Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 760 rebore

Many years ago when I was a teenager my grandfather killed his last elk with a 270 Remington 760 pump when he was in his 80s. I had hoped to get that gun when he passed away but my uncle ended up with my grandfathers guns. I had kind of forgotten about it but recently my son and I inherited my father in laws guns. One of them just happened to be a 270 Remington 760.

Over the years I have become of the opinion that caliber isn't as important as we think it is. Minor differences between calibers with good bullets for deer and elk, etc. Once range gets extended or more extreme examples do you see much advantage between different calibers. Anyways the rifle loony in me is wrestling with keeping it a 270 for nostalgic reasons even though I have a 270 and 270 weatherby vs getting it rebored to a 338-06, 35 Whelen, or 9.3x62. Either running a peep or a LPVO as they call the low power variables now. Kind of a timber elk rifle is what I was thinking.

What are your thoughts on the rebore cartridge's? I was leaning 338-06 but the 9.3 intrigues me.

I do not have one, but it would seem that a 338-06 would be very flexible.

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Supposedly the 760 does not have a lot of extraction power by its design.
I would leave it in .270

How does it shoot now as a 270? I hate to tear up a perfectly good rifle. If it is less than optimal, see if there might be a 280 or 30-06 barrel available to put on it. That would preserve resale value, as it would keep it in a factory-available chambering and could be less expensive. Do you feel you just need more thump for elk in timber?

If you rebore to the Whelen you could still buy factory ammo, as with the above options, and the Whelen is a stomper on both ends, with a rainbow trajectory at longer range. I can see the attraction of the 9.3, as it has a similar trajectory to a 180 gr. 30-06 load. It does have a .470 rim diameter, vs. the .473 of the 270. Will that cause any extractor issues? If so, the 338-06 would be just a straight rebore.

I haven't even shot it yet as I just got it not too long ago and haven't had the time to take it and wring it out yet. In my mind the 280 and 30-06 seemed close enough to the 270 to not bother switching it out and a rebore is an easier cheaper option vs rebarreling these rifles. I would think the 9.3 would be a very close ballisticly to the 35 whelen and with foreign made ammunition probably just as available as factory as the whelen. I have heard that the 0.003" does not make a difference in extraction and feeding with the 9.3.

I don't really feel like I need more thump as I stated in my original post. They all pretty much get the job done with a good bullet but some more thump is why the larger cartridges exist. Mostly this would be something fun and unique to do. 270's are a dime a dozen and wanted to try something a little different. The 338-08 would be a little lighter on the shoulder and have the better trajectory at extended ranges for sure.

An overlooked wildcat that would work is the 375 Whelen. I built one once and sold it. Wish I had kept it.

How about a .400 Whelen? It would be a good choice for timber elk.

Are any of those other rounds necessarily harder to extract? Not seeing how this makes any difference...

I've had a 760 30-06 since '77 and never had a problem. I will admit using a small base FL de is better than my standard FL.

The main reason I'd re-bore that to one of the cartridges you mentioned is if I was hunting in grizzly country. My favorite is likely different than others. I've had an affinity for the 35 Whelen forever, I'd guess. When I was in grizzly country, I used 250 grain partitions.

Elk have be killed with the 270 for decades. IDK, perhaps in not perfect standing sideways shots the ones you mentioned would be better??? I'd want to check penetration, because I don't know which would penetrate the deepest - perhaps the 9.3x62.

It certainly would. My bolt 400 made moose and caribou quit quickly. Haven’t had a chance to use it on deer and elk yet.

Not sure if there is enough muzzle diameter for a 270 760 to go to .411. JES recommends .200 over bore diameter as a minimum for a rebore. So barrel would need to be .611 at the muzzle for a 400 Whelen.

Jes rebored my 7600 30 06 to 35 whelen and its a tack driver amazing work , he also just finished my 1970 winchester 88 carbine 308 to 358

Bruce, how do you like your 7600 now that you went to the bigger bore? Did the recoil increase appreciably?

Bugger, I live in the heart of grizzly country but haven't sweated my firearm choice too much in regards to bears but you've got a good point.

That would my concern also.

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The difference would be in the mechanics of having a rebore to a not-so-common chambering....call it 338-06.
So you're going to be making your cases out of 30-06 probably.
You know the routine...
Resize
False shoulders
Fire forming
Ladder testing

You're going to want something that can extract when you will invariably get a sticky case.
Is the 760 a good candidate ?

You can just as easily get a sticky case with just about any reloaded case. Considering JES has done a TON of 760/7600 rebores, seems reasonable that extraction issues would be well documented (if they in fact exist) by this point.

Have you personally experienced extraction issues with a 760 or 7600? I know I've owned probably close to a dozen, and still have them in .300 Savage, .35 Rem, and .30-06 and have NEVER experienced any issues with extraction.

I haven't shot mine a lot but have a 243 rebored to 358 Winchester and it doesn't seem to be a problem for recoil and always extracted. If there were problems they might not have been given the moniker of Amish Machine Gun! YMMV. RZ.

For a pure timber rifle, the 760 is a good place to start, but the term “pure timber” is a problem. Around here, you can be up to your ears in timber then step into a clearcut and see for miles. 150-grain Partitions or 130-grain TTSXs in the 270 would work in either case, so there’s a good case to be made for keeping your rifle a 270.

For a rebore, I’d put logistics over ballistics.

I love the 9.3x62 but components can get scarce, so I’d go 35 Whelen. It’s getting popular again so you can find new factory ammo, plus you can handload pistol bullets for plinking. A 158 XTP over 15 grains of Unique will do 1,550 fps in a 22” barrel and kick like a 22. That’s roughly 357 Magnum revolver ballistics so you could use it on deer. 25-yard POI will be close enough to your big-game zero that you probably won’t have to re-zero.

I’ve owned several Ruger and Remington 35 Whelen rifles with 1:16 twist. They were fine with 200- and 225-grain bullets but best accuracy with 250s came only with loads that are probably unwise in a 760, like the modern Speer data at https://www.speer.com/reloading/rifle-data.html. For milder, more traditional loads, I’d go 1:14 or 1:12.

I scope everything. I grew up on peeps but the woods here are gloomy during hunting season and it’s hard to see iron sights. A 3-9x is about as fast as anything for me, and it can reach across a canyon if needed.


Okie John