Is there any reason other than magazine length that a Browning A-bolt in 300 Win cant be rebarreled to 7MM RUM.

I can remedy the magazine lenght.

Thanks and God Bless, Louis

This is especially so in stainless models and is exacerbated by the use of a Loc-tite on the threads. I heat them up with a heat gum and squirt some gear oil into the scope base holes. This after I galled one back in the eighties and had to re-thread. A minor sacrifice prior to the attempted removal probably can't hurt (just a rat or something should do, Slit the rodent's throat and dribble blood on the action wrench). Regards, Bill

I remember reading about the A-bolts being a pain but had forgot about that. Now I dread it.

Bill, Will a sqirrel work; bout season.

Thanks guys, Louis

Getting the barrels on and off the chromoly barrels is not a problem. Stainless is an entirely different thing.

I was doing Browning warranty right when they made the switch to stainless steel and in the beginning they had some trouble hammer forging the stainless. They had done chromoly for years with no problems but when they switched to stainless the advance of the cylinder and head in the machines had to be altered radically to make the material behave properly. As a result most of the thinner walled barrels had massive ripples up and down the inside of the barrels from the hammers pushing material ahead of the cylinders. It didn't take long to figure out that the 308s and 338s wouldn't shoot if their life depended on it. We tried swapping barrels at first and probably destroyed a dozen receiver bodies in the process. Like Billy, we tried heating them, freezing them, talking nice to them, cursing at them and I think Ole Ronnie Zinkhan even tried his Saskatchewan combine whispering. Nothing worked reliably. In the end we just replaced the entire barreled action bodies. The major problem was the tight fit of the thread and more probably, they used like steels of like hardness and the threads would immediately pick up and weld together as soon as the action wrench turned. They are best left alone to rot in a dark place when the barrels burn out.

They use a ridiculously fine thread as well which exacerbates the galling problem. That being said I've never had any problems re-barreling them.

The one I'll be working on is chrome moly but I will install a SS barrel. Does Browning still use loctite?

God Bless, Louis

Do I correctly remember that that rifle originally had a courser thread ? The they went to a finer thread + loctite,many never knew.
The recipe for galling was hashed out when makers first used stainless steel. Use same steel with same low hardness = galling !!

quote:

Originally posted by youngoutdoors:
The one I'll be working on is chrome moly but I will install a SS barrel. Does Browning still use loctite?

God Bless, Louis

I don't think I have seen an A-Bolt without thread locker. The chromoly is no problem. I have never had a problem with them. Just the older stainless guns. Just warm it till its spitting hot and it will come off easier. But I never bother. I just bolt them in and twist them off.

Thanks guys! This is a newer rifle. Actually still has the Browning sticker on the barrel. I suppose it has been fired but not certain. On looking there is a primer ring on the bolt face so it has been fired. Do you guys need an A-bolt 300 barrel?

God Bless, Louis

I don't mean to hijack this post but do these thread fears also apply to the older Browning BBR rifles. I need to have one worked on.

Couldnt you cut the barrel off just past the recieve and come in with a boring bar and turn it down to paper thin and remove it that way? Just a thought...

quote:

Originally posted by Canadian reloarder:
I don't mean to hijack this post but do these thread fears also apply to the older Browning BBR rifles. I need to have one worked on.

Naw. The old BBR had a stellite insert in the receiver that the bolt locked into. They don't have any problems.

Just as a matter of trivia. I was doing warranty for Browning when the BBR was still in circulation and according to the guys at Browning, the BBR was the strongest turn bolt sporting action ever produced to that point. The pressure rating was so far beyond where brass became liquid that they felt that it was virtually indestructible. I have never seen a BBR blown up or even damaged by an over pressure load or wrong caliber firing in my life.

They had one major manufacturing setback that led them to discontinue it. It seems that they were making them for $600 per copy and selling them for $500 per copy. I don't know if that story is true, but that's what the guy who was heading up warranty in Morgan told us. I have no reason to doubt him.

Thanks Speed30x378 Good info. I never hears what made the rifle expensive, but I heard that they couldn't sell it for what they were asking and make money. I have 2 of them. A 7mm/08 bull barrel and a 270 Win. Both great guns and very accurate.The 7mm/08 shoots under 1/2 moa right out of the box.