doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com .30-30 barrel lining?

I have a Hollenbeck drilling that has severe throat erosion and an oversized neck in the .30-30 chamber. Been going 'round and 'round trying to decide what to do about it.

The barrel OD is about .425 at the muzzle. I 'spect that's too thin to reline, eh? I think one of the liners I was looking at was .440 OD, haha.

Maybe a reline to .25-30?

A bore to .32 WS was also suggested to me, but again I dunno if the barrel OD is thick enough, and the chamber may be too eroded for that anyway. But this would be ideal, if it would be safe. That'll be a darn thin barrel, though, especially at the muzzle where it's polished thin on the bottom.

Any particular gunsmiths y'all would recommend for such a procedure? The places I've looked won't do double-rifles (which I assume includes drillings, I assume because they don't have the right lathe jaws for offset work).

I hate to butcher an antique gun like that. But a gun that isn't shootable has no place in my collection.

Thanks!

I would take a 375 Winchester and run it through a 30-30 sizing die with a .308 or .309 expander ball.
This should give you a thicker neck and provide support.
Then use a 180 to 190 grain gas checked cast bullet sized to .311 and set the cartridge overall length to support the round.
The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook has loading data

OR have Rocky Mountain Brass make you some Everlasting cases
http://www.rockymountaincartridge.com/

What do you think about these options

Mike

Fun reading
https://www.montanabulletworks.com/product/303-british-saeco-305-180gr-fngc/

Consider fire forming the brass to match up to the chamber?

I have a smokeless proofed 8x58R Sauer of unknown German make on which the rifle barrel measures @ 0.435" for about half its length. Groove diameter on it measures .321" so about the same as the .32WS. That would be only .005" difference in wall thickness.

The chamber has a ring of erosion/pitting in it, and the cases expand into it and stick really bad. I'm not sure what to do about that. I tried chucking up a wire brush in a drill and cleaning the hell out of it, but no change.

The ID of the fired case mouth is around 0.32 as I recall. The muzzle is still about 0.308. That seems a pretty excessive difference to me, but... I don't really know much.... There's definitely about an inch or so in front of the chamber where the rifling is gone or very weak, or so it appears when peering down the barrel.

The gunsmith I showed it to said a rechamber to .30-40 Krag would get rid of the bad spot in the chamber and get up closer to good rifling, but that the chamber area seems a bit thin for that.

Then recently I read about relining (which I'd previously thought they'd only do on rimfires, but apparently low-pressure centerfires are fair game too).

I just can't seem to figure out what to do, heh. I guess I could "just shoot it", but I hate to have to break it open over my knee to get the cases to extract. That'll break something eventually I'd think.....

I too was thinking of 30-40 krag for a re-chamber to a longer case. But was also thinking the chamber walls may not be heavy enough.
Another option that is more work than it is worth would be to replace the tube completely. Through sleaving.

I'd consider sleeving the chamber and the throat. Done as far in as the chambering reamer will cut a new throat for you so the new chamber and throat flows nicely into the old bore. You get a new chamber and as much of a new throat as possible to get rid of the old burned up one.

Done right and with a tight metal to metal fit joint up front, it'll stand up just fine with any 30-30 loads I'd want to put thru a skimpy bbl'd drilling of that age.

Sleeving just the chamber or the chamber and throat of the bbl was not an uncommon repair on single and double rifles in low pressure rounds.
Some were done better than others of course.

You could even do the new chambering in 32-40WCF w/a 30cal pilot on the reamer. Then size the 32-40 brass FL but do not expand them. They then hold .308d bullets just fine.
32-40 pressures are quite a bit lower than 30-30 IIRC.

JMO and thoughts

Mr Polecat,
Before you do any thing to the gun, try trimming a case neck short enough that it doesn't cause a problem with the "ring", then try .311-.312 bullets( first cast, then if a jacketed bullet "falls" into a fired case, try them. You can load the bullets to the normal OAL. A 30-30 case neck should be long enough to allow this. If it works, great; if not, you are no worse off than you were yesterday.
Mike

The ring is way down at the bottom of the shoulder, unfortunately.

Mr. Polecat,
Do you think it would clean up if you opened the throat up .003-.004" to go along with a .311-.312" bullet? You should not rechamber to 30-40 under any circumstances. It is much larger than the 30-30 and would make the chamber wall too thin.
Mike