Restoring an American classic : The Remington Rolling Block

[TC]

TC: Congratulations for a job well done! With reference to your post of 20 Dec., the hammer block safety was a Norwegian patent. It prevents the action being blown open when a pierced primer allows enough gas to escape to blow back the hammer, unlocking the action. You will not find it on U.S. made rolling block rifles.

Would you share your secret for boiling water at 300 degrees centigrade?

TwoRivers,
Congratulations from a man with such intense knowledge and wide experience is nothing short of a medal of honour
Thank you so much.

Somehow I never come across the Norwegian patent in any of the old books, or probably missed a reference. Thanks for the valuable input. It does make sense to to have the hammer block safety for the bigger calibers. Wondering why the American models didn't have it.

Well I read somewhere that 300 degrees is the ideal temperature at which gun parts should be boiled for a few minutes to ensure a lasting and deep blue. But its practically impossible for me to do that at home without a heating chamber. So, for the barrel all I did was borrow a 26 inch long and five inch deep rectangular tray (made of galvanized iron) from a car mechanic who uses it to keep and wash his tools. I thoroughly cleaned a degreased the tray (first with soap and then with raw alcohol) and boiled water in it over the gas oven in my kitchen using both the burners for uniform heating. I don't have a thermometer so when the water started evaporating I dipped the barrel for 2/3 minutes, hanging it from both ends by tying GI wire to the wooden plugs that I used to seal the muzzle and chamber.
For the receiver and smaller parts I used the same method but boiled the water in a big aluminum pan that I bought from a local utensils store.

Hope I did the right thing. Please do let us know what you feel about the improvisation.

Thanks.
Wish you and your family a happy year

Regards
TC

[TwoRivers]

TC: Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade at sea level. After that it turns into steam, but can not get any hotter. (Unless confined and under high pressure.) The 300 degree reference you remember probably applied to the bluing solution. Even the caustic degreasing/cleaning solutions used in bluing will boil away long before reaching 300 degrees centigrade. Cheers. And a Happy New Year!

[essdee1972]

300 might be Fahrenheit, esp if you are referring to an American or old British source. In which case it would be 148 degrees C, also too high for water to remain in liquid state. If I remember those long-ago days of school, the boiling temperature of water can be increased by adding solvents, so a sufficiently strong solution PROBABLY can boil at 148 degrees C. No first hand experience, though! Of course, high pressure can also increase the boiling temperature, but you would need pressure chambers for that.

[TC]

TC: Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade at sea level. After that it turns into steam, but can not get any hotter. (Unless confined and under high pressure.) The 300 degree reference you remember probably applied to the bluing solution. Even the caustic degreasing/cleaning solutions used in bluing will boil away long before reaching 300 degrees centigrade. Cheers. And a Happy New Year!

Two Rivers,
Precisely what I told myself when I was thinking about the reference to 300 degrees. Since its impossible to get water any hotter I waited till it started evaporating and dipped the barrel and other parts. I still can't remember where I read that article but it could be in reference to the bluing solution. But that would certainly not be cold bluing. Hot bluing is something I cannot try at home without a proper set up.
Cheers
Happy New Year

TC

[TC]

300 might be Fahrenheit, esp if you are referring to an American or old British source. In which case it would be 148 degrees C, also too high for water to remain in liquid state. If I remember those long-ago days of school, the boiling temperature of water can be increased by adding solvents, so a sufficiently strong solution PROBABLY can boil at 148 degrees C. No first hand experience, though! Of course, high pressure can also increase the boiling temperature, but you would need pressure chambers for that.

Essdee, you are right. I remember the good ol days at physics and chemistry labs in school However in case of cold bluing the idea is to heat the metal before applying the bluing solution and this heating should be done in clean water. Any other chemical will ruin the bluing. In fact, I always use packaged drinking water for the entire process since water supplied by the civic body here in my location contains a good amount of iron - thanks to the old water pipes lying beneath Kolkata.

Cheers
TC

[TC]

Gentleman, I finally got some time yesterday to take the beauty out to the Kolkata Police Training School where my club uses the shooing range every Sunday morning. It was cold and sunny, the perfect condition one needs to enjoy some shooting. Since I am not a regular these days the members greeted me with wide smiles and bear hugs but everybody kept looking at the Precihole gun bag I was carrying. Having known me for years they were pretty sure that If I had turned up after a long hiatus there must be a good reason. After exchanging pleasantries, when I finally took out the Remington, a few jaws dropped and all the eyes glittered.
"My my, where did you get that ?" asked an elderly gentleman whom I met for the first time. I narrated the story and let the members caress the rifle.
"Its the perfect weapon for a day in the outdoors," the gentleman smiled, probably going through old memories as we talked. "She is a beauty. Enjoy the shooting."
I headed for the range.....

Here's a few shots of the police commandos getting ready for their morning drill and, the old era establishment.




The new water tankers procured for the Disaster Management Group of the Kolkata Police.


Entrance to the range


The rifle on the office table for inspection


My old friend Jabbar Bhai, a crackshot who makes our club proud at every tournament, inspecting the rifle and getting ready to fire a few shots. He also shot the video that follows, with my Canon compact camera.



The rifle functioned like a dream, flawlessly firing and ejecting the cases of fresh Eley Club, Lapua standard velocity and old Neroxin high velocity hollow points. I also had a box of old KF that I wanted to exhaust. These had become too old, The cases swelled and most of them did not fly out. A few bullets make keyholes too The average five shot groups with the Eley and Lapua measured 2.5 to 3 inches on an average at 25 mt, just as I had expected since I was standing and the backsight was too small for my old eyes. But this was not an accuracy test. All I wanted was to see the beauty in action and find out whether I got it all right during the restoration.


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Please listen to the conversation Jabbar Bhai is having with a young member in Hindi while shooting the video. "He (me) bought it for 7k. You won't get it anywhere... you simply can't get it ....." and how sincerely he announces 'cease fire'.


Here's a roundup sort of a video. There are more cards on the table with better groups. But by then everybody had left and I was in a hurry to wrap up.
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And finally a tour of our humble shooting range. New police recruits undergo 9 mm handgun and SMG training here.
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My camera takes videos in full HD but I don't know why the results were so poor. Probably because lack of sunlight. Hopefully members will enjoy the Remington's first day out.



TC

[Vikram]

Nice report,TC. Lovely to see the little Remington shooting flawlessly. The sweet fruit of your labour!

Best-
Vikram

[xl_target]

Ah the sweet smell of success! Eley smoke has its own particular smell.
What an awesome job. The rifle looks absolutely fantastic and performs just as well.
A great big thumbs up, TC. With the quality of your work, you've already surpassed most of the gunsmiths in India.

[herb]

Very nice, the rifle is very pretty and performs well. You should be very proud of it. thanks for the report, loved the pics & video's.

Herb

[ckkalyan]

Great, at the range report, excellent pictures (conveyed the earthy reality of the institution) and authentic video TC - good job!

The shots sounded very quiet, I was surprised especially as it was indoors, in an enclosed space. I liked the close up of the action and ejection of the case, very cool - Jabbar Bhai did his best with the camera. Would love to have an even closer look at the movement, with a renewed loading and ejection video perhaps, when you have a chance, at home?

Question: how do you explain the keyholes? I am not familiar with this phenomenon.

The refinished rifle looks really beautiful at the range, amazing restoration job TC!

[brihacharan]

Hi TC!
> Congrats!
> Must have been a real pleasure to shoot the Remington Rolling Block especially after you have so painstakingly restored it...the honor it deserves
> The key-holing is a bit of mystery....how does it happen?

Briha

[brihacharan]

Hi TC,

> I did a bit of google search on the subject of "Keyholing" & here's what I came up with
Keyholing" What causes it?
Keyholing is generally a sign that the bullet is too small for the bore, it isn't being gripped by the rifling so no spin and it starts tumbling as soon as it leaves the barrel.
A bullet will keyhole if not spun enough by the rifling. Either the bullet is too soft (lead casting with too little tin), the bullet is too small, or the bore is too big.
http://www.deuceandguns.com
Briha

[ckkalyan]

Hi TC,
> I did a bit of google search on the subject of "Keyholing" & here's what I came up with
Keyholing" What causes it?
Keyholing is generally a sign that the bullet is too small for the bore, it isn't being gripped by the rifling so no spin and it starts tumbling as soon as it leaves the barrel.
A bullet will keyhole if not spun enough by the rifling. Either the bullet is too soft (lead casting with too little tin), the bullet is too small, or the bore is too big.
http://www.deuceandguns.com
Briha

Funnily enough - that's what I guessed initially - that the bullet must be doing somersaults in order to be able to make a keyhole on the target; but then I thought - 'what - that can't be possible'?!

Good to know - thanks brihacharanJi!

[TC]

Nice report,TC. Lovely to see the little Remington shooting flawlessly. The sweet fruit of your labour!

Best-
Vikram

Thank you so much my friend. Yes, all the labour has been rewarded in abundance.


TC

[TC]

Ah the sweet smell of success! Eley smoke has its own particular smell.
What an awesome job. The rifle looks absolutely fantastic and performs just as well.
A great big thumbs up, TC. With the quality of your work, you've already surpassed most of the gunsmiths in India.

XL, thank you so so much. I am humbled.
As far as gunsmiths in India are concerned they are capable of doing much much more. This is nothing compared to turning an IOF 32 pistol into a Llama clone
I am just learning.

Yes, I enjoyed the smoke all through the session.


TC