June 2004
PARTNERS IN CRIME
( or, rimfire ignition and headsapce, and how they go together)
by Bill Calfee
copyright © Precision Shooting Magazine 2004
In all my writings of the past, for the most part, I have taken a subject and kinda skipped over the high spots, usually leaving out tons of detail, that just can’t be put in one normal sized magazine article. What I want to do, starting with this article, is to single out different aspects of rimfire accuracy, break them all down, try my best to explain everything I know, tell of theory as well as facts, then come to some conclusions.
A CURIOUS MIND
I know there are a bunch of you folks out there who are just like me. You crave to know stuff. This is why you are reading this magazine. Can I tell you one of my corny stories please?
I remember when I was five years old. My daddy had just got back from the war and was trying his best to start a family and learn a new occupation. I had an uncle in Kentucky that let my mom and daddy and me and my younger brother live in an old shack that was on a part of his farm. My daddy commuted about 10 miles to the place he was learning his new job. Man, my family had a bunch of love but not too much to eat sometimes and stuff like toys were non-existent ….the folks just couldn’t afford them.
One afternoon I was taking a nap. It was summer time and the bedroom window was open. My mom, bless her heart, had sent through the mail and purchased a little toy train, had a little engine and about 3 little cars. She had slipped out on the porch and put it together and wound it up and then hollered in the bedroom window and woke me up. I remember sticking my head out the window and man, what a surprise.
Now here is the part that makes me wonder sometimes why I am like I am. That little train was running around in a circle, didn’t have a track, all by itself. Folks, do you think my first thought was to climb out on that porch and wind that little train up and watch it run in that circle? No, of course not. I didn’t think of just playing with it, no, what struck me was two things; first, what made it go by itself and second, what made it run around in that circle, without no railroad tracks?
Well, as soon as mom went out back to hang up some clothes or something, I forget, but just as soon as she was out of sight I slipped into the kitchen, got an old case knife, went around to the side of the house so she couldn’t see what I was doing and by gosh, I was going to find out what made that thing run by itself and why it run around in that circle without no tracks.
I finally got it all tore apart and discovered the engine had a little wind-up spring and a couple of gears that were turned by the spring, to cause it to run by itself…man, I was so excited and then I discovered that to get the thing to run in a circle, all the little wheels on one side were smaller in diameter than the other side so even if you pushed it by hand it ran in the circle.
Man, that was the most excited I had ever been in my life. I remember being so happy that I figured out what made that little toy train work like it did. Course I couldn’t set down for about three days after mom found out I tore the little train up.
But you know what, mommies are funny things. My mom sensed that I had a mind that was curious and wanted to learn stuff so when Christmas came that year, my brother got a couple of little toy trucks to play with but mom got me one little toy truck and a screw driver and a pair of pliers. The first thing I did was to remove the wheels. What wonderful things mommies are.
The following year I started to school. When school was out that first year and summer was starting, mom sent and got my brother and me each a little rifle that shot those little darts with a suction cup on the end of the dart. I remember you pushed the dart down the barrel till it caught, then licked the suction cup, then shot it up against a target that was made of thin, tin plate, with target circles on it and the suction cup caused the darts to stick. Well, I shot that target about three or four times, that was enough, I had to know what made that little rifle shoot those darts. So I got out my screw driver and pliers and tore it up and learned how it worked.
So what ever causes a person to be like they are is a mystery. And I am still the same today. I love to shoot of course although I ain’t no good at it, but I would much rather figure out what makes the rifles work ( accurate). And I know there are a bunch of you folks who are the same way. I love to read technical stuff and so do a bunch of you folks. I ain’t claiming the stuff I write is very technical but I am going to do my best to write in detail as much as I know, about all the different aspect of what makes these little rimfires accurate. I hope I don’t make it too confusing.
OK, RIMFIRE IGNITION AND HEADSPACE
Oh, before I get started with this thing. I have got a bunch of stuff to talk about and if you have read any the stuff I have written before you know I jump around a lot. When I do this writing stuff I try to pretend I am sitting in a room with a bunch of you folks and I am trying to explain stuff and when you have conversations with folks the subject matter jumps around a lot so this writing will too but I am going to do my best to get all the important points across, so you folks may have to kinda read some parts then re-read them again to make much sense of what I am trying to say.
OK, I want my first in-depth writings to be about rimfire ignition and headspace. I want to do this because I don’t believe their importance in fully appreciated nor the relationship they have to each other fully understood. Every since I have built these little rifles I have preached about good, uniform, solid ignition, which requires a proper headspace. I have never seen a killer rimfire benchrest rifle without killer ignition, never! If these two aspects of a rimfire benchrest rifle don’t function together, they can truly be “partners in crime” as far as accuracy goes.
Now, here is the first thing I want to do; I want to explain the differences between centerfire ignition and rimfire ignition and why killer rimfire ignition is so hard to come by sometimes.
CENTERFIRE IGNITION
Gosh folks, I know this is going to seem so elementary but please bear with me. I want you to now look at a rough drawing I made of centerfire ignition. Picture 1.
The centerfire primer consists of the primer cup itself, made of brass, then the priming material is sandwiched between the base of the cup and the anvil, which is what the firing pin pushes the primer cup against to crush the priming mixture. The anvil is also made of brass. The anvil usually has three legs, some have two and the anvil is made in such a way that the three little feet protrude from the priming cup slightly so they can rest against the inside of the primer pocket in the cartridge case head. Then on centerfire rifles the firing pin is spherical on the tip and highly polished. So here is what we have when centerfire ignition takes place.
The round, highly polished firing pin, strikes the center of the primer, located in the center of the case head. The firing pin imprints into the brass primer which crushes the priming mixture against the anvil, which has its legs supported by the base of the primer pocket in the case head which is also brass. In other words, everything the centerfire pin pushesagainst is brass. I stated in one of my earlier writings, that a firing pin needed to be made in such a way, that it’s action is kinda like me or you driving our fist into a big lump of modeling clay. Centerfire ignition has a natural dampening effect caused by the fairly soft brass the primer components are made of and the nice round shape of the firing pin. Centerfire folks are lucky.
RIMFIRE IGNITION
Now if you would, please look at the rough drawing I made of rimfire ignition. Picture 2
Now, compared to centerfire ignition, rimfire ignition is a nightmare. First, our firing pin strikes the rim of the case….that fact alone causes problems as the firing pin strike wants to shove the case to one side of the chamber instead of the nice straight forward push that happens in centerfire ignition. And then our little rim is sitting squarely against the hard, steel, breech face of the barrel. That steel breech face of the barrel, is our little rimfire’s anvil. So we don’t have that nice soft cushion to strike against like centerfire ignition does with that nice brass anvil.
But Bill, ain’t you kinda going against what we have always been taught about ignition?
I mean, this stuff about the soft brass being a cushion. I thought we wanted a solid hit on the primer, centerfire OR rimfire.
OK, that’s a great question and I’ll try to answer it this way. If all we wanted to do was to light off the powder in a cartridge, it wouldn’t mater how hard the primer or rim was struck, as long as it was enough to cause the primer to function. But folks, in this rimfire benchrest stuff, we are dealing with the most accurate rimfire rifles in the world. I have said before, it takes a whole bunch of little things, all done correctly, to make the type of accuracy we expect. So how we make that firing pin cause the primer to properly function to ignite the powder, without shaking the gun to pieces, is critically important for the accuracy we are searching for. Like I said earlier, the perfect rimfire ignition is extremely difficult to obtain.
And something else of killer importance. Whether it is a centerfire or rimfire, both systems have some method of mechanically stopping the firing pin. On a Mauser centerfire the firing pin is mechanically stopped by the cocking piece striking the counterbore in the bolt plug or bolt shroud, as some call it. On centerfire Remington Model 700’s or 40-X’s the firing pin is stopped by a shoulder on the front part of the firing pin that strikes a counterbore in the front section of the breech bolt near the locking lugs. On a 40-X rimfire action the firing pin is stopped just like a Mauser centerfire, by the cocking piece striking the counterbore in the bolt plug or bolt shroud as some call it.
Now folks, here is what you never want to happen, centerfire OR rimfire; YOU NEVER WANT THAT FIRING PIN TO BE MADE IN SUCH A WAY, THAT IT MIGHT ACCIDENTALLY STRIKE ITS MECHANICAL STOP WHEN FIRING A CARTRIDGE….Man, that simply kills ignition and of course accuracy!
OK, makers of centerfire breech bolts usually have anywhere from .050” to .060” firing pin protrusion. Remember, that centerfire pin is striking a series of brass surfaces and always remember this too….a firing pin actually strikes deeper than the actual impression that is left in the primer. Brass is elastic so it rebounds back some after the firing pin is withdrawn. So a centerfire firing pin has to have a good amount of protrusion so as to make absolutely sure the pin never accidentally strikes its mechanical stop when firing a cartridge.
Now on our little rimfires, our little rim is only about .040” thick. And the thickness of the brass in the little rim is extremely thin and then that little rim is sitting squarely against that hard steel breech face of the barrel….Man, you have got to have enough protrusion to make sure you crush the rim against the priming mixture, but not so much that the pin bounces when it pushes the rim against that steel breech face. Which means that the strength of the firing pin spring is terribly critical too.
And it also means that the shape and size of the pin tip is killer critical. And man, a centerfire pin usually rides inside of a one piece breech bolt so keeping it from binding up ain’t too much of a problem , but our little rimfire pins have to sometimes ride in a two piece bolt assembly and most of the little pin tips are off-set so the tip can strike the rim and keeping those little pins from dragging or binding in the bolt body is a big time hassle sometimes.
About every known idea, as far the rimfire firing pin tip shape, has been tried in these little rimfire guns. Gosh, we are still trying new shapes after all these years. Man, it would be awesome if our rimfire firing pin shape was worked out as well as the centerfire folks have theirs worked out. Man, they are extremely lucky.
OK, some actions use a round tip, like a centerfire, which can give killer ignition if you have enough spring to drive it and if the tip is placed at the correct spot on the rim. But most rimfire actions use some sort of a chisel shaped firing pin. I personally like the chisel shape as you can shape it to strike the part of the rim that you want. With the round shaped pin, you don’t have much control over where it strikes.
And the shape of the rimfire pin not only is used to crush the priming mixture but the size of the pin tip helps regulate how deep the strike is, so part of the size of the chisel shaped pin is just for a cushioning effect. I am going to add to this a little later when I describe what I think is the perfect pin shape.
Folks, am I going too many directions at one time with this?
Now, just exactly where do we want the firing pin to strike the rim? We want the pin to strike just inside the outside edge of the rim. We do not want the pin to strike the edge of the rim where it rolls over itself. That would mean the firing pin is striking solid brass and combined with the rim hitting the steel breech face of our barrel causes excessive vibrations, let alone poor ignition. If you will now look at my rough drawing please. ( picture 3) I show three views of rimfire firing pin strikes. View (A) shows a pin striking the extreme outside edge of the rim and directly above it I try to show a cut-a-way view of the firing pin making contact with the rim. In this above illustration, I try to show that because the firing pin struck the extreme outside edge of the rim, where the rim folds over, there is still a gap in the rim so the priming mixture didn’t get crushed thoroughly which causes faulty ignition and also with a pin strike like this, with the pin pushing the solid part of the rim against that extremely hard steel breech face, which is our rimfire anvil, man, the vibrations caused along with not crushing the priming mixture completely, leads to decreased accuracy.
Now, view (B) shows the proper rimfire firing pin strike on the rim. And right above it you can see that because the firing pin strikes just inside the rim, the rim containing the priming mixture is completely closed up, completely crushing the priming mixture. I hope you folks can see what I mean here.
Now in view (C) I show the proper strike of a round pin. This round pin can give very good ignition if the mainspring is strong enough… and the pin strike is located properly on the rim. By the same token, if the round pin happens to be made in such a way that it spends its energy striking the outside edge of the rim, the ignition will be much worse than the chisel shape striking the outside edge. The chisel shape is just more flexible. It is hard to see but if you look at the drawing above (C), I show the round pin strike. The round pin strike, because of the nature of a spherical shape, doesn’t close up the gap in the rim quite as efficiently as the chisel shape, although it is entirely adequate.
THE PERFECT RIMFIRE FIRING PIN SHAPE
Folks, I would like for you folks to look at my rough drawing, picture 4. The left illustration, listed as (A), shows the shape I want with my rimfire pin. The exact dimensions of the pin is dependent on how strong my firing pin spring system is and how much drag it has going through the breech bolt..
You will notice that the face of the pin is laid back a little at 12:00.
OK, remember the dimple in the head of the cases that Federal and the Russian ammo used? If you will look at picture (5), I show one of the Federal cases. I think this dimple is an extremely sound idea. On the plus side the dimple gives the primer flame front a direction. On the minus side, that dimple makes the case head extremely stiff. It is much harder to get the firing pin to penetrate a case with a dimple as one without it. If you take a piece of thin sheet steel and stand it on it’s end and push down on the edge of it, it flexes easily…but if you put a crease in the same piece of thin sheet steel and then stand it on its edge and then push down on the top edge, the crease makes it extremely hard to flex. The same thing happens when the dimple is pressed in the head of a rimfire case…it just makes good penetration of the firing pin tougher.
Now, I like the concept of the dimple so much that I designed my firing pin shape to cause a dimple in the case just as the firing pin strikes. But you say, Bill, man, every firing pin strike puts a dimple in the case! Yes, that’s correct but the shape I have designed puts the dimple in the case BEFORE ignition takes place. This is not as efficient as the dimple in the center of the case head but it is well worth the trouble to shape the pin for it. Remember again, a bunch of little things all done correctly caused the kind of accuracy we are looking for. This is one of those little details.
OK, please go back and look at picture (4) again. Look at illustration (B)…I attempt to show the firing pin just beginning to penetrate the case. See, because of the face of the tip being laid back a little at 12:00, the 6:00 portion of the tip starts penetrating the case first. This starts our dimple but ignition has not taken place yet. See, if we form our dimple at the exact same time as ignition takes place we will lose the directional aspect we are after for the priming flame front. No, we must start the dimple slightly before ignition takes place so the flame front will already have the dimple or a great part of it already formed and ready to direct the priming flame toward the front of the powder, lying in the bottom of the case. The ignition ring that is formed as the complete priming mixture ignites will start the power burning at the rear of the case. Now remember this; you don’t have to lay the pin back very much at 12:00 to produce the desired effect. All we are trying to do is to get our dimple started, just before ignition, The complete penetration of the firing pin to full depth in the case head will finish the dimple, just as ignition takes place.
Now look please at picture (4), illustration (C). This shows the firing pin at its full depth of penetration. We have formed a nice dimple which helps direct our priming flame front toward the powder, just as we have ignition. This is why I like the chisel shape. It allows us to have a pin that is tall enough so we can start producing our dimple before actual ignition takes place. You could have fine ignition with just a very small tip, right at the edge of the rim but you loose this dimple effect, which is a benefit. And you also lose the cushioning effect which is needed to keep the pin from bouncing and vibrating the action.
SAFETY
Folks, at this point I need to talk about safety. When we design our pin shape we want to make sure that all the little edges of the pin tip are rounded slightly and polished. I want you please to look at picture 6. I attempted to take a photo of a proper and safe firing pin tip and also of one that is un-safe but the photos didn’t reveal exactly what I was looking for. My camera don’t magnify enough. So I did a couple of little rough drawings to illustrate what I wanted you to see. In figure (A), I show you the proper shape pin. I try to show that the pin tip, although rectangular, has the edges all rounded nicely and polished. In figure (B), I show an improper tip. I try to show that the edges are square and sharp. A pin shaped like this tends to act like a punch die, cutting a coupon out of the rim of the case and possible piercing the case, which could cause gas to blow un-controlled.
And another thing. Even if safety weren’t an issue, the sharp edges of the pin in figure (B) cause the pin to penetrate too fast and hit hard, with the potential to bounce and vibrate the action. So just from an accuracy standpoint this design ain’t no good.
Folks, we have spent all this time just talking about the rimfire firing pin. It seems so simple but man, if you want big time accuracy, the design of a rimfire firing pin is extremely critical. And something else. We ain’t done experimenting with tip design yet.
And we for sure ain’t done with where the proper location for out rimfire tip should be. Gosh, those lucky centerfire folks. Their pin hits the middle of the case, simple, man, for us rimfire benchresters to be so lucky. Oh, at the end of this article, I am going to talk a little about pin location and some potential new developments.
RIMFIRE HEADSPACE
Gosh, you mean we are finally going to discuss rimfire headspace?
Boy, this is going to sound simplistic but rimfire headspace is the distance from the bolt face, that the cartridge head rests against, to the breech face of the barrel, where the front of the rim may rest. You notice I said MAY rest.
Remember this about headspace please. This gap has to be designed so more than one cartridge can fit it. If we designed the headspace gap for only one single case rim, we could carefully measure that rim and machine the headspace to a zero fit. As far as pure accuracy goes if this zero condition could be met with every cartridge, it would be a perfect world. But folks, it don’t work that way.
So we must take into consideration that more than one outfit makes rimfire match ammo and even the same maker has working tolerances, so the rim thickness from the same maker varies somewhat. So we must make our headspace as small as we can and still allow it to fit a bunch of different cartridges from several different makers.
And we don’t want the headspace to be too tight. Folks have always said that too tight of headspace might crush the priming mixture, causing inaccuracy. I suppose this could happen although I have my doubts, but for sure you don’t want the headspace so tight that as you close the breech bolt you cause the mixture to fire. Modern match rimfire actions have, or should have, a tremendous closing cam ability, to help ease the force needed by the shooter to close the breech bolt on our engraved chambers. This cam is designed in such a way, that primary lock-up of the breech bolt takes place long before the rim could be crushed, so if you closed the breech bolt on a tight headspace and set off a cartridge accidentally, the likelihood of blowing the gun up is remote but where would the gun be pointed and where would the bullet go, if this happened when you didn’t expect it. Of course you should never close the breech bolt of any gun without having it pointed in a safe direction.
But for accuracy, a tight headspace causes another problem. You really don’t want the breech bolt locked up with too much pressure on the nose of the bolt. Think about it like this. When making accuracy, we want to repeat everything exactly the same. If your headspace is too tight, then one thickness of case rim might cause one amount of pressure to be exerted against the locking lugs then another case rim of slightly difference thickness will cause a different pressure on the locking lugs. This results in the stress on the action being different shot to shot with resulting decrease in accuracy. See, our match chambers are engraved. The little lead bullet is actually forced into the leade/rifling a few thousands of an inch. So unless you have a peculiar action of some sort, your little extractors will always snap over the rim before the bolt goes fully to battery. Which means the head of the cartridge is going to be resting against the bolt face. So when the firing pin strikes the rim of the case, it is going to be pushing that case up against the breech face of the barrel. With good ignition, that firing pin don’t care if the gap from the rim to the breech face of the barrel is .001” or .005”
No, the only pressure you want applied to the locking lugs while the action is cocked, is that which is applied by firing pin spring. We work hard to make the firing mechanism repeat exactly the same from shot to shot. We do not want additional force applied from time to time, by the bolt nose pressing against a thick rim. And if the headspace is too tight, this can happen and accuracy suffers. NO, we want our headspace to be large enough to insure that never happens.
So Bill, what should the proper headspace be? In my work, I never set headspace less than .042”, nor more than .044”. I have found that over the years I don’t ever remember having a case rim that was as thick as .042”, although I am sure it is possible.
Folks, if you have proper ignition, headspace, within safety standards, isn’t at all important in making our little guns accurate. Boy, I can see the eyebrows raising on that statement.
Think of it like this. We have to have the headspace large enough so a bunch of different cartridges can be safely handled, even from the same ammo maker and the same lot. So if you have .001” or .005” between the bolt face and the head of the cartridge, you still have clearance and the barrel and the cartridges don’t know if the clearance is .001” or .005”. That is they don’t know it if you still have good, solid, uniform ignition.
The only thing that happens in these little rimfires when the headspace starts to increase from wear is we start losing ignition, which results in a loss of accuracy. The fact that the headspace is increasing doesn’t, in of itself, cause a loss of accuracy.
A HEADSPACE EXPERIMENT
I have a D model 52 Winchester, which I use as a test mule. I have a bunch of different barrels fit for it. Years ago, I fit some barrels with different twist rates to test ammo with. I have a return to battery rest that I use with this 52 Winchester. My bullet testing barrels have a coned breech system so I can change the headspace at will. (See picture 7)
I set one of my test barrels in this action and set the headspace at .042”. I shot a series of 5 shot groups, then re-set the headspace to .044”, then .046”, then .048”, then .050” and finally .052”. When the headspace reached .048”. I started to get vertical dispersion. I saw no loss of accuracy up to .046”. But I have made sure this little 52 has killer ignition too.
When I reached .050”, accuracy worsened and at .052”, I started getting misfires. I had pulled the extractors from the breech bolt during these tests.
Now, please look at picture number 8. Here I show the breech bolt nose from my 52 Winchester D test mule. This has the standard firing pin. The counterbore in the nose of this particular bolt is .039” deep and the firing pin protrusion is .035”, so there is .004” of clearance so the firing pin doesn’t strike the edge of the chamber if I accidentally dry fired the gun. This is the firing pin I used for my tests.
Please look at picture (9) now. I have installed a longer firing pin in this 52
Winchester D breech bolt. Long 52 Winchester firing pins are hard to come by. I took this pin and heated it red hot back of the tip about ¾”, then forged it longer by tapping it with a hammer…then re-heat treated it and ground it to the length I needed. You can see it protrudes past the nose of the bolt. This pin is about .013” longer than the standard factory pin. I pulled the extractors and re-run the test. I had the headspace set at .052” again. Now, with the extended firing pin, the groups went back to the exact same accuracy as when I had the headspace set at .042” with the stock firing pin
Now, .052” headspace is way too long and the case starts to be un-supported by the chamber walls and some of the fired cases had bulged slightly but the accuracy was fine, once I re-established good, solid, uniform ignition with the longer firing pin.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR “PARTNERS IN CRIME”
To review what we have discussed here. Proper headspace is a safety requirement in our little rimfire rifles. But from a purely accuracy standpoint, the only requirement from headspace is to make sure it is small enough to guarantee we have awesome ignition.
Folks can easily get caught up in this headspace stuff, thinking that the tighter the better. This is most certainly not true. Excessive headspace, until it becomes a safety issue, only causes a loss of accuracy by causing inconsistent ignition, nothing more.
We get to looking at what makes a killer rimfire benchrest rifle. We work hard to come up with the best barrel, the best action, the best stock and bedding, killer scope, best bullets and all. But two seemingly minor aspects about our little rifles, namely ignition and headspace and their relationship to each other is often overlooked. I spend as much time on these two aspects of a rifle as any other component. A rimfire benchrest rifle simply must have killer ignition or you ain’t going to win. And to have killer ignition, we must have the proper relationship with our headspace.
NOW FOR SOME EXCITING NEWS, MAYBE
Folks, we have some awesome custom rimfire benchrest actions on the market today. But we still do not have the PERFECT rimfire benchrest action. I have written here in PS about all the actions available today and every single one of them still has some characteristics that have to be modified by the gunsmith or little things that can’t be changed, like ease of loading for example. The actions that load easily have other things that keep them from being perfect. The actions with killer ignition are not too easy to load and on and on.
Well folks, hold on to your hats!
I had a call a few months ago from one of our custom centerfire action makers. I have not asked this gentleman for permission to announce what he is planning to do so I will not mention his name. I’m sorry.
Anyway, when I answered the phone, he introduced himself. Then he said this; “Bill, I want to build the finest rimfire benchrest rifle in the world”. He said he did not know what the requirements would be and he wanted to take a clean sheet of paper and list all the requirements I thought would make the perfect rimfire benchrest rifle. Now, folks, I’m from Missouri. Folks who design and build stuff have egos. They are going to do what they want. Oh, they might ask for ideas but when it’s all said and done, they do what the want to do. So as this gentleman was taking I figured he would listen politely, then do as he wished, just like most of the other custom rimfire benchrest action makers I have dealt with. I will say this, my friend Flash Ebert who makes the Turbo action has been extremely opened minded about stuff.
Anyway, as I talked to this gentleman, I sensed something different about his attitude. Now, that don’t mean he is going to incorporate everything I want into his new action of course, but I have a feeling he will, if he possible can.
OK, let me kinda wet your whistle…….How would you like to have a 2013 Anschutz, with it’s killer loading qualities, but with a threaded barrel with the good .750” thread pattern, with the Turbo’s killer ignition, in two versions, one flat bottomed for gluing-in and another round bottom for conventional, bolted-in bedding, with both action screws in front of the trigger, like a Suhl or 54 Anschuts, with killer closing cam, with a 60 degree bolt lift, (position shooters will simple love this) with horizontal locking lugs and using Remington pattern triggers?.
Gosh folks, wouldn’t that simply be a killer action. But that ain’t all! Now get this, every one of those requirements I wanted he agreed to, without batting an eye. That was the most open minded guy I have ever talked to in my life. But like I said, that ain’t all. I told him I had one more requirement, before we had the perfect, double perfect rimfire benchrest action. I told him I wanted the firing pin to be located where a firing pin for a rimfire benchrest action should be located, where the powder is located in a rimfire case when in a horizontal position on the bench, at 6:00. You know what folks, the man never batted an eye, never hesitated for a second. He said, I’ll start the computer to work on it.
Gosh, I have been excited every since we had out conversation. Now, can he pull it all off? Making Anschutz’s easy loading along with a 6:00 firing pin will be a tremendous challenge. I have no doubt he can do everything else but engineering that 6:00 pin is going to be so tough that that may be the only thing he can’t incorporate into his action. But folks if he can, man, that guy will sell every action he can produce. He fully understood the importance of the barrel thread being perfectly square with the action face and his ignition must be 100 percent consistent and all the other little things that have to be perfect.
So, keep your fingers crossed that he can pull this off.
Thanks to Mr. Brennan and PS for allowing me to do this writing.
And thanks folks for taking the time to read this. I hope I put most of it so you can understand it. Until next time.
Bill Calfee, Good Shooting
