So a couple of months ago I was doing an inventory of the herd and came across these two old clunks in the back of the safe. Decided this was the "later day" and figured I'd give 'em another go. This time I did something I hadn't considered the first time -- I gave them a really good cleaning to get all the crud and jacket material out of the barrel. Thanks to foaming bore cleaner I finally got to reasonably clean. Voila! inspection of the barrels showed them again closely resembling said sewer pipe. Disappointment
![Crying or Very sad :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry.gif)
I still had some of my 6.5x35 Rem stuff loaded so out to the range we go. Dang! No improvement, other than I didn't have any go sideways this time, which my notes indicated I'd had some do 20 years ago.
I then fitted up Rifle #2 with the earlmck patent front sight thusly: Out to the range with my trusty ammo, fired the first round, and this is what came out of the chamber: Yes, I had read that people did rechamber these with a 257 Roberts reamer to produce a 6.5X57. But I'd never before seen one. Didn't realize I'd owned one for 20 years! Here they are with 6.5x35Rem on top, 6.5x57 middle, and the fired case on the bottom: Oh yeah, look at the primer of the 6.5 Jap fired in 6.5x57 chamber: Now wouldn't you think it must have hit 150K psi to do that? I certainly would have previously. But I poked the maxi-flat primer out and a new primer fits firmly into the ruined case: I know these aren't leverguns, but I was just messing around on this cool, breezy day and thought I'd take some pictures of this little mis-adventure I had this summer, knowing some of you geezers like to get a laugh out of the hi-jinks us youngsters can get up to.
Oh yes. I cobbled up some 6.5x57 ammo (6mm Rem brass, 7x57 fl die for body die, 260 Rem for neck and seat) and gave rifle #2 a go with the proper ammo. Very very sad. Maybe not quite as bad as rifle#1 but pretty much a pattern rather than a group. But all is not lost: firstly I don't have to worry about attaching a nicer front sight. And secondly, since these old rifles are pretty much worthless I am taking them out of the safe (more wall hangers?) which leaves a couple of spaces for something better.