SafarisAfrica
Wildcat
Registered: 01/03/09
Posts: 109
|
| | 05/24/09 at 09:10 AM | Reply with quote | #8 |
|
James
I was first attracted to the Reeder .510 as it was on his web site as complete and ready to ship which in fact it was not available but he had another close to being finished. I agreed to wait and a few weeks later receive the gun and loading dies and brass .
The more I spoke with him the more I noticed he had a know it all attitude kind of do what I say and quit bothering me. While I do not appreciate people with attitudes some of them are very talented and I guess we all have our short comings.
I had requested a certain type of front site which he said he could not do? I thought I was dealing with a custom gun maker?
On loading for the .510 I found that the cases could not be sized down to tightly hold the bullet and that only the crimp kept the bullet in place. I had multiple conversations with Gary Reeder and at one point we exchanged die sets to no avail. Finally he told me to quit worrying about the case tension on the bullet and to rely only on the crimp! Now I am 62 years old probably 60 when I bought this gun and I have been hand loading since I was a teen. In fact the several thousand rounds I have fired at game in Africa were 99.9% hand loads. I also have had one of the best ballisticians in the country as my mentor for the past 25 years Ed Matunas. I KNEW REEDER WAS DEAD WRONG! Consistent case tension is very important to accuracy!
The dies were made by Hornady so I phoned them and got a very helpful and knowledgeable person to assist me. He asked that I return the dies and some cases, I complied. After he measured and examined everything I had sent him, he concluded the cases Reeder was presently selling were not manufactured by the same company as the cases he sent to Hornady when the dies were originally manufactured. Apparently the brass thickness is different. At any rate Hornady made a correct sizing die at no charge and that problem was resolved.
After running maybe 50 rounds thru the gun the ejector housing blew off I found the parts and lock tighted it together. The design flaw was that the ejector was screwed directly to the barrel the barrel was so thin due to the caliber that it could only be held by a couple of threads. It blew off again this time I lost most of the parts in the tall grass.
At this point I turned the gun over to Andy Horvath. He silver soldered a threaded nipple to the barrel that also acted as a recoil shoulder and had lots of threads to hold the ejector housing in place. He installed the site a Weigand interchangeable system, that Reeder would not do. He also found an issue with the timing or bolt engagement which he corrected. I had him make a set of wood grips to replace the blueish corian that looked like something from a kitchen counter top.
The gun is now complete and functions flawlessly but I eneded spending alot more than I would have having Andy build it in the first place.
Reeder lost what would have been a repeat customer. To sum it up Reeder is more of a production gun builder he does it one way and cuts corners to enhance his bottom line. Interestingly he is ignored by some writers most evident in Bowen's fine book on building custom handguns.You can sum it up by saying you get what you pay for but he is just as expensive as Horvath and not far off of the other well known builders.
Len
__________________
Len
http://www.safarisafrica-zimbabwe.com |
| Loading... | |
