I just bought a fairly nice Remington Rolling Block. It is a military rifle in 7mm Mauser. The only bad thing about the gun is that the bore looks like a sewer pipe. When I bought it, you couldn't even see the rifling. I brushed it out pretty good, even to the point of chucking my cleaning rod into my electric drill, putting a bronze bore brush on it, and giving the bore a good old roto-rooter job. At least now you can see the rifling, but it is still too rough to give any sort of accuracy. And besides, I'm not really interested in setting up to reload another caliber.

Soooooo............what I'm thinking is reboring the barrel to shoot 30-30. The only problem is that the 7mm cartridge case is a bit bigger than the 30-30. My barrel guy has solved a similar problem for me when he re-bored an old 410 single shot shotgun and converted it to 44-40. Since the 410 chamber is bigger than the 44-40, what he did was to bore a really big hole and put a chamber liner in place, and it works like a charm. The little gun is a tack driver, and since I reload 44-40 already, it's cheap to shoot.

But I'm wondering about the question of chamber pressure. The rolling block has a really thick barrel stub where it screws into the receiver, so there is plenty of room to bore a nice big hole and put a real thick chamber liner in place. But I don't want to screw things up and have the damn thing kaboom right in front of my face. The alternative is to spend $250 for a .307 barrel blank, and just have my barrel guy turn it down on the lathe to the outside dimensions of the original barrel and chamber it for the 30-30 round. But I'd just as soon (a) keep the original barrel, and (b) not spend the $250 if I don't have to.

Thoughts? Ideas?

30-40?

Set back?

Balistically, the 30-40 is not a whole lot different from the 30-30, and I had thought that 30-40 might be an option. But I'd much rather go with 30-30 if I can, since I'm already set up to reload it.

As to setting the barrel back, that's out. The gun has a full-length fore-arm, and setting the barrel back won't work unless I shorten the fore-arm (and handguard), which would involve a lot of work that I don't want to get involved in....or pay for.

Clearwater Reboring, I believe?

And that means?

Meaning that is someone that does what you want and you should google his name. In which case you will find a lot of information on shops that do this kind of work.

Tried to contact them, but it appears that the shop is no longer in business. Thanks anyway.

Jim passed recently. But if you look in the threads about that you'll see plenty of companies that do the same work.

About an hour ago I talked with Bobby Hoyt (R.A. Hoyt) owner of the Freischutz Shop in Fairfield, PA. He says that he can bore out the barrel and rifle it. He also said that he could bore a big hole where the chamber is, and fit a thick sleeve into it, chambered for 30-30. He also said that doing it that way would be a lot cheaper than buying a new barrel for it, and that the existing barrel is plenty thick enough to support the sleeved chamber. The extractor can be altered with no problem, and the rimmed case on the 30-30 will present no problem, either.
The really nice thing about Hoyt doing the work is that he's only about an hour from me, so I can take the gun up there and not have to worry about shipping.

What is your reasoning behind the 30-30 again? Are you interested in an Ackley shoulder? Do you need to chamber the barrel differently to use spitzer bullets?

30-30 is funny because most guns that fire it are tube fed but there are a lot of single shots out there as well.

Lots of reasons for choosing the 30-30 chambering.

1. Ammo is available just about anywhere at moderate cost
2. Mild recoil, especially with 150 grain bullets, so it's a fun gun to shoot.
3. Probably the most popular deer cartridge in the entire country for the last 100 years.
4. When I eventually get around to selling the gun (15-20 years from now, if I live that long) I'll have a decent gun in a popular caliber, and should be able to get a good price for it.
5. And most of all, I already hand load it.

EDT: Looking at the number of this post (3220) maybe I ought to chamber the gun in 32-20.

Or .32 Special.

I have two rifles chambered for .32 Special, and not a .30-30 in sight.  But I found a few boxes of .30-30 cases a while back.

I also learned something today.  At least some of the Marlin Model 36 rifles have a flush bolt like the 1894 model.  I might have to track one down.

Another single shot project I think is worthwhile is one chambered for .30-40 Krag.  I have a bunch of those cases, too, but no gun.  A High Wall would be perfect.

I gotta stop trading for stuff.


AeroE, I think you hit edit instead of quote!

You sound a lot like me. I've got 5 single-shot rifles.

3 Rolling blocks: a No.4 in 22 "Short or Long",  a No.2 in 32-20, and a Model 1897 that is now in 7mm but will be converted to 30-30
1 Winchester Low-Wall "Winder Musket" in 22 short
1 Stevens .410 shotgun converted to 44-40

Strange thing about your suggestion that I convert my model 1897 to 30-40: These rifles were originally offered in 3 calibers: 7mm Mauser, 8mm Lebel, and 30US (30-40).

I had a nice Argentine rolling block that was originally in 43 Spanish, but the bore was shot out, so I had it converted to 45-70. It was a fantastic shooter, and I probably should have kept it, but a friend made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and I let him have it.

I'm quoting this. I did not write that.

I picked up my rolling block from the gunsmith yesterday, and took it out to my neighbor's range this afternoon. I only had time for 6 shots before it started raining, but I shot two 3-shot groups at 50 yards that measured just under 1 inch.  The gun is shooting about 6 inches low, so I'll have to do a little adjustment to the sights, but at least I know that it will shoot decent groups. The windage was perfect. So all I have to do is get the elevation right, and I'm good to go.

That's awesome. Glad it worked out for you.

Oh, very nice.