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Living here in North America, if I was in Canada my reloading dies and brass would be .303 British(and if I was able to find a pair of reasonably priced .312 barrels) as would be my rifle. Here in the U.S. .308 bore size is the predominant 30 cal., I have 30-30 and 30-40 dies, brass and molds, a rechambered to 30-40 Browning 1885 Highwall single shot, even a gunsmith acquaintance who's rechambered a 30-30 NEF break open single to 30-40 for me, and I'm already planning to have him short chamber my 2 barrels ... final chamber/headspace will be done w/rentareamer! I'm planning to regulate for Winchester 180gr factory loads for ease of ammo availability, and hope that I get lucky and can also come up with reasonable groups w/165-200 gr handloads.

Bramble - No 5-pt stars, markings on watertable of Rossi 12ga. are: FIC (inside an oval), NoRG (o is underlined), S23860, matching 8993 on both watertable and rear lug on barrels. Rossi 20ga markings are: Same FIC & NoRG, T47977, matching 7885 on both watertable and rear lug on barrels. Firing pins are spring retracted and slightly under .100" dia. w/reasonable protrusion w/hammer down hard.

My barrel blanks and the 2nd Rossi 20ga(w/Greener crossbolt) should both arrive on Thurs. and with a major snowstorm coming in wee hours Fri. AM and not pulling away till Sat AM, I hope they're on schedule! This shotgun needs a good cleaning and I plan to partially disassemble it, get some more accurate measurements of firing pins, etc., and a feel for barrel length and finish taper they'll need for weight and balance - also with 2 20ga. guns here to see how much of Rossi Brazilian fitting was mass production and how much was hand fit. I'm holding off on total stripdown and checking barrel interchange from frame to frame, much less getting the hacksaw out and cutting back to monoblock in the hopes I'll find one more gun, but this time w/scarcer 26-28" tubes. With 3 20ga. guns on hand I can decide which 2 will be the spare shotgun barrel set/action/monoblock donors, and which one will be listed on Gunbroker and resold. Once that's settled, out comes the saw, expansion reamer and tap.

We've been living here in our new house since late last summer and I have lot's of finish work ahead, more electrical, insulation, drywall, finish floors, inside doors and trimwork, deck (deer & turkey sniping platform!) 16' up in the air to be planked and railings installed, new outside steps to build, pair of insulated sliding barn doors to build and fit to the 12'x12' daylight shop door opening, finish grading/landscaping, more driveway finish/regrading after winter, etc., etc. Once I put a healthy dent in that list I'll lag down and level my Bridgeport mill, find the collets and endmills,etc. (still packed away after 2-5 years) and then I'll start working on one of my 16" South Bend lathes (as neither have been under power for 5 years!). I'll probably break down and drive the 8 hrs down to my brother's place in so. NJ for a weekend before then, use his lathe and mill to finish the monoblock, finish the barrels for both taper and threads and for sweat fit in block, build the new extractor, turn up 2 (and a spare) bushings for the breech end of the monoblock, manufacture a quarter rib, sling swivel mt/spacer, and front sight (at least semi-finished till barrels are screwed in and sweated! Beginning to sound more like a 3-4 day weekend I'm afraid, and I won't even have tinned the barrels yet! I'm going to keep bugging you guys till I have this all down pat in my mind, keep pulling the pieces and materials together, drawing up prints of parts I'll have to make quickly while at my brother's place. If I'm smart I'll push to get more done quickly on the house, both to keep my patient wife happy, and so I can get to work setting up my shop and sorting out tools downstairs.

Barrel final fitup and sweat and chambering plus initial lineup for proof will be done here,with final chamber ream for headspace to be done w/rented reamer. If the 20ga/30-40 doesn't proof I'll set the 30-40 barrels aside and just fit the 26" 20ga. tubes to the remaining unabused action and just end up with a nice little old-timey 20ga hammer double for bird hunting with my Springer. At that point I’ll probably sideline any DR projects, finish my Browning 71 lever conversion to 45-70 or -90, do the Marlin 336 rebarrel to 25-35 I’ve planned for years, finish the rebuild of another Marlin squarebolt 36 w/new 38-55 barrel and mag and wood I had the factory fit to a used roundbolt 336, maybe even finish my Marlin 1894 357C conversion to 256 Win!

If it proofs okay I'll regulate it, finish any soldering and detail work, hand polish and rust blue, and start on project #2. My old 12ga Rossi is 10-15% larger than the 20ga, and if the 20 will handle the 30-40 conversion, the larger 12 frame should handle my new 45 cal barrels chambered to 45-90, w/nearly a 10% increase in base dia. but at lower pressure - in fact I may pick up some 4140 and make 2 new monoblocks and barrel one in 45 cal and the other for my favorite 50-110, and still have the original 12ga barrel set to boot!

Going to start a new rehash thread on pressure issues and backthrust ... see you there.

Thanks, Joe (hobbyguymaine)

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