Christmas in May

[BuckySWT]

Got home from a stressful day at work, and lo and behold.....what do we have here?



.280 Ackley Imp. Encore barrel
Custom chamber by Mike Bellm
Plus a ton of goodies I bought the barrel from, brass, dies, gauges, springs, pins, reamer, stock and forends, screws, etc.

And....

A new (to me) Vortex Viper scope




Put it together...




Just need to mount the optics, figure out the head space, set my die accordingly and roll some rounds!!

[BuckySWT]

Let a friend look through the scope last night when it was still daylight out.

It's so clear it gave him the giggles

[BuckySWT]

Lots to do....

Snagged some H4831 & some 140gr Sierra GameKings from Nagel's.

Checked barrel to frame gap...pretty bad.
0.010
Need to take the barrel off and see how far out the case head sticks, but I can almost guarantee some shims are going to be needed if I want to get it to 0.001-0.003 head space.

[RemMan700]

I kind of have a problem with the way Mike Bellem describes headspace. It is not the measurement from the back of the cartridge to the breach face. On a bottle neck cartridge it is measured from the case head to the datum line on the case shoulder. I think a better way to do it is to take a fired case and see what it reads in a comparator tool like the RCBS Precision Mic. It will show you how big your chamber is and if it is within spec. You can also use the tool to help you set your reloading die up so it just bumps the should back a couple thousands of an inch.

BTW.. Most new factory brass and full length sized brass will come out being .002" below SAAMI minimum headspace.