This is very interesting. We have someone who took a bunch of parts, put them together with the obvious intention of selling the completed rifle, but I am wondering just what the quality of the finished product is. More important, is it safe?
Many of the parts available were decomissioned by the Military, and sold for scrap iron. This is because they were subjected to putting in a big pile, and being burned, thus bringing into question the structure of the steel.
Then we have the question of timing and headspacing. Putting together a rifle is NOT like assembling a tricycle for the neighbours kids, and there is a lot more involved than the simple assembling of various parts of different manufacturers. If you do not know what you are doing, there is 60,000 pounds per square inch of pressure that is six inches in front of your nose when you pull the trigger.
The next thing I do find a concern with is that this rifle, sold another two or three times, will probably be accepted as a genuine article instead of a parts gun, along with an appropriate story of course. If something breaks loose, who is going to be responsible for a possible injury caused by something assembled in a person's basement.
Now, before someone with a whole 25 posts starts flaming me, I will say that I have gunsmithed rifles since the 1960s, have taken a Millitary Armourers Course, and I presently have a 2000 square foot workshop complete with Welders, two metal lathes, a milling machine and two seven inch shapers, along with other things, along with appropriate tooling for rifles that I work on. I am also a retired Welder who has a Canadian Inter-provincial ticket, along with a "B" Pressure ticket, so I am quite familiar with steels and the affect of heat on them.
Just because someone with a whole 24 posts to his credit does not agree with another member, it is a poor excuse to resort to name calling and ridicule. Especially when the Member he does it to is a highly respected Member of this Forum whose knowledge is light years ahead of the ones doing the name calling.
SMELLIE, for the record, graduated from University with a degree in History. His University Thesis on Military Small Arms from 1812 to the Second Battle of Ypres is still quoted today. His contributions to "Cartridges of the World" are acknowledged by the author, and right now, some of his research papers are being used by the Smithsonian Institute as a reference for a project.
SMELLIE has visited the Pattern Room in England, while studying the Maxim machine guns, and while there sat down and wrote a complete operating Manual for the 1899 Maxim machine gun, using the reference notes he took with him. He is an acknowledged expert on the Lee Enfield System, the Ross rifle, and the Maxim machine gun.
He has been a Newspaper Editor, and conducted many interviews with WWI Veterans, and he owns his own small publishing company. His own personal Military firearms collection has in it weapons and models that 90% of the Members here have not even heard of.
SMELLIE, in his day, was one of the better target shooters in Canada. His scores were good enough to qualify him for Bisley, but like many of us, could not go because of financial reasons, where it would have cost us over two months wages for expenses. He was one of the shooting partners of William (Bisley) Brown, a six times member and three times Captain of Canada's Bisley team.
I wonder what the qualifications are of someone who calls a person like SMELLIE an "a**hole" and a "dink".
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