Browning A Bolt 2 rebarrel

[ksubuck]

My old faithful A bolt has been in need of a new barrel for may years. After hearing all of the horror stories about broken actions and locktite I decided that if someone was going to break it, it might as well be me. I found a factory new threaded barrel with a short chamber and figured why not, I can hand chamber it.

Action wrench received, new barrel in hand. I cleaned the action screw hole and scope mount holes out, drenched in Kroll overnight. Put it in the vise and attached the wrench. Spun right off. No galling at all. The problem? My action is an old 20 tpi thread patter, the new barrel is 32tpi. Defeated. I can have the new barrel turned down and rethreaded at 20 tpi with about 4 thousandths of an inch to spare.

In the meantime, I contacted my old smith. He left town without telling me but had a youngster that took over his shop. I called around a bit to see if anyone else is available. One smith is out with health problems, another isn't taking work for the foreseeable future. So back to the youngster I went. He isn't comfortable with spinning the factory barrel down. So I pulled a Proof barrel out of storage and upgraded my plans a bit. So, he asked me what caliber. I said .284. He says that's a good old caliber, but he didn't have a reamer for it. No problem, I brought along a 7 rem mag finishing reamer. He tells me that is the wrong caliber. See where I am going here? How come I am nervous when the youngster doesn't know the difference between caliber and cartridge?

Anyway, I left it in good hands. We will see how this turns out. Everyone deserves a chance to screw up, right?

 

[nhenry]

My old faithful A bolt has been in need of a new barrel for may years. After hearing all of the horror stories about broken actions and locktite I decided that if someone was going to break it, it might as well be me. I found a factory new threaded barrel with a short chamber and figured why not, I can hand chamber it.

Action wrench received, new barrel in hand. I cleaned the action screw hole and scope mount holes out, drenched in Kroll overnight. Put it in the vise and attached the wrench. Spun right off. No galling at all. The problem? My action is an old 20 tpi thread patter, the new barrel is 32tpi. Defeated. I can have the new barrel turned down and rethreaded at 20 tpi with about 4 thousandths of an inch to spare.

In the meantime, I contacted my old smith. He left town without telling me but had a youngster that took over his shop. I called around a bit to see if anyone else is available. One smith is out with health problems, another isn't taking work for the foreseeable future. So back to the youngster I went. He isn't comfortable with spinning the factory barrel down. So I pulled a Proof barrel out of storage and upgraded my plans a bit. So, he asked me what caliber. I said .284. He says that's a good old caliber, but he didn't have a reamer for it. No problem, I brought along a 7 rem mag finishing reamer. He tells me that is the wrong caliber. See where I am going here? How come I am nervous when the youngster doesn't know the difference between caliber and cartridge?

Anyway, I left it in good hands. We will see how this turns out. Everyone deserves a chance to screw up, right?

Bunch of young'ns (myself included) will use cartridge and caliber interchangeably, even if knowing it's wrong.

 

[PJGunner]

Th boss at the gunsmith's I dealt with only does stocks. He had a fellow named "Joe", never learned his last name who was an excellent metal man. Therewere a few times I think he bordred on genious. Anyway, I had another project in mind and when I went to the shop it's posted as closed. After several tries over a few weeks I tried calling and got the boss. He only is doing stock when in the mood and Joe just upped and didn't show up for work. No one knows where that old gentleman got off to, but he is missed by those he did work for. He's done three rebarrels for me, rebedded the barrels into the stock of the rifles and every one has shot MOA or less, mostly less. I can oly hope he's OK.
Paul B.

 

[RL338]

I cleaned the action screw hole and scope mount holes out, drenched in Kroll overnight.

Kroil is the key in removing stubborn barrels. As far as your new gunsmith he’s young and his phone app told him 7mm = 0.276”

 

[ksubuck]

Pretty happy with the result. Slightly over 2 months and it is back. That young guy was extremely professional and timely. Great first impression.

Glassing it tonight. Will start load development next week and see how it shoots.

 

[cloverleaf]

Hey- Glad it looks good so far! Hope she shoots out the way you want. Kudos to you for letting the "young fella: work on his trade. Thats how they learn. The smith I go to, Middle aged fella with a good rep. Said he would rebarrel a rifle for me, but that he dosent "do barrel work anymore- because every body thinks if the screw a new barrel on they are gonna shoot 1/2 inch groups". Of course it dosent work that way, but he got tired of people coming back to him saying he had screwed something up because they couldn't get it to shoot to the level they want.

 

[Blkram]

A friend that spent a good deal of time working with a local gunsmith (and competitive shooter - who has since passed away) has told me of a trick they used on such actions...
They would lay the barreled action on the woodstove in the shop so that just the action was on the heated surface and allow it to heat slowly, and the heat would release the threading compound and slightly expand the action's metal while the barrel didn't absorb as much heat and didn't expand. He did say that they wouldn't allow the action to get too warm.
Said it worked very well and made the process so much easier.

When I was working at the LGS with the gunsmithing shop, it was interesting to hear how many people would pick up a new custom, or semi custom rifle, go out and shoot it, and bring it back because it wouldn't produce one hole groups! In many cases, these customers were new shooters or had limited experience.
When someone from the gunsmithing shop (or someone such as DrMike who did this work for them for a while) would test fire the rifle, and find it produced good to excellent accuracy.
In many cases, the customer would still not believe it was because they didn't have, or yet have, the skills to make the rifle live up to its capability. Most think that they are going to be sharpshooters out of the box with a custom rifle...and do not have the knowledge, understanding and patience to accept that this a learned skill that is only acquired over time with quality practice.

 

[RL338]

A friend that spent a good deal of time working with a local gunsmith (and competitive shooter - who has since passed away) has told me of a trick they used on such actions...
They would lay the barreled action on the woodstove in the shop so that just the action was on the heated surface and allow it to heat slowly, and the heat would release the threading compound and slightly expand the action's metal while the barrel didn't absorb as much heat and didn't expand. He did say that they wouldn't allow the action to get too warm.
Said it worked very well and made the process so much easier.

When I was working at the LGS with the gunsmithing shop, it was interesting to hear how many people would pick up a new custom, or semi custom rifle, go out and shoot it, and bring it back because it wouldn't produce one hole groups! In many cases, these customers were new shooters or had limited experience.
When someone from the gunsmithing shop (or someone such as DrMike who did this work for them for a while) would test fire the rifle, and find it produced good to excellent accuracy.
In many cases, the customer would still not believe it was because they didn't have, or yet have, the skills to make the rifle live up to its capability. Most think that they are going to be sharpshooters out of the box with a custom rifle...and do not have the knowledge, understanding and patience to accept that this a learned skill that is only acquired over time with quality practice.

This is so true , make one wonder why manufactures go out on a limb and put accuracy guarantees.

 

[Blkram]

Because it sells new rifles...many people buy into the hype because they want to be sharpshooters...it truly is and ego trip when you shoot tiny groups! Puts a grin on the chin! (Even for us that know better)

 

[ksubuck]

Being from a service profession, I am amazed at what people can expect. I would imagine gunsmiths take a ton of heat from people with misguided expectations.

I think this youngster was puzzled when I didn't want the muzzle threaded for a suppressor. He was equally perplexed when I said my expectations were MOA or so cause it was just going to be a 400 yard deer rifle. He said the rifle would be much more capable than that. Well, yeah, but I have other cannons for that kind of stuff, and I still have two usable feet if I need to get closer.

This is my first carbon wrap barrel. I am really enjoying the balance, the center of gravity is balanced much closer to me and it is a dream to hold off-hand. Got it cleaned up and scoped this afternoon. Couple of more days and I will torque the action screws and take it for a spin.

 

[Darryle]

I work with several thousand people, a lot of shooters, hunters and even collectors. I have bought more than one rife, pistol or shotgun that was either unreliable(pistol) shot erratically or failed to cycle(shotgun) or hated everything it was fed and accuracy sucked(rifle). Some required a little tweak and a deep clean, while others required a different bullet or weight of bullet to see potential. Some required bedding. Not all turned into bona fide shooters, but they did drastically improve. It's fun and challenging to see if you have what it takes to make it happen.

 

[ksubuck]

I agree. Though it is nice to have a shooter, it is more fun for me to tinker with a problem gun to see if I can make it shoot.

 

[ksubuck]

Here are a couple of groups. That'll hunt.

 

[JD338]

Nice shooting. Ready to hunt.

JD338

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Your good to go! Dan.