EXPLANATIONS (1) I assume Turbo designed
the placement of the trigger using a standard Remington trigger.
But, most folks use Jewell triggers. The Jewell sear connector is shorter than a
standard Remington, so the
firing pin spring is not pre-
loaded enough. A lot of early Turbos have this problem. It
can be corrected. The last several Turbos I
have used pre- load the firing pin spring
very well with resulting excellent ignition,
but early Turbos I rate poor. (2)
The Kelbly has a unique firing
pin and unique way of mechanically stopping it. It is a thin flat piece of stock that
is broad enough to
strike the rim of the case and
also strike the breech
face of the barrel which is how
it is mechanically
stopped. I do not like this as
it causes the firing pin
to strike the edge of the rim of the case. This kills
ignition. If you have
enough mainspring, you can strike
the edge of the rim
and have good ignition and although this action has a strong mainspring, it ain’t THAT strong.
(3) Factory Turbos do
not have enough closing cam. One of
the big complaints I hear is from shooters
having to push on the cocking
piece of the breech bolt to get
the bullet seated into an
engraved chamber. This can be corrected. (4) Turbo locking lugs need to be lapped. The left
locking lug seat is machined
in a different operation than the
right side. And I have found that a
lot of times both lugs do not make contact
as one seat is cut deeper than the other. (5) Best ever regarding ease of loading!
(6) The Kelbly is about the same
outside diameter as the Hall or Turbo, but
it is not as stiff. It has a very large barrel thread, a very large cut-out for that great drop-in loading.
The loading ramp is a large round
block of metal that has a corresponding cut
in the action and it has race ways cut for
the mid-type locking lugs. It uses a guard screw in the tang. The Turbo and Hall get
away with having a guard screw in the tang because they are so stiff.
(7)The Hall barrel thread makes possible
the use of a straight barrel, breech
to muzzle of no less than .875".
I very seldom use
barrels over .850" so a barrel of this size must have a step in the barrel. Straight barrels, end to end, are
just easier to make
the bore uniform from end to end.
Barrels with an enlarged breech can be made
fine, but it is tougher.
(8)
The Kelbly uses a barrel thread
that is far too large. Any normal
size barrel has to have an enlarged breech. In the case of the Kelbly, this barrel thread can’t be made smaller
because you cannot get that large loading
ramp in place. It is installed back through
the barrel thread opening. You have the same problem with a 40-X Remington or my XP 100
conversions. They both require enlarged
breech sections for threading and they are
successful. But, straight barrels are so much nicer to work with. Ratings: E=Excellent, G=Good, F=Fair, P=Poor.
Turbo
Hall
Kelbly
Is the action
face perpendicular to the bolt raceway?
E
E
E
Is the barrel thread
perpendicular to the action face?
E
E
E
Is the supporting
surface for
the cartridge head in
E
E
E
the
breech bolt nose square to the action face? Ignition?
P/E
(1) G
F (2)
Closing cam?
P
(3) E
E
Locking lug contact
with their
seats in the receiver?
F
(4) E
E
Ease of loading?
P
E
E (5)
Potential for good
bedding?
E
E
G (6)
Rating of barrel
thread size?
E
G (7)
F (8) Extractors?
G/F
E
E Provided courtesy of ARA News. Rimfire Action Comparison