Shooting Volcanics

[CRM]

http://www.39online.com/videogallery/65377474/News/Bullet-Points-Gun-Maker


The girl running the camera was only intersted in seeing the guns go BANG !
So I could not show the Levers in action.

[Mako]

CRM,
Thanks for putting that up.

Too bad.  It is always interesting to see what strikes them as interesting.  I didn't count how many times he said "makes his own guns," but it was quite a few times.

Regards,
Mako

[Henry4440]

The girl running the camera was only intersted in seeing the guns go BANG !
So I could not show the Levers in action.

[Slowhand Bob]

These are some great videos and I definitely see the disadvantage of a lever action pistol over a revolver.  After a bit of thought, the notion strikes me that perhaps if an early pump action had been figured out for the pistol it might have made the single action revolver obsolete.  What was the earliest practical design for a pump action?

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I have admired your work for some time now. Too bad the guy interviewing you was such an idiot. He clearly had no idea how unusual your Volcanics are.

[CRM]

Howdy

I have admired your work for some time now. Too bad the guy interviewing you was such an idiot. He clearly had no idea how unusual your Volcanics are.

That was Jim Pruett, he was a Radio (personality) disk jockey, for some 20 years. He needed something to talk about, and these "Volcanics" worked for his purpose.

Also, that "safety question" caught me compleately un-prepared, I didn't know he was going to ask that ! (Did the best I could, without warning.)

The only 2 good things I can see here is,
the guns will shoot,
the rifle sounds very different from the pistol !
3.5 grains of "Powerpistol" pushes that 155 grain bullet at close to 800 feet per second.
This is more power than the "38 Special".   The Rifle does not shoot any faster than the pistol with this perticular load. In the Rifle, the powder has completely burned up and the hot gases have started to collapse before the bullet has left that 25" barrel.
The Pistol barrel is only 8".

Thank you for commenting.                   

[Cal Fornia]

Definitely a neat pair of guns, CRM... one of your "Volcanic" pistols would make a great little small-game huntin' gun in the woods.  Make each shot count!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Very interesting, Sir.

At least Mr. Pruitt seemed to be enthused FOR your work, not looking for an excuse to bash you and your work in the name of "gun control!"

[Peter M. Eick]

Pruett does a gun segment on 39 news most nights.  I used to watch 39 news all the time for nightly news but when then went to this "newsfix" approach i only occasionally watch it.  They used to have one of the best weather reporters in town.  He was an actual meterologist and quite accurate but alas with "newsfix" we lost it.

Pruett runs a decent "black gun" gun store up in NW houston.  I went to it a few times and gave up on it as I don't buy tactical things in general.

Hot wells is up 290 and would be my second choice for a gun range if it weren't for ASC out on the west side.

[CRM]

Yeah, he's a "black gun" kind of guy.
An't my thing, but I was in his shop buying a box of "22 Hornets".

He has a resident Gunsmith named Berry, and I ask him if he had a 22 Hornet, chamber reamer that I could borrow. He said no, and did not know where I could borrow one.

I could purchase one from Brownells, but they cost over $100.00 !

He ask why I needed one, and I told him I was building a 22 Hornet Pistol, (from scratch) !
Berry wanted to see some of the guns I build, so I took those Volcanics in to show.
Jim seen them and seen a opportunity to have something to talk about on his "Bullet Points" show.

That is how it happened.

Sence I could not borrow that reamer,
I made one.
It worked beautifully

[Mako]

CRM,
Nice work.

What kind of .22 Hornet pistol were you making?  Revolvers, single shots or more lever actions?  If it's a revolver I have some tips.

Regards,
Mako

[CRM]

Single Shot,
Falling Block.


You have some tips ?
You build Guns ?

[Cal Fornia]

Single Shot,
Falling Block.


You have some tips ?
You build Guns ?

With spur triggers, no less... and a matching pair.  Should whip up a "dueling" style pistol case for them.   

[Mako]

Single Shot,
Falling Block.


You have some tips ?
You build Guns ?

Yes I have built guns.  Even a few from scratch, excluding a few parts like barrels.  I used to do revolver work and I chambered three S&W K-48s in a shortened K-Hornet style (not the standard Longer K-Hornet).  I don't know if you are familiar with the S&W 53s but the .22 jet always had problems with the shell setting back and locking the pistol up because of the long tapered shoulder.  So people came up with alternative case designs.

The cartridges would set back against the recoil shield as all cartridges do. The problem with any bottle necked cartridge is that the shoulder sometimes sets back with higher pressures and then the shell is tight against the recoil shield as you try to rotate it. You have the same problem with thin walled .22 Hornet.  In fact you sometimes have the same problem with .38-40 when shooting hot smokeless loads.  Black Powder loads are low enough pressure they don't seem to have the same problem.

Some people began wildcatting the .22 Hornet to get higher performance with cartridges like the K-Hornet in rifles .  Others saw the advantage of the short shoulder and basically straight body in a revolver.  The .224 Kay-Chuk was the most successful.  Other people (me included) went the individual wildcat route and designed our own chambers when we found out that they were all custom reamers anyway.  There is an advantage to the Kay-Chuk because a couple of reamer manufacturers already have the dimensions on file.

I had (have) a Thompson Contender barrel in .22 Hornet and it set back but you could still open it.  I decided to turn it into a K-Hornet, I couldn't make it my shorter bodied long neck revolver cartridge because the reamer wouldn't clean up a .22 Hornet chamber.  I immediately noticed the action opened easier upon re-chambering.

I was shooting a .30-30 at the time in a contender for the unlimited class Pistol Metallic Silhouette and wondered if a "squarer shoulder" on the .30-30 would do the same.  We were shooting 168 match bullets at the limit with those pistols.  I re-chambered it in  modified .30-30 Improved "Ackley," the modification was to allow you to ream an existing chamber.  Most of Ackley's designs assumed a threaded barrel which would be set back a full tun and re-chambered.  The shoulder is 40° like most of the other Ackley wildcats and this limits setback in a major way.  All of a sudden my contender opened with two fingers.

I'm telling you this, because even with rifle actions the higher shoulder angles minimize the "set back" with no brass spring back that makes rotation or even opening a pivoting style action harder.  Falling Blocks and bolt actions don't suffer this problem as much, BUT it can be felt even with a bolt action as you lift the handle.

You mentioned borrowing, there is or at least used to be a reamer exchange that some former students from C.S.T. established where you would "rent" a reamer and the proceeds  would go to buying replacements or getting them resharpened.  I don't know if they are still active, I'd have to dig through some old paper files to see who was even the last curator of the horde.

You could contact CST in Lakewood, Colorado and ask if they know if it is still going and who to contact.  At the time it was limited to alumni, but since we had to put a deposit on a new reamer down then there isn't really any reason you couldn't do it.  It's been a while and things may have changed allowing others into the library of reamers.

Regards,
Mako

[matt45]

RFI on the volcanics- I've only seen pictures or looked through a glass case- how much difference is there between them and the Henry?

[CRM]

Mako,
I have fired this 22 Hornet several times now.
Same thing here, the casses stretch after firing, binding the falling block up.
It's not a show stopper here because the gun is a single shot, and the block can be pushed down with the thumb.

MAN, this thing sure is loud