My next project 1878 Vetterli

[Whip]

A friend of mine gave me this rifle that belonged to his grandfather. It is a rim fire 10.4 X 38 . Last night I converted it to Center fire. I have ordered 348 cases to form into the 10.4. the bore is a little rusty. I am working on cleaning it the best I can. Anyone have a better way than steel wool to get the rust out. The land cleaned up pretty good but there is still some rust in the valleys. The lowest sight setting is 200 meters and the highest is 1200 meters. To me that is almost a joke. LOL.

[mcwoodduck]

Cool.
Neat old rifle.

[Frank46]

Get some "Kroil" and plug the muzzle and fill the barrel let sit muzzle down for a few days then use a bore brush and you should see a marked improvement. Also you could try some rem-clean which has some abrasive in it. wrap a patch on a bore brush that fits snugly in the bbl, coat patch with rem clean and brush then clean out the gunk. That should help as well. Hope this helps. Frank

[Mikey]

Whip - don't use steel wool anymore.  The steel in that wool is probably harder than that in the barrel.  Follow Frank's advice or wrap a piece of brass or aluminum screening wire around a tight jag and after using Hoppe's or Kroil or something else to soften things up, scrub the bore with the wire jag. 

Yes, the sights on those older rifles may have caused some laughter but I'm willing to bet that even with those older 10.4x38s if you elevated that barrel to 35-40 degrees it would not be such a joke and you wouldn't be laughing too much if those slugs were bouncing off your helmet at 1200m.....  just a thot.

[Whip]

10-4 . I might run a lead lap or try to fire lap it. I guess at the time a rifle shooting 10 or 12 shots a minutes could rain some lead down.

[Whip]

OK I have pluged the bore and filled the barrel full of Ed's Red and will let it set till my brass come in next week. The bore is really not to bad, being over 120 years old not near as bad as the inline muzzle loader that a friend brough over the other night for me to help him get his bolt open. I had to beat it open because he shot it last year and did not clean it LOL what a dummy. His barrel is junk deep rust. It still had the spent cap on the nipple LOL.

[coyotejoe]

Your friend is exactly the guy for whom inline muzzleloaders were designed.

[Whip]

You are exzactly LOL You just can't teach them anything. 

[mcwoodduck]

Everytime someone chimes in on this post I look at the rifle again.
It is really interesting.
Looks like it was made as a joke, I know it was not.
But the frame looks like a 92 Lever action.
the bolt looks comical.  And reminds me of a Toy rifle I had when I was 5.
but I think it is really neat and interesting.
I have an old 1886 Styer that is a bolt that looks like a Mauser 74/ 81 but is in 8X60R.
and has a tube feed mag that has a cut off.

[GRIMJIM]

I have the model before that one. I think.



It has a box magazine instead of the tubular mag I think I see on yours. I have read about the centerfire conversion on these cool old guns but I am hesitant to do that to one of my "collectibles" (collectible to me anyway). I just wish I could get ammo for it.

[mcwoodduck]

After I made my last post I headed for the Old Western Scrounger to see if he had ammo for mine.
Could not find it but will look again when the phones are not as busy.
You may head there.
I found it, and did not save the website like a dolt, on www.bing.com
Type in "old western" and it will pop right up.

[Mikey]

mcwoodduck - try Starline to see if they make any brass for it. 

[GRIMJIM]

I didn't see it listed on their website.

[mcwoodduck]

Sorry.
Figured if he had 43 spanish he may have other big bore military

[coyotejoe]

Do keep us posted on developments, I'd be very interested in hearing how that old timer shoots.

[rebel49]

You will find that it shoots about 10-15" high at 100 yards with the sights set a lowest set. Zero was 265 yards with a 320grain round nose bullet. I think I built my aux. sight about .250 higher than the original front sight.
The bullets I have are not available any longer as my source has passed away. I do know that cartridge OAL is critical if you wish to use the magazine, I can look that up for you as I have it written down in the load book. And I do have a drawing somewhere on this new computer of the original Swiss bullet, But it will be a beast to find ight now.
I do know that my load of Accurate 5744 does a great job, even with my sewer pipe bore( it is really bad) I can get 4" groups @ 100 yards.
Good luck with this project, you'll find the thing is accurate and a pussycat to shoot, about like a .410.
Rebel49