Thread: Weatherby becomes a gunsmith!

Bought a silly cheap .270 Browning Xbolt from way down south with help from @Tentman. You know that when it seems to be too good to be true, often it is exactly that. Anyhoo, got my hands on it made some loads up and off down the range to sight in and begin load development, was a little worried about the trigger because I'd heard a lot via the net about them, no cause to be worried, a little heavier than I'm used to, but really clean and consistent, easy to shoot with and it turned out load development done and dusted first time out - 110TSX, 130 Speer Hotcor and 150 SST all went 3/4" and same windage, with decent velocity for loads not pushing it, happy as, but........

It was too good to be true, it had a problem, one the previous owner clearly knew about but chose not to disclose, just flogged it silly cheap.

It didn't eject cases, they jammed in the side of the mag well stuck on the ejector claw, the only way to get the cases out was to drop the mag and push the case from underneath to get it off the claw, just what you want in a hunting rifle. Jam ratio was 80%.......

So investigating I go, somewhere I had heard about Xbolts having ejection problems, pinging cases back into the action off the scope turrets so fast you couldn't see it without slow mo camera work, but these don't even get out, so WTF!, then I got a magnifying glass on the extractor claw.... some bubba had taken to the claw with a grinder, cause that's a bubba fix to change the eject angle.

Managed to get my hands on a brand new claw, didn't have a tool to drive the retaining pin out, so stole a nail off one of my nailgun strips, perfect fit, put a strong magnet on the spring end of the claw so it didn't suddenly bugger off when it got free and and then a pair of needle nose vice grips and a claw hammer became bubba weatherby's new best friends - got the thing out, cleaned out the crap behind it, fitted the new extractor, had a bunch of sized cases handy so hold my breath and away we go..... 20 times through and cases biffed clean out just like a bought one.

Pro Tip from the master gunsmiths bench: retaining pin has a spline one end, make sure it goes back the right way around, it will fight you if you don't ( not that I know this, just sayin...)

Not many things that can't be fixed (or fucked) with a "Birmingham screwdriver". Nice job.

Well done, nothing better than when a repair job goes exactly as planned.....

Nice job, I quite enjoy diagnosing feed, extraction and ejection problems with rifles. Its often very small things and can be quite challenging. I got a cheap CZ452 .22lr that would not extract fired cases at all. I changed the angle of the extractor face by maybe 1 degree and suddenly it worked perfectly. 20k plus rounds through that rifle with no issues since then.

Be interesting to send the seller a message and tell them you fixed it really easily and thanks for the cheap rifle.

I have a drawer full of punches made from random nails and bit of wire to suit the job on hand.

well done . Very satisfying when it all works out .
Had to give a rossi a go over that I picked up cheap when it wouldn't chamber a round without severely excessive force and was taking gouges out of the case rim .
An hour or 2 spent taking it apart and out with the grinder to make a few "adjustments" to ejector spring setup and a tiny reshape to the hook , clean up and polish the bolt , receiver and lever linkages etc while it was apart to smooth everything out and it ended up a sweet , smooth actioned rifle and one of the nicest rossi's I've worked the action on .

Well done. I remember repairing my A5 years ago I did what I thought was right. Well yeah and nah.
Sort of worked. After I got back from OZ I managed to get a field service manual from the wonderful internet.
More of a workshop manual because there was a shit ton of stuff you wouldnt do with out tools and parts.
Found the info I needed and sorted that out. Not what I thought it would be and wouldnt have thought the part was worn enough to be the issue but it bloody was.
Glad it worked so quickly for you. Got the instructions somewhere for setting up a mauser extractor properly.
There can be a lot in it and be buggered up easily

Gunsmith tool kit:
1. vice grips
2. 20oz claw hammer
3. cotton bud

Good job Master Smith.

Wow that extra claw in the last photo is huge did you up grade to 50bmg at the same time oh no wait still a poxy 270 that’s just ya hammer

Nice one love ya work.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Wow that extra claw in the last photo is huge did you up grade to 50bmg at the same time oh no wait still a poxy 270 that’s just ya hammer

Nice one love ya work.

Cheeky shit! That's the extractor outa my 20mm Radan.

Goody have got a bite my work here is done

You're not a true Gunsmith.

If you don't own atleast a Dremel. Bubba's favorite weapon of choice to ruin history with