New to me BW Darr Rolling Block rifle.

Member 38805 · Aug 22, 2022

I first heard of this Darr Rolling Block almost 4 years ago. But things being shut down pretty much then, and the rifle being a 3 hour drive away, it seemed like it would never come to fruition. Then recently the seller contacted me asking if I was still interested, which I of course was! So we arranged for a trip to Central Oregon to purchase this rifle.

The action is an old Remington military action, and Barry Darr built and fitted one of his wonderful barrels to it in .35-40, a cartridge he felt was superbly accurate. The .35-40 is simply a .32-40 case blown out to .35 caliber. Barry Darr was a superb barrel maker, and rifled his barrels in the Schoyen pattern rifling. The top side of this heavy 30" full octagon barrel has the "BW DARR" marking, and under the forearm it's marked ".35-40", "12-10-75" "1:16" twist" and the Darr serial number.
Barry was the mold designer for Saeco molds, and this rifle came with the old Ideal mold that Barry recut to .35 caliber specifically for this rifle barrel. So should aid in even better accuracy using this bullet mold to cast my bullets.
The hammer has been lightened and converted to a speedlock to speed up hammer drop time.
I plan to reshape the forearm to a slender Remington style, and remove the rust bluing on the receiver, and have it color cased. That should give it a more traditional appearance, and more to my liking. A winter project so no rush to do these changes. Until then I'll fire form .32-40 cases, and make up some loads.
Barry Darr passed away within the last year, but I spoke with him back when I first discovered this rifle, and he told me everything he had about it in his records.

Member 38805 · Aug 23, 2022

Looked through my parts storage and found an original Rolling Block forearm and found one! And by chance it's inletted for a big heavy octagon barrel, so it fits perfectly!
I just need to D&T for a forearm screw, and then have a dovetail cut done on the barrel at the muzzle for a globe front sight. Then D&T for a long-range Soule tang sight I have here to fit it.
This forearm looks much better, and just needs some finish and reddish tint on it to match the buttstock.

Member 38805 · Feb 9, 2023

All sorts of issues with my Roller, starting with the chamber never was fully finish reamed to the .35-40 it was supposed to be. Fortunately a fella offered to loan me his reamer, and I got it this week, and quickly finish reamed the chamber.
Then I decided I didn't like the reworked military buttstock, so I grabbed a spare pistol grip factory Remington lower tang, and fitted it to my action. Called up CPA rifles and asked Gail to build me a custom semi inletted buttstock with the thicker military size, and military large upper tang, but a Sporting pistol grip lower tang. The brown truck delivered the new buttstock today, and it looks good. I'm pretty sure it's going to take a solid week to fit it to the receiver, and then another 4-5 days to apply the finish. Lots of extra wood to remove to make it a nice look. I don't like stock fitting, but I don't mind applying finish.

Member 38805 · Feb 26, 2023

Got the front half of the stock sanded down with 80 grit on my Durablock sanding pad. Shaped it down another 1/8" in the grip area using my Creedmoor to check shape, and dimensions first. Can't go any further until the buttplate arrives in a couple days, and I can see how much wood needs to be removed towards the buttplate, and blend that end in too. Then once the buttplate is fitted I can final sand with 240 and 320 grit.

Member 38805 · Feb 26, 2023

Finished the stock and forearm today! Also got the lower tang/trigger plate blued, and everything assembled. In the end once the finish was applied to both, the stock and forearm matched up about as good as two pieces of wood 140 years different could match.
I'll let the finish cure before I rub it, and then wax and buff it out!

This stock from CPA was the worst inletting I've ever dealt with! Top tang inletting was way too shallow. And the lower tang inletting was almost 1/2" deep! So I had to build up wood in the lower tang, and remove a 1/4" more in the upper tang!
Then had to remove almost 1/4" off the entire outside surfaces of extra wood they didn't remove during duplicating. Made the fitting, and finishing take twice as long as normal!

Member 38805 · Mar 3, 2023

Spent yesterday making .35-40 Maynard brass from .32 Win. Spl. cases. Turned down rims, and base diameters. Then primed and charged them with 8 grs. of Unique, filled with filler, and a wax wad. Then fire formed them in the Roller to end up with the perfect brass. Ready to be deprimed, cleaned, and loaded.
This rifle is setup to be fired as a breech seater, so I'll make the tool to seat the bullet into the bore, and then put a charged case in the chamber to shoot it. Breech seating is a bit more accurate than typical fixed cartridges.

edzz · Mar 3, 2023

Much respect.
You are an artist.
:s0152:

Member 38805 · Mar 4, 2023

edzz said:
Much respect.
You are an artist.

Thanks.
It was a shame that a nice old Rolling Block with an expensive, and accurate BW Darr barrel was clothed in such ugly stocks. I could have lived with just restocking it, but since I already had the PG lower tang it seemed like a good time to convert it also.