4x4Wire's TrailTalk Forums: Hunting Rifle Mission Creep

Maybe I should have taken this rifle to a good gunsmith (if there's such a thing)....

After my barrel was rebored and in transit to me, I called the reborer to see what he found. He said he didn't look in the barrel with a borescope before he began his work, but by shining a light into it, it looked like a beautifully button-rifled barrel in terrific condition..... well, no joke.... I think I could tell that much.

The next thing he said was that in removing the barrel from the receiver in preparation for reboring, he found the barrel slightly loose..... but said he managed to turn it around a half-thread - and that he found the headspace a little on the loose side. Heck, if I'd have known that, I might have asked him to correct the headspace by cutting the barrel shoulder a little and re-reaming the chamber to stay with the .30-06 in hopes that would cure the accuracy issue. If you look at the last target pictured, 4 of 5 shots are in a dead straight ~45° line and just might have been the result of a loose barrel - something I would never have guessed.

But - I guess if you go to a surgeon, he's gonna cut - go to an internist, he'll give you a pill. I probably would have also told him to bore it anyway, since I'm sort of set on Whelen.

Anyway, when the barrel arrived, I was expecting the top markings toward the end of the barrel to now be on the bottom and I would want to send it back to get the shoulder cut and headspace corrected, but I was surprised to see the markings seemingly where they should be - on top of the barrel. Further examination showed he only turned the barrel a tiny amount - hardly enough to change much, but maybe a small change makes a difference.

I bead-blasted all of the metal parts, stoned the barrel a little to knock down the milling marks (then re-blasted) and parkerized everything with manganese phosphate. Here's the barrel in the white - you can see how far he was able to turn the barrel:

Here's my super-duper parkerizing tank, made from a driveshaft and fired by 2 propane torches:

In work:

And the post-treatment water-dispersing oil tank:

I guess it's a .35 Whelen - that's what the barrel says:

.30-06 on the right, .35 Whelen on the left - wouldn't want to get tagged with either one:

Changed to Leupold rings and she's back together - with different shades of dark grey - apparently, the phosphate depth of color is somewhat dependant on metallurgy, but I'm satisfied with it for a hunting rifle:

Now to find out how it shoots..... the reborer said he thought it would be fine and the headspace looseness is ok - but if not, he offered to properly fit the barrel and correct the headspace for nothing - just wish he'd have given me the opportunity to pay him for doing that before he sent it back to me.

Frank

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'89 G-Raider Supercharged 3.0L, MegaSquirt 2, lockup A/T, 2.5" exhaust, 155k, Cibie H4s/Oscar SCs, Hella Micro DE fogs, Cobra CB, Superwinch hubs, LSD rear/Aussie Locker front, Bilsteins, 165A alt., Lifeline AGM, Rust-Oleum

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