My gun is about 85% complete, the cams (standard D&E) design are complete and installed. About all that is left is the bolts and cocking ring, and a few cosmetic trimmings. All the bolt internals are made as are the bolt blanks. I made one bolt completely for test purposes. The problems with the extractor design were obvious. I have known of the issues with the D&E design since I started. I too talked with Doug on a few occasions but it quickly became obvious that no solutions to the well known problems were going to come from him. Doug, who I really liked, strongly stood by his designs even though there has never been a firing gun made from them.
I was not about to reinvent the wheel. Manually operated firearm design has not really seen any changes in the last 100 years. Things such as solid designs for firing pins and extractors are history. Only recently I had the opportunity to closely look over a RG gun which does not share the design flaws of the DE gun. I was amazed how easy the gun cranked and smoothly. Of course I noticed the conventional extraction methods as well. A quick look at the RG guns cam profiles and it became obvious why the gun cranks so nicely.
There are excellent pictures here on the forum of both the RG and DE cams. Pretty obvious why the RG gun cranks so nicely. Because of the less radical slope on the cams, the RG design might allow stiffer firing pins springs to be used also.
Yes, I have a cnc mill that I retrofitted completely so remaking the cams is a fairly easy task for me. I would be far less willing to remake the cams if I had to do it manually, its a lot of work. The gun is a winter project for me. As soon as I finish up a cnc lathe retrofit, its back to completing and firing the gun. I hope start again in the next couple of weeks. The plan of attack is pretty clear.
How far along is your gun?