All righty, fellow ASSRA followers, who could so this .25-25 chamber rebuild - i.e., who has the reamer?

Bill Lawrence

I sold my .25-25 reamer to somebody several years ago.  You might post a WTB/B/R and see if he’s still around and done with it.  Can’t remember if it was here or Cast Boolits.

I would think somebody good with boring tools (like a lathebore mould maker) could reproduce the straight taper in the rear of your sleeved chamber and blend it in with the remaining front part.  Or you could make a “D” reamer to accomplish same.

I fixed the mangled rear of a .22-15-60 chamber by drilling/boring the bad part out to fit a 3/8” diameter piece of turned .22 caliber barrel steel.  It was maybe 1” long, turned concentric with the worn-out bore.

I turned a piece of graphite rod (“borrowed” from our Glass Shop) to fit the remaining chamber and bore, and to fit the .22 barrel.  I tinned the surfaces, put in the graphite rod, heated the pieces, and pressed the bushing home, with the graphite keeping everything concentric.

When the setup was cool, I drilled/busted the graphite up, set the lathe compound to the angle specified on the .22-15 chamber drawing in Kelver’s Pope book and bored it out until it was continuous with the remaining chamber in front.  The rim seat was cut with a lathe tool as well.

I had to make a reamer of sorts to take out an invisible obstruction (best guess a little solder that had come up out of the front of the bushing), but after that, my precious hoard of shells chambered, fired and extracted normally and with no marks on them.

I will have to say, as an Experienced Shooter of the class of freakishly long cartridges (.22-15-60, .25-25 and .40-90-3-1/4”), trying to make target quality loads in these calibers will soon dispel any anguish about how Original the specimen you’re playing around with is.  You will have other and much more annoying fish to fry.

Try John Taylor

I think that 25-20 SS Dave has was mine. I remember shipping something to Oregon. Got that at a shop on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

A friend of mine was immediately telling me I should rebuild it into 'something useful' ... 40-65, 45-70. Whatever ...

I shot it a little bit. Bertram brass available at the time was useless.

Irrelevant with regard to this ... but a gun shop we frequented had 2 Ruger 30 carbine Blackhawks, old models. Store policy was any old models traded in went to Ruger for the mod'. We each bought one. After picking them up, back to his house, he immediately got his screwdrivers out to put the original parts back in. Kept telling me, 'you gotta switch yours too' ... umm, why? I was dry firing it, thinking it's the best SA trigger I've ever felt. I'm not touching it. And it's a 3 digit SN.

Last step of assy was the cylinder, when he discovered the base pin was from a Single Six ... put the 'original' in instead. Horrible trigger pull, timing seemed 'iffy' ...

He decided they must throw the original parts in a bin and pull the correct number of each at random to ship them back.

He didn't even put the conversion parts back in, just threw it in his safe ... disgusted. I should have offered to buy it from him ... on 'payments' ... after I checked it out with the conversion parts back in.

Waterman here's my high wall by Farr. Otony, the reason for it was simple. Back in the late 30's and early 40's when the woodchuck hunters turned to target shooting against each other in the off seasons, the bolt actions were outshooting the singleshots and Farr found the answer was to put one piece stocks on the high walls. Mine, in 30-40, while obviously not for woodchucks, was made up as a nice light weight accurate (5/8 inch at 100 with the iron sights) hunting rifle. It came from a serious single shot rifle collector's collection a few years ago.

SS, there is no obvious sign of glass bedding (which would have been a later mod) but note that it shot so well as is that I have not taken the chance of removing the stock to see how it was done. The tangs have been shortened.

If that # 4 barrel is still 32" long after being fitted to the Borchardt, it makes me sad to think how long - and rare- it was beforehand.

In any case, and despite my surprise that you of all people would pose your question, I'd say that scope blocks could only enhance the rifle's value as a shooter.  And since the itss value as a collectible has already been seriously compromised, that enhancement would certainly be justifiable.

Bill Lawrence

Ah, this gives me an opportunity to wax poetic. My father had a few single-shots but the only one I remember shooting very much was an 1884 Springfield, which as I recall, shot very well. Sometime later, in the 1970's I decided that I wanted a proper single-shot preferably a schuetzen model, but those were not usually available. Undaunted, and constantly inundated by creepy lying grasping losers "ohyeahlemeseethat!" I was able to procure a Winchester Hiwall barreled action in 32-40, and with the help of Paul Shuttleworth, I stocked it up with a Laudensack stock. It actually came out pretty nicely. I started shooting my new rifle, and people often yelled strange things at me "whakinaguniszat?" "I ain't never seen no Winchester that looked that!" "That ain't original!" I got the impression that most of the folks out there were hardcore assholes! And yaknow, I was right. But I digress, that was fifty years ago. There are very few factory original rifles (single-shot rifles) out there. Most guns I owned were abused by some of the idiots I described above. I know that some of the "original" rifles in collections have been around the bubba-barn a few times. Oh well....