I have a Remington Model 14 in 30 Remington that I just purchased with a 30 day return. I really like it. The action is smooth and the outside is in great condition. The barrel not so much. There are a bunch of small pits and there is one area about two inches long where the patches and brush barely touch. I took it to a gunsmith yesterday to run a borescope and he advised to shoot it and see. I contacted the seller to make sure he didn't mind my shooting it to see if I wanted to keep it or return it. He said shoot it. I am going outside in a little bit to see how it shoots.

I would really like to keep it so what are my options if it doesn't shoot well? Replacement barrels are basically nonexistent. Can it be bored out and sleeved? Could it be bored to 32 Remington?

I would appreciate any and all advise. I am going to post this in the gunsmith section as well.

Thanks. Jim

Pits I wouldn't have worried about. But that section where the brushes/patches aren't touching the bore? Sounds like it may be bulged. How does the barrel look from the outside? Just look along its length, or take some measurements.

It may shoot much better than you'd expect. I'd be at least as concerned about getting ammo or brass for those old Remington rimless cartridges unless you already have a supply.

The barrel looks good from the outside and I don't feel any protrusions. The smithy looked also and said he didn't see anything wrong either. The rifling was pretty worn in that area though.

My Son has a 141 so we have ammo and brass.

Thanks guys.

Jim

texasbatman,

My wife has a Model 141 in .30 Remington--but it was originally a .32 Remington, as evidenced by the brass "medallion" in the side of receiver, designed to resembled a case-head. The barrel is a Remington, but looks very much like the barrels they were putting on 760s (and 700s) later on--with stampings from that era, and looks like it was stamped by Remington as well.

For many years Remington would rebarrel their factory rifles inexpensively--but only to the original cartridge, to prevent rifle loonies from changing their minds, and deciding they really wanted, say, a .280 instead of a .30-06. I am guessing this 141 might have been rebarreled by Remington--but long enough after they discontinued the .32 Remington to have run out of .32-caliber barrels.

Dunno if the present Remington Arms would do something similar if the original barrel on your 14 turns out to be, uh, "shot". But it might be worth asking them.

I will give them a shout and see. Thank you.

Jim

There’s currently two M14, 30 REM barrels on eBay. Neither is cheap.

If the last 2 or 3 inches of bore at the muzzle is good...you may be surprised how well it will shoot.

I saw the one for 200.00 basically and it didn't look too bad. Plus, he has a 30 day return on it. I found another that said the rifling was excellent and he too had a 30 day return. There was some small rust speckling on the outside but very minor. I went ahead and bought it just in case.

Thanks for your help folks.

Jim

Smart move. I have Model 30 Express in 30 Rem. Keep you eye out for brass, it's rather scarce.

I took her out and shot it to see how poorly it was going to shoot. WOW!!!!!!!! Surprise!!!!!



However, I shot 5 rounds and split the casings on 3 of them.



The other two looked just fine.



The ammo was new but old. I think I will slightly pull the bullets to make sure they are not welded. Then I will try it again. Thanks for all your help.

Jim

Have you loaded any of the brass yet?
Looks like it will shoot, hopefully new cases will not split.

I’ve successfully loaded .30 Remington with 30-30 dies & an appropriate shell holder.

Mine is a Remington model 8.

If you are satisfied with the way it shoots leave it alone. But a lining job to make a new chamber and bore are very doable. However if you can get a barrel for $200 it's a better option because I doubt you could get it relined for that same amount.

1 other note of interest:
It's not hard to make 30 Remington out of 30-30 Winchester if you have a lathe. When the 6.8SPC first came out I made about 100 cases from 30-30, and it has the same head dimensions as a 30 Remington. The easy way to do it is to turn off the rim of the 30-30s and grind a tool to cut the case groove. I made a spud that went into the case neck to give it support and would simply chuck up on the neck to spin the case agains a live center in the primer pocket. It's an easy and quick way to convert the rimmed case into the rimless one.

Saw 6 boxes of that ammo at the gunshow today it was 65/ box. Mb

I loaded up 5 rounds tonight. The brass was very easily sized. I then pulled the bullets out of 5 of the factory ammo. I had to beat the heck out of it to get the bullet to start moving. The easiest took 10 whacks and the hardest was 16. That was to get the bullet moving. I de-primed the brass because the inside of the cases was gritty and looked like it had been fired. However, the primer pockets were very clean and it was obvious the rounds were new. Resizing was a little tough. It took quite a bit more pressure. I now have 5 new brass reloads and 5 factory reloads. Hopefully I can shoot them tomorrow and see what happens.


I had heard about making 30 Rem from 30-30. I have plenty enough brass for now unless I only get 1 shot per case. I guess if it continues to split the cases I will need to get someone to re-cut the chamber. I am certainly open to ideas from the brain trust here.

I will post again after I shoot the gun. I want to thank all of you for your ideas.

Jim

Graf and sons has 25 and 32 Remington in stock, buy a bag of 25 Remington and run them through your 30 die and you'll have brass. Remington was doing occasional runs. Quality brass also has brass, though their case wall are thicker, so start with beginning loads. Just a thought.

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/71101

Thanks for the info.

Jim

Texasbatman - I had .357 magnum ammo once that was in a flood and the bullets had “welded” themselves to the case. I tried a kinetic bullet puller first and like you had to exert way more effort than necessary……I ran the remainder of the ammo through the reloading press with the seater die installed and “seated” the bullet a little deeper first - this broke the weld and the bullets were then pulled with less effort. Cool rifle - I have one also with a pitted bore but still shoots great!

PennDog

Thanks Penn Dog. I will give that as try.

I bought a barrel off ebay that was listed in excellent condition and it was. I am keeping the better barrel as a backup. I have not been able to shoot the reloads I made due to poor weather. Hopefully soon.

Thanks again guys for all your help.

Jim

Instead of pulling those old bullets, use your seating die to push them deeper into the case to break any "welding"

Mike

I'm old and slow lol

Anneal your brass.

How old is the ammo ? Sounds like the powder may be on the verge of going bad and that can effect the brass as can corrosive priming on pre 1930's ammo. I'd pull them down and deprime then anneal down to just past the shoulder. Also you should buy some of the Graff brass mentioned above while they have it in stock. I have two m14's and a 141 and as a rule they nibble at the rims a bit when they extract the fired case . I clean the nibbles up with a small fine cut file but eventually they get rougher than I want to use. Mine are some of my favorite rifles.

I tried that first and wound up pushing the neck down.

That will be my next step.The ammo looks to be 60's or 70's. Graf's was out last I checked (a couple of weeks back). I need to learn how to anneal. Thanks for all the help guys.

Jim

I shot 20 rounds of new brass reloads with no problems. I then shot 6 rounds of the new ammo that I had pulled the bullets and re-seated. There was 2 out of 6 that split the necks. So now it is time to buy an annealing machine. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks guys.

Jim

You don't really need an "annealing machine" for doing relatively few cases. You might Google "candle method of annealing" and see what comes up. A friend and part-time writer developed it years ago, and quite a few shooters have used it since, with good results.

If it doesn't pop up during your Googling, I can describe it.

Thank you Sir. That is a very simple way.

Jim

For just a few, I use the candle as JB mentioned. For a couple hundred at a time I use a propane torch atop a Coleman gas bottle.

The propane is quite a bit faster.

I set the flame fairly low and roll the case between finger and thumb, while directing the flame onto the shoulder. When the brass gets too hot to hold in my fingers, I drop it and grab the next case.

Some guys drop the hot case into water to ensure the heat does not reach the head of the brass.

Idaho Shooter,

If you're holding the cases halfway up the body in your fingertips, there's no need to drop the brass into water. There's no way enough heat will reach the head to anneal it. That's one of the advantages of the method--and yes, I have tested it quite a bit in various ways--including temp-paint.

You might read Chapter 15 in The Big Book of Gun Gack II, "Annealing Brass"--if you have a copy. It takes at least 480 degrees F. to anneal cartridge brass--and that takes a LONG time. Even annealing at 600 degrees requires an hour at that temperature--which is not going to happen when heating the very thin necks to 700 degrees, about the lowest temperature that anneals quickly.

The beauty of the candle method is that far lower temperatures on finger-tips will make the typical human drop the case, long before the head's hot enough to be affected, even in .22 Hornet cases. And once the case is dropped, the temperature of the brass drops.

Thanks for the input guys. I have 10 boxes that I am going to pull the bullets and dump the powder to anneal. The brass itself is too valuable to just throw away after one firing due to split necks. At the current failure rate I would lose around 67 pieces. OUCH!!!!!!

How about the primers? Do I need to remove them before annealing? I wonder how sensitive to heat they would be?

Thanks again guys for all your help.

Jim

I would remove the primers. I doubt the annealing process would cause problems--but the case IS going to be around an open flame....

Will do. Thanks MD.

Jim

Thanks John,

Yes, I just drop them onto a folded bath towel, just as I do fresh cast bullets.

Some have advocated the water drop. Which I agree is unwarranted. But included as additional information.

I have not used the temp crayons yet. But have definitely felt the change in resistance to resizing and bullet seating in many times fired brass after annealing. Some of my 264 brass had been fired at least ten times before heat treating. What a difference.