Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Re-barrel a Howa 1500 to 416 Ruger?

Any potential pit-falls or hang-ups with re-barreling a Howa 1500 barreled action in 375 Ruger to its big brother: the 416 Ruger?

I've had this idea in mind, ever since I learned that Howa/Legacy Sports did not have any plans to offer a complete rifle in the 416 Ruger. Recently picked up a NIB barreled action in the 375 Ruger with this project in mind and, while it seems pretty straight-forward, wanted to get feed-back on any possible issues that might be out there.

Thanks in advance.

I have rebarreled many of the Howa 1500/Weatherby Vangards before but never in 416 Ruger. If you have a new Howa in 375 Ruger then rebarreling to 416 would be easy. I have the 416 Ruger reamer and just finished barreling a new CZ 550 action in the 416. That baby has some stout recoil.

Speaking of re barreling a Howa, I am having a heck of a time removing a 223 barrel. I have removed many barrels over the years, but never a Howa and this one so far is turning out to be the hardest. Have any of you had a hard time removing them? If so, I would appreciate any tips!!

Dustylongshot, I have sent you a PM on the subject.

Thanks for your help,
Ken

Ken,

Howa is known to have some of, if not the strongest, torqued factory barrels in the industry. When I was going through Colorado School of Trades, these were the barreled actions we used for the course-long rifle project.

The method we were shown for factory barrel removal (for those of us who were re-barreling/re-chambering) was to perform a parting (relief) cut on the barrel shank, just a head of the front ring. The parting cut should be about .150" - .200" deep. Once this step was done, we could put the barreled action in the barrel vise and loosen the barrel.

From .375 R to 416 R is a slam dunk. Great round without too much recoil. Mine is a 8 lb Mauser 98, 26" barrel. The parting cut is what most folks do to remove the barrels on Howas.

Some of the kids at school would give e their factory barrels and I rethreaded & chambered them for SR Mausers back when the Turkish mausers were $50 each. Made a ton of 7x57's out of 7mm rem take off barrels.

z1r,

This is my hope. One thing - are the head-space gauges for these two cartridges interchangeable? In other words, could I use 375 Ruger gauges, safely, when re-chambering to 416 Ruger?

Gauges should be interchangeable... Here is a link to the SAAMI spec sheet for the cartridge.

http://www.saami.org/pubresources/cc_drawings/Rifle/416%20Ruger.pdf

The gages are the same.

Question on the re-boring route:

- Is it possible to perform a re-bore with the receiver still attached to the barrel? To clarify, I would like to know if I could have the barrel re-bored and re-chambered without having to remove it. The barreled action I purchased has a 20" barrel and I would prefer not to go any shorter than that; so much so, that I would consider a barrel shorter than 20" a deal-breaker. If this is doable, it would make stock selection a lot easier.

I took one apart without putting a relief cut in it.

Only did the one, it was a stainless 22-250. It was very tight. I took it apart to check the thread size, etc. It is a metric thread, and a 55 degree, rather than a 60 degree "V" thread. I think it was 36 x 1.5 mm. The 1.5 and 55 degree is the only thing I can remember for certain. When I put it back together I had to adjust the barrel shoulder and breech face to get it to headspace. I didn't even try to set it up as tight as it came from the factory.

So: whoever does the job must be able to do metrics. (I'd charge more since it take more time and screwing around on my lathe.) I'd also figure on the fact that it might well need a reblue if it is a blued gun. It would be darn hard to take something that tight apart and not mark the blue. So, it will probably need a bit of polishing, buffing, and a dunk. I took apart a stainless varmit action and put it back together.

Just my limited experience, and anything you might want to know feel free to ask.