Ben, don't waste the tin, hard on the rifle too. 10 to 30% is normal, or no tin. A roller can be safely shot with small smokeless loads or a duplex load, we all do it from time to time but it really is dangerous. The roller was designed for black, not smokeless. Remington knew that and when Remington wanted to add some more modern calibers that were loaded in smokeless at the turn of the century they came out with the new Model 5 made of a higher grade of steel and heat treated better. Receiver wall thickness was increased too. 
Just be careful, the real big deal is that if you were to get careless and accidentally over charge a shell with 2 loads from the powder measure when loading for smokeless you and the rifle would probably cease to exist as soon as you pulled the trigger. Not a pretty picture. I have seen pictures of roller parts in situ in a skull-dead right there to say the least.
Mike

All of the Remington material that I have read over the years says Remington switched to a steel using a higher nickel content. And this was in connection to a higher failure rate due to smokeless powder's. Know the funny thing is that there is almost no written record of any of these failures, remember they did not have all of these sharks in suits saying sue the suckers, yet. But the makers of firearms saw a drastic increase in failures due to the use of the new powders and all the major makers stared using a new formulated steel, and barrels wee marked made of nickel steel for smokeless powders. It was not just used in barrels, but in other parts too.
Mike

I don't want to get into a pissing match about the safety of RB's here. I have shot them and I consider them safe. You have to remember that untill about 1920 many millions of the large frame RB's were made in Military calibers such as 7mm & 7.65 Mauser, 30/40 Krag (30 US Army), 303 British & 7.62x53 Russian (all smokeless, bording on high pressure). They have been successfully rebarreled in 219 Zipper and 257 Roberts. Remingtons 1902 catalog list most of those plus 30/30, high pressure 32/40 and 32 Win Special. It says nothing about nickel steel, only that the BARREL is made of "special smokeless steel" my guess on that is the same "ordinance steel" that Krags and early 1903's were made of. I've never seen nickel connected with the RB in any publication that I have.

Frank DeHass says (page 48 of Single Shot Rifles) that they were made of the best forged, heat treated steel (not iron) available at that time.

Regarding blow ups, I read of failures done purposely where the receiver sides have blown out and in that test Trap Doors did better than RB's but, they intentionally blew them up with loads that would not be used in "normal" operation. Another thing about blow ups is, BEFORE that happens, the BARREL has to fail to release the pressure to separate the action.

Regarding Higinbothans failure, I'd be interested in corresponding with him, regarding that. But, condemning a whole sucessful design based on one undocumented blow up is not exactly scientific.

Frank

I've got a few Rollers in various centerfire and rimfire calibers. I wont shoot smokeless in two of them simply becasue they're original guns with original barrels. But in the two I have rebarreled to .40-65 and .45-70, I shoot a lot of smokeless powder in them.
The difference to me is as previously stated, the barrel is new steel and it has to let go before the action can. That said, I don't push the loads to high pressures. I've fired smokeless powder in my rebarreled Rollers for many years, and seems they are doing quite well with it.

Need to know the weight of your Mauser bullet?

Might be best to start a new topic line. 

Mike


Quote:

Accurate 5744 ... (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

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Ziggy,
How much material do you need to analyze it? Would machining chip do?

Frank