Drove the two hours up to fellow forum member, double rifle builder, African hunter, and master gunsmith Judson’s shop yesterday to have my 2 new 30cal. barrel blanks short chambered for 30-40 Krag. He was kind enough to ream 2 flawless chambers – intentionally a little deep instead of shallow, and now if I hold up my end on turning and fitting them to my monoblock over Easter, and now thanks to his planning I should be able to get nice tight headspace without having to either rent a reamer or bring my finished barrel assembly back up to him! Hated to have to pay for something I would’ve done myself with a rented reamer (if one of my lathes was lagged down and under power!), but reamer rental would’ve cost 1/3-1/2 of what I paid yesterday, and job was done while I waited (and watched and kibitzed!).

Was a real pleasant visit, saw and handled that custom 450#2 DR which he described building through multiple posts here from Autumn ’05 thru late Spring ’06, and it’s a work of art! Spent 4 hrs there and saw other gorgeous examples of his work (including his “Africa” bolt action custom P-14 Enfield chambered in his 366DGW cartridge – both ballistics and rifle were impressive, to say the least!), chatted with both he and his lovely wife Barbara while they shared memories and photo albums of their safaris. If anyone on the forum is looking to have some work done, whether finely fitted and finished metalwork, or especially custom stockwork, give Judson a try! So nice to put a face on a forum contributor, and especially to find it on a true gentleman and New England craftsman, and master gunsmith!

I also made up my mind on my Rossi “problem” after showing my Rossi outside hammer shotguns to Judson. He basically agreed that there were 2 potential shortcomings: possibility of too soft an action, and the thin remaining monoblock chamber walls - but considering the intensity and pressure generated by repeated 20ga 3” loads, as long as I stayed with smaller base dia. low pressure rounds I’d probably be okay. I really needed to hear that from someone other than myself, as I was seriously debating listing a couple more of my treasured singleshot and lever actions on Gunbroker, and borrowing from our savings to buy a SIACE, or the Pedersoli 8x57JRS which goes up on the Amoskeag Auction this coming Sat. No argument from me, or Judson, (or Pilgrim here on the Forum) that a “factory” double rifle would make an ideal platform for a couple new dbl brl sets, and I’d already started checking for brass and bullets and to locate the Lyman Ideal dies I'd prefer to use to reload 8x57JRS. Instead, I’ll stay with my original project and head down to my brother’s place in 2 wks, spend a long Easter weekend with him and his family, and at least finish my monoblock and the threading and fitting of my freshly chambered 30-40 barrels (w/photos finally!) and make the last weekend of April/first wk May a goal date for proofing, and hope for the best.

My apologies to Pilgrim, as he put up with and responded to a couple long emails as I thought I'd possibly be attending the Amoskeag auction to bid on that Pedersoli 8x57JRS, and might be able to relate condition and bid history on a couple other pieces there, but will instead attend a good local show this weekend – looking for a couple more Rossi “missing links” in my proposed DR projects. I’m starting a new building thread and hope to make this the first of regular progress reports with photos – will return w/new news & photos!

Thanks, Joe(hobbyguymaine)