Was wondering if anyone ever rebarreled a BAR into some flavor of big-bore?

I'm thinking 416 Taylor or 375 Epstein, might be the easiest. The 375 or 416 Ruger would
be interesting, but possibly more likely to have feeding problems.
The 470 AR would be fascinating, but probably very problematic.

I know that Jack Lott had a lot of problems with his 458 mag BAR project.

I'm thinking a bottleneck round would be the simplest to get to feed without problems.

A few years back I remember someone rebarreling/rechambering their BAR to 458 Win Mag. I found the article

https://www.africahunting.com/...r-458-win-mag.72423/

about 10 yrs ago, i talked with Danny Pedersen at CutRifle in Prescott about doing exactly this.... he was about 6-8 months backlog, and never did it... the issue is the gas block thats welded to the barrel.. he couldn't do it, but would send it to someone who could... i think the businees he was going to use, went out of businnes due to a death... names escape me, don't remember who he was going to use... we did decide the only barrel that would be useable was a 7 rem mag, it's the shortest chamber of all the belted mags... He also told me the thinnest acceptable muzzle thickness after rebore would be .110,,, figured i'd have about an 18-18" barrel... wish i'd have pursued it, i shoout a nice .416 taylor that Tip Burns built for me...

Why?

IMHO there are so nice bolt guns out there.

Why mess with a inferior design.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan Mizer:
..
The 470 AR would be fascinating, but probably very problematic.

I know that Jack Lott had a lot of problems with his 458 mag BAR project.

I'm thinking a bottleneck round would be the simplest to get to feed without problems.

I've seen, but not shot, a 458win garand - which i would consider to be too fragile of an operation system for such a beast

the 470AccRel would certainly be interesting, but i think there's mechanical issues/interference, though I never too calipers to the problem, as the case is fatter than the winmag in all dimensions, so i figured if Jack couldn't do it, there's no way I could. .. partially the reason being is there is/was a restriction that you can't bring semi-auto rifles into some African countries

I've read here in the last few years of guys that had takedown stainless BLR's in 300 win mag done over into ( don't remember) either 375 R or 416 R or 416T. They were pleased from what I read, but this is only anecdotal info.
Cheers
Rick

Before starting be sure the barrel will come out, a takedown or steel frame. The aluminum frames have a barrel extension and pressed in.

The Twelfth Edition of Handloaders Digest has an article and seemily walks a person through the whole conversion. Karl Bosselmann wrote and did a fine job with photo's and load data,, sounds like a dandy rig with ample power for anything on this planet!

Ive seen videos from Europe of people hunting with BARs in 9.3x62, so obviously Browning makes different calibres for different markets. Might be interesting to see what else they chamber it in for foreign markets.

Trust me if I ever hit the Lotto I will have a Full Auto 1918 BAR converted to 9.3x62.

After I get to fire I I’m driving straight to Ray’s just so he can shoot it.

quote:

Originally posted by waterrat:
The Twelfth Edition of Handloaders Digest has an article and seemily walks a person through the whole conversion. Karl Bosselmann wrote and did a fine job with photo's and load data,, sounds like a dandy rig with ample power for anything on this planet!

The same issue also has an excellent article on 416 and ther;ye ilk titled Load It For Bear! Ray Ordorica & Andy Runyan put together a pile of great info on big bores and bullets for brown bears in Alaska!

It would make a dandy 416 Taylor, and the auto sucks up a bit of recoil.