I've been really excited about putting together a .338 Federal, and sent a 700 .243 off to JES last month. I've been stockpiling clearance 185's from Midway, and slowly resizing brass. My plan was to get it to the range this month, and work up a load over the cooler months.

Well, the USPS fairy dropped me off a package this week...so I was stoked. But, the excitement was short lived. Seems the rebore from .243 to .338 Federal didn't meet JES standards, so he punched it out to .358 Winchester and refunded my money.

I can't say enough good about JES, I think that was a solid way to handle the issue. Of course, I have zero interest in a .358 Winchester...so the search for another donor 700 begins. The only reason I finally committed to the .338 was the clearance bullets off Midway.

Regardless, I'm debating on also having a Handi Rifle .243 rebored, but want to talk with JES first before I send anything else to Oregon.

Damn. That stinks. I’m glad you shared that experience. I think the thoughtful thing to do on JES’ part would be to call you about the situation rather than sending you a rebore you didn’t ask for. I’m not trying to talk bad about JES, but thats one hell of a surprise. Sorry if didn’t work out for you. At least he gave you your money back. I’m sure in that business things do happen.

I was a little surprised as well, but not sure what other option there was (short of a complete rebarrel).

You are right, but some sort of report on a situation like that would be a nice courtesy. So you’re no going to keep the 358?

They just picked a different cartridge without asking?

I'm kinda stunned it got rebored to something else without a phone call?

My 9.3 is scheduled for delivery on Monday. The check got cashed... so I'm assuming that's what will be in the box...

What are you gonna do with the 358?

Basically, yes.

I should probably be a little more aggravated about the situation, but I understand stuff happens. That being said, in a short action 700 I am not sure there is any other option above a .338 Federal other than .358 Win.

As far as the .358 goes, I'm just not a fan of the cartridge. I had one years ago in a Browning BLR, and it's just not my preferred round. Plus, reasonably priced hunting bullets in .35 cal are simply unobtainable right now...whereas, I have literally over 1k .338 bullets sitting on the bench ready to load.

Also, what was the issue that allowed 358 but not 338? Usually wouldn't he either chop barrel length or go down in cartridge diameter?

The lack of the phone call seems really odd to me. That’s the kind of thing people do when they screw up and don’t want to fess up to it.

Again, I don’t know what happened and don’t want to talk bad about a good business. That’s just a strange way to go about business.

.338RCM

The fed would be great too! Let us know how it goes!

Maybe a crooked chamber or something that he could clean up with a bigger reamer, etc?

I would've assumed without a call he'd just send back the 243 minus shipping. But I bet someone here would take a 358 in a heartbeat, which might make swapping for or buying another donor easier. So maybe some silver lining.

I get you. I want to say that old Larry needs to send you a thank you card. I imagine you helped sell a few thousand of those bullets.

I'm confused. You sent your barreled action to JES to be rebored/rechambered to 338 FED and they took it upon themselves to rebore/rechamber it to 358 WIN without first speaking to you about the change order? So, they made a mistake and refunded your payment in fulll without an explanation? I have a box full of 700 take-off barrels if you want to try again.

Wouldn't RCM require bolt face work too?

This is the message I received with the rifle:

"The .338 bore didn't look good to me, so I made it into .358 Win. She seems to shoot fine. I know this isn't what you wanted, so I am returning your money".

Like I said, I am a little aggravated....but it's really not that big of a deal. I know .358's are fairly popular, so it shouldn't be difficult to get rid of....and I have no hesitation in sending him another rifle.

I may consider that option, what all do you have in a short action .473 bolt face?

Sounds like he didn't care for the condition of the bore after he punched it to .338.

I assume the only choice was to leave a schitty bore or clean it up to something else and hope that bore diameter worked out.

I guess I would rather have it as he did it as opposed to a bad rebore job.

Lookimg like it's time to find another barrel or sell the rifle and buy another to be rebored.

Yes...and lack of cheap brass is an absolute deal breaker.

I want to reiterate that this thread is IN NO WAY MEANT TO BASH JES. Could this whole thing have been handled a little better? Sure....but at this point I am 100% satisfied.

If it were mine I'd send the gun up to Douglas barrels and have it re-barreled to the cartridge of MY CHOICE. And be done with it. It will likely shoot better too.

That's what I wanted to do in the first place, simply send it to Nine Run Gun and rebarrel...but it just gets too expensive.

Do you want to sell the 358 Win barrel?

If I do sell the .358, it will be as a complete rifle.

Wish I had a SA rem in .473 to trade you. I've got some NIB ADL synthetics but they are both 223. I have a .473 action but I just ordered a 22 Creedmoor remage for it.

Bb

Why are you determined to sell the complete rifle? Sell the 358 barrel and buy yourself a decent 700 donor barrel and send it back. Either way JES has to remove the barrel for the rebore. That way you get to keep your action, trigger set up, stock etc. without having to redo all that. Much easier to find someone who has a suitable donor barrel than some with suitable completed SA 700 rifle who happens to want a 358.

I have 4 22" and 4 20" matte finished new take-off 243 barrels

260 Remguy, I might be interested in a 22" 243win take off barrel for a 700 sa .what do you need for 1? Your mail box is full...mb

Is this a common occurrence?

seems odd. first off why wouldn't they call you before doing something you did not want? second, why would a 358 rebore work but a 338 fed wouldn't? .358 is bigger than .338 from what i remember.

That is why I asked if this is common. Nothing about this would make me happy, especially the lack of communication.

Initially I just assumed he went from 243 to 358 after measuring/inspecting. But if he went 243 to 338 and didn't think it was functional/safe, the jump to 358 makes a lot more sense.

I wouldn’t be real disappointed with a 358 win. Buffalo bore has it in stock too.

Here’s 143 pieces of brass and bullets for 358 win


https://www.gunbroker.com/item/916138348

I think JES did you a huge favor. Then again, I far prefer the 358 and 308 over the 338.;)

I'm thinking you'll have no trouble trading that 358 bbl action plus cash for another 243 or 308 to start over with.

Instead of fuc king around with a rebore just have a new barrel installed. Had you down that to start with you'd be shooting by now.

In a sense, JES did you a favor since in general there is more demand for the 358 than the 338, you can seel the rebored barrel and buy one chambered in 338 Fed now.

Read 2 posts above mine. That particular post should have been included in initial post to clear the water a little so everyone wasn't assuming they just went to 358 Winchester.

There was a reason for what they did. It just wasn't known to us until later in the thread.

Probably sell before the weekend is out on the Classifieds.

I'd be a little PO'd if I got something other than what I ordered regardless of the refund. As others have said I think the right way to do this is to re-barrel. I was contemplating doing a re-bore to 35 Whelen a few years ago and after thinking it through decided to go with a new barrel from Pac Nor. Then I ended up trading into a 300 WSM and between that and the 338 Fed I'm good. I've heard Pac Nor is backlogged recently.

Buy a Krieger...

Not really defending JES but, during any machining process, things can go wrong. Likely that during the rifling process, something didn't go as planned. Maybe a cutter broke and scored the bore. In which case the barrel is now useless. At least by boring to 358 you have a functional barrel that you can either use or sell for another barrel.

Does seem like a detailed explanation and a heads up would have been a nice courtesy however.

I've seen other smiths who would've just handed you the screwed up 338 and acted incredulous when you discovered the issue. So kudos to JES for fixing and refunding. If you've ever tried to call, you know it can take multiple messages and a few days of phone tag to finally connect. So I'm not totally surprised he just went ahead and did it. (Though I would've appreciated a voicemail.)

For everyone saying Jason should have just rebarreled, this is really an anomalous result based on usual reports of JES guns and at $250 it's still way more economical than ordering a barrel, waiting for it, then paying a smith to install it *correctly.*

It does suck, but if he already punched it out to .338 and wasn't up to spec, what real choice did he have. If it were me, I would see if i can score a take off 243, 260, 308 barrel and give JES another call and see if he will fit and punch out the new barrel for you. Heck you could probably sell the 358 barrel for any cost difference.

maybe he punched it out 358 first ....one will never know

I understand part of the cost argument, but you could also look at it like spending $250 to polish a turd. That $250 is half way to a premium barrel and install job...

Winner winner chicken dinner! I’m going with this he rebored per customers request to a 338 federal. It wasn’t up to spec, what choice he have send the rifle back as a unshootable 338 federal with a refund? Or punch it out to a 358 with refund. At least ol boy has something he can sell to finance next project..

When’s the last time you all sent a rifle off to be rebarreled by a competent gunsmith? Local guy up here charges $600 plus cost of barrel. Which hell minimum for a good barrel $330 bucks. So a grand to rebarrel a rifle… ol boy can sell that 358 right now, wander on down to sportsmans warehouse or wherever pick up a new 700 adl for $500 and still be ahead. With a rebore vs rebarrel job..

It depends what you want for an end result. If you're looking for the cheapest way into a larger cartridge the rebore is the way to go. If you're looking for more of a custom rifle then maybe a re-barrel is the way to go. Some of the barrel makers like Pac Nor will fit and install the barrel on your action so it's a one shot deal.

No way you're buying a premium barrel and having it installed by a competent smith for $500 unless you are in tight with the smith or are tickling his nuts while you suck on his barrel.

That $250 to rebore may end up shooting better than a custom barrel. It's a gamble and anybody that chooses a rebore fully understands this.


Same with a custom barrel and install.

If you guys are spending $600 for a chamber job, you're getting bent over.

What are you paying for a fit and chamber job?

And barrel cost?

Sucking barrels and chamber jobs... where is this thread going? 😂😂😂

JES charges $250 for a standard (3 groove) rebore and that includes return shipping. A new barrel and installation is going to cost way more. And I don't think I've seen a thread yet where someone's JES rifle didn't shoot?

There were a couple on the thread the OP posted a while back on JES Rebores

When's the last time you saw a 700 on the shelf for 500?

Local Cabelas has a USED Ruger 10/22 on the shelf for 599.00

I've never seen these mythical cheap 700s and less so over the last 2-3 years.

I bought one here in the last two years

man you boys are all over the place....
sell the 358 barrel for 150.00 should be easy i would think
somebody here will probably give you a barrel to have re bored again or take the money and get a custom if you want
douglas will do it for less than 600 with a 3 week turn around

man you boys are all over the place....
sell the 358 barrel for 150.00 should be easy i would think
somebody here will probably give you a barrel to have re bored again or take the money and get a custom if you want
douglas will do it for less than 600 with a 3 week turn around

Or he too late discovered he'd grabbed the wrong reamer. Chit happens. The job is completed, money refunded. A free rebore! If this is the case, or the 338 didn't meet standards, a good solution, tho a phone call should have been made, IMO.

Someone will buy it....

I'd just re-barrel the action and sell the .358 barrel. McGowan builds prefits. I bought a 6.8 SPC prefit for a Ruger 77 and it shoots great. They are fairly inexpensive.

I would think he owes you a complete rifle, or a refund in dollars of the value of a complete rifle.

Is what it is. Choosing to rebore versus rebarrel began as a game of chance. If it was mine I wouldn’t be upset and would continue to use JES.

I'd disagree. There are no guarantees when reboring, you don't know what you might run into when drill and rifle. He could've run into an inclusion or other unforseen issues. The fact that he bored & rifled to to 35 cal at least leaves a useable barrel.

On the whole, I'm not a huge fan of reboring unless the barrel in question is unique and not easily replicated. I have a 27" Octagon barrel with integral sights in 8x57. The bore is frosted and it shoots but I'll eventually have it rebored to 9,3mm.

I’ve pm’ed the op about trading for a 243 Rem. 700 barreled action

Not denied. Just delayed.

Brandon, Dude270 on here was looking for a .358Win.
Might PM him if the other offers don’t pan out.

I’m targeting 250-300 lb bucks on the hoof so I’ll roll all day with a Rem 700 in 358 win. Already have an aftermarket composite stock to drop it in to.

This is just crazy.

I spoke with JES today, and he indicated that the bore job just didn't look right to him....hence the reason he went up the .358. I can't recall the exact wordage, but he basically stated it would have likely been fine as it was, but he didn't want to take a chance. I'm satisfied with his response, and 100% content with his handling of the situation.

As far as rebarreling, there is no way to do this job for $500. The barrel blank is $300, and 'smith work is a minimum of $300...and there is no way I am having a rifle rebarreled without the action being worked (that's another $200). Then, I'm not putting a trued action/rebarrel into an ADL stock, so $300 more for a nice stock.

Nope, I'm happy with the $250 rebore.

This from Wayne York’s site:

Please Note: If you are considering having your rifle rebored to a larger caliber you need to know that there is some customer assumed risk! Seldom are there any problems associated with the process, but, you need to understand that occasionally we do lose a barrel during the rebore. Issues such as porosity or slag inclusions are beyond our control. We do not know exactly what the steel content is in factory barrels. Each manufacturer specifies their own mix of steel, and seem to change those specifications at irregular intervals. Most modern steels cut smoothly and cleanly, but some do not.

I believe I’ve seen a similar disclaimer from Dan Pederson. Stuff happens. At least our OP got back a usable rifle instead of a wreck in a box.

I was going to suggest finding someone to swap barreled actions with the OP and it looks like Alwaysoutdoors did just that. Good work!!!

you need to look at the douglas web site
525.00 for the barrel and install with the action squared up
you can upgrade to stainless for 75 more

Can't say nothin' bad bout JES around here..... He does no wrong. You take your .358 and like it....

At least he didn't send you a bad bore job, and when you called him to discuss bad bore job he blames your hand loads and says fire factory ammo in it... so you strap it to a fence post knowing the factory ammo you have for it is probably going to blow it up since your hand loads are getting 3000 FPS when they should be doing 2700, so you know the factory ammo that is supposed to be doing 2900 in your gun is probably going to be doing close to 4K from a .35 Whelen. Sure enough, when you touch it off it goes boom. Then when you send him the gun to fix all he does is supply you an old POS 2 groove barrel that is cross threaded in the receiver with no rebore unless you pay him full price for the next one. I'm glad he's at least gotten past that solution...

Todd

I’ve a mint 88’ from the Ol lady’s granddaddy, 308, having a real hard time not havin er converted santiam style.. damn

😳 Justahunter: sounds like schit show for sure.

I paid for an accuracy guarantee from a well known smith once. Gun shot like schit. He claimed it shot one hole group. I said it shot 2". He told me to pound sand and sue him. Sent gun back to barrel maker. They agreed gun shot like schit and rebuilt it.

Now I try and buy Tikkas when possible.

So he sent the rifle back with the wrong chamber and the wrong bore and refunded your cost of the rebore....

No.....he's short on the refund

He owes you another barrel.

I own a small machine shop

I can't send substandard parts to a customer that supplied materials cut incorrectly with a sorry statement.

Bare minimum I would have to refund or replace material and eat my time.

Well, that's one opinion...just not my opinion.

$750 and they risk their reputation being trashed on the web? I’ve ate $10k to cover employees mistakes, lost $10k to [bleep] bag customers going bankrupt too. Cost of doing business. I’d thought hard about sending an ‘06 for reboreing to 9.3x62. That ain’t happening now.

I’m [bleep] and drunk… 😂😂😂

Bleep = cuuntfused

Jason280, think about this…… he would have been a lot of money ahead to communicate with you about a bad rebore, purchased a takeoff short action 700 barrel off eBay and delivered what you paid for and kept his commission cost… Why didn’t he do that?

Todd

Quick search on the eBay revealed a few 700 short action take off barrels for well under $100…

Todd

Doesn't Douglas do this in the white? So you'd still be on the hook for bluing?

I just can't agree with this comment.

I have no hesitations about sending him another rifle. In fact, I will almost certainly be sending him another 700 and a NEF Handi Rifle to rebore in the next couple of weeks. Forcing him to rebarrel the rifle seems a little excessive to me, especially considering what I got out of the deal. I ended up with a rifle I will have no trouble selling (for more than I could before) or trading, all at no cost to myself. It would be one thing if I had waited on this rifle for 6+ months, but it took less than 3-4 weeks.

Because then he's responsible (and liable) for the *random* Ebay barrel and how it shoots ... on top of what he's already responsible for?

There are a couple here who are really invested in wanting me to be "upset" about this whole thing. I completely understand Todd's experience, but his experience is simply not the same as mine.

Some are without a clue.

I know nothing about his experience, though it sounds like a dumpsterfire, so this isn't directed at him. But there are definitely people on the forum who just dislike the idea of budget rebores from JES and I've always assumed some of it has to do with most of them shooting just as well as the $1000 rebarrel job, or well enough for hunting to make zero difference.

Shoot, keep the newly bored .358 and just buy this.

Best of both worlds.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...onew/1/wts-sako-85-in-338-federal#UNREAD

For $1295, I would just get Nine Run Gun to build me a .338 on a 700 action.

I wish you the best with what you recieved but as I said earlier....

He owes you the cost of another barrel

I believe JES to be a good guy, he made sure you could at least sell or use the one that went bad due to slag…

You could send him a new barrel to work and He’d probably knock down the cost for you on that one, frankly he’s got a decent number of hours in the old work… so both parties should try to make things work out … stuff happens folks..

At the end of the day sleeping well is a good thing folks.

You couldn't give me thirty .243 barrels for that .358. I've seen things.


I'd hunt it.

Why do you guys act like a used M700 barrel has value in the first place? Most go in the trash after a smith pulls it to put on a real barrel. It's not like the smith ruined a Krieger or Brux...

I'd just order up a SS Remage barrel, buy a couple of tools and call it a day now.

If you are JES and there is a problem with the BARREL, don't you take a pic and send it to the customer, then ask how they want to proceed?

If there was an error in the PROCESS of the rebore, that would be when you wouldn't take pictures, would bore it out to 358 and mail it back to the customer with a no charge.

Maybe. Problems in the metal could be uncovered by the boring process. Most clients aren't gonna want to hear it was pre-existing. Either way, he can't send back something he thinks isn't safe.

I would still call. If I order veal at a restaurant and they are out, I wouldn't be happy if I waited 40 minutes for them to bring me chicken.

I just can't imagine not talking to the customer.

Totally agree on the phone call.

Ok $519 at sportsmans warehouse

Stop making sense. Just fuggin STOP IT!

I remember the JES 35 Whelen fiasco. That was all it took for me to write JES off for good.

I'm not going to make a divorce joke ... but really, what company hasn't had a fiasco? Remington made a business model out of them. Kimber and CZ literally have "pre-flight lists" on brand new rifles. Winchester has had multiple safety and firing pin recalls. Bergara had the exploding shroud thing. Sh*t happens. If you go with the overall trend, JES turns out a good product, but it's clearly not a perfect operation. (Because no one's operation is perfect.)

I had a similar deal as the OP. I had a P64 300 that I bought knowing it was rechambered to 300 Wby. Well, nothing I did could make that rifle shoot. Tried every darned load and bullet and powder within reason and it just never was decent. At the end of the last range day I said to heck with it and ordered a Krieger. Well, then I thought about it, said maybe JES can do something 375 with it. Sent it to him in order to make it into a 375 Wby. Well, a couple weeks later he sent it back with a couple pieces of brass and a note that said it wouldn’t clean up as a 375 Wby so he made it a 375 Improved. I was sorta dismayed as getting dies for it wasn’t easy. A set of 375 Imp dies didn’t work for the fired cases so at the end of the day, I sent a few fired cases to Whidden, and he made me up some dies.

The rifle shoots amazing and he did a great rebore, but a phone call would’ve been nice just to know what he couldn’t do. It turned out fine and I wasn’t pissed about it since it does shoot quite well with any darned bullet I put through it. He also left it up stamped with his Normal XXX deal so I could have it milled and stamped nicely.

In the end, the dies cost more than the rebore, but now it’s one of my favorite bigger bored rifles. And it still looks good. I did put it into a Legend I liked it so much.

Go for it.

Stuff happens- I'd pull it, sell it and send the action to Pac-Nor, Douglas or McGowen. For around $600 out the door with a custom barrel to your specifications minus the profit selling the rebored barrel. Personally, I could live with that. That said, I wish IT&D was still in business as I would have sent my barreled action there before it went to JES in the first place.

I’m interested in one of the shorter ones if you’re looking to re-home them. Tried to PM you so as not to derail the thread but your inbox is full. Username at gmail works if you can’t send PMs from your end either