clearwater River here. I've had Jeeps for years. I have had the one pictured since spring of 2000. It has hauled a few critters out. Here is another picture from about 2005.

Are you sure that isn't a YJ? Here's a pic of mine on the Selway in October.

Nice rifle. LL

I have had a 338 for 36 years. I have used if for moose and elk. It will definitely get the job done, but I have seen a riled up 6 point take one through the shoulder and run. I mostly shoot deer now, with an occasional antelope thrown in. There is just too much meat in an elk anymore, so other than a nostalgic shooting trip, the 338 stays in the safe. If your friend is the slightest bit recoil shy, he is not going to like the 338. It is one heck of a cartridge, but it is not for the faint of heart. I have 6 '06's, and they are all more pleasant to shoot. LL

Karl, When I tried to run the first download (avast), I received a message that it might conflict with the Symantic that I am running. When I tried to run the RegCure download, it said there were 1429 errors and that I needed to register. I attempted to register, and it said it sent a license number to my email. I did not receive one. Also the site wanted money. How should I proceed? I have XP and it is slower that slow. Thanks, LL

I bought a Remington bolt action in a pawn shop. Two years later the guy who owned it opened his gun cabinet and noticed it was gone. His grandson had pawned 5 of his guns. The guy wanted me to give it back, I refused. I said it was either stolen or it was not stolen. If it was stolen, I would hand it over to the cops when requested. This meant he would have to prosecute his grandson. He ended up paying me. As he was paying, he griped about the cost. I told him he should be grateful that I was good at dickering. I really thought that if I was going to be out a few hundred dollars, the grandson should be in jail. LL

From the look of the picture, it appears as if your pivot hole is about .050 too far forward. LL

I have a 300 Win Mag M1917 sitting in the shop. It was given to me. A friend bought it to take the scope off of. The rear base was not contoured properly, and the front base had a piece of plastic bleach bottle under it to level them. The rifle would not group worth a darn. I reshaped the bridge, made bases to accept Z rings, bedded it with an aluminum rear pillar and reshaped the Herters stock. I then Gunkoted it. It looks okay now. The stock is a laminate with wide laminations and still a tich gaudy for me. I gave it to a buddy in MT and have to drive over there and hand it over. It's heavy but hell for stout. Making bases is not very difficult and quite rewarding. It is a way to salvage many DHT 03's that have off center D&Ted holes due to the bit walking on the hardened surface. The DHT Springfields are my favorite actions to build on. Often times one can find them in a pawn shop with an ugly stock made out of gorgeous wood that is salvageable. LL

Take a plain brown grocery bag, cut two shims from it. Place these between the two pieces of steel that are to become your vice. Bolt the pieces back together with the shims between them. Now bore to 1.5". This will give you the correct radius on your hole, and still allow enough space for clamping. If you cannot drill an accurately sized hole, increase the number of shims. LL

Most chucks will open enough that you can slip a dead center into the headstock when you want to turn between centers. As long as the depth of the chuck is not a problem, open the jaws, slide the center in, close the jaws as much as practial and begin turning. Your receiver mandrel should be between centers to to turn the receiver face anyway. One point that is kinda picky, but important as you become more involved in intricate work, when you align a tailstock with the headstock, not just as Clemson showed, but any way you do it, it is only aligned at that distance, that torque setting and tailstock barrel extension. Every other setting is close. LL

I think I would stuff my friend in the freezer before the next trip. Let him spend a week or two in there. You are right, with friends like that, who need enemies. LL

Facing cuts, which you do to true the face of the receiver, do not require the same amount of precision in centering to axis as do other cuts. The easiest way for you to figure out how to center the chuck is to put the mandrel close to your bit. Turn the lathe over by hand and you will see that it comes close and then moves away from the bit. Turn it until it is farthest from the bit and then loosen that jaw. Now turn the opposite jaw in until the distance is halved. Rotate the chuck by hand again. Repeat the centering operation. See how it works? If yours eyes are good, you can come within a couple of thou. in this manner. To get better than this, you need a dial test indicator. With this, you measure the distance the mandrel is out of line with the spindle rotational axis. You center in the same way, however it is often easier to indicate the high side and tighten it. There generally is less reaching over the chuck to do so. No DTI (dial test indicator)? Use a piece of chalk. You can get suprisingly close by just spinning the chuck while holding the chalk close to the material in the chuck. Tighten the high spot, wipe, use the chalk again. Dialing in becomes a matter of minutes after you have done it a couple dozen times. The 3 jaw is rarely needed. The 4 is more precise, and it takes less time to dial in than to change chucks. LL

Those goofy looking marks on the rear bridge are the original serial number. LL

As far as not using a jig being the Bubba approach, one must remember that there are manufacturing tolerance in everything. If you use a jig to locate the holes, the fit to the base will not likely be as accurate as the method I detailed. A base mounted on top may be afixed with machinist clamps rather than superglue, but I have seen some instances where glue was the only alternative. If one locates the hole in the base accurately, drills accurately and taps accurately, the base to receiver alignment should be more accurate than using a jig and then finding out the base was produced at the maximum tolerance for hole location. Congratulations on a successful mounting. Each one after this becomes easier. LL

After drilling one hole, swap the bit for a tap in the chuck. Turn the spindle by hand. This will insure the hole is tapped straight. You are using a drill press. aren't you? LL

Projectile length rather than weight is the deciding factor. A heavy round nose will stabilize in a slower twist than a long spitzer will. That is why there are no hard and fast rules pertaining to specific weights per twist. LL

If you had to choose one, which one would you choose to take home? LL

I might be right, I might be wrong, I might be crazy, but if I intend to use 165 or lighter bullets in a 30 cal I use a 1/12. Heavier than that and I use 1/10. The 1/10 is pretty much standard for '06 and larger. The 1/12 is standard for .308 where the manufacturers are willing to stock two twists in one caliber. 1/14 is not all that uncommon in 30 caliber either. LL

First locate a sharp drill bit that just fits into the holes in the mount. Second, locate and superglue the mount in place. Use the bit that just fits the holes to start a hole in the receiver. Swap the bit out for the correct one for the tap you are using, and it will center itself in the dimple you made with the larger bit. LL

In the first set of pictures, the pictured first setting would be correct not only for threading internally but also for threading externally away from the headstock. LL

A wrap of solid #6 copper wire is all you need between the barrel and the chuck jaws. LL

Most likely, however this is pure conjecture on my part as I have not tried it. I would think if one was going to attempt something like this his best bet would be to see if it could be cut to accept Remington tenon spec barrels. You would be going to 60* threads. I'm not peppy enough tonight to get the books out, but since Rem falls between large and small I'm supposing it would work. For that matter, as long as you were cutting both threads, just clean up and cut 60*'s on both shank and receiver.