Would it be feasible to rechamber a .308 to 7.62x39? Or would the barrel have to be set back too much to clean up the chamber?

[ 10-10-2002, 04:45: Message edited by: Pedestal ]

The barrel would have to be set back to cut a good chamber. 'Too much' I guess would depend on the aplication. How light a barrel you have and how much of a shank it has on it.

Krsitofer

Also you would not be able to use 7.62x39 ammo you buy at the store. The 7.62x39 has a .311 bore and trying to fire them down a .308 barrel would be quite hazardous. You can get a reamer for .308x39 but you would have to load your own.

Several years ago when Ruger was designing their Mini-30 (7.62X39) they too were concerned about using a .308 bore (for accuracy) and shooting the military .311 bullets through them.

They got together with Clymer and designed a chamber reamer that cut a very gentle chamber throat to land angle and had good sucess. Their barrels are all .308 bore to this date.

I have a Clymer reamer of that same design and have built several 98 Mauser sporters with the .308 diameter bore. They all were very accurate with handloads using .308 bullets and gave normal pressure signs and good accuracy with military ammunition as well.

All of the barrels were 24" and chronographed in the 2600 fps range with military ammo compared to 2300 fps area for military rifles with the traditonal 16" barrel.