Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Re-bore question for Mule Deer and other JES customers

I earlier posted though that if the customer wants to take care of that re-marking themselves, Jess will leave it alone. There are no markings on my Springfields' barrels and there's an outfit in town that does nice engraving that I'm going to have mark the caliber. Jess said that's fine and he won't mark the barrel.
If someone wanted to have "30-06" milled off and "35 Whelen" (or whatever) re-engraved on that new pretty flat, I'm sure he'd let you do that - why not, saves him work and time.
I just did an image search to try to find an example and couldn't, though I have seen it done and it can really turn out pretty nice.

I think the general rule of thumb is to preserve at least .100" of barrel thickness around the bore. So for a .358, your .243 barrel needs to be at least .558 at the muzzle. That's about as small as anybody sells - matches the featherweight profile, so odds are you're fine - just take a measurement. If yours is a touch too small the .338 would probably still work.

Cheers,
Rex

Thank you

Update on the JES/35 Whelen rebore....

I got the rifle back, in 20 days....door to door. I found a hawkeye synthetic stock to replace the original boat paddle. That added a few days to getting it sighted in.

I finally got to shoot it yesterday. Iron sights put the 310 grain woodleighs into an inch at 50 yards, and the 225 grain tbbc's went into a "skinny" inch at 100. I confirmed the 225 grain impacts out to 400 yards, with the 2.5x8 leupold/B&C reticle, on small rocks. Both loads are factory loads.

Mind you, the stock is factory, and not bedded. I did a little work on the trigger, but that's all.

The rifle shoots great, with no sign of pressure, or any other marks on the brass. To the eye, the bore looks slick and bright, with no sign of copper.....the patched cleaning rod pushed through nice and smooth (closest thing I have to a bore scope!!!). Another recommendation for JES!


Andy3

Good deal. Sounds like mine might have been in line right behind yours. I had him re-bore a 336 , 30-30 to a 38-55 and just got it back Wednesday. I've been using all this down time to load me up some rounds, and I can't wait until things dry out so I can go shoot it! I think I ordered everything just in time as my rifle and reloading supplies came in within 2 days of each other. Now you have me wanting a .35 Whelen!

I don't think SU35s turned out as well as yours did.

Judging from the groups SU35 is shooting (after not doing anything to the barrel at all, despite plenty of suggestions from the Campfire), his rebore turned out very well.

Yeah.....that's what it looked like to me.

I've only taken the 338-06 to the range once, and the 9.3 hasn't been yet, but from my sample size of one, SU35's turned out WAY better than mine. I free floated the 19" barrel of the 338-06 and the action was previously glass bedded. For the first outing, I loaded 9 of the most accurate loads that I have fired in my other 24" barreled 338-06, and shot them into 3 groups. It was pretty horrid. But I have high hopes for the rifle as the bore does look really good. The 9 I alluded to were 225 Hornady's loaded over a medium charge of PP 2000-MR (.75" in the other rifle). They were going about 2440 FPS from the carbine and printed 3-to-5" groups. I followed up with 8 cast fireform loads with the 270 NEI RN over 14 gr Unique, with the bullets a jam fit in the lands. These bullets were going about 1250 FPS and interestingly landed in the same POI as the 225 Hornadys at 2440. I consider this a good sign. Also, the cast were more accurate. I should also add it was an unknown scope - an old Leupold 4X that I had not previously mounted - I could swap that out to if I don't see better results soon but those things are pretty darn rugged and it's odd for them to fail.
The Hornadys had to be seated .060 off the lands due to the throat length versus magazine length. I can seat the 210 Partition right up to the lands as well as the 200 Speer. Next time out I'll be trying one of those to see if getting the bullet closer to the lands helps. It's a real good looking bore and ought to do a lot better than that first trip out, so we'll see (acknowledging all that's been said about how the looks through the bore scope doesn't predict a thing).
Cheers,
Rex

My .35 Whelen rebore came back yesterday.

Despite my best efforts, contrary to all discussions and my instructions my barrel WAS over stamped. Which doesn’t look very good on a previously Cerakoted barrel

USPS also manhandled the package and my rifle tore through the box with the picatinny rail dinged.

I’m hoping it shoots because ultimately, that’s what really matters.

That is really frustrating Tannhauser and I genuinely feel your pain because I experienced the same thing - did everything I thought I could to make sure there were no stampings on the barrel but it happened anyway.
Jess had confirmed to me on the phone that there is no legal requirement for him to stamp them and he is happy to leave off the stamp if so instructed. I am guessing there is a failure to communicate somewhere in the workflow, and maybe an apprentice is doing the stamping. Regardless, I don't think Jess visits this forum so it is probably worth giving him some direct feedback on the issue so he can take whatever steps are needed to make it possible for barrels to not get stamped if customers don't want them stamped. He likely doesn't know there's even a problem.
My 9.3x62 is averaging 0.65 MOA so far, (21 rounds, one trip to the range) so I am not going to be complaining terribly loud at getting this for $250. And I remain hopeful that once I bed the 338-06 the same way I bedded the 9.3 it'll tighten up too. But for Pete's sake it ought to be easy enough to just have the markings left off!.
Cheers,
Rex

I was remiss in not following up with the result of the JES 338-06's second trip to the range, this time, with no changes to the scope or bedding, but with a new load, the 210 Partition seated 0.025" off the lands and 60, 61, and 62, grains of Big Game as the loads.
On the first trip out, with the 225 Hornady and 2000-MR (which was the most accurate load in my other 338-06 - sub MOA) the average group size was 4.32". On the second trip, with the Noslers, the average group size was 2.02" The barrel is totally free floated, to the receiver ring. My JES rebored 9.3x62 (which drove nails on its first trip to the range), is bedded to just over the first inch of the barrel, and carefully neutral bedded back at the tang. I think the 338-06 might like this extra support forward of the receiver ring, especially given that the 338 had been set back a half thread (and thus lost that much thread support) back when it was first sporterized, I assume to hide the pin slot that anchored the rear sight sleeve on the original 1903 Springfields.

Rex, what’s your plan with the 338? Add a temporary pressure point forward of the receiver or try a different load?

Or just hunt with it, because a 2 MOA rifle works just fine.

Rex,

As I recently explained in another post, many bolt-actions early in the 20th century had the front action screw going directly into the recoil lug. This could result in the front of the action bending down slightly when the front screw was really tightened--which didn't help accuracy, since the bolt lugs are oriented vertically when the bolt's closed.

This is why it was standard procedure for many years after WWII to epoxy-bed a little of the rear of the barrel. This was NOT to support the barrel, but to support the action, and keep it from bending.

The 1903 Springfield is one of the many actions from that era with the front screw going directly into the recoil lug.

Thanks John,
That's exactly why I put a bit over an inch of the barrel shank in the glass on the 9.3, which I bedded myself, it having never been done before, just bare wood (actually had a little bit of sheet metal bent under the recoil lug before I started working it). I also bedded the tang, and added just enough glass under the bottom metal to make sure I don't get metal-to-metal contact between the bottom metal and receiver when the action screws are tightened down. But whoever sporterized the 338-06 (back before it was a 338-06, of course) did glass bed the action, and I have not gotten in there to clean things up yet. My plan is to make sure I have a little relief in the areas where I like a little relief (front, sides, and bottom of recoil lug, and about 3 thicknesses of masking tape on the aft edge of the tang, so there is no impact to the thin inletting at the top of the wrist under recoil). And I'll bed the first inch or so of the barrel, and after that is all cured, come back and bed the tang nice and neutral so there is no stress on the action. That, combined with that short, stiff 19" barrel, I still have high hopes for. I'll be very surprised if I don't get it down to a 1.5 MOA or better, easy toting carbine by the time it's all done. I'll keep y'all posted.

Cheers,
Rex

That rifle still shooting good?

I just had a 338-06 done by Jess a few months back. Been pretty good for me as well.













It’s good enough for me and what I’m doing.

I had a Rem 7600 in .243Win re-bored by JES in NOV.

I asked that the caliber NOT be re-stamped and he complied. My smith then milled the .243 flat and engraved .358 leaving the original Win. I think it came out pretty well:



Only a 1.5-5X on it, but it's grouping pretty well:



From last week:

That’s a killer rig.

THANKS!

I'm pretty please with how it turned out!

Fast becoming my favorite woods carbine for drives and stands.