It's aweful quiet around the campfire here, is everyone on vacation? Well, to break the monotony, I'll give you'all an update on what I'm doing.
I ordered the S&S centerfire block and magazine follower a couple days ago. While waiting for that I decided to give the rifle a good cleaning and thorough mechanical inspection. I removed the lever and block assembly and cleaned it and the inside of the receiver. Everything looked in good shape. There was a minor ding in the chamber from dry firing. I got that smoothed down with very careful use of a jeweler's file. I scrubbed the bore and it looks nice and shiny, but has a few spots of corrosion. Can't do anything about that, but I think it will still shoot well. I slugged the bore and it came out .5145" in the grooves. Then I went to work on the magazine tube and plunger assembly. I disassembled the follower and spring and cleaned and lightly oiled everything. Scrubbed out the mag tube in the stock and lightly oiled it too. I removed the lock and closely inspected the tumbler and sear. They looked fine. I cleaned and lubricated the lock and reinstalled it.
So the rifle is in good shape and I'm ready to procede with fitting the new block. Just waitng on the guy in the big brown truck to show up - where is he
This weekend I plan to cast some Lyman 515139D and Rapine 350S bullets. I have some starline brass which may or may not work. But I'll try it first, if extraction is not reliable, I'll probably get some starline .50-70 brass and cut it down. I have some Dixie .50-70 which is fine brass, but from what I've read here, it"s a little thicker at the mouth than the starline after being cut down.