Well, the wife wants to have another kid, so my new gun days are being put off for a while...

I want a varmint/range/fun rifle and have a Mauser that I am willing to convert...currently chambered in .280.

It currently feeds .280's well, (blunts the tips from recoil bad, though, tight mag box) but shoots like crap, so no matter what I am looking at a new barrel. I have always had a desire for a 22-250, but given the large difference in length and taper, how much trouble am I asking for to get it to feed?

all you need is a new barrel.....get a few 22-250 rounds and see how they feed first however.....you might want a less tapered case for feeding in which case you might prefer the .22-250 AI.
you might also find that it's cheaper to trade the rifle than re barrel it.

"you might also find that it's cheaper to trade the rifle than re barrel it."

THAT'S FOR SURE...

unless you can DIY.

I had a mauser that I had rebarreled in 22-250. It was a little finicky feeding at first. The mag is blocked with a piece of delrin the 'smith fasioned to fit the mag box. I had to reshape it when i changed the triggerguard. It originally had a hinged floorplate, but when I saw what those sold for on ebay, I could't rid of it fast enough.

Anyway it cycles fine now. It just takes a little tweaking at first. There is a guy on ebay selling installed A&B barrels for $150. I have heard he does good work. You send him the action. I think he does 22-250. It is a fairly common conversion.

If your mauser was rebarreled with a decent .280 barrel, and has not had too many shots down it, you might consider rechambering it. Quite often this will do wonders for a poor shooting barrel. Possibly you can work out a deal with the gentleman that rebarrels your gun. Bob

Why not a 220 Swift? The longer case would be a helpful in this situation.

I had considered a 220 Swift, but figured that the narrower body might cause more problems than the longer cartridge solved. Maybe I'm outthinking myself...

I probably ...could... sell it off and put the $$ aside for a new rifle, but how much can I get for a partially sportered 1908 Brazillian Mauser with a crap barrel? I could headspace and install a long chambered barrel myself...and avoid the new gun fight with the pregnant wife!!!

quote:

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but how much can I get for a partially sportered 1908 Brazillian Mauser with a crap barrel?

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It's highly unlikely that there's anything wrong with the barrel. How do you know that the barrel is bad?
The overwhelming odds are that if it's not accurate, it needs bedding, floating, and/or copper removal.
Fix these problems first. Besides the .280 can also be a superb varmint round if one don't do a helluva lotta shooting.

Given your predicament I think I would take a different route.

Since your Mauser feeds the 280 cartridge well I would consider rebarreling it to a similar cartridge.

I know you want a 22-250, and I can see that, I own three currently. But I think you will find trouble making your current Mauser into one. You will have to block the magazine to deal with the shorter case and the taper of the 22-250 is a good deal different than the 30-06 bases cartridges.

A 25-06 makes a great varmint cartridge if you just do not shoot it too fast and burn the barrel up. A rebarrel job to 25-06 would seem an easy fix.

I have shot everything from ground squirrels, prairie dogs, rabbits, coyotes, bobcats, deer, antelope, to wild hogs with the 25-06 and it has always worked great.

Just a thought.

R F

After spending too many evenings tinkering with the .280, I got it to a 2" gun. I tinkered some more and it is now a 6" gun.

It is bedded and floated, rescoped, cleaned to bare metal, recrowned, etc.

There are visible grooves in the barrel parallel to the rifling from a bad rifling tool. I think I screwed the crown, causing the poor groups. I nkow, easy for a real 'smith to fix, but that wouldn't get me the 22-250 I really want.

Sometimes you just gotta quit beating yourself...hence the desire to rebarrel. Maybe something in 6mm or .257...but I really WANT something with a .224 bore, and anything on the .223 casehead size is waaaay more work than I want to tackle! Maybe the 22-250AI with less taper would feed better...anyone have some split neck brass they could send me to try out????

Can you live with feeding it manually for a single shot? If so, that alleviates a world of feeding problems.

You might check sites like www.varminthunters.com , www.benchrest.com and www.xtremeaccuracy.com for secondhand match-grade barrels or even a combo of barrel/dies/ brass. Ths place sells lots of secondhand Match/Varmint quality stuff: http://www.benchrest.com/shooterscorner/

Since Varmints have no requirement to save the meat, an '06-class cartridge at a good price may be better than a (relatively) complicated conversion to a shorter round. I LOVE my 6.5 Gibbs (basically an improved 6.5-'06). It's my 1,000yard benchrest rifle.

(edit) It's been ages since I looked through the list of used equipment at Shooter's Corner. I went there just to look around, even though I can't buy anything right now. Item #T8 in the Used Match Barrel section is a 26 inch Douglas in .308x1.5". Not exactly what you were looking for but it fits Mauser and it's $99. Not a bad deal if you want a better barrel on your Mauser. They can rechamber it for $135 but I think you could find used dies for this cartridge for a lot less.