don,t worry about them guys thepolinator. I tried to get some advice about a head space problem on here about a year ago and they jumped all over me too.
Were you also unable to accurately describe what was going on at that time? Because his original post is pretty hard to translate into something that makes sense.
Tiriaq pretty much covered the solution (handloads with brass being necksized only, after it was fire formed to the chamber), as well as the problems with setting back the barrel of a lever gun (all the 'other' parts that have to be moved or otherwise adjusted, when the barrel gets shortened from the back end).
To me it sounds like a $1200 bill fixing a $600 gun. How much is the finished product worth to you? Essentially, it will be almost as cheap or cheaper to buy a new gun that is in good shape, than it would to have the barrel set back and re-chambered, or to buy a new barrel and have it fitted.
Worth keeping in mind too, these are a hunting rifle, and not a target gun even in relative terms to their own era. If you were hoping to turn it into a bughole shooter, it's not likely to happen that way.
As to reaming the rifling out, a process called a rebore (for which there are only one or maybe two guys in Canada doing such work)the way that works is that the whole of the rifling gets removed, and the bore gets cleaned up to the larger size required to rifle it again in a different caliber. Making it a thousandth of an inch larger or two or three, isn't the way that works.
Simply setting back the barrel and reaming the chamber is a relatively easy process on a Bolt action rifle, where usually they do not even have sights to worry about as far as alignments. Harder to do when you have a bunch of extra stuff that needs to be watched. Harder costs more. Your money, your decision!
Cheers
Trev
