In the past few articles I wrote for the Hawkeye I mentioned that I was making a .35 Whelen. The whole project had a few hitches along the way but it finally got done. As stated before I always wanted one, why I don’t know, I just did. Searching all the on-line gun auctions and local gun shops showed there just weren’t any available at a reasonable price or not available at all. The same is true for decent rifles in my other favorite calibers, like the 7x57 Mauser cartridge. Last spring some fellows I know on a shooters chat room told me about how they got a rare caliber of their choice. It consisted of getting a Savage 110, a barrel wrench, a set of blocks and rosin to grip the barrel, a chamber gauge and a barrel chambered in the cartridge of their choice. It seems Savage replacement barrels are 100% chambered and do not need to be finished reamed. This is due to the fact that their barrels are locked in place with a “barrel nut” that snugs up to the face of the action locking the barrel in place. The barrels can be screwed into the gauge and the nut tightened.
That said, here is my story. I acquired an older Savage 110E which is their value priced model, chambered in 30-06. When acquiring a Savage for this project, make sure it is the right size action for the cartridge you want to use. The .35 Whelen is the 30-06 cartridge necked up to take a .35 caliber bullet, so this action was just right for me. The same friends I have on the internet chat room offered to send me a wrench and gauge with the blocks and rosin. I accepted the offer and they boxed them up and sent them here. The problem came when the box arrived split down one side. The wrench was missing but the gauge and blocks were taped together so I did get those.
Now I had to order a wrench so I got out my Midway catalog and ordered a wrench. When I tried to get the wrench on the barrel I found I had to remove the open rear sight on the barrel to get the wrench up to the barrel nut. I then tightened the barrel in the blocks as hard as I could. Setting the wrench at an angle that made it easy to whack with a mallet I then gave the wrench a good one. Nothing happened. Whacked it again; and again nothing. All I managed to do was turn the barrel in the blocks. I repositioned the barrel and tried again.
Again it didn’t move. This was now getting frustrating as my friends told me it would come off rather easily. It wasn’t happening. After a half dozen more blows I gave up for the night. I went back at it again the next day and still nothing happened but the barrel turning in the blocks. Believe me, I was hitting this thing with a lot of force. Finally I got a brilliant idea. I had a 3/8 thick by 3 inches wide bar of aluminum. I put it in the action with one end resting on the bench to prevent the action and barrel from rotating. After several more monster whacks the nut finally loosened. Happy as a clam at high tide, I unscrewed the barrel. On inspection I could see some bad threads in the nut. Wonderful, now I had to order a nut. I had a phone number of an outfit that specialized in Savage parts so a call to them got a new nut on the way. I was surprised to find it was raw metal, no bluing. I wasn’t about to let a little thing like that slow me down. I had come to far on this project.
I now screwed the new .35 Whelen barrel, an Adams and Bennet button rifled heavy weight barrel, into the action and snugged it up to the gauge which was inserted in the chamber by putting it in the bolt face and closing the bolt. I backed the barrel off a small amount and tried the bolt. It worked smoothly. I then screwed the barrel in again to the bolt face and tried the bolt. It was very stiff so I backed it out a small amount. I tightened the nut and tried the bolt again. Again it worked very smoothly. Actually the unblued nut looked pretty decent on it.
The next project was to open up the barrel channel in the stock to take the heavy weight barrel. Having a scraper on hand it was an easy chore. I blackened the barrel with soot and found where I had to open it up. Several times doing that got the barrel seated in place. With a gift certificate I got for my birthday I obtained some nice scope mounts and mounted an old but reliable Weaver K-6 scope on the rifle. I found some .35 Whelen cartridges at a local gun shop, Remington Core-Lokt with 250 grain bullets. I was hoping to get some 200 or 225 grain bullets, but .35 Whelen ammo isn’t easily found. Off to the range with my newfound toy.
At 25 yards I had to fire 5 shots to get the scope centered. Then over to the bench rest to see how it grouped at 100 yards. 3 shots later I had a two shot snake eyes with the third shot one and a half inch out of that group at 8 o’clock. By now it was getting on towards suppertime so I packed it in. Looks like pillar bedding and glassing the recoil lug and two inches of the breech end of the barrel is in the cards. Got to tighten up that group. Looks like one of those winter projects.
Anyone know of someone that could use a 30-06 Savage barrel in mint condition? The finish and bore are perfect. Whoever owned this old rifle took good care of it. The metalwork is pristine, the bluing 100%. Oh, and in case you wanted to know, this thing is a thumper, which is what you could expect for a rifle that sends a 250 grain bullet out at 2400 FPS. and yeah, it has a solid butt plate. |
Keep your powder dry.
Bill Oikle |
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