I’m not sure when I first noticed it; likely while standing by the Land Cruiser as Robert Ramajaja cleared the chamber of his .458 Winchester Magnum.
What caught my eye was his deliberate removal of the loaded round with the tip of his finger placed over the nose of the A-Square solid. To some this operation would have gone completely unobserved. What piqued my interest was the ejector never seemed to come into play as the bolt was fully retracted and stopped as he went through this maneuver. Interesting, knowing Robert would be the one to back us up if we found ourselves in a pinch.
I mentioned this to Campbell Smith, a great friend and the primary PH for this Botswana Elephant hunt. He raised an eyebrow and muttered “haven’t a clue D’Arc.”
I saw this operation reoccur time and time again over the next couple days.
Late one morning after we rolled into camp for a rare lunch, I asked Robert if I might look at the rifle. He shot a cautious eye at Cam who in turn said, “Robert, he has a plan.”
Soon the rifle was in my lap, and it was evident this old BRNO 602 had been ridden hard and never put away. The stock was cracked behind the rear tang, under the ejection port and around the front ring area. I usually travel with some tools, and soon had the barreled action naked in the sun. Cam had the presence of mind to lay down a sail to catch any feral parts.
The inletting was, shall we say, compromised with cracks behind the recoil lug and magazine box. The pin that the ejector rotates on was pushed out of place so far that the ejector spring fell free from the barreled action onto the sail. The ejector blade was solidified by fossilized grease and Botswana sand. The magazine spring was almost completely flat from years of having the magazine always charged.
Other than that, she was almost mint.
Robert, having left the area to attend to refueling the Cruiser, walked back onto the deck to see his rifle on life support and assessed the scene with composed horror.
I asked Duncan, the camp manager, if we had any epoxy. Yes, indeed he nodded. The quick set type. Now what to use as a release agent? I rummaged through the tool shed, and after a short search selected water pump grease. Now for a cross bolt? Duncan found some screws of the ideal length, something like we’d use at home for sheetrock. Good enough.
Kerosene and a toothbrush cleaned 25 years of funk off the metal, and soon I detected a slight heartbeat. Those sheetrock screws were sunk just beneath the stock’s weathered exterior where I felt they’d do the best. For added insurance a piece of 6mm all-thread was epoxied into a 3-inch-deep hole drilled behind the rear tang to hopefully shore up the grip. Now for glass bedding the barreled action: grease was applied and epoxy was mixed, but time was against us.
Critical areas took a dollop of epoxy, and I screwed the barreled action in place ASAP. Excess epoxy was wiped away and the rifle was left to sit in the sun and cure. Someone said lunch was up.
A few hours later I pulled the barreled action and stock apart to clean up any rogue bedding compound then completely reassembled the rifle. Oiled up with the ejector pin back in place and the legs of the magazine spring bent to once again resemble a W, this 602 now maintained a steady pulse.
Robert didn’t eat much during lunch, just pushed food around as if he’d discovered a cat turd. Before we headed out and before handing him back the rifle, I asked him for 5 rounds. I pushed them into the magazine and then shucked all 5 into the sand yards away as fast as I could work the bolt. The smile on Robert’s face lit up like a Bots sunrise and he exclaimed, “It rinjects again!”
Yes, Robert. It does indeed rinject. Check that box.
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