trevort,
With an infant in the house I've also been thinking about safes for the future years. I'm thinking a combination of lock and digital code pad makes a lot of sense when there are kids around.
Cheers...
Con
WSSM update
I have only ever had key lock safe's- its no fun when a spin wheel combination jumps the rail= hello Mr Locksmith. I had several hiding places for the key and made sure no one is about when I retieve it or hide it. The newer keypad combos should be ok, as long as they don't loose their memory when battery goes flat. The other thing with these is you need to keep changing the combo so the same keypads don't become worn and so give a person the numbers you use.
Cheers
Cheers
There was an initial interest in the WSSMs stateside, when they were first introduced. Winchester found out that they ate barrels like a sumbitch, and delayed shipping until they'd chromed the bores. The delay was the final act, though, and interest dropped off when the rifles were slow to ship from the factory. I was fascinated when the news came out, the more I found out about them, the less interesting they became! Most of us who looked into them, ran away without another thought. As bushchook said, the .243 is just a reshaped .243 Ackley in performance, and the .25 WSSM is a good deal LESS than a .25/06, so what was the point? The .223 WSSM was too much of a good thing, and shot like shit, besides, so who needs one?
The press damned it with faint praise, even the guys who liked it, had to mention that it needed cleaning VERY frequently, perhaps every 15 rounds, and nothing will kill a varmint cartridge quicker than that. Can you imagine trying to shoot prairie dogs with a rifle that demands cleaning every fifteen rounds? I've had days in the PD patches when I shot 400-500 rounds, no way in Hell could that have happened with a WSSM, the barrels would have been soldered shut!
The press damned it with faint praise, even the guys who liked it, had to mention that it needed cleaning VERY frequently, perhaps every 15 rounds, and nothing will kill a varmint cartridge quicker than that. Can you imagine trying to shoot prairie dogs with a rifle that demands cleaning every fifteen rounds? I've had days in the PD patches when I shot 400-500 rounds, no way in Hell could that have happened with a WSSM, the barrels would have been soldered shut!
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- .223 Remington
- Posts: 420
- Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:23 pm
- Favourite Cartridge: .220 Swift
- Location: Wheatbelt W.A.
Glenn ,
I agree but also think that they misread the market for these cartridges . For a low volume varmint / predator round they may have been OK as they offered .220 Swift + and .243 Ackley performance . In Oz at least that would have suggested medium weight sporters and heavy barrelled varmint guns for serious long range work .
Winchester / Browning came out with soda straw barrels on lighweight sporters that are missing half their foreend . Looked like crap , shot the same , difficult extraction , tough on barrels , quality control issues .
The cartridge design may be a contributing factor in the extraction difficulty (?) but otherwise is probably just ahead of it's time .
Would be really interesting to see what they could do in a custom bolt actioned heavy barrelled varminter .
Remember that the great .220 Swift copped similar bad press when it was released in the days before good barrel steel . It is a better cartridge than the .22/250 but was born prematurely and has never gained the popularity that it deserves .
I agree but also think that they misread the market for these cartridges . For a low volume varmint / predator round they may have been OK as they offered .220 Swift + and .243 Ackley performance . In Oz at least that would have suggested medium weight sporters and heavy barrelled varmint guns for serious long range work .
Winchester / Browning came out with soda straw barrels on lighweight sporters that are missing half their foreend . Looked like crap , shot the same , difficult extraction , tough on barrels , quality control issues .
The cartridge design may be a contributing factor in the extraction difficulty (?) but otherwise is probably just ahead of it's time .
Would be really interesting to see what they could do in a custom bolt actioned heavy barrelled varminter .
Remember that the great .220 Swift copped similar bad press when it was released in the days before good barrel steel . It is a better cartridge than the .22/250 but was born prematurely and has never gained the popularity that it deserves .
It HAS been done, Dutch, who posts on several sites, including the wssmzone, built one early on (.223 WSSM) on a very nice PacNor barrel, he has had accuracy issues, even with the fine barrel on his Savage rifle.
I think what's killed them is the age-old "what's it GOOD for" question. It was designed, according to Winchester, as a medium game/predator cartridge, but it's not superior to anything else for that, just a supplement to existing cartridges. They are pretty tough on barrels, according to Hornady, anyway, and your rebarrelling options, after wearing one out, are just more of the same barrel-eating WSSMs, in other words, you're just stuck with the things. Yuck, retch........... If we'd fallen for that, it would be a barrelmaker's dream cartridge, shoot 700 rounds and replace, shoot 700 rounds and replace, etc, etc. Piss on all of that!
My best chum's brother in law bought one, it's never shot better than 2 MOA, and it's the big Stealth II model Winchester, which SHOULD be their best model. I've shot it, it's a nasty nasty mess. Winchester's QC could have been better, too, but that rifle has left an awful taste in his mouth.....
I have heard good things about the Browning rifles in WSSM, but I'm still skeptical of the things, and the same rebarrelling problems exist in the Brownings..........
I think what's killed them is the age-old "what's it GOOD for" question. It was designed, according to Winchester, as a medium game/predator cartridge, but it's not superior to anything else for that, just a supplement to existing cartridges. They are pretty tough on barrels, according to Hornady, anyway, and your rebarrelling options, after wearing one out, are just more of the same barrel-eating WSSMs, in other words, you're just stuck with the things. Yuck, retch........... If we'd fallen for that, it would be a barrelmaker's dream cartridge, shoot 700 rounds and replace, shoot 700 rounds and replace, etc, etc. Piss on all of that!
My best chum's brother in law bought one, it's never shot better than 2 MOA, and it's the big Stealth II model Winchester, which SHOULD be their best model. I've shot it, it's a nasty nasty mess. Winchester's QC could have been better, too, but that rifle has left an awful taste in his mouth.....
I have heard good things about the Browning rifles in WSSM, but I'm still skeptical of the things, and the same rebarrelling problems exist in the Brownings..........
- trevort
- Spud Gun
- Posts: 12710
- Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:21 pm
- Favourite Cartridge: Tater
- Location: Melbourne
Bushcook, Kevin Grinter in Ballarat was making heavy barrelled rifles in 25wssm for pro roo shooters. he loved the calibre. last time I was talking to him he was making himself a 30 wssm. I went to see him before Christmas and his shop had closed down. Hope it was nothing to do with his like of wssms.
Now I dont want to go on a one man crusade to defend WSSMs, in all probability, when I get my 6/250 if it shoots well the 243wssm may never be used again. To me it is a 6mm roo gun for 70 gn type projies. Thats what i built the 6/250 for. I have a notion for a Vartrg or 17 Rem fireball so the wssm may go. BUT....
I dont think there is such a thing (I hear the can of worms opening) as a "bad" calibre if it does a job for you. I dont like a 22-250 coz to me it looks wrong, too much case, too little projectile. I would put the 223wssm in that category too. I am looking at Uncle Nicks manual listing max charge for the standard 243 with a 75Vmax as 41gn 2208(varget). Now it just so happens that my 243 wssm rifle shoots the 75Vmax with 41gns 2208. With its chrome lined barrel. How would I wear out a barrel any quicker than someone loading max in a standard 243. Logic would say that my chrome lined barrel should last longer.
I will grant that factory ammo (only tried one box) is going to do your barrel in quickly. Each round fired had flattened primers and sticky extraction and even without measuring you could see that one side of each case mouth was longer than the other so quality control was poor. 41gns is mild in the 243wssm but any higher started to give harder bolt lift so I dont think loading them flat out is a good proposition.
Anyway, what i am trying to say is IF the quality control at the factory puts out a well built rifle, this can do a job, and it (243wssm) can do it well. Not necessarily better than anything else, but well!
Now I dont want to go on a one man crusade to defend WSSMs, in all probability, when I get my 6/250 if it shoots well the 243wssm may never be used again. To me it is a 6mm roo gun for 70 gn type projies. Thats what i built the 6/250 for. I have a notion for a Vartrg or 17 Rem fireball so the wssm may go. BUT....
I dont think there is such a thing (I hear the can of worms opening) as a "bad" calibre if it does a job for you. I dont like a 22-250 coz to me it looks wrong, too much case, too little projectile. I would put the 223wssm in that category too. I am looking at Uncle Nicks manual listing max charge for the standard 243 with a 75Vmax as 41gn 2208(varget). Now it just so happens that my 243 wssm rifle shoots the 75Vmax with 41gns 2208. With its chrome lined barrel. How would I wear out a barrel any quicker than someone loading max in a standard 243. Logic would say that my chrome lined barrel should last longer.
I will grant that factory ammo (only tried one box) is going to do your barrel in quickly. Each round fired had flattened primers and sticky extraction and even without measuring you could see that one side of each case mouth was longer than the other so quality control was poor. 41gns is mild in the 243wssm but any higher started to give harder bolt lift so I dont think loading them flat out is a good proposition.
Anyway, what i am trying to say is IF the quality control at the factory puts out a well built rifle, this can do a job, and it (243wssm) can do it well. Not necessarily better than anything else, but well!
- trevort
- Spud Gun
- Posts: 12710
- Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:21 pm
- Favourite Cartridge: Tater
- Location: Melbourne
Oh and forgot, browning have put out a standard 223 on the wssm action. Havent found out cost but Shane confirmed in theory that if you got the magaizine box and bolt head (hope used right terminology) at least in theory you could rebarrell you wssm to one of the rounds based on a 223.
I wont, but maybe you can!
I wont, but maybe you can!