Re-chamber from 7-08 to.....

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duncansuds

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I am considering a re-chamber on my mountain 700. It's a short action currently chambered in 7-08. I have been considering a rechamber to a .284 Winchester or a 7WSM. I am not too concerned with barrel life as this is a hunting rig. It will see basic practice and drop chart confirmation. It's has a decently accurate barrel right now, easily landing a 1 MOA COLD BORE group out to 400yards (confirmed by 1/2hr shot intervals in shade).

I am looking for a little more power and mostly to play around with it. I love the feel of this rifle and will keep it as the base. It may get a different barrel once this ones life has been exceeded. It currently has around 400 rounds through it so it should be good for some time.

I am wondering about:

Ease of re-chamber

Which one you would use and why

Would I expect a reasonable amount of accuracy after alteration....

Any opinions are welcome. But I am not changing the base of this rifle... Just the chamberig for now, later a barrel.
 
You would need a different bolt face to chamber to 7wsm, 284 is a great round but it's a bit of a pain in a short action. As far as the rechamber goes it's very doable just take to to your favorite gunsmith and let him know what you want.
 
I'm not a fan of .284s in short actions, unless you're trying for a short action .270 sticking to lighter (short) and lower BC bullets. 7WSM means large changes with your bolt and feed rails and I'd pass on that.

The easy answer is sell it and buy a Kimber in the chambering you really want. It's in my opinion a better rifle and as light or lighter than your Ti, available off the shelf in all sorts of zippy chamberings. But that does sap the project aspect of the fun out of it.
 
I may be wrong, but a .284 is going to require some modification to the rails and feed ramp. 7mm WSM will obviously require opening the bolt face as well as rail and feed ramp work.

If she shoots well as is, why throw a bunch of money at it?
 
Just feeling like it I guess. Weighing my options. As for the Kimber... Nope. I am a 700 guy, at least the platform if nothing else. Had many many other actions styles and keep coming back to these. Don't wanna change. Was thinking i would have something a little different.

What would change in the rails? I get the feed ramp mod...
 
I made a 600 action into a 6.5x284. No modifications are required for the rails. If it is a hunting rifle 140 partitions or accubonds will work fine without intruding excessively into the powder space. I was able to use 140 partitions in mine. They took up a bit of powder space but they emerged at 3000 fps from a 20" Douglas tube. For me I would sooner have the short action. If you want a long action use the 280 for the same results as the 284. Conversley the 284 in a short action will give the same results as a 280 in long action unless you are going Heavier, longer and possibly poorer performing bullets than the partition.

Jist my opinion and don't want to start a fight on here,

Neil
 
The rails would have to be opened up a little bit, since the .284 is a tad wider compared to the 7mm-08. In some rifles, it might work just fine, but my buddy has done a few conversions to the .284, and he's told me that all of them have required a bit of work on the rails. Not nearly as much as for the 7mm WSM, though. That one could be a bit of a bugger to get to feed right, but any smith worth his salt should be able to get it done for you. Personally, I'd go with the WSM, but I'm a sucker for the redheaded step-child cartridges, and that sibling got no love at all in its little family. Though the .284 didn't fare much better...

Erik.
 
Ha. Me too I was originally thinking a vanilla Ackley to get a little more out of it.... But that would only be easy.

For bullets I am thinking I like my Barnes LRX 145,these have preformed very well and my barrel likes them so far, but was also thinking a 140 VLD or if I can ever get my hands on a few ELD-X 162's, any heavier and I would run into twist uncertainty I think.

I have been leaning towards the WSM due to many suggestions that I would only enjoy a .284 if I was able to seat a 180 VLD like it should be seated...
 
Ardent said:
I'm not a fan of .284s in short actions, unless you're trying for a short action .270 sticking to lighter (short) and lower BC bullets. 7WSM means large changes with your bolt and feed rails and I'd pass on that.

The easy answer is sell it and buy a Kimber in the chambering you really want. It's in my opinion a better rifle and as light or lighter than your Ti, available off the shelf in all sorts of zippy chamberings. But that does sap the project aspect of the fun out of it.
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This
 
duncansuds said:
Ha. Me too I was originally thinking a vanilla Ackley to get a little more out of it.... But that would only be easy.

For bullets I am thinking I like my Barnes LRX 145,these have preformed very well and my barrel likes them so far, but was also thinking a 140 VLD or if I can ever get my hands on a few ELD-X 162's, any heavier and I would run into twist uncertainty I think.

I have been leaning towards the WSM due to many suggestions that I would only enjoy a .284 if I was able to seat a 180 VLD like it should be seated...
Click to expand...

Those likely aren't going to fit in your action in a .284, too long of bullets. The Partitions etc suggested to you by Neilm are shorter, stubbier bullets of old school ogive and flat base design and those are what you'll be shooting from a short action .284. The 7WSM will be a major headache and expense to get to work in your action, few smiths are going to want to cut titanium.

Don't get too hung up on the 700, it's nothing special. It runs a soldered on bolt handle with a three piece bolt, two position safety of questionable design compared to competitors' three positions, and a pipe receiver for economy of production. It's an agglomeration of manufacturing shortcuts that happens to work well but nothing worth marrying yourself to as a brand, much better stuff is out there. Your rifle is at its best as is in my opinion, if you want a lightweight magnum I'd go out and pick up a Kimber or T3.
 
It's your rifle to do with as you please, but I rather like the 7-08..... If you were to rechamber it to anything, I would stay within the .308 family and go with .260 Remington.... Would save any extra work.....
 
Superbrad said:
It's your rifle to do with as you please, but I rather like the 7-08..... If you were to rechamber it to anything, I would stay within the .308 family and go with .260 Remington.... Would save any extra work.....
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How is a 260 gonna work with a 7mm barrel??? The op wants to keep his factory barrel and just re chamber it. As for the 700 action I have used a pile of them to build off of and they work just fine I would stick with it.
 
Shawn_338 said:
How is a 260 gonna work with a 7mm barrel??? The op wants to keep his factory barrel and just re chamber it. As for the 700 action I have used a pile of them to build off of and they work just fine I would stick with it.
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It isn't..... simply saying what I would do..... a barrel swap is a lot easier than all of the mods it would take to turn it into a .284......
 
Ardent said:
Those likely aren't going to fit in your action in a .284, too long of bullets. The Partitions etc suggested to you by Neilm are shorter, stubbier bullets of old school ogive and flat base design and those are what you'll be shooting from a short action .284. The 7WSM will be a major headache and expense to get to work in your action, few smiths are going to want to cut titanium.

Don't get too hung up on the 700, it's nothing special. It runs a soldered on bolt handle with a three piece bolt, two position safety of questionable design compared to competitors' three positions, and a pipe receiver for economy of production. It's an agglomeration of manufacturing shortcuts that happens to work well but nothing worth marrying yourself to as a brand, much better stuff is out there. Your rifle is at its best as is in my opinion, if you want a lightweight magnum I'd go out and pick up a Kimber or T3.
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I'm not going to argue with your criticism of the 700 but I will say that I shipped far more Kimbers back for warranty than any other make including Remington.
Having said that, I wouldn't own a Kimber on a bet, a T3 yes for sure.
 
A 284 or even a 7-08 AI are good options. Both will give more powder capacity and both should be easy to ream out of the current chamber. My buddy has a 284 that shoots a 120 gr TTSX at 3300fps!! But he's a speed freak too.
 
Superbrad said:
It isn't..... simply saying what I would do..... a barrel swap is a lot easier than all of the mods it would take to turn it into a .284......
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Buying a new barrel, getting it reamed and cut & fitted to the receiver... might as well buy a new rifle at that point...$$$

Not really that expensive to ream out an existing barrel (as long as the 'smith has the right reamer and I'd assume a competent 'smith has a 284 or even 7-08AI reamer), and then even trued back to the existing receiver. I'd think that is way cheaper than a new barrel. And good luck finding a M700 6.5 take-off barrel.
 
Ltbull01 said:
Buying a new barrel, getting it reamed and cut & fitted to the receiver... might as well buy a new rifle at that point...$$$

Not really that expensive to ream out an existing barrel (as long as the 'smith has the right reamer and I'd assume a competent 'smith has a 284 or even 7-08AI reamer), and then even trued back to the existing receiver. I'd think that is way cheaper than a new barrel. And good luck finding a M700 6.5 take-off barrel.
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All good points.... I was thinking take off barrel.... And yes, a .260 would be hard to find....
 
Kevan said:
I'm not going to argue with your criticism of the 700 but I will say that I shipped far more Kimbers back for warranty than any other make including Remington.
Having said that, I wouldn't own a Kimber on a bet, a T3 yes for sure.
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Things have certainly changed then with Kimber, I keep hearing these horror stories and after a half dozen of them have yet to encounter one myself. The only readily accessible sub 5lb rifle on the market at its price point, too. At that weight, I'd even accept issues, thankfully mine don't have any. I don't embrace brands, though I am forced accept what works. For the mountains there's nothing better at the price point. I'm generally a custom guy, but when my five figure custom titanium Mauser came in a pound heavier than my Kimbers I have to wonder what else is worth buying when talking ultralights like Ti's.
 
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