rifling button pusher

Ah, a man after my own heart on rifles. I once hand-made a reamer for my own wldcat. That was before I knew much about them. It's a good thing I never built the rifle, because it probably would have put my eye out. (It was a .32 S&W Long pistol cartridge necked down to .20 cal. I have a replica Farquharsen action on which I was going to build it.) That cartridge was too thin for that kind of use. Maybe a .32 H&R Magnum cut down...nah, not in NJ. It ain't worth the trouble.)

We could talk about Martinis for hours, but we don't have hours. Gunner has my last Martini action -- a full-size Martini that was modified by and for the British Miniature Rifle Clubs. When the Brits decided they didn't want rifles around, Navy Arms in NJ bought cases of them. They let me scrounge through the piles. Most of them were miserable little firesticks and I'd be embarrassed to own, but I found a rimfire Model 12 target rifle among the piles, and bought it for a friend in California who Jon Anderson used to know, online. It was in great shape and I got it for $125. It was a steal.

Anyway, Cadets are as rare as hen's teeth these days. They were training rifles for Australian cadets, and they fired a unique centerfire cartridge, the .310 Cadet. They're all but gone on the US market. If Jon Anderson could find a stash of them left somewhere in Australia, he could probably retire on what they would sell for in the US.

So, does this mean your pushrod can be a stack of dowel pins, all ground flat on the ends? The case-hardening of a dowel pin makes good burst (compressive) strength, and a dozen two-inch pins doesn't break the piggy bank.

Hydraulics might work, but that just makes this BIG project. Easily available hand pumps will do 10kpsi, fluids will go to 50-100 kpsi (with custom pumps). If the pushrod is a piston, 0.3" diameter, it only gets 900 lbs force with

PUSHING makes it a big project. Pulling makes it much easier.

There's no reason you can't pull a button, although the tools generally are made for pushing. Cutting tools usually are made for pulling.

If you can lap a barrel, button rifling doesn't hold any great advantage. It's a production technique. It allows you to use a lower grade of steel, because it work-hardens, and it leaves a cleaner bore that needs less finishing.

But in the end, either one will work.

Much deleted

Most of the firearms I worked with seem to be gone forever. A good friend had a 22-Krag built on a high wall action - beautiful gun but a miserable shooter as the 22-Krag was a full sized 30-40 Krag case necked down to .22 cal. and while it could produce some spectacular velocities it wasn't much in the way of accuracy :-)

Military surplus was cheap, really, cheap. One year I bought a dozen or so small ring mauser rifles for $5 each in a case. Bought a case of

Then I retired and went to work overseas and never went back :-) and firearms became a very minor consideration, but I do occasionally pick up a "gun magazine" to read. But the gun world, or at least the gun world portrayed in the magazines, seems to be a far distant world from the one I knew. They all now seem to be obsessed with Assault rifles and, what must be, very inaccurate pistols.

Automatic, or full automatic, rifles certainly do have a place in military use but for civilian use I am doubtful whether they are anything other then a boost to the ego of, what appear to be, people of very low self-esteem - I'm thinking of youtube postings with titles like "See Me Shoot My Gun".

This assumes, of course, that the Barbarian Hordes are not at the gate. But it appears that they are not and countries who might be inclined to "take over" seem to have discovered that "economic warfare" is a far cheaper and more effective method of gaining world dominance.

John, I couldn't have said it better. When the covers of _American Rifleman_ became indistinguishable from the covers of _Soldier of Fortune_, I figured it was time to quit. I stopped playing Army when I was about 10 years old.

The NRA still sends me emails, and a recent one made me do a real double-take:

A bucket list, with real buckets. "Meat Matters," they say. My meat sure matters to me.

And, for a mere $44.95, you can have your very own polished-brass Hudson's Bay Firestarting kit, a piece of flint and a wad of charred cloth -- for when the invading hordes soak your matches with water pistols, I guess:

Ain't it pretty? That's for survivalists who buy their camo on Rodeo Drive, I suppose.

The NRA has gone to hell in a handbasket.

The tactical blanket set me to searching for a definition for "tactical."

"of or relating to a maneuver or plan of action designed as an expedient toward gaining a desired end or temporary advantage"

So I suppose if you accept that definition, and are hoping to get some sleep, that is indeed a tactical blanket.

Yes, gun makers and the NRA have been trying hard to co-opt the word by using it as an abstraction for "homicide." Anything that goes along with the current state of man-killing gun culture gets a free ride on the word. Tactical flashlights, for example, are good for lighting up the people you want to kill.

A cover line for American Rifleman, with, say, a photo of a Glock 18C, might be "Tactical handguns we'd like to own." An honest and much more concrete headline for the same gun, on the other hand, might be "Handguns to mow 'em down."

I'm too old to go running around so now I look for "strategic" equipment.

That's coming next. The first step in that direction is MANPADS. Then comes the nuclear stuff.

They make for great photography. 40 years ago I worked for Aviation Week. The ads from Raytheon for air-to-air missiles were beautiful.

What, Jim? You're not going to correct his wildly mistaken concepts? He's fallen into the NewSpeak crowd with the Liberals.

The NRA might not be (even close to) perfect, but it's still the largest and best gun-safety-minded org in the world.

"Tactical" is the equivalent buzzword to "billet" or "sustainable". Marketing, not WORLD DOMINATION.

"Mow 'em down", indeed. Somebody give MrEd his morning Thorazine / Haldol cocktail, please.

I had five Sharpshooter bars before you were born, hot-shot. I've watched the evolution and debasement of gun culture in the US. So has John B.

That's not how they make their money. That's not how they've built their membership.

It's a dog-whistle word for killing the gooks of your choice -- whoever you fantasize will require a bullet delivered from your little rifle with the laser sight/flash suppressor/other garbage that will fit on your Picatinny Rail.

You don't know what the Glock 18C is, do you. 1200 rounds/minute will mow them down pretty good.

Of course, you'd only buy one for killing prairie dogs...

Wake up, Larry.

Few megalomaniacal third-world dictators could resist them.

The regional SWAT commander was showing some of us his gear. He held up a scratched Vietnam-era M16A1 and a snazzy dressed-up modern M4 carbine with a tan handguard and asked which I'd prefer. He was disappointed when I said the one I trained on and knew I could hit with.

Hey, that was their market. The ideal was to sell to one megalomaniac dictator, and then go sell to his enemy. They could be fired from F4s, Marages, Migs -- you name it.

They were the 7.62 NATOs of the air-to-air missile business.

Sounds a lot like an Italian sub-machine gun. 1800 unaimed rounds per minute. I forget the book, but it said it was only suitable for assassinations. You start by aiming at the feet and end up shooting over the victoms head.

Dan

The Glock 18C is a 9mm machine pistol (switchable) with very forceful recoil compensation. The videos are impressive.

So is the 30-round magazine that's available for them.

All in all, it's a modern, tactical gun-owner's wet dream. Suitable for blowing away whole herds of gook invaders, just like in the video games.

If you think the weapon reflects badly on Italy, you should read Erwin Rommel's tale of his berserker rampage through and behind their lines at the first battle where it was used. He (and others he omits) pushed the Italians back 100 miles, racing after them on captured bicycles.

-jsw

Way off NRA discussion, sorry, but I am interested in how you ended up push ing the button through your barrel.

My plan was to use a series of pushing rods, starting with a very short one to get it started, then when approx 1" in the bore, change to the next len gth, say 2" in length, the increase as you go along.

High strength bard machined to just under bore dia so flex is not such an i ssue, using a ball bearing, in a dia as close as you can get to bore are th e point of contact between Pusher and button, lube can be added as required when the pusher rod is changed out.

It would not be fast, but I cant see why it wont work.

chris.collum13 at(@) gmail