To add a little humor to this story though, I was seeing a client a while back and I’d noticed a couple of fairly large nuts lying on the apron in front of their shop.  I’d commented that they looked a little rough and they’d be a fun project to tackle – making some new ones…  not missing a beat, the customer said they in fact looked a little rough around the edges and even with a small chunk of the thread missing they’d work fine for few more years.  So, the subject was dropped.  A few days following though, I got a call asking if I would entertain either repairing the lock slots on these nuts, or indexing and cutting new ones.  Not what a guy really wants but it is good work.  Anyway, I shared a picture of these little guys with a friend and the old story of some of the builds and different projects that transpire because of finding a part led to a project, like a screw that fit a Ballard and how it led to actually building a Ballard around that screw…  Was there something going to come of this??? Like a sight for a real bench gun?  I think these are a tiny bit larger than any gun I’m in the mood for but they did get me motivated.   

I was thinking you were going to tell us the radius on them big nuts was about right for the curvature of the Ballard trigger plates? 

Fun stuff GT... looking forward to hearing the range report!

Cheers!
Jeff P

Managed a few shots last night before dark and before getting  thoroughly soaked - this country has been dry so what is this all about???   
As for a range report, not much to ponder on, the Hoch 390 gr out performed the Saeco 410 gr with the 18-24mph winds I was fighting.  I moved back to the neighbor's place and shot at 500+ yards with the same loads but the conditions dampened efforts... 
 
In and amongst the sight staff build, I did a small run on Damascus eyepieces too.  I saw an oversize eyepiece one time so I thought I ought to attempt one of these also.  To the few folks that have seen this piece, only a couple of folks have asked if it’s a satellite dish for my cell phone… It does make the sight arrangement a bit “clunky” and it definitely adds mass to the sight staff – heavy recoil puts the staff in motion.   It almost doubles as an eye cover for the other eye when shooting. 

Greg,
     I see you are using your trademark Forend attaching System.  😊
Bruce

Jeff, still working on the loads - 16:1 wasn't doing as well as I hoped, recovering the bullets pointed to some issues so I'm back to a 20:1 and things look better. I'm not using a card at the bullet base and with the 20:1 the recovered bullets look better and the velocities are higher - SD's have been considerably lower   - no explanation that I can really think of. 
Bruce, I think even when I get the screws in, (I'm doing them next) I'll still leave the inner tube bands on for pictures   I like the mileage I'm getting from them.  Gives me some grip shooting offhand and it's distracting to others    

I did cut the vernier on the staff tonight, I'm contemplating trying something a little different on the graduations - I have the means to do small electroplating operations, all I have on hand though is nickle and silver solution, gold would look good and be easier for old eyes - may see what I can do.

CharleHunter wrote on Jun 28^th, 2021 at 3:56am:


The only reason I've graduated to conventional scope mounts - I got the new barrel from JerryH and he already had it drilled and tapped.     Quite a concept for me, but from this point forward I may d&t my barrels, unfortunately the scope may become a part of my shooting more and more.