I've not had a Longshot boltsled fail on me yet. I've seen the warning signs, I've sensed the impending doom hinted at by the light whitening of the plastic. It's a sickening feeling. Without delay I got a replacement from eBay, and I epoxied aluminum strips onto the inside of the "L's" as has been done before, the epoxy simply would not hold the aluminum. After that I decided to try some real metal (metal with iron in it). I bought some stainless steel strips from True Value, cut and welded them together to match the profile of the Longshot boltsled with a lip wrapped around the front as such:
The stainless has an absolutely solid connection to the plastic now. But the boltsled was still flexing in areas that had not been helped by the addition of the stainless. This was not going to be a good long-term solution.
I decided the only way to be absolutely assured that I would not have a boltsled failure in my Brassed Longshot was to fabricate one completely out of stainless steel. I found some small pieces of 10ga scrap stainless laying around at work that would work for this project. I took some very basic measurements of the sled I had available and modified the length to accommodate my situation (longer priming draw, etc..). This is what I ended up with:
The stainless has an absolutely solid connection to the plastic now. But the boltsled was still flexing in areas that had not been helped by the addition of the stainless. This was not going to be a good long-term solution.
I decided the only way to be absolutely assured that I would not have a boltsled failure in my Brassed Longshot was to fabricate one completely out of stainless steel. I found some small pieces of 10ga scrap stainless laying around at work that would work for this project. I took some very basic measurements of the sled I had available and modified the length to accommodate my situation (longer priming draw, etc..). This is what I ended up with:
It's a lot beefier than it needs to be, I would destroy every piece of ABS plastic in my Longshot long before this piece would ever begin to flex. The brass breech keeps everything in-line so running rails were not necessary, I don't run any locks in my Brassed Longshot so the extra tabs were also omitted.
After a test fit and taking the pics above, I took it back to work and drilled the holes on a mill. As soon as I got home I installed it and it has worked flawlessly every since.
I run an OMW 2x spring and a Big Bad Bow spring in it. I successfully moved the failure point. To complete the package I replaced the broken plunger tube cap with one I made out of stainless as well.
I started up a company "Remedy Metal" which is currently in development/production of the prototype Remedy SS Longshot Boltsled. Find out more info by visiting our Facebook page
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