Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Rechambering barrel question

Hello all, I have a question for the gunsmith guys here. Does anyone know if a 7mm-08 barrel can be rechambered to .280 rem ? Thanks in advance

To answer your question, yes, but! If I remember correctly, I think the shoulder diameter on the 7-08 is bigger than the one on the 280, therefore requring a setback of about 3/8". I think!

Yeps needs to be set back.. Not my choice

I was looking at a factory 24" remington 700 take off barrel chambered in 7mm-08. So I am looking at having to set back the barrel to make this idea work,anyone have any advice on if its a problem to set it back or is this something that is no big deal for a good gunsmith?

Well, the 08 chamber is .454 at the shoulder that is 1.560 from the base. The 280 is .441 at 1.999. Do the math.
I would buy a barrel blank.

AI...

+ one on the AI

Ed

If you don't reload, it will work to just run the 280 reamer in the 7-08 chamber. The brass will have a ring at the 7-08 shoulder which does not hurt shooting factory loads but I would not reload the brass. Setting the barrel back would drastically increase the price of the job plus some Remington barrels dont have enough meat to set back that far.

Drastically???

It is even a factory round these days...

Consider sending it to ER Shaw for a new barrel.
A quick look shows about $400 for a stainless
M700 profile barrel, installed. Blued costs more,
after blueing.

Nosler makes 280ai ammo

you could set back the barrel the length of the neck, make a 7/08 AI out of it.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. So here is the rest of the story, I already have a .280 in a Ruger 77 hawk eye, I love it but when my wife started hunting 2 years ago she claimed it as her own. That said I would like a second 280 for myself, my local Walmart has Remington 700 adl in 270 or 30-06 for $377. I was thinking if I buy that and find a take off in 7mm 08 I could rechamber it and have a 2nd, 280 on the cheap. So I really do not want to go the Ackley route so as to keep it simple and use the same reloads and brass in both guns. That being said I may just keep my eyes open and see if I can find another 280 somewhere for a decent price.

Although the idea of a single set of reloads working in both rifles is attractive, the likelihood of the headspace being identical -or at least close enough- in both chambers, is very low. I have several rifles chambered in the same cartridge, but the headspace is sufficiently different that I need to reload for each individually. The loads are the same but I keep the brass segregated and use it for each of the rifles individually. YMMV

Plus two different rifles in the same chambering might not be close as to the sweet spot to obtain optimum accuracy.Maybe close though.Only guess ,but I bet you could buy a new barrel and have it chambered for the cost of the rechambering since it is not a good match.

In today's paper, you can buy a whole new rifle cheaper.

Have you checked Gun Parts( Numrich Arms) for a .280 barrel. Screw one off,screw another on and check head space. I did that with an .06 a few years ago. Worked out darn good.

Buy your wife a new one and reclaim your old one.Bet she would be happy picking out a new rifle for herself instead of a hand me down.She might want one in a different chambering even.

284 Win