mickb wrote:AS30N wrote:mickb wrote:.....
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Mate I stand corrected and am impressed if he is doing that level customisation( shortening the action etc). Not a lot of blokes want to take that on. How much does he charge to do this? 50 AE would be interesting too if it ran ok. The issue is how well they run. As mentioned a lot of blokes on youtube with their DIY versions and almost all of them hang up or dont like certain bullet profiles etc but the guy is still tickled pink because of the novelty.,
The bolt is definitely shortened significantly for short travel (you can see the bolt head on OP's gun is much further back when bolt is closed), while there is some work involved, definitely way easier than Mauser type action thanks to the rear locking design. How the 9mm/357/45 version work I can't tell but tried one running out of a 44Mag Desert Eagle mag and it fed well with cast RNFP, I have no experience with any other bullet type whatsoever. As for 50 AE, he said "can be done" so not sure neother. It may well be ammunition sensitive. I guess it is Ok if one is a reloader who is prepared to work on different OAL and profiles. I don't own one but if I had one, I would be happy to muck around with different projectile (anything what doesn't feed can be fed into my Blackhawk or 44-40 lever).
I also disagree with the flash hider, for 45ACP (and 9mm to some extent) the powder would have brunt out long before the muzzle, I am not sure why one would need a flash hider. It does very little but adds 2 inches to the OAL, all the extra compactness gained by shortening the bolt is gone. Surely it was done to look cool? If I must have a flash hider I would insist that it be machined from the barrel blank when profiled so I have a solid one piece barrel/integrated flash hider to made minimal legal length. I really don't think losing two inches of bore will reduce the velocity by much with handgun calibres.
As for price, he had a table at the Hunter gun show and IIRC, the asking price started around 1.5k depending on configuration/finish/calibre.
I really like what he's done but won't necessarily buy one. I am not sure why I would need one apart from plinking, I live in the city so don't really have a place to plink. If I want to shoot a mild SMLE, I own a Lithgow 22 hornet (also known for feeding issues) and they can be had for half the price. If I want to see big bullet holes I will shoot my 44-40. But I certainly don't mind his de Lisle clone because it is highly unlikely that I will ever own the real deal legally.