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Old November 29, 2017, 11:02 AM   #26
Jim Watson
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He said: "It came with half a dozen boxes of .225 Win, and that's what I've been putting through it."

The .218 business is a red herring, arising from the Internet Era's failure to distinguish between bore and groove diameter. It may well have a .218" BORE but the groove diameter is much most likely .223"+.

Sako once sent out some seriously undersize barrels in American calibers in their early days in the market, and pressures were high. The OP does not describe anything like that and I doubt we will see any such when he shows us pictures of fired cases.
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Old November 30, 2017, 11:21 AM   #27
natman
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Originally Posted by Jim Watson View Post
Agree. A lot of guessing going on here.
What we can be sure of is that a pretty good gunsmith put new barrel and stock on an old Winchester Single Shot action to make it a varmint rifle.

Marked .218 IMP, I think we can assume it was a .218 Improved Winchester Bee. I know of no other cartridge with the ".218" designation. There were a lot of "improvers" in those days. The Ackley system was not necessary for rimmed cartridges, you could blow them out any way you liked.

At some later date, that or another gunsmith apparently ran in a .225 Winchester reamer to get the larger case and added that to the barrel stamp.
This seems a likely explanation. Rebarreled originally in 218 imp or possibly 218 and improved later. Still later rechambered in 225.

The mistake was not removing the 218 markings before restamping 225.
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Old December 16, 2017, 04:15 AM   #28
J.G. Terry
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Zipper

What if the "8" was a poorly done "9". Could that be an 219 Improved Zipper? There was a kinship noted between the Improved Zipper and 225 back in the day.
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Old December 16, 2017, 10:48 AM   #29
Art Eatman
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The .225 ammo works well, so the .218Imp stamping is irrelevant.

.218 land diameter; .224 (probably, give or take a thousandth) groove diameter.
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Old December 16, 2017, 04:51 PM   #30
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This rings true to me. Although the 218 scenario seems unlikely?? Is this more crazy talk or knowledgeable.
It rings true because I don't comment unless I know what I am talking about.
Quote:
218 is 6 1000's under.
No, .218" is .001" under standard bore diameter (.219" bore diameter for .224" groove diameter).
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The .218 business is a red herring
No, the .218 is to indicate that the rifle has a tight bore and let whoever loads for it to not try to hot load it.
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Old December 16, 2017, 06:23 PM   #31
Slamfire
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Well I am going to say

Why the heck didn't my relatives leave me such a neat rifle!!!.

Best of luck with that 1885 Highwall, just keep the barrel and action clean, reload for it, and all will be well.
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Old December 16, 2017, 10:01 PM   #32
J.G. Terry
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What do the fired cases look like? Pictures of these cases would be helpful. My best guess is those marks had meaning to maker and owner. For these rest of us it's still a guess.

Last edited by J.G. Terry; December 16, 2017 at 10:07 PM.
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Old December 17, 2017, 03:19 PM   #33
Paul B.
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"What if the "8" was a poorly done "9". Could that be an 219 Improved Zipper? There was a kinship noted between the Improved Zipper and 225 back in the day."

I'm inclined to agree with this comment. I expanded the picture as much as my computer would allow and frankly, I believe it looks more like a buggered up 9 than an 8.
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Old December 17, 2017, 09:38 PM   #34
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Very cool. I know next to nothing about any of the possible chambers in play here, but slugging the bore is pretty quick and easy and would answer a lot of the questions. I for one would like to see a side-by-side picture with fired and unfired cases.


One of the things to keep in mind is that the names we see on the internet and in print for old custom chambers often don't line up with what the gunsmiths stamp on the barrels. I have what is commonly called a 257 Roberts Ackley Improved. I bought it cheap because the "257 Rem Imp" stamped on the barrel left a lot of questions as to what the chamber really was.

If ammo/components/dies start looking expensive, you may find you'd be able to enjoy it more with a new barrel on it after your current supply runs dry.
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