Ed Ames
Member
The problem child today is a commercially sporterized '98 Mauser in 30-06. The company that sporterized it (GSA) has been dead for 30 years...
I gave it a general going over and nothing looked particularly wrong. Headspace was good. It didn't have any brass transfered onto the magazine follower or anywhere else, nor any particular signs of normal use...I nave no idea how often it was fired but I'm guessing "rarely if ever". I cleaned it, including brushing and swabbing the chamber. There was basically nothing to clean. The bore was shiney bright and, at least on the muzzle end, still blued.
So I fired it. No problem. It wasn't sighted in properly but it hit the paper nicely. Felt like a 30-06. Sounded like a 30-06.
Problem was, extraction was a real bear... the cartridge didn't want to come out at all. Once I got the bolt up it wasn't so hard to pull back, but getting the bolt up took some strength. Not quite "hammer time" but definitely not the easy snick-snick I'm used to.
No overpressure signs on the primer. I measured the case and every dimension was below max for a 30-06 by a few tho at least. The outside of the case was "printed" (for lack of a better term) with the shape of the chamber... and the printing wasn't smooth. There were shallow scratches or grooves around the circumference of the case. Rings around the neck, rings around the rest of the case... they stop near the head obviously.
I looked back into the chamber with a light and a jaundiced eye and I can see the matching scratches in the chamber. It looks like the chamber was gouged out with a rough reamer and never finished properly.
So, what's the most reasonable approach to fixing this? Set the barrel back and re-headspace with a finishing reamer? Just polish off the high spots since it is within tolerances? Get an Ackley improved or some equivalent reamer and re-chamber to something else altogether?
I have a 7mm rem mag short-chambered barrel boxed up in a closet.. OTOH that would leave me with a basically new 30-06 barrel in the closet.
I gave it a general going over and nothing looked particularly wrong. Headspace was good. It didn't have any brass transfered onto the magazine follower or anywhere else, nor any particular signs of normal use...I nave no idea how often it was fired but I'm guessing "rarely if ever". I cleaned it, including brushing and swabbing the chamber. There was basically nothing to clean. The bore was shiney bright and, at least on the muzzle end, still blued.
So I fired it. No problem. It wasn't sighted in properly but it hit the paper nicely. Felt like a 30-06. Sounded like a 30-06.
Problem was, extraction was a real bear... the cartridge didn't want to come out at all. Once I got the bolt up it wasn't so hard to pull back, but getting the bolt up took some strength. Not quite "hammer time" but definitely not the easy snick-snick I'm used to.
No overpressure signs on the primer. I measured the case and every dimension was below max for a 30-06 by a few tho at least. The outside of the case was "printed" (for lack of a better term) with the shape of the chamber... and the printing wasn't smooth. There were shallow scratches or grooves around the circumference of the case. Rings around the neck, rings around the rest of the case... they stop near the head obviously.
I looked back into the chamber with a light and a jaundiced eye and I can see the matching scratches in the chamber. It looks like the chamber was gouged out with a rough reamer and never finished properly.
So, what's the most reasonable approach to fixing this? Set the barrel back and re-headspace with a finishing reamer? Just polish off the high spots since it is within tolerances? Get an Ackley improved or some equivalent reamer and re-chamber to something else altogether?
I have a 7mm rem mag short-chambered barrel boxed up in a closet.. OTOH that would leave me with a basically new 30-06 barrel in the closet.