Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Gunsmith recommendations for a 30 Gibbs

I've decided to have a 30 Gibbs built and would like to know what gunsmith you guys recommend to chamber it for me. I'm putting together a M700 LA with a VSSF Rem factory barrel in 308 win (so it will be a rechamber job) all put into a laminated stock.
Any comments or opinions are appreciated

Thanks

No real experience, but one possibility.

www.z-hat.com

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Kampfeld.

Kampfeld doesn't show a 30 Gibbs reamer on his website so you'd have to see if he'd do it.

Pac-Nor Lists the .30 Gibbs

Pac-Nor Reamer List

Pretty sure Pac-Nor won't do a rechamber. They want to sell barrels.

I know z-Hat will.

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How are you going to make brass?

To be frank I would not want a 30 Gibbs.

I was thinking the same thing. My uncle had a .240 Gibbs when I was a kid and I can vividly remember him cussing when he made brass.


A .30/06 Ackley Improved would be a whole lot easier.

HBB

A bit closer to home. Try Tip Burns at Canyon Lake Texas. He is just about the best metal guy I've seen in a long time. www.burnsgunrepair.com

Ed

I'd get a hold of Ray Montgomery in Colorado if you need a smith.

I did the Gibbs once, would not doubt do the AI if I had it to do over again.

Dober

MoranoGrande,

Don't let the detractors put you off. I wanted a pain jane 30-06 made and my gunsmith friend said, "No you won't - you want a 30MC". I rolled my eyes. What the heck am I getting into?

Not for everyone but the 30 Gibbs/30MC which I have only just taken delivery of in the last couple of weeks has become a favourite.

3500 fps with the 125gr Speer TNT sub MOA groups. What's not to like. Case forming is not too bad. I tried sizing it up with a 338 win mag then down with a 300WSM with button removed. I bought a RCBS casemaster & the runout was horrendous (0.015), I think because the necks were not supported in the sizing operation, they were off centre & then when I tried to seat the bullets hit the necks and made it worse.

I was told to use 35 Whelen dies but didn't have any at the time. Still my crooked reloads still shot into 1 inch at 100 yards and the cases formed beautifully with less than 1.75 thou runout. Ordered 35 Whelen dies & will see if I can make better cases.

Sorry can't help you with a gunsmith unless you live in Australia, then we'd make you get a 30 MC!

My 30MC is a LA MRC 1999, with a Choate Stock, 28 inch barrel, slow 1:14 twist & specifically set up as a varminter to shoot the lighter bullets. In this guise its a heck of a lot of fun.

30 Gibbs/30MC not for everyone, just the nice guys!

Here's some pics of the MC v 30-06 Fireforming case:



Regards,
JohnT

Ray Romain of brockport pa, has all the gibbs reamers, and has built alot of them. his contact 814-265-1948
RR

i have used ray romain for 2 gibbs cartridges. i gave my customers a choice of buying the reamer or sending the parts off to someone who did. ray got the work. he has a following of target shooters and he does good work.

Try this:

www.gunsmithlocator.com

Hope that helps.

Thanks for all the info!

A couple of years ago I had McGowen rechamber a Savage 110 to 30 Gibbs and I shot it quite a bit. I used a Lyman tapered neck expanding die to expand new WW 30-06 cases up to 338. I previously had purchased some RCBS 30 Gibbs dies from Jerry's Sports Center. So I used the sizing die to create the shoulder where it was a snug fit in the chamber and fireformed the cases while practicing and plinking. I think I have about 250 formed cases. I also tried using WW280 nickel brass and Rem 35 Whelen brass, about 50 of each. They all worked fine with case loss only about 2% to 3%.

I thought about using McGowen again, but I thought I'd look around also.

I like the 30 Gibbs, already have dies and brass and a lot of loading info., so I pretty much have my mine set on that cartridge. But, thanks for the ideas.

There is alsways the 30 AHR and the 30 Hawk which one can buy formed brass for, and in the case of the AHR [and likely the Hawk] factory loaded ammo [proprietary].