Thutty Ought Six

[Netpackrat]

And why not .338-06?

Because it's not what I want. *shrugs* One "logical" reason is that factory ammo for the .35 is much more widely available, and far less expensive than the .338-06, but again, it comes down to what I want.

Ah, nice gun. I thought your picture was stating that the gun was for pussies though. My bad.

Hey Eugene, Combat says that the .30-06 is for pussies....

[Rich Jordan]

A few years ago there were threads on CSP about converting (by boring out and re-rifling the barrel and adjusting gas operation) an M1 Garand to a .35 Whelen. The owner was quite happy with it and posted a number of his hunting pics with the M1 resting on rather nice sized eating critters.

I'm sticking with my .30-06 M1s; even plans for converting one to 7.62x51 got scrubbed when the ammo got too expensive, and .35 Whelen would be even more so (or yet another caliber to buy expensive bullets for...).

I can certainly see the benefit of the bigger heavier bullet on the right occasions but not in my realistic future.

[Whirlibird]

And why not .338-06?

Because it's not what I want. *shrugs* One "logical" reason is that factory ammo for the .35 is much more widely available, and far less expensive than the .338-06, but again, it comes down to what I want.

Ah, nice gun. I thought your picture was stating that the gun was for pussies though. My bad.

Hey Eugene, Combat says that the .30-06 is for pussies....

Oh, sure bring logic into the discussion.


I like the .35 Whelen, but if I'm gonna 'tweak' or customize something I want it to be different.

[Ben S]

Beautiful.

[Termite]

I can certainly see the benefit of the bigger heavier bullet on the right occasions but not in my realistic future.

NPR lives where there are critters that bite or stomp you, ie, grizzlies and moose. A 35 Whelen with the right loads should do nicely.

[Netpackrat]

I have just noticed that the barrel is slightly bulged about 3/4" back from the muzzle. So it looks like if I want to use it as-is, I'll have to have it shortened and re-crowned. So much for the iron sights, since I am not having this barrel re-drilled and tapped for the front base. I may just salt it away as-is until I am ready to customize it. I'd probably be upset if I wasn't planning to eventually toss everything but the action anyway. I also took it out of the stock a few minutes ago. It was glass bedded at some point, but they only did the barrel channel, and nothing around the recoil lug or rear tang, which I think kind of defeats the purpose.

[SeekHer]

I have just noticed that the barrel is slightly bulged about 3/4" back from the muzzle. So it looks like if I want to use it as-is, I'll have to have it shortened and re-crowned. So much for the iron sights, since I am not having this barrel re-drilled and tapped for the front base. I may just salt it away as-is until I am ready to customize it. I'd probably be upset if I wasn't planning to eventually toss everything but the action anyway. I also took it out of the stock a few minutes ago. It was glass bedded at some point, but they only did the barrel channel, and nothing around the recoil lug or rear tang, which I think kind of defeats the purpose.

Late to the thread but good deal on the rifle!

Typical bedding of the 1970s and worked OK; granted not as solid as a pillar job but help with poor wood treatment that was endemic during the 70s for some reason...Rains for two days, high humidity for two more days and there was a bulge in your stock--only slight exaggeration on my part!

Cut and recrown the barrel and mount a Red Dot/Holo sight on it or a very low power scope and you'll not need the front sight at all...That is if the receiver is drilled and tapped for scope mounts...

Have you fired the gun yet or has it been recently fired by someone else? I ask because maybe the bulge hasn’t effected anything…Yes, better to remove it but it just might not be necessary…Try it with the gun firmly braced in a cardboard box cut out to make a wedge, tie a string to the trigger load and from a distance fire it. You could sight it in on the target before shooting and as your checking for proof you can check accuracy.

I had an hand me down Winchester lever gun in .38 WCF (.38/55) that had a bulged barrel that my uncle created by having some snow in the barrel and firing it, thankfully with a light load…cleared the barrel and got the pressure bulge…He did it sometime between WW2 and Korea and that gun got deer and bear every year until I got it in the mid 1990s and lost it in the fire…

If it isn't drilled you could always go for a scout configuration but since you want to keep the action, best drill & tap it now for bases and then just get a new barrel in .35 Whelan…

I needed a very short gun to get through the dense bush where we hunt for moose…I really like the Whelan (actually the only commercial /06 cartridge I do like) and had it been available in a lever gun like the Browning BLR I would have bought it instead of the .358 Win. --then again I did have a mess of 7.62 military brass that I resized for all the .308 family of rounds we have.

HTRN extolled the virtues of the .338/06 and I mentioned them to a friend who promptly took one of my Mauser actions and a synthetic stock I had laying around and build himself one...He had it at the barn loft and was going to try out some different handloads he made up and we spotted this coyote that was pissing on one of the 600 yard target stands so he sits at the bench, settles in and shot him in the act—so much for marking territory on our stuff…It is a very accurate cartridge as well as hard hitting...

I know you want the Whelan but have you given any thought of a switch barrel gun in .35 and .338/06 or maybe .375/06 or .416/06? 8mm/06 is very popular and of course the .270 and .25/06 as well...Just screw on the new barrel and your set up and ready to go with a totally new gun! Or even two in the same caliber just different barrel lengths—26” for the mountains and a 20” for the bush—Best of both worlds!

Couple, three of the optics makers (Leatherwood (ART), Swarovski and I think Leica ) are now making scopes with four separate sight in cams on the dials just for switch barrel or multi barrel gun sets like the Dakota 76 Traveller or any of the Euro single shot break action guns—both of which that I crave for so much--nay lust after a Martini & Hagn or a Ollendorff!

[AlaskaTRX]

And why not .338-06?

Because it's not what I want. *shrugs* One "logical" reason is that factory ammo for the .35 is much more widely available, and far less expensive than the .338-06, but again, it comes down to what I want.

That and his brother has a .35 Whelen and some reloading stuff... lol.

[Bullspit]

Also late to the topic but I'll pile on.

Nice score!

I'd vote for the Whelen. It is a caliber that I would like to own for an Elk rifle. But then I like classic calibers and have a soft spot in my soul for anything with the Colonel's name on it.

[Netpackrat]

Cut and recrown the barrel and mount a Red Dot/Holo sight on it or a very low power scope and you'll not need the front sight at all...That is if the receiver is drilled and tapped for scope mounts...

Receiver is already drilled and tapped. Took it to the gunsmith shop yesterday searching for bases and rings, and to get ballpark price estimates on the barrel swap/etc. Evidently, they are closed Mondays. 8^( Went back today, got the info I was looking for, but he was out of Remington bases. Stopped by another gun shop on the way home, and they have a sign on the door, closed for inventory. %$&*($%*(& I could order it, but on something this old, I would really rather take it to the shop to make sure that the bases actually fit before buying them.

Have you fired the gun yet or has it been recently fired by someone else? I ask because maybe the bulge hasn’t effected anything…Yes, better to remove it but it just might not be necessary…

I haven't fired it, and probably won't have acceptable shooting weather until mid April. Looking down the bore from the muzzle, the bulge is fairly prominent on the inside, with a visible dark ring all around, but more pronounced on the left side of the barrel. If it groups at all, I would call it a miracle.

I had an hand me down Winchester lever gun in .38 WCF (.38/55) that had a bulged barrel that my uncle created by having some snow in the barrel and firing it, thankfully with a light load…cleared the barrel and got the pressure bulge…

I strongly suspect that is exactly how this one happened. It's been rode hard, put away wet, and has very little blue left. But, the bolt works smoothly, and the receiver doesn't have any serious pitting. The trigger is actually pretty nice too, but it will have to go since I want to be able to work the bolt with the safety on, and also have a safety that doesn't require the abnormal effort to engage that this one does.

If it isn't drilled you could always go for a scout configuration but since you want to keep the action, best drill & tap it now for bases and then just get a new barrel in .35 Whelan.

I'll be going with a standard scope mount configuration, perhaps with quick release rings, but I'm not sure if that is worth bothering with, since I would only demount it in the event of a scope failure. I want to have the new barrel drilled and tapped for irons so I can continue to hunt if that happens. The side of the receiver is drilled and tapped for a Lyman peep sight, but I don't think that is compatible with the scope, and I don't want a scout setup. But I'm also not 100% on adding the irons, either. I ended up taking the factory irons off my Model 7 because I didn't like the way they intruded into the scope's field of view. The irons currently installed on the '06 are a bit lower profile than those, so I may end up filing out the dings and having them remounted on the .35 barrel. Dunno. The factory bottom metal, which is a bent piece of sheet steel, will have to go. I don't really want to spend the money for a decent floorplate set, but the original unit has got to go.

As for the caliber suggestions, I know what I want, and I want what I want. But thanks anyway. The one area where I am really unsure how I will proceed, is what finish and stock type to get. Nearly all of my sporting rifles are blued steel and wear walnut stocks, which to my mind, is just how it was meant to be. I really want to go with a high polish blue, fancy stock, and bare polished bolt [EDIT: now that I think about it, the bolt is probably nickeled] to match my dad's 721. Such a rifle would fill me with a great deal of pride, in the way that a modern finished rifle with a glass stock never could. But, as this will be my go-to Alaskan hunting rifle, I know that isn't very realistic. I was thinking of maybe getting it done in NP3 or something along those lines. I'm not sure what other comparable modern finishes are available these days, but this rifle will not be painted, regardless of how much I like Gunkote for EBRs. Not sure about the stock. Probably order something from [strike]H-S Precision[/strike] McMillan or even a Bell & Carlson and do the bedding myself, using Acraglas Gel instead of Devcon just to piss HTRN off.

As I typed this up, I came to the realization that I will be doing well to finish this project for under 2 grand, before buying optics. I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but I hadn't really mentally laid it all out there like that before. Guess I am going to chop a couple inches off the barrel and call it good for now and start accumulating parts.