Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JES Reboring

Strongly considering reboring my older Savage M_99 in .308 to the 358 Winchester. My retirement is nearing & I'd like a little more thump in my brush gun. The 225 grain Nosler partition @ 2200-2400 fps sounds pretty good over my current 180 grain loads.

Has anyone had this service done by this vendor? I'm curious as if they remarked the barrel with the new caliber, and any other details you'd like to offer like on the 3 groove rifling he seems to prefer.

41

JES re-bored a 336 Marlin 30-30 for me, that I had saved from the hands of a Bubba. The bore was scarred and useless. JES made it into a 35/30-30 and it turned out great. His standard offering is a 3 groove barrel, which turns out is very accurate in my rifle. I was so pleased that I just had him re-bore another one for me just recently. I had a nice 2002 model 336 re-bored to 38-55, this time with a with a 4 groove barrel, which costs a little more. The 3 groove does fine though, I just wanted to be different this time. I haven't shot it yet, but if it's anything like my other one he did, I'll be happy. The only restriction on a re-bore like you are proposing would be barrel thickness at the muzzle. If the current muzzle is too small, he may have to do extra work shortening it back to where the thickness is OK, and re-installing the front sight, which costs extra. Since yours is a .308 you probably will be fine. I measured my Model 99F in .243 to possibly do the same conversion and it was just barely too small. I think he requires a barrel that is .200 outside diameter over bore size. This means yours would have to total around .559" OD at the very muzzle. Don't believe me, you need to call JES and ask the man. Leave a message and he will call you back.

I bought a Tikka T3x off the Classifieds here that was re-bored by JES from 243 to 338 Federal. They stamped "338 Federal" in the usual spot, left side of the barrel just forward of the receiver. The bottom of the barrel is stamped 1 10 and if you look real close you can see a 3 scratched into the steel for the number of grooves, also JES. What they do is rotate the barrel just enough that the old cartridge markings are out of sight and then stamp the new cartridge where it will be visible with the stock on. The markings out of sight aren't pretty but who cares?
Edit: I am not a Gunwriter.

I probably cant add much at this point, but I had JES rebore a .243W to .358W and am extremely pleased with the results

41rem,

Apparently you missed the long thread, shown just below this (Re-bore question for Mule Deer and other JES customers), which should answer your questions--along with some other BS you probably don't desire.

I looked it over MD, just wanted to get specific on the .308 to .358 Winchester conversation & the way my rifle would look once returned to me.

41

I had a Kimber 84 in 243 rebored to 338 federal. Shoots great and has correct caliber in barrel. If you send him a rifle you won't be sorry.

I bought a sav 99 that JES had rebored off of Gunbroker. It started life as a 308 and he rebored it to 358 win. It was one ugly tomato stake, but it shot fine with the 3 groove rifling. Plenty of metal to go to 35 cal.

Looking forward to doing this (not a kimber however)

I started the thread Mule Deer referenced above. Based on our members' responses I went with the 3-groove in both of the Springfield 1903 rifles I sent Jesse, one to be a 338-06 and the other a 9.3x62.
I asked Jesse before sending them if he would leave off the new caliber markings so I could have a local engraver do a really nice barrel marking on my own dime. He said no problem, just include a note to that effect. So...I included a note with all the instructions for the rebores including an emphatic request to not mark the barrels. In addition, I wrapped each barrel with a piece of tape listing the caliber it was to become and the words NO STAMP. When the barrels arrived back to me, both pieces of tape with the NO STAMP label were still on the barrels where I put them but both barrels were stamped with the new caliber.
I have to say I am a happy customer, because they did nice work on the barrels and the caliber stamps don't look too bad at all, but if you are serious about getting your own custom marking on your barrel you might want to put a label that says something like, "hey, really really no kidding don't stamp the new caliber on the barrel!"
My sense is Jesse and Co. are really working as quickly and efficiently as they can to handle the volume they're getting these days with the fantastic turn-around times they are providing. So I get it that an unusual request might kind of fall through the cracks when they had up a head of steam.

Good luck with your rebore. I have an original Savage 99 in .358 and it is .595" at the muzzle, if that helps you any.

Cheers,
Rex

Had my Kimber Montana 308 rebored to .358 very happy with it, also had a Tikka 270 rebored to 35 Whelen it was one of the most accurate guns I have owned.

JES does good work.

TRex,
Just thinking out loud here... I wouldn't be suprised if JES marks ALL the barrels coming through just for legal protection alone. Imagine who would be on the hook if one of JES's rebores was actually not marked and then later resold to someone else who was unknowingly injured in an accident. I would imagine many attorneys would line up to have that case!!!

I don't think JES restamps look that bad; I personally would not want it restamped over "existing" markings however. I might be wrong but I think that is what he told me he did just to make sure there was no confusion.

Probably best to get your desired engraving done right before you send it to JES???

I got my Savage 99 in 308 WIN in 2003. I got my Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen in 2005. For over a decade, the rifles went head-to-head in my rifle hunting. I quickly realized a full-house 35 Whelen load was WAAAAAY to much for me or the whitetails, so I downloaded the Whelenizer to be a hot 358 WIN- ish round.

After 2014, I retired the Whelenizer. It had made a good showing with a deer a year over 10 seasons. However, as far as performance was concerned the 308 WIN was dropping deer a bit more consistently. I'm not going to say there were any failures with the Whelenizer. However, deer taking the bigger 200 grain REM SPCL's were able to make it a bit further. The 165 grain Hornady IL SP's were more likely to drop them right where they stood. All that extra thump and the extra cost of the rounds were not producing a better result.

All I'm saying is that were I to have a 308 WIN Savage 99 in front of me, and whitetail was my main fare, I'd not rebore it. In fact, if you want to put more "thump" in the Savage, I'd think about dropping down to a 165 or 150 grain bullet and stepping up the velocity. That combination has been dynamite on our deer.

I have a 30-30 that I'm thinking of sending off to JES. I would not dissuade you from using JES. I'm just saying I might rethink 358WIN.

I had a Marlin 30 AS rebored to 356 Win. by JES. Went with 5 groove and it is very accurate. He remarked like above which is just fine with me. JES does great work fast and reasonable.

Now THERE's an idea!
I specifically asked Jesse on the phone if there was a legal requirement to mark the barrels and he said no, but I agree with you it is good common business self-protection sense to do so. I don't think at all that they intentionally ignored my request. I just think they were in their normal work-flow groove (no pun intended) and my two got their normal treatment. They look fine and since there were no prior markings on those original military barrels it's still a professional look. And saved me about $80 in engraving costs.
Cheers,
Rex

I think those are great points about deer and the .308, Shaman. But reading back over 41rem's OP, I don't see a mention of deer, per se, and note that he's from Washington state, so I figure elk in the thick stuff may be in the plan. In that case I think the 225 Partition in the .358 is a mighty fine idea. Plus - it's fun to customize our rifles! I've got about 5 medium bores now and am seriously thinking about using my M99 .358 (the least powerful of the bunch) for my cow tag this fall - gonna do some work with the 200 TTSX and TAC (using Mule Deer's recipe for the 200 TSX) and see how that looks.
Cheers,
Rex

Yeah, I didn't know the species. I'm just giving my own experience, which is heavily whitetail-centric. Everyone's mileage may vary.

I will say this: I was very surprised with the lack of a demonstrable increase in performance. For all the extra recoil, you'd have thought the deer would be dropping over just pointing the barrel at them. This was not the case. I'll also mention that I'm shooting a downloaded .308 WIN load that's more like a 300 Savage. I could add quite a bit of velocity before MAXing out.

I hear ya. Dead is dead, and a .458 WM won't make 'em any deader. For all we know, a .257 Roberts might have dropped those whitetails even faster than the .308, but I consider the .308 an excellent choice. I bet it leaves more good meat behind than the Bob.
Cheers,
Rex

Ok thanks for the review. I'm curious about the alignment on the open sights in relation to the barrel rotation for remarking. How does that all work out?

Before reboaring to .358, make sure the magazine will feed them. I was considering doing a .308 DL to .358 but, it would hold only 2 .358s in the magazine.