Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters TO RE-BORE or NOT TO RE-BORE

I had to sell my nice Ruger Hawkeyes in 9,3X62 recently to fund my dive off a ladder.

I recently got a Santa Fe Mauser in 30-06 for a couple hundred. It has a trash stock, but I have a good replacement.

JES Re-Boring will turn it into a 9,3X62 for me for $225.00, including shipping it back. They do the 9,3 as three groove rifling. Is there any drawback to this re-bore?

Not a collectors item, go for it!

Take your $225 and put a new tube on it. I've had 4 rebores and have never been satisfied with any of them.

Ed,

What did you have bored? From what to what, and what gun manufacturers?

Just curious and looking for specifics.

http://www.lothar-walther.com/271.php

I'd go here.

Mike

He re-bored a Tikka .270 into a great shooting 35 Whelen. If I had a donor rifle to re-bore to a 9.3x62 I would not hesitate!!

I would too if it would install, head-space, and blue itself for the price.

The $225.00 is busting my present budget.

I'm curious why Ed is soured on the re-bore route and value his comments and reasons. ???

Also why he tried four times?

None that I can think of. My guess is you'll be well pleased with JES's work. I had him do a 30-06 to 375 Whelen and it turned out great. I've never heard anything bad about his work. He did a three groove on my 375 and it shoots fine.

My 35 Whelen was done by Cliff LaBounty from a 30-06. It thinks it's a varmint gun.

I wouldn't be afraid of a rebore from JES.

I would go for it then. For a realistic hunting rifle in that caliber I'm sure it will be sufficient.

I think Rost had one done that was only giving decent accuracy not great but it killed his moose

Mike

How is his turn around time?

I've had two Pre-64 Model 70 .220 Swift barrels re-bored and re-chambered to .280 Remington by Delta Gun Shop & Clearwater Re-boring (Cliff LaBounty's old outfit) and I'm happy with both of them.

I'd do it again but how many .280s does one person need?

The rifle is now chambered for the most useful and popular cartridge ever.

Just use it as it is. Boring out it's barrel will just cost money and gain nothing but hobby amusement. You can sell it when you find what you want more.

Meanwhile keep searching for a medium bore that's well priced that you like.

I have plenty of others in 30-06, and I do use the 9,3X62 for elk and as a medium bore thumper when in grizzly country, where we pick huckleberries. I still have considerable brass, ammo, bullets, and a set of dies.

Besides...I want one!

I have had a .30-06 rebored to .35 Whelen by Randall Redman and two .357's rebored to .44 Special by Cliff La Bounty. All three shoot extremely well, JES has an excellent reputation as far as workmanship. While I have yet to use JES, I understand that their turn-around time is amoung the best, sometimes little more than a couple of weeks. I waited 6 months or more for my REdman and La Bounty rebores.

Then buy a 9.3!

Boring out that 06 just destroys it's value.

Look on the net.

There are hundreds of 9.3's for sale tonight!

The '06 has little value, and 9,3X62s are expensive. Ask the two who bought my Ruger Hawkeyes.

Can always count on 99 to bring his myopic opinion to these matters. At $200 for for the rifle, $225 for the rebore, and $50 on the high end for shipping both ways the OP is into it $475. Just how many 9.3x62's are available for that kind of money.

Ruin it's value? Really? You remind me of the guy who wouldn't sell me his model 71 348. He had it for sale and it looked rough. Really rough. Almost no blue, the wood was worse and the bore was like a gravel road. When he found out I wanted to use it to build a 50 Alaskan he refused to sell it. All of a sudden it was too fine a collectable Winchester to butchered like that.

Get it rebored and enjoy your new 9.3. It'll be a lot of fun and Jes will do a good job and it'll be just as valuable or more so when it's done.

I had JES re-bore a rough Winchester pre-64 94 30-30 to 38-55.

It turned out GREAT! Would I do it again? YES, in a heart beat!

JES lives about an hours drive from me. Makes it pretty nice.

Virgil B.

Sometimes my expectations are like a few others. Probably too high.

Had JES do a rebore on an 06 to 338-06. It shoots fine. But not like I prefer. Its pretty much solidly 1.25 moa or maybe 1.5 moa. Easy minute of moose as far as I should dare...

It fouls like crazy and I'm on the 3rd treatment of DBC with it.

I really need to call him and ask if I spent the extra cash to send it back, could he relap the barrel?

It may shoot fine with other bullets, but I won't shoot anything but barnes. It also may not foul as bad with others.

All this being said, it would cost double what he charges, to get a good tube on it. at a minimum likely. So take it for what its worth cost wise.

Also even though it fouls, and its been said before, at some point it is fouled period... and it retains its accuracy. Can't really ask for more.

Had a factory 338 win mag do teh same until it was finally coated twice with DBC.

Depending on what you are after for accuracy, that might be the only thing that would steer me away from a rebore.

And others want to know why someone would try 4 times. I don't think I would but I've tried douglas barrels 3 times in my life. I won't ever use them again but I just had to know if it could have been a fluke or two...

JES did mine.

Redding dies, Hornady brass and bullets =