I wasn't draw filing, but the scratches were as if I was, and the file had pinned. I mentioned to him that in the process of polishing the flats of the action I kept getting these longitudnal scratches. in Colorado about various things, mainly trying to get a handle on expenses. While in the process I had spoken to the owner of the Scheutzen Gun Co.
I was going to have a BPCR made from it and had been in the process of cleaning up the action. I also have a loose #1 action that I beleive came from a military 43 Egyptian. I HAVE loaded the 370gr Lyman to 1600 fps, but not any longer after much reading. I also have a 1879 Argentine contract RB in. I have an M1897 in 7x57 and stick to the original ballistics which was 2400 fps from a 29" bbl. Yet back then, or during most of the rolling block's span of production, steel and the alloys of steel, was a lot of voo doo and independant thinking, along with jealously guarded techniques and procedures. The point being, they obviously wanted to produce a high quality firearm so they undoubtedly used the best materials and proceedures available. Remington was a big name gunmaker and marketed their arms world wide for sporting use, and sold thousands upon thousands to various militaries. I personally wouldn't put my face behind a #1 action made in 1871 chambered to 444 Marlin. Who knows what handloaders did? On the other hand, the 444 Marlin has been a factory 42-44,000 PSI cartridge from the factory. Factory 45-70 from the majors has always been loaded to Trapdoor pressures. There is even some question amongst the Rolling Block illuminati if the M1897, 02 and #5 sporter actions were all that much better (metalurgy wise).Īt one time, Numrich arms offered 45-70 and 444 Marlin barrels for the big #1 RB actions.