re cambering by hand

jpfabricator

jpfabricator

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I have a singleshot breakover 7.62x39 remington sp18. is it possible to recamber it to a .308 by hand; or am I wastin my time???:thinking:
 
Its possible but i wouldn't recommend it. It realy needs to have the chamber roughed out in a lathe then cut with a finish reamer.
If you just try to hand ream it from 7.62x39 to 308 the reamer will start cutting before the pilot is in the bore and you'll be turning that reamer for a long time.
 
Thanks Dirtyjim. I have a 9x20, and the spindle bore is too small. I guess I need to find a respectable gunsmith in the East Texsas area that can handle the job. Does anyone have some suggestions??
 
It's a little more complex than that. The 7.62x39 uses a .311" bullet; the .308 uses a .308" bullet. Also, the case head diameter of the x39 is smaller than the .308, so the bolt face would have to be opened up.

You can shoot .308 bullets down a .311 barrel - older reloading manuals used to have a lot of data on that, back when .311 bullets weren't common - but accuracy suffers.
 
Talk to Doug at Jackson's custom guns. Happens to be in Henderson. Used to be, anyway. Been a while since I've set foot in there.
 
Thank both TRX, and Mr. wells for the information. I think its gonna be cheaper and quicker to head for Gander Mountain and see whats on sale. I need a rifle dialed in and ready for Nov. 1st. I might see about getting the 7.62 rechamberd after the first of the year, when times not working against me.
 
jpfabricator said:
I think its gonna be cheaper and quicker to head for Gander Mountain and see whats on sale.
Click to expand...

Quite likely.

What are you planning to hunt? A box of commercial American-made 7.62x39 soft points will do the job for most animals. Ballistically, the x39 is very similar to the .30-30 Winchester; 123gr at 2400-ish fps vs 130gr at the same velocity, though you can get heavier bullets than that in standard .30-30.
 
White-tail, and feral hogs that are very gun-shy. The people on the lease before, and the neibor leases seem to have overly run the wildlife, making a close shot a nonexisting thing. I know the 7.62 is capable of a clean kill, but being a single shot I was wanting somthing with a little more knock down power to assure there is no game waste. I also have wanted to rechamber a rifle for some time, and thought this would be a worthy canadite. Kind of a 2 birds for 1 senario.
 
I reamed the spindle to .814 on my 9x20. Doing the same on yours might be enough to fit the barrel through the headstock. I also bored the chuck out a little and recut the inside taper on the nose of the spindle a little bigger.
 
Hey dirtyjim, I was in Alvin just last weekend! when you bored the spindle did you do it in one pass with a reamer, or did you use a boring bar?
 
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