I've got a savage 99 with a neglected bore. I'd like to have it rebored .
anyone have any recommendations on who to send it to ?

plab

JES as long as you want 33 caliber and up.

Inexpensive and fast turnaround.

Done 3 for me, everyone great.

Another JES recommendation here.

Wouldn't hesitate to have JES do another rebore for me. Have had 3 done, a 338-06 and 2, 9.3x62s. Every one of them shot better than the 'donor' caliber.

What is the present chambering and what is the desired?

To the best of my knowledge there are only 5 smiths who rebore. JES brilliantly limits the calibers he rebores and is the only one who brilliantly limits his business to reboring. With 20 years of experience this year he has it down to an art.

Al Siegrist
Danny Pederson
Wayne York
Norman Johnson

These guys will rebore more calibers than JES but they also take significantly longer to turn work around. Wayne York may be the second fastest at roughly a 3 month turnaround. He has an employee who does all his reboring and that's all that man does. The others are mostly one-man shops.

I've been trying for a week to reach Jesse to no avail , maybe he's hunting ?
the rifle I want done is a 303 and the bore is crap .. I think going to 35rem
is the best route

plab

I'm not entirely convinced the 35 Rem will clean out the 303 Savage chamber. The shoulder area gives me concern.

The rim diameter may be an issue - I imagine you’ve considered that.

Considering the chamber and the bolt face, a 356 might make more sense but then there’s brass and ammo…

I'm aware of a couple Savages converted to .35 Remington and they went with new barrels because of chamber issues. A pre-1960 Savage action won't cut the mustard for .356. Sounds like a good opportunity to build a.35/.303 wildcat. Keep after JES.

Tag here, and paying attention. I have two potential donor barrels, and haven't figured out which cartridge will work with the donor action's rotor, (... what are you gurus using for wildcat dies?). I seem to have my heart set on 35-300 Sav, but can't imagine that 35-303 Sav gives up too much velocity,

and yes, it seems like JES is well-situated to be the best/only choice. Will they re-chamber deeper, re-clock, and set the shoulder back, if you send along the action?

You can make your own dies with the custom reamer you used to chamber the rifle. Use it as-is to cut a straight-line seater die, then relieve it a touch and cut a sizing die.

If you call JES,leave a message.I kept calling and calling and never got anyone to answer the phone when I had mine done.I left a message and in a couple of hours later,he called me back.He's busy working and he wouldn't be able to get anything done if he was answering the phone all the time.I can understand that,if your doing precision work ,you damn sure don't want to be interrupted.When I sent my rifle to him,it was 10 days from the time I sent my rifle from Texas to Oregon and back to me.For a $250.00 job with return shipping,I couldn't be happier.

THIS ^^^^^^

Add me to the listed of highly satisfied JES customers.

I've been trying to reach them Jeff I want to know if he needs the barrel on or off the action. I'm assuming they headspace it and marked the barrel with the caliber ? wish they had an email address

I've researched the the conversion from 303sav to 35 rem .. chambering will work dimension wise

plab

JES did a 30 to 35 rebore for me using the original cartridge. Just opened up the neck to 35 and bored and rifled the barrel.
You could do the same.
To reload mine, I used 350 remmag dies to necksize only.
Moderate loads with cast bullets dont need FL sizing.
If you had to FL size, buy a 303 Savage die and cut it off where the neck meets the shoulder at the point where only shoulder and body are affected.
Be sure to file off the original cartridge marking on the barrel as if it's there, he stamps a bunch of ugly "X" s over it.

I sent all of mine as complete barreled actions, including the trigger. Got each on back with fired cases in the new caliber and the target.

FWIW, I've asked JES to put the caliber marking on the underside of the barrel and was obliged. On all of my rebores I have milled out the original caliber marking and had the new caliber engraved in the mill cut.

I could do that ,.. I'm a loader and reload 37 calibers.. I don't really want a wildcat

Wifowler: thanks for the information those are the questions I had for him. my barrel has no marking on it so it would be great if he marks it nothing else to hide

plab

No big deal to load for a .35-303 wildcat. I bet you could neck size and seat with .35 Remington dies.

it wouldn't be for me.. but for someone that doesn't reload ???

plab

I have had Jess, Wayne, and Danny do rebore jobs for me. I believe Danny is retiring and just finishing up jobs in shop. Leave detailed message for Jess he will call back within 24 hours or so. Send barreled action and check in box will be rebored and back to you in about 2 weeks from day you shipped. Jess only dos reboring you could ask about other services. But reboring is his deal. Fastest and cheapest. I have had Wayne do rebore and bought one of his stocks and was very pleased with work. Wayne laps barrel after reboring.
Jess and Wayne did very nice job of marking new caliber on barrel. Was very disappointed in Dannys marking style. Effective but looked like hell Took endmill cut flat where old Cal marking was stamped new number. It jumps right out at Ya. I should have asked specifically how he did it. His idea and my idea of what looked good two different ideas. All 3 smiths rebore jobs shot well. Wayne dos does not do 9.3 rebore. reboring a good way to go in some cases. You must be aware as you increase caliber diameter feeding can become an issue. in some guns everyone is a little different. try feeding new caliber before reboring to avoid surprise. it won't chamber. But you can tell what kind of feeding problems are coming. your way. All rifles I had done shot better than original caliber after reboring.
Pitfalls. Caliber marking clean look? ASK, Feeding, rail ramp work? Machine marks in bore after machine work fowling? All of these things can be problem with any new barrel. and can be easily worked though.
Positives. New bore on rifle, cut rifling, stock fit rifle just like it always has. be about half of new barrel cost. Possibly no cost of bluewing.

should I just send it to him without confirmation ? would kinda like to speak to him

plab

If you have questions as to whether your rebore is doable, by all means speak to JES. On the other hand, and based on my experience, if it were a simple say, 30-06 to 338-06 or 308 to 358 rebore, I'd box up the barreled action and get it heading west.

I've called him at least 20 times over the years. Every call was returned within 2 days. You do have to leave a CB number.

I can't reach them I've left at least a dz messages with a call back number

plab

JES did my boat paddle 243 to 358. Fast turn around and it shoots great.

Jes called me yesterday , brought my rifle over to UPS, seams they have changed their policies and I gotta ship through
a dealer .. so now I've got to have a copy of his FFL what a PIA
dam country has gone to hell

plab

Ship USPS Priority Mail tracked and insured. Works great with no BS.

This. No FFL required to ship through the USPS. Don't volunteer you're shipping a rifle in case a clueless idiot works your postal counter. It's not required and doesn't fall under hazardous material, etc.

I abbreviate any part of the business name implying firearms when shipping to an FFL and signature required. If you insure for a value over $500, the USPS automatically requires a signature at delivery, so no need to purchase signature required service if you insure it for over $500.

You can also separate the stock and barreled action to shorten the package length. Pack it like you expect gorilla handling.

my rifle came back today from JES .. excellent work ,the bore is smooth like mirror .
I would defiantly use Him again .. thanks all

plab

Sent a Rem 660 that had previously been 'molested' by replacing the 20" bbl with a 22" bbl to JES yesterday. It'll be coming back as a 338 Federal.
Once it's back I'll mill off the original caliber marking and engrave the mill cut with the new caliber as I have in the past.
Contemplating whether to do some work on the muzzle end and make it compatible with a 338 capable suppressor.

All of the above and amen