I recently aquired a new Chiappa made 1892 rifle in 45LC. It is a beautiful gun in every way as I have mentioned in one or two other threads. I have not shot the gun yet, but I have been playing around with some dummy loads to see how they feed. I have talked about this in one of my other threads in the lever gun sub forum....with what I have for dummy loads they are feeding into the chamber quite well, the action is very smooth also.
I am noticing some very tiny little dimples in the sides of the cases about one third of the way up from the rim. Since I reload my ammo I really don't like this and I'm pretty sure they are being caused by the front bottom corners of the cartridge guide rails.
My questions are:
1) Has anyone else encountered this?
2) Should the bottom of the front ends of the guide rails actually touch the sides of the case or should the guide rails only contact the case rim?
3) This is noticed when a cartridge is first put in place between the guide rails when the lever is all the way forward (down). There seems to be some slight pressure on the case sides from the underside of the front edges of the guide rails. Is it common and/or often necessary to have to lightly stone this area of the guide rails to remove any sharp corners?
I would love to speak with a gunsmith that has a lot of experience with 1892's. I am aware of Steve at Stevesgunz but I have not spoken with him so far. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Right now I don't feel the condition is bad enough to warrant returning the gun for some fine tuning....if they would even be willing to do such a thing. I have an extensive technical/mechanical background in many areas, including some gunsmith training and hobby experience. At this point since this condition isn't real bad I would prefer to look into it and/or eliminate the teeny tiny dimples myself.
