Building a 280AI on a BSA Monarch 270. Pt 1

[Brithunter]

A few years ago was offered this BSA 1st Pattern Monarch is quite poor shape, knocked about with worn bore, for £25. At that time I did not have any Monarchs in my little collection so I brought it gave the barrel a good clean and tried it out at the range and was surprised to find that it shot about MOA still with ammunition it liked so I cold blued the barrel as it had none left from for tip to foresight.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/BSAMonarch1stPatRHS.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/BSAMonarchfloorplate.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/Monarchaction.jpg

That is after the cold blue on the barrel and as you can see through much use the blacking of the bolt handle has worn away. The barrel had be cut back a touch at some point and the foresight was not on quite straight so when at a Bisley show I was approached by chap with a much better rifle of the same model I was immediately interested :D.

After a bit of thinking I offered him £100 for it which is low but .270 Winchester chambered rifles do not sell well. One chambered in say .243 Winchester would sell for about treble that. This is the replacement:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/P4210062.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/P5250133.jpg
As you can see the blacking is pretty much pristine.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/P4210068.jpg
Not much signs of wear.

The drawbacks are that the gold enamel has come out of the stars on the bolt and the stock has some compression marks/dings

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/BSA%20Monarch%201st%20pat/P4210071.jpg
I fitted the new Redfield sight to it.

Anyway this left me with the worn Monarch so after much thought and a discussion with the licensing folks a temp permit to possess the .270 was issued and my licence varied to obtain a .280 rifle. I had decided that as I could not find a .280 Ross that I could afford I would make a modern sporting rifle of suitable performance. While this was going on a stumbeld upon a BSA Majestic Featherweight in 270 Win with what appeared to be a worn out barrel. The Majestic had a better more classic "Ross" shaped stock so plans were altered slightly and it was obtained for a modest price of £75:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/270%20Majestic%20Featherweight%20%20No255/PA020042.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/270%20Majestic%20Featherweight%20%20No255/PA010168.jpg
The fore tip of the schanble tip had been professionally repaired at some point in the past but a previous owner after that had ruined the bedding and barrel channel in a poor attempt at free floating the barel :rolleyes:.

For the .280 AI build an original new in the white BSA barrel chambered in 7x64 for the later CF2 model was obtained. I chose the CF2 barrel over the Majestic/Monarch one due to the heavier profile and larger reinforce at the chamber more suited the Ross's profile which also meant I could probably salvage the Majestic stock. Later it was found this would not be the case as the forestock had been sanded down so much :(.

[Brithunter]

Next was to find a smith to do the re-chamber of the 7x64 barrel and here we hit a brick wall. I contacted a good gunsmith who had done a re-chamber of a Century Arms P14 .303 to 303IMP and he obviously didn't want the job as he quoted me about $1100 US to do the job :eek:.

Another gunsmith who had fitted a new .303 barrel to a BSA Model C for me said he would do it but had never done an Ackley before and was obviously not happy when I described the procedure for setting headspace 0.004" tight so normal factory 280 rem ammunition could be used and come out perfectly fire formed. Just using a Go gauge to set headspace was foreign to him so after talking to the dealer at the local gunclubs shop he agreed to order the barrel on his dealers licence, a barrel cannot be sold to a member of the public unless it's proved and so stamped here in the UK and threaded and chambered barrel must be proofed to be sold and this new one had never been on an action so was not but by acting as his "agent" I could machine the barrel and chamber it but could not keep the barrel here unless when actually working on it. The barrel was duely obtained from Knibbs International and I set about getting a reamer and gauges.

The reamer is a PTG finishing reamer but PTG didn't have one on the shelf so it meant a 2 month wait at least. Luckily Midway did have one so it was ordered through their UK branch. The gauges are Forster and they had them on the shelf. I brought go and No-Go even though would only be using the GO they won't eat anything. The Postal apes managed to rip open the package and lose the Go gauge............................... yep the one I really needed was missing from the taped up package.

Had to contact Forster as they paid the shipping so they had to instigate the claim. Finally a new gauge arrived and we are now several months behind schedule. At last I could get to work. The .270 barrel was held in the lathe and a parting tool ran in slowly to thread depth about 0.015" from the front face of the receiver and the barrel came off by hand. Threads were cleaned and checked then new barrel tried as it came factory threaded................................... Hmmm a bit loser than I would have liked and it then became clear that the barrel tenons on the Maonrach and CF2 despite being the same diameter and thread were of different lengths so the tenon had to be lengthened and the counter bore for the bolt head deepened as well:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/Workshop/PA270044.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/Workshop/PA270045.jpg

Not the best way perhaps but the chamber was clocked up and made true in the independent 4-jaw and the tenon machined to length and the counter bore machined to depth the reamer was then run in and the chamber cut to the calculated depth. I must have stepped in something because it all came out right first time and did not need re-setting up to take any more cuts with the reamer. The barrel was then turned around and the bore at the muzzle clocked up and the barrel faced off and crowned then lightly polished:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/Workshop/PA270041.jpg

The lathe is a Colchester Student 6" which has since been sold.

Oh yes almost forgot whilst it was in the lathe a 1/2" UNF thread was cut at the muzzle so a brake or Sound Moderator can be used:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/280%20AI%20build/PA300054.jpg

Barrel fitted up for proofing:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/280%20AI%20build/PA300051.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/280%20AI%20build/PA300062.jpg

and the first cartridge from the new chamber;-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Brithunter/280%20AI%20build/PC080087.jpg

I fired two more as the Proof House wanted three formed cases and I also sent them commercial load data along with the Gauges. Another local dealer submitted it for proof along with his usual shipment as he would be handling the polishing and blacking. I had him remove the barrel as I wanted the threads and breech face blacked as well so no chance of trapped salts growing out of the threaded joint. I then re-fitted the barrel applying a trace of loctite to seal any moisture out in use to prevent rusting out of sight after use in rain and damp which being in the UK is almost guaranteed.

Continued in Part 3.