I have a A&B 7X57 barrel pre threaded and short chambered for 98 Mauser. I have been looking at drawings in the reloading manuals and was wondering if I could chamber this one for 280 Remington. I don't have access to a lathe.
My concern is the diameter of the neck. I'm not sure how small the short chambered barrel's chamber is. I guess I could make a chamber cast and try to check. Should I try to polish out the chamber before casting?

Thanks

I had 1 done in an early 77 Ruger. The neck dia is somewhat larger in the 7X57, .321" compared to .315" in a .280, however when the reamer is finished the .321 neck is almost completely consumed by the body of the .280. What is left is about 1/8" ridge next to the shoulder of a fired round. I use that point to neck size to, I was delighted by the results of this conversion. My rifle averages about 2" better groups, 1/2" to 3/4" being normal with occasinal 3/8".

When Midway first started selling these barrels, they stated "chambers are about .025 inch short". They later recinded that statement. Of the Midway barrels I've used, they've all been more like .25 inch short. I think your conversion idea is a good one. I recently did the same thing to a Midway 7x57 barrel, opting for 7mm Mag instead of .280.

Funny story to go along with that barrel. I had a local gunsmith do the chambering. When I called to inquire to the status, he says "I got your chamber done, but that barrel just won't take a bluing. I don't know what's wrong, I've run it through 3 times." The funny part is that a) I didn't ask for it to be blued because b) it is a stainless barrel...

Good luck!

Trigger, watch the cartridge overall length with 140 and 160 gr bullets, you may exceed the magazine length of a standard 98.

The proper way to do this rechamber is to set the barrel back enough so the 280 reamer will completely clear up the old chamber and neck area. This is a simple lathe operation. But, you may run into problems with the barel thread undercut if it was threaded with an undercut. You will have a hard time selling a rifle with a stepped neck.

Nothing wrong with a 7x57 in a 98, especially if you use modern load date. A lot of data in print is underloaded because of the many early rifles chambered for 7x57, such as M93's and earlier Mausers.

SamB, thanks for the laugh. Three times and he still did not uderstand!!! When in doubt about barrel steel, a dab of cold blue tells the story.

Sxr6,
If you will stay with the 7x57 and have John Ricks cut your chamber for a 7x57 that will take a 175 gr. spitzer seated one caliber and/or as long as the magazine will take it....then with liberal doses of H414 you can leave the 280 Rem "whistling who'd a thought it" with anything from a 130 gr. to a 175 gr.

------------------
Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray I've already done mine & I'll never look back. Maybe a custom 7X57 chamber would be good but in my factory Ruger chamber I had a lot of accuracy problems with that sloppy .321 neck dia.

I did an old 7x57 Mauser to see what the 29+" barrel would do with the .280 ctg. What it does is to shoot like a tackdriver, even though I stuck it back in the original stock. And, it really laces 'em out there!!! Poor man's "beanfield rifle:" very homely, but worth more by far than I invested....