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

It's hard to be dogmatic without seeing what those thicknesses actually are, but my guess is that this would be the best way to go. Of course you would have to reduce the wall thickness, just as you would with the .30-40, but you would be filling that space with a metal sleeve, so lose-fitting that if the pressure did expand it beyond its elastic limit, it would impose no further risk. This is rather like the principle known as autofrettage in artillery, in which stressing of the inner layers can actually strengthen a barrel.

The thin walled aviation stainless tubes are well worth looking into, for they are extremely tough. There was a vogue in the UK a while back for using them to line shotgun tubes, although this declined due to the effects of extreme heating, and the difficulty of dealing with a dent. You would have to use something like the bearing-fitting grades of Loctite, since the barrels and ribs are presumably soft-soldered.

.22 WCF, .22 Savage High-power and .25-35 were all fairly popular in Europe, and gained their own metric names. I don't believe this was the case with the .30-30, which is unusual to find in a gun of this type. My guess is that it was rechambered from one of the multitude of mostly forgotten 8mm. or 8.15mm. straight-tapered combination gun cartridges. These often had a thicker neck than the .30-30, and almost all used the groove diameter of the J-bore Mausers. This is usually listed as .318in., but could easily have been on the tight side. It would let you in for using something like Bertram brass, but the straight taper would put more strength into the sleeve and barrel, and one of the longer ones would eliminate much of the throat erosion.

Go back to the first post of this thread. The gun is a Hollenbeck, that's US not German. .30-30 was no doubt the original chambering.

I guess it is pretty well known that I am generally opposed to rechambering drillings( except to "normalize a 9.3x72R or 8.15x46R chamber). But I think Kutter's 30-30 AI idea gives the best chance of success, with the least chance of failure. With regard to a chamber liner, it must be shorter than the case so that obturation keeps the high pressure gases out of the joint. Also the liner should be pulled in tightly and held while the glue sets or solder cools( by a threaded rod through the barrel and washers/nuts on both ends), to reduce the size of the joint.
Mike

Just me probably, but messing with the chamber of something so common as a 30-30 will probably lead to trouble for someone down the line...Geo

Geo.
You may be right, but it is trouble now and he is trying to work it out the best way he can.
Mike

The Ackley Improved does sound like a reasonable choice. As the 30-30 headspaces on the rim as mentioned factory rounds can be fired in it & after firing you have fireformed cases for the new chambering. This should not cause any problems down the line. Of course after the initial firing one would not Resize to original 30-30 size.

This of course "IF" the lengthened shoulder will clean up the groove in neck. lso I would not recommend hot loads in the AI case, stick to no more than original pressures, lower would be good. "Supposedly" the lessened body taper will reduce back thrust on firing.

Thanks, guys. I'll talk to some gunsmiths about a .30-30 AI reaming for it. Hopefully then the throat erosion and over-sized neck won't be too big a deal. I have a 1917 Enfield with a pretty awful throat that still shoots fine, so eh... With a down-loaded .30-30, I'll be shooting deer within 100 yards, which doesn't require a target rifle I suppose, heh.

The cases don't stick so badly that I have to pound them out with a rod, but I do have to break the gun open over my knee. I fear that I'll end up breaking something if I keep doing that.

Maybe even if a .30-30 AI reamer doesn't remove ALL of that ring in there, it will remove enough that the cases won't stick nearly as bad, and they'll be undamaged enough to reuse. I'm afraid to try to reuse what comes out of it right now. I'm afraid I'll end up needing a broken case extractor if I do.......

Once I get everything fixed and working right, I am planning to get a set of the Briley ultralight 20ga liners installed in it, too. There's one little place where one of the thin ribs between the rifle and one of the shotgun barrels is slightly separated. I think it's just where there was a dent that was pounded out at some point, and as far as I can tell the barrel isn't split or ringed there, but I'll feel better about shooting it more often once those liners are in there. 20ga is plenty for most of what I hunt anyway.

Hopefully that, and some down-loaded .30-30 AI, will keep the old girl happy until I croak and it gets sold at my estate auction, heh.

Great report
Looking forward to an update as time goes on
Mike

Though it seems the thread has moved in the direction of 30-30 AI I'd like to chime in, in a slightly different direction. A friend came into a Wesson two-trigger rifle chambered in 30-30 Wesson but whose bore was absolutely worthless. He's a pretty good non-professional gunsmith. He relined the bore with a 25 cal liner and chambered it in 25-20.
It's a party to shoot with cast bullets - accurate as all get-out. And it put an old gun back to work.

More 30-30AI talk.

I believe the 30-30AI is the correct route to go but would like to add some cautionary notes:

The Ackley Improved line of cartridges differ from Wildcats as being dimensioned to also fire the parent case when headspaced correctly. To accomplish this with rimless cases the neck/shoulder juncture is made .004"-.005" shorter than the parent chamber. That means if you wish to have a true AI chamber you have to set the barrel back and then recut the chamber. This is not possible in your situation so understand you will end up with a Wildcat, not a true Ackley Imp. chamber.

Because you are working with a rimmed case you can still proceed but be careful not to deepen the rim cut. And when fireforming the brass to the new chamber it is best to form a false shoulder a bit forward on the neck to hold the case against the breachface when firing. This will keep the cases from stretching forward of the web and let the shoulder blow forward. If you are using light loads it may take several firings to fully form the shoulder.

Have the chamber/flats restamped to show the change made as to caution future users.

John