One day to the Phoenix

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Well we have one final day left to finish the preparation for the Phoenix. We have been working flat out the last few days, weeks even on so many things, the CG action and chassis systems continue at a fantastic pace and we will have some of our work on display at the stand along with the CG INCH actions. The delivery of Hogue overmolded grips has arrived at last and they do look good fitted so the option of Hogue or wooden grips will be available for all M75 and M66 chassis systems.

We have boxes of things all over the place, reloading consumables, shiny things, display stands, C2R, things to hold flyers, table coverings, rifle locks and a myriad of other items neatly labelled in piles, I can even see a glass jar for sweets.

Did I mention the sweet jar? Christel decided a jar of toffees on the stand would be nice and I certainly would not disagree so she ordered a few bags of toffees and similar things. I wandered through the kitchen a few days ago and spotted the jar with some sample toffees in so I grabbed one to sample. Now these things turned out to be rather hard and incredibly chewy so I bit down hard on the one I had and realised something had gone wrong. I had managed to snap a crown off, a front crown at that which is a bit of a disaster as it left me looking rather gappy and speaking with a lisp. Down the dentists next morning and he told me it was easily fixed, just stick a pin in and attach a new crown. Yebbut when?? Oh I can do it next week was his cheerful reply, he even wrote a note for the receptionist so she would give me an urgent appointment.

Silly dentist and I for assuming an appointment would exist, I was told very politely and very firmly it will be sometime next month before I can be seen. That was the ‘urgent’ appointment. So right now I am avoiding toffees and doing my best to keep my mouth closed and not put my tongue in the gap where the tooth was. At least it does not hurt. (Fingers crossed)

I have had a free Danish email account for the last dozen or so years, yes I have a Shooting SHED account and the obligatory Gmail one however my @inbound.dk account has been with me for ages. Yesterday it stopped working, Inbound was taken over many years ago and the domain eventually became part of Tiscali.dk  so finding out what is wrong is all but impossible, especially as we are not even in Denmark. It has been down for 24 hours now and hopefully it will be back up very shortly however for those of you that email me via this account it may be worth sending the email again to my SHED account.

I feel lost without my inbound.dk account…

The weather looks for the most OK for the weekend so if you are at Bisley you have no exscuces for not coming and finding us at some point, it will be good to put faces to names.

 

 

 

21 Mealworms

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I stood at the doorway this morning, coffee in hand watching a Blackbird eating the Mealworms the Viking puts out. The Robins will invariably eat one and then take one, I can tell which Robin is feeding at the time as one always picks a Mealworm up, taps it on the side of the bowl and then eats it where as the other one just eats it without the tap, they are also different in appearance, one has a more pronounced gape, maybe slightly darker so I ill assume this is the male however I could be mistaken.

Other birds come down every morning for their breakfast and invariably take one Mealworm before heading off but not the Blackbird, it will happily perch on the side and eat 21 Mealworms, yes I have counted and it is 21.

No doubt I could be doing something more productive however operating machinery before I am fully awake and have a couple of cups of coffee inside me has led to problems in the past and a broken finger on one occasion so these days I make sure I am fully awake. Also Mondays are reserved for paperwork and I always have lots of paperwork.

One of the things about working for yourself and designing your own products is you can never stand still, never sit back and think you have done enough. The products you see today are constantly under my scrutiny, am I happy with the design, operation, manufacturing process and the price and I strongly believe constant development of a product is key to success. The 2P comparators are a perfect example, externally they have not changed significantly yet the process has been constantly tweaked to improve them to a level where I can confidently say enough, these are good. I have even gone back to lightly polishing them!

More recently I have been working on many things however the one product always at the back of my mind is F/TR bipods. So many new bipods are hitting the market these days and lets face it every single F/TR shooter is going to need a bipod and with F/TR being *the* up and coming shooting discipline demand is always going to be there.

I have lost track of how many bipods I have built over the last year, certainly quite a few however I have never been truly happy with them, yes the work very well if feedback is anything to go on and I currently have a handful of customers patiently waiting for the next run to be built however despite the demand and feedback and readiness to buy them I have never been totally happy with the various versions from aesthetic and final finish viewpoints

I built two revised design  F/TR bipod prototypes at the end of last year to test some new theories. Since then they been under extended testing to confirm the operation, one in the capable hands of Tim Stewart and the other with the Viking and feedback is good. The tests have been documented with shots plotted versus other bipods, they have even been filmed whilst in use to allow me to look very carefully at the tracking and I am happy with the design concept. I spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening working on the final design of the new bipods and I have to say I am delighted. Sometimes things just come together well, even something as simple as a bipod so it is time to move forward now and get some built.

This will be a one off run of 12 bipods and I am really looking forward to the build.

New Things

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I sat and watched one of the Robins feeding a youngster yesterday. Fledglings Robins do not have the adult red chest, instead they are speckled and the one I spotted was being fed with meal worms and obviously enjoying them. This is not the first time I have spotted a young Robin, one wandered into the kitchen a couple of days ago however it soon lost interest and headed outside again which was probably a wise move as the Weim from Hell has his own opinion when it comes to birds in the garden.

This is not the first youngster in the garden this year, a couple of days ago a young Blackbird was prodding around with an adult and there are a few others however the notable missing ones are the Swallows, not that they ever come into the garden however they do flit above in the sky on warm evenings before retiring to the stables behind us.

No Swallows so far this year.

On the subject of new things now seems as good a time as any to post a picture of this. I have written at some length about the Model 75 chassis and the Model 59 Actions. This is the receiver for the Model 66.Picture 001

The Model 66 does share some items in common with the Model 75 Chassis, it has the same butt section, cheek piece assembly, trigger guard and accessories such as the front and rear bag rider options if required. The stock rod interface on the Model 66 is some what sleeker than the Model 75 and the 66 does not use a separate receiver, instead the receiver is an integral component of the chassis system and uses the same bolt assembly as the Model 59 and of course the CG Trigger assembly.

So here is the very first picture of the single shot Model 66 LTT (Light Tube Target)  Accompanying this will be the Model 66 LTR (Light Tube Repeater) which accepts the internationally available AICS 5 and 10 shot magazines.

More to follow very shortly.

The MYTH of CASE STRETCHING In Match Single Shot Rear Locking Actions

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Robert Chombart emailed this to me today and  I have decided to publish the article in its entirety as it covers some interesting  points on the differences between modern rear locking rifle actions, specifically the M41 CG INCH action compared to the military rear locking action specifically the SMLE.

The MYTH of CASE STRETCHING In Match Single Shot Rear Locking Actions

Robert Chombart

Bolt compression resistance:

I have calculated the compression resistance of the INCH Bolt.
 
The cross sections of the Bolt decreases in steps from front to rear. At 11 mm ahead of the Lugs bearing abutment (against the counter-lugs in the Receiver), it is still over a total of 35 tonnes before any compression could occur (Yes, 35,000 kilograms or 77,260 pounds). This represents some 7 times the total pressure against the Bolt face of a Magnum-sized case head, 9 times a .308 and 19 times those of a .223, and still 6 times those of a .338 Lapua Magnum. This is for the total pressure exerted on rear thrust. Converted to the .308 bolt face, with its surface of .175 sq/inch, it represents 395,500 lbs/sq inch of capacity.
 
Comparing to military or sporting Rear Locking Actions:  In the case of an excessive pressure exerted axially against one end of circular solid (the bolt body), is heavy enough to create a reduction in length, this solid increase in diameter (or bent if the force is not fully centred, or the solid, itself eventually not symmetric in shape). This phenomenon is called ‘Buckling” or ‘Flambage’ in my mother’s language.

But if contained with close tolerances within another solid, thus preventing the radial expansion, any eventual reduction in length is impossible to occur because the cylinder cannot expand or flex. This is the case for the INCH  (and other rigid rear-lockers) in which the generously dimensioned bolt is maintained straight at close tolerance in the Receiver, with limited openings and generous cross sections.
 
This is different in the military or some sporting repeater rear locking actions, the example being the SMLE, in which the small sectioned Bolt (1/3 those of the INCH)  is not maintained due to the large and long openings for magazine well and loading/ejection port. The Bolt is only slightly maintained (with generous tolerances too) at front and rear… with also a threaded junction in between (non-rotating bolt head screwed in the bolt). There is nothing here to contain the central buckling of the bolt. Also the receiver flexes under stresses on those actions as well because of their asymmetric construction and horizontal locking lug arrangement. The SMLE’s lugs bolting is the only of its kind being horizontal when closed.
 
Choice of materials: The choice of material and treatments used in the construction also play an important role in general compression resistance. The material and treatment used for the INCH (as it was for the Millenium) has a Rm of 185 kg/sq.mm @ 52HRC (363,130 Lbs/sq.inch) as compared to the 120 kg/s.mm @ 38 HRC (170,680 Lbs/sq.inch) of a hardened 4140 receiver.
 
Conclusion:  One important conclusion which can be drawn from the above is that, the smallest cross section of the Bolt being the only one to consider and being only 11mm (.433’) long, this distance being inferior to those Bolt Recess / Rear of Lugs of a Front Locking action, it is a nonsense to attribute any case stretching tendency to a well designed Match Single Shot Rear Locking Action, notwithstanding the superior metal characteristics.
 
To repeat the main important aspect, the Bolt being fully enclosed in the action, the later acting as a super-strong outer sleeve/collar preventing any inflation or flex (buckling) of the Bolt.
 
R.G.C

01/2010

Good news and Bad news

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The good news is the preparation for the Phoenix is going well and we should be ready to go for the Friday morning start, the stand is here, the helpers are arranged, the Weim from Hell is booked into the kennels and rifles builds are well under way. Right now I am surrounded by shiny things, reloading consumables, stands for flyers, covers for tables and check lists. What more could we need?

The Viking is looking after the details so the little things like business cards, branded T shirts, tables, price lists and location hire, she has even sorted out the little things like a new glass jar with some rather enticing looking English toffees and here lies the problem.

I was hungry, food was half an hour away and the toffees were on the side just begging to be sampled, so I unwrapped one, popped it into my mouth and clamped down on it, hmm, that is a bit hard and rather chewy I thought… actually I thought a bit more as I promptly snapped a crown off.

Bugger, this has the makings of an expensive start to the Phoenix. Lets hope I can get it sorted out in the next day or two…