I'd like to take a pre-64 Winchester, either a featherweight or standard grade and rechamber to .35 Whelen. Ideally I'd like to keep the original bbl -I like the sights. Can I just rechamber and ream the bbl out to .35 caliber? I'd prefer to use the featherweight because I'd prefer a 22 in bbl.

You would need to start with a rifle chambered for a 30-06 based round to have the proper magbox length, follower and bolt stop.These things can be swapped or modified if need be.The best one would be a 30-06 or 270 rifle.

Thanks Rembo-I had planned on an '06. I've got my eye on a pre-64 FW .30-06.

Remaining barrel wall thickness will be your limiting factor in a rebore. I've been told that .125" should be the minimum thickness at the muzzle. For a .358" bore, that means that the muzzle diameter needs to be at least .608". My standard pre-64 M70's muzzle diameter is .593", so I'd suspect that the FW's barrel is even skinnier.

.125" is just an arbitrary number and not sure why some one say it is "minimum". A mizzle can be much thinner than this. The FW would work just fine if rebored to .35 Whelen

the pre-64 featherweight was available in .358 winchester and my "guess" would be winchester - to save costs - used the same external bbl contour for allthe featherweights but i've never had one in 358 so can't confirm this. i don't think roger rules book even goes to the level of detail of giving external bbl dimensions but i'll look tonite.

One thing you may want to keep in mind is that the factory sights cannot be used over most all QR bases. Thus, don't expect to be able to rebore your rifle and then have a nice QR set up...

Also, the FW stock may make it a bit hard to get down on the sights, and you may find that shooting it will be hard on your cheek bone. Something to look into first...

Pre-64 standard barrels are 24" and about 0.6" muzzle. You could ask Dan Pederson if he would bored it to 35 caliber. I know he'd go 338 for sure...

BTW, the pre-64 FW was made in 358 win. I've handled these before and the barrel looks like a 410 barrel - almost all hole - "snappy" recoil to say the least. I would NOT want that barrel in 35 Whelen.

9.3 Who is Dan Pederson? I'm not familiar with the name. I plan on bedding the rig in a synthetic stock btw. Will-I have a copy of rules book- I'll look for it as well.

Here's Dan's wedsite. He is about 6months backlog on rebore jobs last I checked. $265 for the job. I've heard good things about his work.

http://www.cutrifle.com/

Any iron-friendly comb will not allow you to see over the QR bases using the factory sights - they are too low.

Thanks 9.3. BTW, i went through Rule's book. The only reference i found was that all featherweights were equipped with a 22 in #10bbl. So it seems as if the .358 win bbl was the same as all other calibers.

I had a Mod 70 FWT. in .358 Win. one time. Barrel size was the same as a .30-06 FWT I had at the same time.

Hi: My 2 cents worth...I don't see why a .30 cal.
can't be rebored to a .35. FYI, I know a guy who had a new Winchester Model 95 with a former .30-40 Krag barrel, and had it bored out to .375 Thats a
bigger difference & works fine.
Best Regards, Tom

Sounds promising so far-I'm planing on contacting a few smiths after the three day weekend.

I had a Browning BLR rebored from 30-06 to .35 Whelen, no problem.