A Pair of Small-Caliber Wichita Classics

[montdoug]

Beautiful rifles and I am truly jealous ......note the smiley face, green with envy!!! .
Keep em coming .

[South Pender]

Originally Posted by Kiwishooter

Just one question, why did you have your gunsmith true up the action on the 22PPC, just wondering as the Wichita I've got is absolutely deadnuts and everything I've read about Wichita actions says that they are one of the straightest custom actions made...............Kiwi

When I had it in his shop for trigger work, he noticed that the bolt was making very slight contact with the barrel face. He polished the bolt face to take care of the problem. I also had him check the three locking lugs for 100% contact with their recesses. As I recall it (this was done close to 20 years ago), this required a little lapping as well.

One other thing I had him do was to add a third action screw just ahead of the trigger. The way it arrived from Wichita, there was the forward action screw and the one at the tang, but not one holding the trigger-guard down at the front (this being a single-shot action). So this rifle has three action screws and was pillar-bedded for each, with glass all through the action at the top and beneath each pillar.

The one thing that I found less-than-optimal with my Wichitas (I had a third one too, in 6BR, which I foolishly sold) is the trigger. It's a Canjar and is decent, but not really first-class in my opinion. I had my 'smith work both Wichita triggers down as far as he felt he could go without a complete rework (like adding a third lever). I raised the possibility of replacing the trigger (ideally with a Jewell) with Tim McNally, who now owns Wichita Arms after Nolan Jackson left the company, and he pointed out that the bottom bolt-release made this change infeasible.

So let me ask you, Kiwishooter: have you been able to improve the trigger on yours? And what cartridge does yours shoot? What kind of accuracy are you getting?

Edit. Lately I've been contemplating rebarreling the .243W to 6 PPC. My gunsmith could do this easily and maintain the continuous octagon form. He's an outstanding metalsmith and has done much more intricate work than that. I guess it would require a little work on the bolt face too, though, with the extractor and ejector presenting some problems.

[hornetboy]

One of my mates over here has had two Wichita Classics and three Varminters and he considers these to be the highest quality factory varmint rifles he has owned. He was very pleased to hear of your successes and appreciated the fact that you are actually using them and not just storing them. Well done. Thanks so many for sharing your information and photos.