Stainless Winchester re-barrel concern?

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BigBraz15

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Hey guys,

I recall there was some concern with re-barreling on stainless browning abolt rifles, as the threads would Gall and action would be garbage. Just wanted to check to see if the FN winchester stainless featherweight could have the same concerns? (Concerned since FN owns both browning and winchester)

I picked up this 243 thinking I may require barrel it down the road to a 250 savage or a 260 Remington.

Hoping to harvest something with the 243 and see how it works first, but will see how it goes.

Thanks for the insight.
 
Some Browning A Bolts had a bit of a problem, quite rare. It's unique to their design... nothing to do with Winchester.

If an A Bolt galls when removing a barrel, it isn't a big deal... just re-thread the action slightly larger and fit a new barrel to it.
 
Ok the issue of stainless on stainless threads galling is not an old wives tale I have had the miss fortune to run into it on two A Bolts and one Ruger M77 Mk2 over the last thirty odd years, that being said. Today I disassembled a stainless Mod 70 Winchester CF with no trouble encountered and it was a damned tight barrel. Anyone that claims they have never had a problem with pulling apart a stainless factory barreled action hasn't been in the game long enough to know any better. D.H.
 
I have only encountered one stainless A Bolt that galled... and I blame that on the design of the action... all A Bolt threads (blued and stainless) are extremely tight in the action... but with the properties of stainless lend themselves to galling more than blued. I don't know for a fact but I think the A-Bolts have the barrel threaded into a sort of sleeve that has the lug recesses and barrel threads... and that whole assembly is pressed into the action creating an even tighter thread fit. I have never removed an A Bolt barrel that did not have a tight thread fit all the way off.

I have never encountered a galling problem on any other make of stainless actions.
 
Thinking back the Ruger receiver was salvageable but the two Brownings I still have under the bench. Based on my couple of bad experiences I make a point that every time I have a customer that wants to re barrel his stainless A Bolt I show him what might happen, and if given the go ahead I will have him present while I pull the barrel from the action so he can witness first hand the procedure. Its nothing more than a cover your ass move. D.H.
 
David Henry said:
Thinking back the Ruger receiver was salvageable but the two Brownings I still have under the bench. Based on my couple of bad experiences I make a point that every time I have a customer that wants to re barrel his stainless A Bolt I show him what might happen, and if given the go ahead I will have him present while I pull the barrel from the action so he can witness first hand the procedure. Its nothing more than a cover your ass move. D.H.
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Well that certainly is a good procedure... nothing wrong with doing that... what's an under the bench Browning worth? Any other pieces with it?
 
David Henry said:
I believe I have the rest of the action minus the trigger group which I sold to someone in dire need of it a few months back. Are you looking for some specific part guntech. D.H.
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No, it just feels like a shame not to be able to use those actions... are they beyond re threading slightly larger? Although at this stage they are probably worth more for parts...
 
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If you want I could email you a picture of the internal threads and the tap I made to try to clean them up. I think the barrel shanks are here to if you really want to see some gory details. But to answer your question yes I suppose you could open up the receiver and rethread it. I had enough of the fiasco by the time I made the tap in an effort to recoup my losses, so I through in the towel. D.H.
 
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