Gunsmithing Barrel Reboring

[RTH1800]

I have always wondered why manufacturers do not re bore barrels of their own make? It would seem to be worthwhile. If you had a shot out light Palma .224 cal. barrel it could be re bored to .264 or .308.
Is the barrel steel cost so low that it would not be worthwhile? Are we being wasteful? Just curious.

 

[FUNCTIONAL]

couple things potentially.

1) how deep does fire cracking go, how over bore do you need to get good steel?
2) barrel needs to be cut short to at least the end of the chamber.
3) for the cost to re-bore, cut a barrel that can only be made to a smaller size is it worth the cost they would charge for a "used" barrel?

It would be a better option to recycle the steel for re-use. Or perhaps there is potential for short stuff like pistolish type guns.

For a rifle I can only see a handful of uses it could fit, and again Im not sure the value one would get on the cost it would still likely be. My bet is the cost of steel is a fraction of the labor when we talk bout barrel blank costs.

 

[fdkay]

My brother just had his shot out .270 rebored and chambered to 30'06.
Stuff like that used to be pretty common, as was making bullet jackets from expended .22 lr cases and other such things.

 

[FisherT&C]

We can't even make toilet paper. Where are we going to find the skilled labor force to rebore barrels on a massive scale? Mexico? There are a few gunsmith outfits that still do it though.

 

[ShooterwithNoName]

For the cost to rebore it's just cheaper nowadays to get a new blank in your desired diameter. There's a much bigger selection today than there used to be so I'm sure that plays in to it.

Plus the liability of reboring a used barrel probably makes it impossible to guarantee it will shoot. With a new "reputable" blank you know what your getting.

 

[wadebrown]

For hunting applications this company has a good reputation for reboring barrels, for about $250 they rebore and rechamber the barrel is cut rifled. Give them a call. I almost went with JES to have a commrecial Mauser in 30-06 rebored to a 9.3 x 62, but decided to just rebarrel in my shop. Of course this is a hunting gun used for pretty short distances so the accuracy requirement is pretty relaxed and I imagine that a JES would have worked just fine, I just decided to do the work myself.

Cost breakdown of rebarreling vs reboring: I went with a McGowan blank (the wait time for a cut rifled barrel was to long) $260, reamer and gage rental $62, my time on the lathe free total about $325 vs. $250 for a rebore. Add maybe $200 to the cost of rebarrel if you have a gunsmith do the barrel work, so reboring may make sense for some applications. For long range hunting or just about any target shooting application I would definitely recommend installing a new barrel, but for many hunting applications reboring may be a good choice.

Quite a few posters on longrangehunting.com have had JES rebore their barrels and there are quite a few posts there that review the results.

Hope this helps,
wade