30-378 Magnum Bullet Pen

[Sataro]

Had a customer request a pen to be made out of his own rifle casing. He was planning on giving it as a gift to another friend that likes to Elk hunt in Colorado.

Did not anticipate any problems until I saw the size of the cartridge. The cartridge was definitely too long. After measuring the length of the cartridge, I realized that there would not be enough of the transmission sticking out for the upper barrel to grip. My first thought was too send the rifle casing back & tell him that it wouldn't work.

I decided to improvise & see if I could make it work. I normally make my bullet pens with slim line components. Too make this work, I first installed an 8 mm brass tube in the rifle casing. I then installed my 7mm tube inside of the 8 mm tube. The transmission was nearly buried inside of the rifle casing. To make the upper barrel work, I cut the brass tubing about one inch longer than normal. This left about one inch of tubing exposed. When the pen halves are pressed together, the exposed brass tubing would slide over the transmission & down inside of the 8 mm tubing. This was a nice learning experience for me.

The upper barrel was made out of elk since it was going to an Elk hunter!
The picture shows a comparison of the size of this pen.

 

[Monty]

Great job. :highfive:

 

[KenV]

Nice adaptation of the slim components -- Have used the parker style with the larger mag cases --

Some good ideas!!! and a good looking pen that meets specs.

 

[mtassie]

Very nice! Did you use a real bullet for he nose?

 

[Edgar]

Nice looking pen Billy & a great solution to the problem

 

[Sataro]

Nice adaptation of the slim components -- Have used the parker style with the larger mag cases --

Some good ideas!!! and a good looking pen that meets specs.

Thanks Ken! I haven't tried using Parker style. I think that would probably work better. I may have to experiment along that line.

 

[Sataro]

Very nice! Did you use a real bullet for he nose?

The bullet is just the copper nib. I buy copper slimlines & just use the pen components to make my bullet pens. The real bullets look better but you then have to drill them out using two different drill sizes. I sell my pens at a low price so I don't want to put too much time in them for what I charge.