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 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

I'll just need to be patient and find all the needed pieces, this may be long, but that's fine. The cleaning, varnishing, and bluing can still be done meanwhile.

Did you solve the ejection problem?

Commissar von Toussaint wrote:
Okay, digression time. At work today I was in training for most of the day. When it was done and I was catching up on emails, a co-worker came into my office on an urgent mission. "Thank God, you're still in, I have a question and I can't think of anyone but you who can answer it."

"Go ahead," I said uneasily.

"It's about old ammo. A friend inherited something in .32 Win Special. How hard is that to find? Have you heard of it?"

I smiled. "Yeah, I can help you with that."

What is the weirdest, rarest caliber you have or have shot?

I think the weirdest caliber I ever shot was .357 Remington Max, which was basically the .357 Mag with some extra junk in the trunk. They made it for Center-fire single shot rifles, but being America, someone made a revolver capable of actually loading 6 of them. Man did it have a lot of ouch on it. It was basically like firing a Magnum +P+. Just too much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.357_Remington_Maximum

Cool idea though. Just the felt recoil in a pistol frame, ouch.

Commissar von Toussaint wrote:


What is the weirdest, rarest caliber you have or have shot?

Well rare in the UK, got to fire half a dozen rounds of HKs 4.6×30mm for their MP7.

On a related note the chaps that normally carry them seem to have switched to some kind of M4 with what looks like a 10" barrel.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
Well rare in the UK, got to fire half a dozen rounds of HKs 4.6×30mm for their MP7.

On a related note the chaps that normally carry them seem to have switched to some kind of M4 with what looks like a 10" barrel.

I've not encountered that in the States. Very cool!

4.6x30 is vanishingly rare in the US too. Guns that shoot it are unicorns and the ammo is just as much so.

5.7 definitely won the "smol zippy caliber" war for the market share as you're starting to see guns getting released that are not P90s or FN57s. Until we start to see some similar releases I doubt 4.6 will make much traction.

The_Real_Chris wrote:

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

I'll just need to be patient and find all the needed pieces, this may be long, but that's fine. The cleaning, varnishing, and bluing can still be done meanwhile.

Did you solve the ejection problem?

Unfortunately, the ejection problem I have got on my brother's Reina I could not solve. Even less so when thanks to his goldfish tier memory he forgot were he had put his minimal rounds, so I couldn't really take the chances to see what actually happens.

But from what I remember, it had the double issues of often times eating the ejected cartridge - so I suspect either the magazine that does ejector to maybe be to short, or the recoil/hammer spring to vigorous) and sometimes rounds would get stuck in the ramp and fail to feed. Correct lubrification only slightly improved things, and swapping magazines wouldn't suppress the issue to satisfying levels neither...

So I'll probably have got to buy another spring group and swap them. In the meantime, I might try the silly method they sometimes apparently used for pistols recoil springs when the eat the cases, and strap it to the vice for a ridiculous time to "soften" the spring of. I thought about cutting a ring or two but to this day I can't figure out how you're supposed to take it apart. French guns often have got... Weird designs.

As for the Falcor, I've received the parts I ordered for the foregrip, I'll now have to check and hope I bought the right ones, but I can't do that right now as I'm again away on construction site.

.577/450 is my most unusual calibre, I think.

Though I have had a go on a Monkey Tail breech-loaded with paper cartridges, that was good fun

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
But from what I remember, it had the double issues of often times eating the ejected cartridge - so I suspect either the magazine that does ejector to maybe be to short, or the recoil/hammer spring to vigorous) and sometimes rounds would get stuck in the ramp and fail to feed. Correct lubrification only slightly improved things, and swapping magazines wouldn't suppress the issue to satisfying levels neither...

So I'll probably have got to buy another spring group and swap them. In the meantime, I might try the silly method they sometimes apparently used for pistols recoil springs when the eat the cases, and strap it to the vice for a ridiculous time to "soften" the spring of. I thought about cutting a ring or two but to this day I can't figure out how you're supposed to take it apart. French guns often have got... Weird designs.

Yeah, we know all about the Chauchat.

I'm not clear on what you mean by needing to "soften" a spring. In my experience, weak springs are more of an issue than strong ones. Indeed, before I even think about buying surplus, I check to see if replacement springs are available because in older firearms, these are almost always worn out.

As for weird cartridges, even without my aquatic misadventures, I don't really have "exotic" calibers so much as ones that simply have fallen out of favor. For example, 9mm Largo is really hard to find now but it was once reasonably plentiful and finding weapons chambered in it is pretty easy. Similarly, ammo for Japanese WW II arms is awful scarce at the moment, but arms that need them are not. I recall getting an alert that 8x22mm Nambu was back in stock, but it sold out before I could order it.

Right, I recieved the parts I ordered, made a quick test... an percussion occurs! Of course, it'll still need the foregrip and to be tested with rounds, but so far, all good.

Nice try ATF. I lost all my firearms in a horrible boating accident in the middle of the ocean within US territory. Sadly, I own no more guns.

usmcmidn wrote:
Nice try ATF. I lost all my firearms in a horrible boating accident in the middle of the ocean within US territory. Sadly, I own no more guns.

Same here, but one can still talk about them.

76mm is probably the hardest to get ammo I've ever used.

A friend of mine owns an operational Easy 8 I got to shoot once.

Nice.

Though I presume anybody who has one also has or knows a guy who can reload it

While I am generally not fussed about firing stuff and far more prefer the engineering/culture/procurement stuff around firearms, I would love to fire a Neopup PAW-20. That would also I think involve an ammo that simply doesn't exist in the UK!

Right, so, after the cleaning, I'm now trying to find a tube to soak the barrel in vinegar prior to re bluing, while I tried to take out the stock... to find out the screw's head it rounded!!! For now, i'm pondering really hard to find some way to go around this, without cutting the stock to remove it.

You get specialist drill bits intended to eat into chewed up screws to effect their removal. Might work here as well?

Ah, I wasn't aware of this, that might serv, though I'd have got to be careful not to drill too far!

Is the screw head flush with the substrate, or protruding up?

If it's protruding up, easiest, you can file the sides flat and use a wrench.

Flush, it's a bit harder - you can drill it out and use a bolt extractor - left handed drill bit works best (no, not a joke), might need to go to a specialty shop.

You can also try using a rotary engraver to cut a channel for a screwdriver.

The trickiest part is actually that it really at the bottom of the stock, (unfortunately can't make a photo as I'm not home). So having the tools reach down there will be hard, unless I cut the stock then and there to be able to go fix that.

However, if I've got a file of correct dimensions and some measure of patience, I suppose that I could technically file the sides to give it it's octogonal shape back. It would be possible, I suppose, to also widen the channel leading down to said screw.

(Btw, I do not know the English terms perfectly in terms of screws, but in fact the head is more akin to a bolt)

Here is one example

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extractor-Separate-Burnishing-Magnetic-Extension/dp/B0CFQMXNVN/ref=asc_df_B0CFQMXNVN/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=669667165424&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9976789547754391334&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=20342&hvtargid=pla-2203727583279&psc=1&mcid=4c495c0b96a333d4b7f469ae6b655a08

Actually, that might find a place in my workshop anyway because you ALWAYS end up with a molested screw to tear off at some point

Thanks for the input so far pals!

usmcmidn wrote:
Nice try ATF. I lost all my firearms in a horrible boating accident in the middle of the ocean within US territory. Sadly, I own no more guns.

I've never understood whether the 'boating accident' gimmick is just a sort of weird virtue-signaling to other gun owners, or if the people who post it actually think it's a legal or procedural shield against hypothetical government investigation.

 catbarf wrote:

usmcmidn wrote:
Nice try ATF. I lost all my firearms in a horrible boating accident in the middle of the ocean within US territory. Sadly, I own no more guns.

I've never understood whether the 'boating accident' gimmick is just a sort of weird virtue-signaling to other gun owners, or if the people who post it actually think it's a legal or procedural shield against hypothetical government investigation.

Yes.

Further options - if the stock is wood, you can get bores, take the screw and surrounding wood out, pour resin to plug the hole, and use that as the new substrate.

Or, if you have good welding gear available - tack weld a rod to the screw/bolt, and use that to turn it. Needs superfine gear - sounds like you probably don't have the room.

They make reverse threads drills for the express purpose of extracting screws. We use them all the time in my machine shop

The_Real_Chris wrote:
While I am generally not fussed about firing stuff and far more prefer the engineering/culture/procurement stuff around firearms, I would love to fire a Neopup PAW-20. That would also I think involve an ammo that simply doesn't exist in the UK!

I have actually got my hands on a real PAW-20. I was lucky enough to visit the PMP factory in Pretoria in . That's the same time I got to pull the trigger (well push the button) on a 25mm Chaingun, something being developed to rival the M242.

They weren't the cool-guy rounds, because this was at an indoor range where they tested functionality, but it was still cool as all heck. Sort of like a very very stout shotgun.

Unfortunately I have lost my Photobucket account and the hard drive the stuff I had was on, but that didn't really matter as I wasn't allowed to use my camera inside PMP anyway. I do still have a handful of pictures of the early model PAW-20 from the AAD 2010 trade day. I had more and better pics of the 2nd generation one but the Lord alone know where they ended up.

In order of unavailability I'd have to day the prototype 25mm cannon, if pushing a button can be considered firing something, because that was using electronic ignition. I don't think that went anywhere and was a test gun of 1 or 2 IIRC.
The PAW-20
The NTW-20 in 14.5 and 20x82mm

Thats also the day I got most of my full auto experience. Most of those were bolted to a table and I just got to pull the trigger on them, but one or two I got to actually handle. But that was all "boring" stuff like a Mag 58, R4, and Uzi, an AKM that they swore they didn't make ammo for, being an "enemy" gun and all (so why were we running mags through it?)

Anyway, from the AAD: