New Barrel or Cut, Thread and Ream?

[GrenGuy]

^^^ All of mine are right at .125”

What is considered MAXIMUM ?

[mnbogboy2]

I afree, your friends time setting the barrel back & threading it most likely will far outweigh the price of a quality prefit. Keep in mind the chamber reamer alone will cost more than a replacement barrel.

[Robinhood]

^^^ All of mine are right at .125”

What is considered MAXIMUM ?


There is a lot of variations in the case web dimensions so I am betting there is a small amount of safety built in. I don't think +.005" would cause any problems but it is so easy to maintain that dimension within .001" or .002" why deviate. Plus, headspacing becomes more problematic if you alter that dimension by much.

[mnbogboy2]

The .125 number matches what most headspace go gauges protrude from a properly cut chamber.
I have measured numerous savage barrels@and the number has ranged from .115 to .135.
Keep in mind in production settings that the ability to stop and check is often defined by their process.
The bolt face to breech face measurement can be calculated by The bolt head dimensions and adding .010 for the clearance of the veryfront ofthebolthead to reechface.the depth of the bolt face cut may vary from .115 to .125 + that .010 puts you back at the .125 mentioned.
Ioftenhaefacedoff 1/2 inchoffthe breech and added 10 threads to accomadate the nutwhile headspacing. As yobuck said earlier it is possible to increase chambervdepth by hand. Also I've added threads many times with a threading die.
Brownells sell these. They are 2-1/2" or 3" round dies and require a die wrench as such. The highspeedsteel die serves as a perfectguide for cleaning up the faced offered with a flat file, as the filewont hurtorsratch the die. Facingoffthe breech with a hacksawhas becomeroutine in my shop.
Sounds crude but iwasntmade out of money and can't afford a lathe or money to pay wages at a custom shop. Your predicament is doable for a diy kind of guy. Many have scoffed & laughed but often results tell the whole tale.

[GrenGuy]

Thanks Robin and mn....GG

[Balvar24]

Well, I've started down the road to cut and rechamber. I bought a barrel kit for the wrench and go/no go gauges, so I now have a .243 varmint barrel in the wings if I screw up. I could have used that and stopped. But, I decided this would be more interesting.

Bought a used reamer that appears to be serviceable.

I liked to not got the barrel nut off the 112v. Finally had to clamp the barrel (in wood blocks) in a hydraulic press to keep it from turning. My little bench vice just wasn't stout enough. 7000 lbs of force clamped it enough to work the nut loose. I had to put a 1/2" breaker bar on the barrel nut wrench, give it about all I had, and then smack with a hammer. After a couple of revolutions of this, the nut spun loose. I had soaked the threads with Kroil for about three weeks. It looked easier on You-tube.

Put the barrel in the lathe and trimmed .195" off the face. I need to take a couple more .001" off, but it's darn close. Now, I need to sink the reamer. So I guess I'm going to have to come up with some sort of pusher to use with the lathe tail stock.

[Dave Hoback]

Excellent brother. Yeah, there is no big mystery to this stuff. I’m not saying everyone SHOULD do it. Of course not. My son for instance, even with ME teach him all I know, has NO DESIRE whatsoever to work on firearms...or build them! Yet he LOVES all firearms! He owns more than me at this point! But for many, willing to put forth the effort, it doesn’t take decades to be able to set back & chamber. Or thread a barrel.

[gbflyer]

Well, I've started down the road to cut and rechamber. I bought a barrel kit for the wrench and go/no go gauges, so I now have a .243 varmint barrel in the wings if I screw up. I could have used that and stopped. But, I decided this would be more interesting.

Bought a used reamer that appears to be serviceable.

I liked to not got the barrel nut off the 112v. Finally had to clamp the barrel (in wood blocks) in a hydraulic press to keep it from turning. My little bench vice just wasn't stout enough. 7000 lbs of force clamped it enough to work the nut loose. I had to put a 1/2" breaker bar on the barrel nut wrench, give it about all I had, and then smack with a hammer. After a couple of revolutions of this, the nut spun loose. I had soaked the threads with Kroil for about three weeks. It looked easier on You-tube.

Put the barrel in the lathe and trimmed .195" off the face. I need to take a couple more .001" off, but it's darn close. Now, I need to sink the reamer. So I guess I'm going to have to come up with some sort of pusher to use with the lathe tail stock.

Good job. Are you working through the headstock or in the steady?

[Balvar24]

Thru the headstock.

[Balvar24]

Just a follow up if anyone is interested (probably not).

I finished this up a couple of weeks ago and have put everything back together.

My original plan was to cut .200 off the breech end of the barrel and allow the taper of the chamber to wash out the gouge. The gouge ended up being a bit deeper than I had hoped (I could only measure based on the case bulge). So, we cut another .200, removing the gauged portion of the breech entirely and added a few threads to make up the difference.

The used reamer was/is still sharp. Cut the first .200 off and pushed the reamer with a dead center in .010 increments. Cut the next .200 off and pushed the reamer the rest of the way home, again in increments.

Passed on the go/no go gauges with enough room to allow for alignment of the barrel blocks.

Everything was put back together. It took a little work to get the scope blocks aligned where the scope had enough windage adjustment, but now I'm back in the 10-Ring.

Case extraction is as good as new.

It would have been cheaper just to use the barrel that came in the kit and not purchase a reamer, but that wasn't what I wanted to do. I suppose it's all where your interests lie.

[Dave Hoback]

Well I’m certainly interested. I enjoy reading of others doing DIY work on their firearms.

Sounds like good work. Kudos! I know exactly what you’re saying. It’s not always about most cost effective. Many times I’ve built something and ended up spending more than I could have purchased for. The excitement for me of building was well worth the extra expense. I indicated in the beginning, you like the “J” printed on the barrel. Those kinds of things are important; and worth more than overall cost savings sometimes. Otherwise, why is the point?

[charlie b]

Nice work. I used to enjoy doing such things with my father-in-law in his shop. Saving money really wasn't the issue.