So . . . to answer sinus211's question of "what's in the box," it was a Nepalese Gahendra rifle. They went on sale recently at IMA, so I was able to get this for about $210 shipped to my door.
These are similar to a British Martini-Henry but with some differences in the action. This is a single-shot rifle, theoretically chambered in .577/450 but apparently these have bores of varying diameter and tend to run a bit on the small side, so you don't want to put normal .577/450 ammo through it. If I decide to shoot it, I can slug the bore and then load my ammo with the appropriate bullets. There are also chamber adapters available that let you shoot .45 Colt loads, which would be a bit wimpy but that option has some obvious advantages too.
Interesting. Not really my style of weapon but definitely a cool piece of history.
FTR if you plan on shooting any caliber starting with a "4" or "5" through that barrel I got dibs on your collection. Do they make a chamber adapter for .22 short?
FTR if you plan on shooting any caliber starting with a "4" or "5" through that barrel I got dibs on your collection.
Now that's effn funny....
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Sun Jul 16, 2017 12:18 pm
MadPick
Site Admin
Location: Renton, WA Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 Posts: 52032
Real Name: Steve
Believe it or not, I'm actually taking action . . . I'm halfway through that rifle right now, got it all disassembled and the metal parts cleaned, and I'm working on the wood.
The good news: Nearly everything is in pretty decent shape. The bore looks great, has some shine to it and is better than some of my Mosins.
The bad news: As soon as I took the action apart, a little piece of metal fell out. I knew immediately what it was, based on hearing stories of some other Gahendras . . . the firing pin, which is normally an integral part of the hammer.
The bad news: As soon as I took the action apart, a little piece of metal fell out. I knew immediately what it was, based on hearing stories of some other Gahendras . . . the firing pin, which is normally an integral part of the hammer.
I read something interesting about the firing pins on a forum...here's what someone wrote:
"Forgot to mention that these old guns usually have a huge firing pin which is too big in diameter to work with small pistol and rifle primers. Usually gunsmiths bush the firing pin hole in the breech block and turn down the firing pin to a modern diameter."
......just sounded interesting when I read it....
Sun Jul 16, 2017 11:43 pm
sportsdad60
Site Supporter
Location: The banana belt of MT Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 Posts: 8586
Real Name: Brian
Steve, a friend of mine is a gunsmith and a machinist. If you ever need something made for your old rifles, contact Paul Notch and send him photos/dimensions or the broken parts. He's very reasonable for prices to machine something for you. He's made front sights for my trapdoor, but out of titanium rather than steel!
And now some photos to show some of the gory details . . . .
Here's what the rifle looks like now:
Here's the hammer with the broken firing pin tip:
This is what the barrel bands and pins looked like:
When I pulled the barrel out of the stock forend, here's what it looked like:
And here's the barrel after cleaning. It has some light pitting, but it's really not that bad:
This is the nasty mess in the middle of the project:
This is a picture of the breech block and a couple of the action screws that go through the receiver. It's interesting to see what those old-school screws look like, with just a few threads on one end a slot cut into the other:
It was tough getting all of the screws out without ruining any. I used my gunsmithing screwdriver to get the best fit possible, and used a dental pick to clean out the slot on each screw before tackling it. I felt like DGM33, grinding away with a pick until I found something solid underneath, then wiping the whole bloody mess on the nearest piece of fabric.
I also used Kroil (penetrating oil) on some of the parts. A few screws were particularly tough to remove, so I carefully used a propane torch to heat the aprts up a bit, and that helped.
I also used Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner for the first time. This did a really nice job on the metal, and I used it lightly on some of the wood as well. They advertise that you can use it on the bore too, so I gave that a try and it did a good job; the bore is actually quite shiny.
Here's a pic of my .45 bore brush with a piece of the cleaner pad wrapped around it:
All in all . . . a fun and satisfying project. Right now it's a wall hanger; maybe I'll get that firing pin repaired or replaced at some point, we'll see!
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