I spent a couple of days trying to find a local gunsmith to do the work, but all that is left are young, part changers that call themselves smiths. I guess that's what you get when you let kids play with Legos vs. sticks and pass out participation trophies as a measure of building skills. So, I decided to do it myself and placed my order with ReamerRentals.com. Beside the reamer, I rented Go/No-go gauges, the three additional floating pilot package, and a T-handle. All of that with the return shipping and insurance was $91. I could have saved $13 by not renting the "two under, and one over" pilots as my bore is .300" on the muzzle end which is the standard diameter of the floating pilot on the reamer. The trouble is that the muzzle bore diameter is tough to verify at the chamber and it's a little late with a three-day rental if you need to wait for a different pilot. Done that and doubled the cost.
The chamber gauge rentals only listed a Go & No-go Gauge, but a Field Gauge is needed for everything except a bolt action. I was happy to see that it was included when everything arrived yesterday.
I started the work with checking the headspace on the rifle. I strip the extractor off the bolt and remove the ejector so you must keep the bolt oriented by hand, as well as manipulating the locking bolt with your finger. With the Go Gauge in the chamber, you should be able to push the bolt closed with your finger through the lever opening in the bottom of the receiver. Push the Locking Bolt until it fully engages the Bolt. All good!
Next up is the No-Go Gauge, the Locking Bolt should not fully seat. Maybe. Due to the taper of the Locking Bolt on a levergun, the Locking Bolt might be able to be forced with light pressure into position. With finger pressure, the Locking Bolt started in, but I could not tell if it had fully seated. I took a new, unsharpened pencil and pushed against it. The Locking Bolt snapped into position and broke the pencil. Not a big deal as a No-Go Gauge is at the maximum chamber length limit, but the Field Gauge is immediately outside the limit.
The Field Gauge confirmed that the headspacing on the rifle is acceptable as the bolt would not get close to closing. I could have started here with this gauge but what is the fun in that.
Next up was verifying which pilot was needed. The standard .300" was the fit so with the measuring done; I kept the reamer lubed with cutting oil and started turning. No need to remove the barrel with something like the Rio. I cleaned the cuttings often. I slowed down as the rim position of the reamer got close to mating with the chamber and stopped just as it touched. I cleaned it up and put it back together, loaded two 30-30 cases with Trail Boss, and shot them into the ground in my yard. An Ackley is born!
The dimensions of the fired cases match the cartridge drawing perfectly. The cartridge above where run through the Lee Pacesetter Dies as a second confirmation of the depth of the cut. The "lengths" didn't change just a very slight reduction in the greater diameter of the shoulder and web. The fired cartridge will chamber but requires a very positive lever force. The Pacesetter sized cases have a perfect fit.
Next up, is fireforming an inventory of cases to start the load work. In the past, I cast .311" round balls for that work but will not go that route as cleaning up the carbon ring and lead is not worth the trouble. I have a bunch of 30 Carbine bullets, and they will be put to the task.[hr]If you Google this work you will see it mentioned, on levegun forums, the need to set the barrel back one turn to "get the headspace right." This is misinformation from fellows not doing proper research with source P.O. Ackley material. Nothing is set back with the 30-30 Win Improvement, nothing! If you do, you have screwed up the headspacing on your rifle. Where this comes from is with cartridges that headspace on the shoulder and the set back is not necessarily "one turn" but a specific measurement of .004". What this will accomplish is to allow SAAMI spec cartridges (factory ammo) to continue to properly headspace in the chamber.
Would be smiths might be confused with the bottleneck of this improved cartridge, but what matters is how the parent cartridge headspaces; on the rim or shoulder? The 30-30 Win is headspaced on the rim and that specification does not change with any P.O Ackley cartridge. The link above will take you to the P.O. Ackley website and it can be referenced in Ackley's books as well.
With that, I would like to thank Steelbanger for gifting me his Ackley books and thus keeping my interest alive! Thank you, Sir!
