Hi all, by request of Rob, I will offer here some tips on how not to go about trying to make something from nothing.
First, lets go back to 2001, when the big gun registry scare started.......
..So there I am at work and one of the Millwrights (sp) comes up to me and says, "Noel, I got these here guns and I don't want to register them, I don't care about the first two but my Grampa's old Savage I don't want it to dissapear and turn into a parts gun somewhere....."
Yadda yadda, long story short, I told him I would be glad to take them off his hands. Up to then, I had only handled, not fired my grandfathers 99F and tinkered with another friends 99C.
As it turned out, my coworker brought in the old lever gun the next day, a beaten, carved up old Savage like I'd never seen before. You see, his Grandfather had a ferocious love for the bottle and a tendency to have accidents, not always one being the cause of another. I don't recall which happened first but he was doing some kind of wiring job, whether repair of or to finish a building, who knows, but he got juiced bad, and lost his left eye because of it!
Enter boo boo numero deux, Grampa indeed likes to hunt ducks, and you can take that cold morning's edge off with a belly full of Rum, don't ya know.... I Guess they were in a boat, he laid his shotgun down and reached over the 12 bore to grab a paddle and KABOOM!!!!!! off goes the shotgun, and off comes Grampa's right hand!! 
Needless to say, in order for him to still shoot his rifle, he had to carve a monster scallop out of the stock so he could shoot left handed and yet still get his right eye in proper alignment for using the irons. See pics:
Well, I fell in love with the rifle and endeveored to try to restore it in some fashion. I had never seen one with the half octogon barrel before and just marvelled at it's classic look. One drawback for me was it is chambered in the old 303 Savage, which is all but obsolete. I love the old rare calibers but the 303 Savage and 30-30 just never did anything for me. The bore was in very bad shape, hardly any rifling left and very dark.
I picked up some dies and tried to shoot it anyway, without being able to get any group at all, some tumbling.
Also about this time, I was just getting familiar with the internet and seeing the abundace of information that was available. While searching for a barrel for this rifle, I found the 24hrcampfire, and of course Joe Koprash..
The boys there were and are most helpful and I became a religous student of the 1899s. Found out this one was an 1899C, built in 1907. Well I had never owned to my knowledge such an old warhorse and now felt responsible to get her going again.
I pulled out the reload manuals to see what I could rebore the barrel to and settled on the 38-55, the largest chambering that was used in the period.
The Smithy and I were so excited to see what we could do with the barrel, we both overlooked the fact that the case head of a 303 Savage is something like 13 thou bigger than that of the 38-55. The bore job is beautiful, the chamber is well, I believe the correct term is now bastard.
Even with those lovely sharp lands, the bullets still go all over and the cases look brutal on extraction. Back to the drawing board.
While talking with Maddog about who knows what, he mentioned a lovely group of folks on a Canadian forum with tons of helpful folks and led me to YOU!
It didn't take long and I found myself here more than anywhere, it covers all the bases. One day, I found a thread talking about a Gent by the name of Epps, in Ontario, who had spawned the 37-303. I finally found some case dimensions and was saddened to see the cartridge OAL was to long to work in my rotary mag, but not if I shortened it!
By close examination, I found if I chased out my chamber with a 303 British reamer, the shoulder will blend out perfectly, leaving me just enough neck to hold onto the bullet. This will give me one of the cheapest supplies of brass to work with as well as a usable length.
There have been alot of other setbacks or opportunities to learn, should I say......
Replacing stocks, ordered some from the Great American in Calif. and they were brutal, deep gouges in them, wrong profile cuts made, brutal service. I finally got a butt from a CGNer who didn't reall know it was cracked, even thoug it was advertised as not...
#2 was snapping off extractors when trying to pull off a barrel for the very first time while being distracted by a coworker...
And last but not least, finally finding a replacement bolt, getting it all back together and then putting a dent in the side of the reciever while trying to put the barrel back on! I will tear her all apart this winter and hydraulic the dent out again since it is in a non critical area, and one that shouldn't be torqued on! 
I have learned alot to say the least, swore really loud, , nearly cried......but I have also cheered and squeeled like a school girl when some things fell into place! One way or another she will bark again
I hope to have it done for next fall, I got a Lyman two arperture tang site for it, but I cannot get it to elevate enough, may go back to the buckhorn it had to begin with.
Well there she is Rob, my Gunsmith education in a nutshell, a long drawn out one!
Are you scared now?
Noel
First, lets go back to 2001, when the big gun registry scare started.......
..So there I am at work and one of the Millwrights (sp) comes up to me and says, "Noel, I got these here guns and I don't want to register them, I don't care about the first two but my Grampa's old Savage I don't want it to dissapear and turn into a parts gun somewhere....."
Yadda yadda, long story short, I told him I would be glad to take them off his hands. Up to then, I had only handled, not fired my grandfathers 99F and tinkered with another friends 99C.
As it turned out, my coworker brought in the old lever gun the next day, a beaten, carved up old Savage like I'd never seen before. You see, his Grandfather had a ferocious love for the bottle and a tendency to have accidents, not always one being the cause of another. I don't recall which happened first but he was doing some kind of wiring job, whether repair of or to finish a building, who knows, but he got juiced bad, and lost his left eye because of it!
Enter boo boo numero deux, Grampa indeed likes to hunt ducks, and you can take that cold morning's edge off with a belly full of Rum, don't ya know....
I Guess they were in a boat, he laid his shotgun down and reached over the 12 bore to grab a paddle and KABOOM!!!!!! off goes the shotgun, and off comes Grampa's right hand!! Needless to say, in order for him to still shoot his rifle, he had to carve a monster scallop out of the stock so he could shoot left handed and yet still get his right eye in proper alignment for using the irons. See pics:
Well, I fell in love with the rifle and endeveored to try to restore it in some fashion. I had never seen one with the half octogon barrel before and just marvelled at it's classic look. One drawback for me was it is chambered in the old 303 Savage, which is all but obsolete. I love the old rare calibers but the 303 Savage and 30-30 just never did anything for me. The bore was in very bad shape, hardly any rifling left and very dark.
I picked up some dies and tried to shoot it anyway, without being able to get any group at all, some tumbling.
Also about this time, I was just getting familiar with the internet and seeing the abundace of information that was available. While searching for a barrel for this rifle, I found the 24hrcampfire, and of course Joe Koprash..
The boys there were and are most helpful and I became a religous student of the 1899s. Found out this one was an 1899C, built in 1907. Well I had never owned to my knowledge such an old warhorse and now felt responsible to get her going again.
I pulled out the reload manuals to see what I could rebore the barrel to and settled on the 38-55, the largest chambering that was used in the period.
The Smithy and I were so excited to see what we could do with the barrel, we both overlooked the fact that the case head of a 303 Savage is something like 13 thou bigger than that of the 38-55. The bore job is beautiful, the chamber is well, I believe the correct term is now bastard.
Even with those lovely sharp lands, the bullets still go all over and the cases look brutal on extraction.
Back to the drawing board.While talking with Maddog about who knows what, he mentioned a lovely group of folks on a Canadian forum with tons of helpful folks and led me to YOU!
It didn't take long and I found myself here more than anywhere, it covers all the bases. One day, I found a thread talking about a Gent by the name of Epps, in Ontario, who had spawned the 37-303. I finally found some case dimensions and was saddened to see the cartridge OAL was to long to work in my rotary mag, but not if I shortened it!
By close examination, I found if I chased out my chamber with a 303 British reamer, the shoulder will blend out perfectly, leaving me just enough neck to hold onto the bullet. This will give me one of the cheapest supplies of brass to work with as well as a usable length.
There have been alot of other setbacks or opportunities to learn, should I say......
Replacing stocks, ordered some from the Great American in Calif. and they were brutal, deep gouges in them, wrong profile cuts made, brutal service. I finally got a butt from a CGNer who didn't reall know it was cracked, even thoug it was advertised as not...
#2 was snapping off extractors when trying to pull off a barrel for the very first time while being distracted by a coworker...
And last but not least, finally finding a replacement bolt, getting it all back together and then putting a dent in the side of the reciever while trying to put the barrel back on!
I will tear her all apart this winter and hydraulic the dent out again since it is in a non critical area, and one that shouldn't be torqued on! I have learned alot to say the least, swore really loud,
, nearly cried......but I have also cheered and squeeled like a school girl when some things fell into place! One way or another she will bark againI hope to have it done for next fall, I got a Lyman two arperture tang site for it, but I cannot get it to elevate enough, may go back to the buckhorn it had to begin with.
Well there she is Rob, my Gunsmith education in a nutshell, a long drawn out one!
Are you scared now?
Noel
