Guys:

I had our local best g/s rebuild an Eddystone for me in .243. He's remade over a 100 of them but, always bigger, this is his first smaller one. I wanted a "set" of hunting rifles to cover most anything. Just one of those notions.
I never gave it a thought about having trouble since it's on an '06 case.

Gun is done and looks great. But, it won't feed. I want a hunting rifle, not a single shot.

Yesterday I dropped by and he was in the middle of trying to figure out how to shorten the inside of the magazine box. Believing that's the main troubles. Had shortened and rewelded the follower, and was making a spacer.

Dave, Rod, or any of you others that may have done this conversion. We'd sure appreciate hearing what you've figured out to make things work.

Jack's been a self supporting gunsmith since 1973 and works on just about anything. He's almost 81 now and has had some colon cancer a few years ago.
He'll figure it out, but, if you've been there and can shorten the battle please share the solutions.

He's not on a computer, I can print things out and share pictures if you have them.

Thanks much,
George

P17s are not my forte and short cartridges were never meant to be stuck in them. I would think that Tom or Duane have most certainly been faced with this a time or too. Although they probably didn't want to. Or deserve it. I would think that you would have to weld up the rails and bring them forward 1/2 inch. But this is above my pay grade. We just don't see P17s up here in the Great White North.

It is not that hard of a thing; look at the feed rails; note how they are tapered for the 30-06 case; for the 308, which has little taper, they have to be milled to suit. And the short case starts into the chamber and cams the base down, so the bolt can't push it. Shortening the box won't solve the problem as that isn't the problem. Best solution; turn it into a 375 H&H.

Thanks guys.

Dave: Not a chance! I have a FN .375 of Dad's, one is enough collecting dust. Other than a few prairie dogs it hasn't been fired in many years. Moose, caribou, and elk in '67 & '71 it hasn't been fired since that I'm aware of. Real shame '67 and '71. I've got a about 100 cases and loads and been thinking for the last five years about taking it out and warming the barrel up but, haven't.

Ok, I'll pass this info to Jack. He does fine mill work and has a big one.

I have: '06, .300Win, .358U/m and wanted a .243 for antelope and maybe for close up deer. Then I'd planned on thinning the herd. I sold a nice 700 to finance this project.
Appreciate the replies, that's what I was hoping for.

George

Who is Dave?

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Who is Dave?

Don't you remember your Cheech and Chong?
Daves not here man !

Ooops, got names mixed up again. Sorry!

Called Jack and told him what you'd said. Couldn't understand his reply. Two deaf mutes don't get much worse on the phone.

George

He said his name was Ruaaalph.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
He said his name was Ruaaalph.

I'm just glad it's all cleared up.

Dave is probably scratching his head and wondering,
W.T.F. ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ?
right about now though.

Yep, all cleared up.
Except for that Dave part.

i thought this was ".17x243" not enfield won't feed short rounds ...

i thought "well, that won't matter long, as it will be eroded to to the muzzle in 500 rounds"

answer it, make it a 6rem AI and it will likely feed -- the 243 and an enfield aren't friends, too short

If it was mine... as Jeff said 6 Rem AI. Orrrrrr 6-06. But it isn't mine.

Ok, back to seriousness; it ain't the short that is the problem; I put all kinds of short cartridges on long actions; it is the body taper vs the receiver feed rail taper/contour.
How does the cartridge know how long the mag box is? (There is a limit, but 308 lengths work fine.)

Thank you dpcd.

No, I'll stick with the standard .243 until we give up on making it work. Then maybe I'll change it to 7x57. I've had that in mind for years too. BUT: that would require another new barrel.

Hell of it is, I had a barrel made for this thing.
Never gave a thought to problems since it's based on the '06 case sure seems like it should work easy enough. I can understand if I'd had it changed to say .223 case of some off the wall deal like that.

On those short cartridges and long actions. Have you had to shorten the bolt and actions? I've read somewhere about doing that and neither I nor Jack would do it for anything.

A lot of the reason for .243 is I have a couple thousand rounds already loaded up. Just something about empty brass bugs the hell out of me. My winter hobbies are casting bullets and loading ammo.

George

Why would I shorten an action when you can buy one?; that is the point; I use long actions for short cartridges. That's it. I don't want a short action. But that is not your problem. Modern actions do not have unique feed rails milled into them; they rely on the stamped sheet metal mag boxes for that. Cheaper.
308 is only based on the 30-06 if you mean the case head size. Nothing else is close. Ok, bullet diameter. So, feed rail geometry for a 30-06 will not work for a 308, or a 243.
The fix is easy; your gunsmith should know that; feed rails are not made for the 308 but a ball end mill and ten minutes and it could be. It is NOT the length of the cartridge that is the problem.
No need to give up when the solution is right here. Anyone who can fit a barrel should be able to do this simple feed work.

I have shortened actions and there are guys in the USA that do it. After cutting, welding, finishing and re-heat treating it's a $1,000 USD touch. If you can find someone that works cheap. Then you run into all of the problems of making a custom stock from scratch. Mo-money mo-money mo-money!

But that is not the point, or the problem; even if you cut a 1917 in half and made it exactly the same length as the 308, you will still need to mill out the feed rails to make it work. Because they are made for a 30-06, taper is too different to work well.

Ok, thank you for the info and discussion.
Just what I was hoping for again.

That's why I asked her, knew you guys would know the tricks. Even if I called Tom a fouled up name!

George