Anybody around here have one? What's been your experience...the good the bad and the ugly

Thanks Jack Do you shoot any benchrest matches with it?
Scott

I wish your wife a speedy recovery 

That barrel is a whopper but somehow works. Best wishes to your wife. Mine has been blessed with good health so far but you never know. Things can change quickly sometimes.





JMH

happy to hear that you wife is recovering well, I was born with a bicusped aoritic valve, still dealing with it. good luck in your match , should you go.

Judge.

Had a friend (now deceased) that had a M52 Win. that wouldn't shoot to his liking so he had it re barreled and some other work done to as he would say "slick it up some" but at some point still wasn't to his liking so he got frustrated and placed a hose clamp yes an automotive type hose clamp on the barrel and started winning the local club bench rest matches to the point someone protested his "hose clamp rifle" and it was actually banned from competition. We had such a laugh over the gun and not the shooter being banned. I shot the rifle in a few matches and it had one of the smoothest actions much better than my CZ 452. I know it is a bolt action but they are good robust actions to build on. Sure miss that old man...


JMH

reverse cross action tweezers...made for a low wall !
Hope your wife doing better Jack.

Ebay........

She is doing very well and is eagerly awaiting next Wednesday when her doctor said she could resume driving.  Unfortunately the Tacoma match was canceled due to the match director having heart issues.

I realize this thread is several months old...but I am new to the forum, and ask your grace. I have a Low Wall( 1912 manufacture) that is a project. Not collectable...Chambered 25-20SS, barrel is a sewer pipe...and I am tired of waiting on new cases to be made. 

I have considered the following for a recut barrel or relining:
32-20, 32H&R, 22 Hornet or K-Hornet...or .22 Mag...What are your considered opinions? DeHass shows a few Low Walls in his Single Shot book built to Hornets....but I DO NOT want to have to worry about tearing up my action...as I plan to shoot it...A LOT. The rifle will be scoped.

my lo wall started life as a Winder. previous owner put a single set on it, had a Krieger 1" barrel put on, shotgun butt with model 70 buttplate. with my 12x unertl and SK rifle match it will shoot one inch groups all day. i have to make sure the rim does not get behind the extractor 

do we assume hose clamp tensioned barrel against forend?

thanks

For JKZ with the shot-out Low Wall,

I’ve picked up a lot of junker Low Walls and assembled many from parts, as at one time, they were about the most available and affordable of the “good” single-shot actions.

They were/are in .22 Hornet, .218 Bee, .218 Mashburn Bee, .25-20 SS and WCF, .25-25, .32-20, .32 Long CF, .38-40 and .44-40, either as original, relined or rebarreled.

I had the Mashburn Bee set back and rechambered for Hornet because Bee cases were harder to find than Hornet cases, and a lot of them would fail in the fireforming step.  In my feckless youth, I would load both up until the primer pockets loosened after a couple firings.  All others were fired with full-house book loads.  None has ever shown any signs of breaking down or damage by any load I’ve fired in them.  The .218 Bee standard chambering that I found had two beads of weld down the back of the breechblock to tighten it against the barrel breech when I got it, but it fired all the loads I put through it without any further trouble.  No other damage seemed to have been done; if the receiver was stretched open, it wasn’t noticeably so.  I sold that one not because I was worried about it but because Bee cases are relatively hard to find whereas I had a lot of Hornet cases, and because, practically speaking, the Bee doesn’t do anything for me that the Hornet won’t do, except cost more to shoot.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that the sudden discovery by modern computer-aided engineering of the fragility of the Low Wall is not something that I’ve experienced, and I’ve had a lot of experience.  I wouldn’t chamber one in .32-40, .38-55, .44 Magnum or any of the modern mutant small-to-medium high-pressure cartridges based on the .357 Maximum, but the standard factory offerings and those recommended by deHaas would all be fine with me.

All the cartridge cases you mention are not exactly there for the picking up any more.  If I was you, I’d do some scrounging for .25-20 SS cases, try a few loads in your sewer-pipe barrel, maybe accompanied by some fire-lapping, and if it really is hopeless (sometimes it’s surprising how well a “sewer-pipe” bore will shoot), reline it to .25 caliber and rechamber for the .25-20 SS.  The only one on your list I wouldn’t mess with is the .32 Magnum, because the .32-20 is practically equivalent, cases and dies are easier to find, and it’s head-and-shoulders Cooler than the modern case.