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.
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.