Picked up an early #1 Rolling Block at our single shot show yesterday. It's in .44 Long CF, and has a good bore. The metal is good, but no finish left, and stocks need a lot of help. I want to rechamber to something easier to get brass, and that will work with the .439" bore, and 1-36" twist that it appears to have.
Looking for suggestions, or options for calibers that might be workable with the twist rate in this old Roller?

You could rechamber to 43 Spanish, it is a good (and original) cartridge for a Remington #1 sporting rifle.
What is the barrel length?
And, what part of the country are you in that you are so lucky as to have a show dedicated to single shot rifles? That's way cool.

frnkeore wrote on May 25^th, 2015 at 1:04pm:


Really don't want to get into the expense of a custom reamer, and custom dies that a wildcat would involve.

... and about a zillion military rolling blocks wer also chambered in it, though I don't know if any sporters were...

43 Spanish was a factory offering early through late Remington Rolling Block Sporting Rifle production. Roy Marcot's book on Remington Rolling Block Sporting and Target rifles mentions this chambering in several sections of the book, as well as providing pictures of several factory rifles chambered in 43 Spanish. If one wanted to keep the original barrel and bore, this would be a good choice.

I too like the 50-70 and have several rolling blocks in both calibers. 

If possible would like to see a picture or two of this new addition to the collection, love seeing pictures of original Remington Rolling Blocks.

Both are very nice rifles. Since you have a 44-77 I would definitely consider rechambering the new rifle into a .43 Spanish. They would complement each other. Thanks for the pictures. Again, you have two great rifles. As for the butt stock, it looks like it was done long ago. I would leave as is, it does not detract from the rifle at all. Nice heavy barrel, also like the fixed rear sight. If you find rifles like this at the yearly single shot show, I may consider retiring in Oregon. I really like your new find.

Here's my "semi restoration" of the Rolling Block Sporter. I purchased a basic plain sporter 90% buttstock from Gunstocks Inc. and fitted it to the receiver. Then mixed up an acetone/whiting compound to remove the oily dark finish on the forearm wood. Once it was stripped, I determined it was a slightly darker walnut, so after sanding the buttstock, I stained it with a mix of three stains to get a similar color. 
  With both pieces of lumber similar I color, I started with the Minn Wax Wipe On Poly, doing coats on both. The new buttstock wood took in a lot of WOP before it started to build up, so it got about 8 coats, where the forearm only got a few. 
After it dried well for 24 hrs. in the warm garage, I rubbed both out with rottenstone powder to get them smooth, and aged. While the wood was between coats, I also overhauled all the screws. Heads were badly buggered, and slots stripped. Peened the metal back in place, filed the slots, and then blued them. Once blued I burnished them a bit to age them.
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Once it's had time to cure for a few weeks, I'll give it a coat of paste wax to seal it completely. Then tear it apart again, and do the chamber to most likely .43 Spanish.

Val,

I've got a set of 43 spanish dies if you don't.  Only expensive, not outrageous!

dave

Since we're on the topic of old looking rolling blocks, here's a shot of one in 45-70 I finished this spring as a fill in time project.  The action I bought from a gentleman on the forum.  The barrel was an old Buhmiller blank I had kicking around and the stock was a $70 piece of wood that had been waiting for a home.  I antiqued the barrel to fairly well match the action since I didn't want to spend the time to pretty it all up.  The next guy can do that.  It's a good knock-around hunting rifle.  As it is I have nearly $600 just in parts.  I'll bet I couldn't sell it for that!  I guess the value I get is more therapeutic than anything.

JS