I have a Krieger barrel chambered in 300 WSM that came off of one of my rifles a while ago. This barrel was origionally a 300 Jarrett, my gunsmith cut off some threads and rechambered to 300 WSM. when a loaded cartridge is put in the chamber (this barrel is not on a rifle) it appears that the shoulder is about even with the beginning of the taper from the shank to the #4 contour of the barrel.

My question is can this barrel possibly be rechambered to a 300 Win mag, or does the chamber have to be within the full diameter of the barrel shank? I am not a gunsmith and dont know what the "rules" are in this situation??

Jason

The entire chamber does not have to be contained within the cylinder portion of the barrel. Few are. I don't have the WSM reamer here, or any drawings on hand at the moment to compare diameters of the two, however, if the Win Mag reamer will clean up the entire WSM chamber, then it should work.

I show the shoulder of the 300WSM to be larger in diameter than the base of the 300Wmag.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
I show the shoulder of the 300WSM to be larger in diameter than the base of the 300Wmag.

Thanks Paul. I'm not near any reference material at the moment.

silwane, given that bit of news, then it won't work.

Look at the old Winchester M70 Featherweight barrels and how little barrel diameter they had over the cartridge.

Gen Hatcher once took a 30-06 barrel and turned it down until there was only 1/16" of barrel thickness over the chamber. It held 3 regular service cartridges and took a 75000 psi test cartridge to blow out a chunk.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that what you're asking is safe. Only that most barrels are a lot bigger than they need be. The corporate lawyers would probably prefer them even thicker than what they are.

Try what you will, but you're on your own.

Ray

Thanks guys, wont work WSM is wider than the Win mag.

Thanks again for the help.
Jason