I'm looking for input from the resident gunsmiths here. Your suggestions would be appreciated.
Buddy broke the 6-48 front base screw on his 700 in .308 Win, and took it to a gunsmith. Gunsmith drilled the fastener threads out of the action and did a sloppy job of converting to 8-40, with the barrel installed. More importantly, he drilled into the barrel. I believe that the gentleman that did this work was competent in his younger years, but in his advanced age it seems like he might have lost his edge.
Anyway, it appears that the hole is ~0.3" deep, measured from the top of the receiver. If my math is correct, the gunsmith drilled into the barrel ~0.156". That should leave ~0.138", between the chamber wall and the bottom of the botched hole job.
I understand that there are minimum chamber wall specs, but these are for the entire circumference of the chamber. Are there any specs for the minimum amount of material between the chamber wall and a blind hole?
I see some references to 0.1" as a rule of thumb, but don't know where it comes from or how accurate that information is. And some gunsmiths have mentioned that this only applies to the barrel, forward of the chamber.
Is the barrel usable or should it be scrapped?
Last edited by 4th_point; 05/21/20.
