A very good friend of mine has been bitten by a bug thus my question as I've not looked closely at a Kimber bolt face. His is in 7mm WSM and he wished to convert it to either a 260 Rem Ackley Imp, 6.5x284 or a 6.5x55 Ackley Imp.

I'm assuming "no" but wanted to ask your experienced opinions.

Thanks,

I havent work with kimbers but I have with other mauser style actions. you would have to make a donut to put in the boltface and solder it in place and then open it up to the correct dia. You probally would need a new claw extractor.

skog

Also, the possibilty that the magazine would not retain the smaller cartridge diameter.

since he is doing a rebarrel anyway to get to 6.5. Why not do a 6.5RSUM or 6.5 WSM. Buy all the brass he can find with the money he will save in the bolt and feeding work.

It's a bad idea trying to reduce the boltface size. IMO he would be a lot better off if he traded the rifle for another Kimber with the proper boltface. By the time you got a WSM action to properly feed a 308 diameter round (which it might never do) you would have likely spent far more than you might loose in a trade.
But I do agree that if he just really wants different round he should go with a WSM based one on the existing action..............................DJ