Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Rem 799 in 7.62x39 as a donor for .20 PPC

Jim62:
I'm pretty good at making rifles submit to my will. The particular rifle (a raffle win, not an actual deliberate buy) here has been properly bedded, the trigger is slicked to sneeze, the rings are lapped, on the second barrel I lapped the lugs before I sent the works to Greg.
The bottom line is the chamber on both barrels was cut WAY too fat, I cerrosafed each three times. Ruger would not trade me an unchambered pipe, either.
So, I had Greg shorten the throat and shrink the neck to .233, but wanted to keep the rollmarks. That meant he couldn't destroy the old chamber. So he didn't. We both thought "the plan" would work although he was concerned about the fat base. My mistake.
With fireformed brass, this gun will shoot 32 BKs and 39s reasonably well, leaker groups with cloverleafs and a flyer. So, when you are spotting your shots, and your shot was a leaker, darn, you miss again, and was THAT a leaker or was it the first one? The leaker is almost always a case that formed a bit off. If I gage every case, and shoot a special group with those perfect cases...THEN it will shoot. Like .3 to .5, nice and round.
With VIRGIN brass, accuracy is terrible, well north of an inch, with a cluster (straight brass) and flyers (banana brass). Completely random, and enraging. The cull rate is 35 to 50 percent depending on maker.
Factory accuracy was shotgun-class, so bad, I pulled the unfired stuff -- this was before I had any bag brass to play with, there was none to be had because of the hype and the fad.
Never mind that before I had Tannel do his expensive evil, the only thing that would shoot under about 1.5 inches were 39BKs, the only bullet that could be loaded to the throat, which in turn is way the heck and gone in the boonies -- that's the SAAMI spec, I got the drawings. I have never liked Weatherbys very much for that same reason.
As warm as the 204 is, I woulda thunk the fresh from scratch design would have a nice short throat that you could burn through for a nice long accurate life. I would also expect that such a dinky caliber doesn't lend itself well to stacked tolerances.
As things are, I have a line on another reamer and plan on one more set-back try for this barrel, with a short throat, little no-turn neck, and small base. If that fails, then I will probably turn it into a 20 Tactical.
Sorry to hijack, RD, but I'm thin-skinned and prone to leap to my own vainglorious defense. Good luck with your great wildcat adventure.

Rugerdude, I think that you have got some really good advise in this thread.

On some remington actions, I have known guys to have the gunsmith put a sako extractor in the bolt and use the bolt for PPC size cases and 6 BR Cases.

If you want to go all out on a custom, then the Weatherby 224 Mag is a bastard size close enough to work with the PPC case.

Good luck!

I think i have some good advice too, looks like i am looking for a donor now...

Umm, probably not your taste, but the news from the SHOT show say that Savage is going to make a model with a 1-9" twist pipe, probably the LRPV. It's not well known generally yet, but that's what I read on .204 Ruger.com.

O'RLY? thats a handy piece of info to have... might be time to reconsider, AGAIN

I made a boo-boo, it wasn't Savage with the 1-9" twist .204s, that was a typo from one of their press releases.

http://www.204ruger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7370


However, T/C is going to make a 1-10" twist .204, that'll help a bit...

will help a bit, but if it is a bolt gun, you still have mag box length limitations that prevent you from shooting the bullet(s) i intend to shoot. and 1-10 isn't a safe bet to stabilize those, their recommended is 1-8

Dammit, how can we have a good argymint if we agree on all this stuff? d:^)

I have a CZ 527 that I bought to do just that, but I am having a hard time finding someone to do it, can you (or anyone) suggest someone?

Bunnie,,

Is that the gun at Williams I told you about???

As far as reabarreling a CZ, It CAN be hard to find a gunsmith that will cut a metric thread barrel.. weenies...

I would call gunsmith Dennis Olson in PLAINS ,MT. for the barrel work

Dennis has never been afraid of offbeat guns and he like CZ and BRNO rifles..

I bet he will do it for you. He is a world class gunsmith and is very reasonable for the quality of work done.

It is the very same gun. Thanks again for the tip, you saved me over $100.

Also thanks for the recommendation. I have found a few guys with the correct reamer but non of them would do the barrel swap and I didn't want to have to ship my gun and barrel to 3 different guys to get it done. I will contact Dennis Olson next week and see if he can help.

I have to say though, this rifle shoots so well as is I am starting to have second thoughts. I haven't tested it with .308 bullet handloads yet and I fear that if it shoots well I will have to buy another gun (that I will not shoot first) to make my Grendel.

Well.. you broke the FIRST rule of custom rifles..

NEVER shoot the DONOR RIFLE!!!!!!!

LOL..

As to contacting Dennis via phone ,sometimes he gets busy and cannot answer calls right away.

Keep trying.

Dennis is a good guy...remember tho, it's SPRINGTIME coming up.
Best time, or "better" is right after hunting season.

For the OP. In CDNN's latest flier 799 mini-mauser 7.62x39's are being offered at $399.

That's not a bad price, I think. I paid $300 for just the action about four years ago.

I walked past a new Ruger Compact in 7.62x39 with a nice chunk of wood on it one time too many and finally picked it up. It's a nice little carbine as is and I figure if I can't get it to shoot I'll rebarrel.

Always wanteda little 6ppc but I'm sittin on a fast twist 308 Rock that is kinda sayin subsonic 308x39 to me as well.