Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Just found me a 29 caliber rifle

Only I wasn't lookin' fer one. Picked up a sporterized 7x57 FN Argentine Carbine over the weekend. Took er out to the range yesterday and got about 5 inch groups at 25 yards. Hmmmm... took it home and verified everything and as an afterthought decided to run my calipers on the muzzle end. 289? Naw. Then I slugged it. Right, my calipers were wrong. 280 grooves, 290 lands!

Now I just need a 29 caliber bullet and I'll be set to go. I think I might have it rechambered to B29!

Is there any hope? It's a good action to have something built on and I really liked the idea of having a 7x57. It was my first but what bitter love!

If the bore is mint, you could have a swage made to reduce "soft" 308s (cup & core unbonded) to something that would fit.

Cast bullets are another option.

New barrels are not that expensive either, or a used 7/8x57 takeoff.

Finally being a carbine, a rebore to 9x57, would make a neat rig or, with a bit of action work, a 9.3x62.

Nice find, just needs a bit of "tuning".

There's always been that huge gap in calibers. I mean we have 24,25,26,27,28 - then the huge gap - then 30,31,32,etc.

It's time we had a good 29 available.

You forgot the gap at 23..., and at 38, and 39.

Also at 44 since the 44 is actually a 429 (43). We need to close that gap as well

Col. Askins did some work with .29 caliber several years ago, think Ackley did the rifle/barrel work for him, don't remember where he got the bullets.

Thanks guys for standing in the gap for me... I'm sure I'll figure something for this rifle.

I'm wondering if there's a chance a partition might bump up enough? (thinking 303 british where some ppl have used 308 partitions and got decent accuracy out of them)

Hornady used to make a .300" bullet for the 7.35 Terni, the cartridge Italy was going to replace the 6.5 Carcano with. They still do a run for Graf's now and then.

I'll bet some creative swaging could make it work, if you can find any of the bullets.

Of course, if you're willing to buy a million of them, Hornady would make them for you.

Contact Mule Deer, I seem to recall a .29 Calhoon Wildcat

I remember an article by Ross Seyfried, where he needed to have bullet diameter decreased. He mentioned a company that has equipment to reduce bullet diameter in volume. Maybe someone has that article.

I always figured the grooves were larger in diameter than the lands. A 7 Mauser uses a .285 bullet. Maybe it is a 7x57. I think a good mic will give you a better measurement.
Butch

Butch, that's the problem! The dern barrel's inside out! And yes, it's a 7x57. Got me some military ammo to try here soon as the rain lets up.

have the rifle re-barreled and chambered to 358 win and never look back

Are you sure your rifle isn't a 7.65 Mauser? Most Argentine rifles were.

Did I say Argentine? Venezuelan is what it is... I'll edit my original post. edit: no I won't - can't edit my older posts?? learn something new everyday.

I've got a Venezuelan 7mm target rifle. Sights down to 100 yards, longer barrel, serial number less than 100. I haven't tried shooting it in a while and don't know how well it shoots.

I had a 1908 Brazilian Mauser with the same problem, but the bore was less than pristine. It became a 30/06 with a Mark X barrel. I took the easy route.

If you want to try hard enough, I have heard of people using the Lee sizing dies to size jacketed bullets. You will be looking at a custom die and a good bit of force. Maybe do it in stages with multiple push trough dies?

I have tried ring swaging standard cup and core bullets. The size ends up OK but the accuracy was not very good: sizing and springback differences between lead and gilding metal were the culprit.

I know folks who have turned their own monolilthic bullets to custom diameters, but I have not tried that myself.

I would rebarrel with a nice 7mm Lothar-Walther barrel myself...jim

I believe the 7.65 is a .303 GeneL.... I would have a new barrel put on it if you can afford it. I would have the whole rig checked out by a gunsmith. If the barrel is that far out who knows what else is wrong with it.

Paper patching is another possibility I suppose. I've got some 175 prvi fmj's in my hand now. I'll report back when I get it shot.