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spdalcher
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Rolling Block with a story
Feb 23rd, 2013 at 4:40pm
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So I was surfing Gun Broker one day with nothing better to do and a guy has a RB with an inexpensive start price.  It looks ROUGH! I have my Dad stop by the guys shop as it isn't far away and he calls me and asks "do you REALLY want this rolling block?" Now I'm realy interested! I've been looking for a project action and I'm thinking I found it. Long and the short before long I have the RB in my basement do an a good look over.  WOW it really is rough! It looks as though it sat out somewhere exposed to the elements for the last 100 years.  I knew when I bought it that the extractor and firing pin were missing. I'm now trying to figure out what it is chambered in... I try a chamber casting and the cerro bond locks up tight and I can't drive it out. HMMMMM, I melt it back out with my heat gun and take a better look at the chamber. Now I can see the remains of a long ago head separation that by all appearances happened hundred years ago. Di I mention that the rifling is sharp and well defined and while the bore looks a little on the dark side I haven't done anymore than run a rag through it. Now I'm really intrigued, I start calling around to my friends and professional associates trying to figure out how I'm going to remove the tightly bound remnants of the casing.  My Dad saves the day and suggests that copper solvent will most likeley break down brass. I think back to my early college chemistry and metallurgy classes (25 years ago), yeah that will work. So I cut a cork down to size and let the chamber soak for two days, most of the casing has dissappeared just a few spots left, which on examination immediately flake away. She is chambered in 43 Spanish.

I originally was going to make this a project gun, but now I think that I see the story.  " a young man borrows his fathers RB and while out hunting suffers a case separation, rifle is no longe shootable. Da has no way to remove the stuck casing  and the rifle is placed in attic exposed to elements for next 100 year
« Last Edit: Feb 23rd, 2013 at 4:50pm by spdalcher »  
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spdalcher
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Re: Rolling Block with a story
Reply #1 - Feb 23rd, 2013 at 4:48pm
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Continued- Dad being the conscientious sort removes the extractor and firing pin to make sure no one forces a round in the chamber (before placing in attic).  the gun is forgotten for all time until discovered some 100 years later as a relic, which gets sold to a local dealer and ends up on Gun Broker.  

Alternative story is that it was a battlefield pickup relic that finally found its way into the hands of a dealer and on to Gun Broker.

After examining the rifle and its history I can't bring myself to make it a project rifle. My Dad and I both found the possible storied too intriguing to dismantle the rifle and re-use the action. I am going to replace the firing pin and the extractor and shoot a deer with it next season.  It will then be relegated to "wall hanger" where it will proudly be displayed in my library/den for the rest her days. Every time I look at that rifle I ponder the stories that could be. Seems like a fitting end and home to rifle that at least for a little while takes me back to long forgotten times and places, where life was simpler and a man depended upon his rifle.
  
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John Boy
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Re: Rolling Block with a story
Reply #2 - Feb 23rd, 2013 at 7:17pm
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Quote:
I am going to replace the firing pin and the extractor and shoot a deer with it next season.
43 Spanish ... (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links);
Just be sure to charge it with original gun powder!  75gr FFFg and a 390gr bullet - will make nice accurate reload
  
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imalarduss
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Re: Rolling Block with a story
Reply #3 - Feb 24th, 2013 at 6:30am
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Got a RB with kinda sorta the same story as your first tale.  Bought mine, also a .43 Spanish at an auction.  Missing the extractor and firing pin and looked like someone, dad, had "peened" the chamber so you couldn't poke a round in the barrel and then gave it to the kid to play army with.  Fitted new firing pin and extractor to it, cleaned up the chamber to be able to load a round and I shoot it now.  More I shoot it and clean it the better the barrel looks and the better it shoots.
  
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spdalcher
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Re: Rolling Block with a story
Reply #4 - Feb 24th, 2013 at 7:48am
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I'm really looking forward to getting the old gal up and shooting!
  
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imalarduss
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Re: Rolling Block with a story
Reply #5 - Feb 24th, 2013 at 3:15pm
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I like mine alot.  The rear sight on it was broken when I got it and I had a spare adjustable sight from a Krag and I put it on the .43 Spanish rifle and the sight works great.  Keeping an eye on another .43 Spanish RB that is for sale.  It looks, on the outside anyway, to be in better shape than the one I have now.  They are also asking more money for it than what I paid for the one I got from the auction.   
  
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