Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Crooked chamber ??

I have a Remington 700 in .243 ADL with the sporter barrel. I was cleaning it today and I inserted my Teslong bore scope from the receiver end into the chamber. I noticed that 2 of the rifling ridges were right up to the end of the throat at the bolt end. While the other 4 were much further up the throat. The rifle shoots good but I can't say it shoots great with my hand loads. Was the chamber and consequently the throat reamed off center?? The first picture shows the rifling down to the edge of the chamber where it meets the throat. So the question is, is there a fix for this and do I really need it ?
kwg



This one shows the rifling back away from the throat.

Is this a factory barrel or one that someone cut in the lathe with a fixed reamer holder and didn't indicate the bore true?

This is a factory barrel.

kwg

Could run a throater into it to even up the lands but the chamber will still be off center. Or set it back and rechamber but being a factory barrel probably not worth it. Probably not shoot much better either.
Always marveled at how wonky chambering can get, yet still deliver acceptable accuracy.

I doudt a throater will fix anything reamer or throater is gonna want to follow whats already crooked.
If there's enough shank to cut it back and pre- bore it true you might finally get a straight chamber, but I see some pretty decent tooling marks i would just get a new barrel and start over.

Another Teslong victim..

g

That's what I get for taking a peek. I will get it to the range in the near future and see Just how good or bad it shoots. If I had a throater I'd try to dress it up but I'm not sure I want to go so far as to buy one. I'm not getting any distorted brass that I can see and the round loads smoothly into the chamber.

That's what I get for looking.

kwg

Common on factory Remington barrels. Usually not enough barrel to cut the whole chamber off and rechamber it.

I killed 3 pigs with the rifle in January but my longest shot was 50 yards. I need to get back to the range and try it again to see just how accurate or inaccurate the gun is. Since it's a factory sporter barrel it's not worth spending a big pile of money on. I checked Midway USA last night, a throat reamer and the associated tools to "fix" this issue are over $230. It will still be just a $300 gun when I'm done.

It is what it is until another day.

kwg

BOOM!

243 Remington barrels are cheap on fleabay

I'm sure they are. So, why did the owner remove the barrel ?? I'm reluctant to buy someone else's problem. I did take the rifle to the range on Thursday. I was getting consistent 2 " groups. I was hoping for a bit better. Towards the end (22 rounds fired) the groups started to open up and I decided to call it quits for the day. When I got home I found the rear scope ring mount screw was loose. I guess I will go back out the first of the week and try it again. I lock tited them bastards down this time.

kwg

I've been a victim myself of having a factory offset chamber in on rifle that was so bad it was obvious to the eye. When the gunsmith replaced it, not only was the chamber offset, the whole barrel wobbles when rolling it on the table.

Take off barrels are sold all the time. I bought a Remington 308 Varmint contour takeoff that was unfired, to do some testing, and found the same condition with the chamber off center with the bore. I tried setting it back as far as possible and have a shoulder to tighten against, never worked.

Rebore and rechamber it to 338 Fed or 358 Win. $300 and a prayer or two might fix it.

It's a sporter weight barrel. I would be concerned there wouldn't be much of a barrel left.

kwg

Ye have little faith.

Funny how a $100 bore scope can end up costing you so much more money …

I’ve got a REM Model 7 in 7-08 that has a chamber about that crooked, but it puts 139gr Hornady into an inch or better with every load and powder I’ve tried. I about crapped myself when I first looked at the scope, but if the bedding and everything else is right, they can shoot well.

Over the weekend I ran some more Brasso down the tube and shined it up real nice and pretty. I took it to the range today and could only get on the 50 yard range in the short amount of time I had available. It's still a 2 inch gun with just a bit of improvement. I guess it will be a 2 inch gun for eternity. I'll let my son worry about it after I am gone.

For the future, barrel makers are going to have to contend with the fallout of cheap and readily available bore scopes and maybe up their game a bit. No more of this guess and by golly stuff then sending it out the door hoping it will shoot. Now for a few bucks, we can all see for ourselves the quality of their work.

kwg

The problem will ne that the case head through the first .5" might be useful....but moving to the chamber from there it's going to be a bunch of single point work to get square.....assuming you have enough meat, an Ackley case might clean up.....but now you're trying to catch a feel 3" deep or trust a rod...


I'd just shoot it as is or have it as some pillar material.

You can roll the dice some more and buy one of the nutted prefit bubble packed barrels......

I appreciate your suggestion Al but for now since it will do 2" at 100 I will just work with it. If at some point in the future I win the lotto or have way too much money just laying around it can stay like it is. Although the .358 suggestion has some real merit to it.

kwg

What does your fired brass look like? Does it have the characteristic Remington bulge on one side just above the case head? Just curious.

I have to tell you ruffcut, I haven't looked. I will find some I recently shot but have not yet resized and get back with you.

kwg

Hello ruffcut
I just checked some once fired brass I kept back from a January hog hunt. I do see a bulge but as I measure it, it's only about 2 or 3 thousands of an inch taller than the surrounding brass. It left more of a scuff than a bulge.

kwg

I’ve had a couple R700’s where a bulge was quite noticeable. I assumed it was that the chamber wasn’t square with the bore but the case head was supported by the bolt which the lugs kept the bolt in line with the bore.

As you can see from my pictures the lands are uneven. Since that is in the throat and not at the bolt end of the rifle I don't see how that would create a bulge at the bolt end; but, a guy never knows. It's my guess that the bolt end of the chamber is a bit oblong or not a perfect circle in some manner. It is a Walmart rifle so I suspect they did not get the best rifles. IN some manner they were seconds and not firsts.

Thanks for the heads up. I will watch for the "bulge" should I ever get another Remington. If I could ever find a logical reason, I would get a .270. I just can't justify it since there is nothing in Iowa I can use it for except coyotes.

kwg

A few T/C barrels had crooked chambers, Mike Bellm used to take an example to gun shows. He thought T/C chambered using a drill press, he uses a lathe for his chambering.

The buldge isn't because the chamber is at an angle to the chamber per say. It is because the reamer was not on center when it plunged and therefore cut more on one side which make the chamber oversized on the head end.

308 to 358 would be dependent upon how the bore squared up after the rebore and how oversized the chamber is now.

I see no real fix without shortening the barrel at the chamber end and recutting a new chamber. Maybe someday when there is more money laying around I would consider that. At 2" at 100 yards I can live with it as long as I'm not using it for shooting at prairie dogs with light bullets it will have to do for now. I see where Walmart can sell these rifles so much cheaper than everyone else. It appears they get 2nd's or maybe even 3rd's with barrels that are less than perfect.

Hopefully the new Remington is a bit more careful with their finished product than the old Remington.

kwg

The bulge is because the brass is on the small side (almost always) and the unfired shell is pushed to one side by the extractor. In addition the brass may be thicker on one side so expansion takes place opposite. GD

If only that were true that the bolt lugs line things up.....actually the sear holds the back of the bolt up and misaligns the whole mess. Couple that with a slightly oversized chamber and you get the "Remington bulge". If you really want to prove this, next time you chamber a rifle put the bolt in a lathe and dial it up. Cut the back of the lugs {light skim cut} and then lightly lap them........
I don't know how you cut a crooked chamber, but I sure see a lot of Remington 700's and Seven's come into my shop with this issue. They will give you a new barrel if you send it to a repair center. It was suggested to me some time ago that they are cutting chambers with a CNC boring bar, ut I still don't see how you could get it crooked. I have purposely tried on a cut off junk barrel and I cannot get the rifling to look like many Remington's. M