Rebarreling a lever ???

[inthebeech]

I'd like to learn a bit about a project that I might undertake; getting a lever gun rebarreled to a smaller caliber. I am interested in building a modern version of the old "small bore" levers. While the old 25-20, 25-35's and such are probably great guns I am thinking of saving a bit of money, making the project less complex, and taking advantage of better steels, stronger guns as well by at least matching case head dimensions.
So my thinking is to pick up a 35 Rem, Win big bore in 358 Win, since these will have the same case head size as the bulk of our choices today, and have it built in to perhaps a 250 Savage or 22-250? I could be wrong and a 25-20 is perfectly fine and not complex at all so I thought to start here.
I'd like input from those genuinely experienced with this type of project, or can recommend the person/gunsmith that I could talk to. I am probably not even beginning to understand the challenges as I think of pressures, extraction, feeding, safety, reliability... so I think I've done enough speculation for both of us; I'd really like to get input from the smiths who have built 'em or the shooters who have done this and own them.
Thanks,
Ed

[Bret4207]

I don;t see how you'll save money by starting with a very rare rifle such as a Winchester 356, plus the 35 Rem and 356 aren't the same size rim as the 250 Savage. The Big Bore was made in 375 Winchester, the later ones in 307 and 356, all relativly rare and very expensive for what you're getting.

The least expensive way to do it would be to find an inexpensive 30-30 and rebarrel to 25-35 or something similar. If you want a high intensity gun, a late production Savage 99 or Browning BLR might be the way to go.

[btroj]

I have agree with Bret. This is a project that will be many thing but inexpensive is not one of them.
A 22-250 would be a bad choice, too much pressure for most levers.
Like Bret said, get a 336 cheap and rebarrel to 25-35. Even this is going to cost you a few dollars.

[izzyjoe]

i had an ideal to rebarrel a 336 to 25-35 win, and i talked to a friend that is a smith. he said he could do it, but by the time you spend 250+ on a barrel. and rent a reamer and his labor to thread ,chamber cut dovetails, it would be pushing 600+.:veryconfu oh'my.

[EDK]

Go to Nonneman's (sp?) web site to see prices, etc. Very nice, but he isn't cheap.

:cbpour::redneck::Fire:

[hickstick_10]

Forget the project and buy a browning BLR, just my own opinion but I really dont know if its safe to chamber the 94 or 336 to 22-250 or the parent cartridge, even the savage 99 cannot handle some of the higher intensity loads of the 250-3000. Go research your pressures some more.

The gun is scary accurate and has a box magazine so you dont have to sacrifice your ballistics with round/flat nose bullets, its kind of a waste of time and money to chamber the above rounds in a tubular mazagine.

No need the reinvent the wheel the BLR is chambered in 22-250 http://www.browning.com/products/catalog/family.asp?webflag_=003b

If your stuck on the 22- to- 25 caliber in a tubular magazine, consider the 218 bee or 256 magnum in the Winchester 92 or maybe the marlin 94?.

[inthebeech]

Not offended by the honesty guys. This is why I asked.
The idea is becomming a distant memory already.

[peerlesscowboy]

I have agree with Bret. This is a project that will be many thing but inexpensive is not one of them.
A 22-250 would be a bad choice, too much pressure for most levers.
Like Bret said, get a 336 cheap and rebarrel to 25-35. Even this is going to cost you a few dollars.
One thing to consider here is most .25 caliber barrels have 1:10" rifling twist, the .25-35 OTOH needs 1:8" to stabilize 117gr bullets at it's relatively low velocity.

John C. Saubak

[Char-Gar]

IMHO Bret has drilled the issue through the center.

If I wanted to do such a thing, I would take a good 336A and barrel it to 25-35. This would give the chance to get rid of the factory fast twist barrel in favor of a slower twist that would like cast bullets better. If you are a high speed fan, the 25-35 AI is a real stepper and probably the best of the rimmed AI cases.

There are folks who have the reamers for either caliber and can do the work, but no matter how you slice it, you are into the 500 - 600 dollar range of work.

Lots of gun related things are fun to think about an plan, but with reality you can probably talk yourself out of such a project. For the price of such work, you can buy a new rifle close to what you want.

There is also the fact that the high dollar work done by gunsmith can't be recovered upon resale.

[bob208]

you could rebarrel a .30-30 to 219 zipper.

[peerlesscowboy]

If I wanted to do such a thing, I would take a good 336A and barrel it to 25-35. This would give the chance to get rid of the factory fast twist barrel in favor of a slower twist that would like cast bullets better.
Assuming cast vs jacketed bullets of equal weight why would a slower twist "like cast bullets better"? If Winchester found 1:10" wouldn't stabilize 117gr jacketed so they went to 1:8" ............ then why would 1:10" be able to stabilize 117gr cast?

John C. Saubak

[hydraulic]

Go buy an original Winchester '94 in .25-35, probably in the neighborhood of $1500 - $2000, shoot it for a few years till you get tired of it, and sell it for a substantial profit. As with any rifle, don't reblue, refinish, rebarrel, add sling swivels, recoil pads, scope mounts, or otherwise vandalize it from it's original condition and it will be worth more than you paid for it in a very short time.

[John Taylor]

Some things to think about. Some of my books show the twist rate for the 25-35 at 1 in 8". Winchester model 70s used a 1 in 9" for the 25-35 ( sort of a rare gun). Green Mountain has a 25 cal. barrel with a 1 in 10 twist for under $100. Probably work fine if you don't go with a heavy bullet. Machine work, thread and chamber, contour and dovetails, in my shop would run about $250. Blue about $60. Total $410. This would be for a 94 Win. , 93 or 336 Marlin.
I do about 3 a year for the model 70 in 25-35.

[Three44s]

You mentioned a .22-250 or .250-3000 Savage for a new chambering.

Round or flat nosed bullets don't do either of the above cartridges any justice.

What I found is a 99 Savage in .243 win. with a rotary magazine.

You can use any bullet style or shape as it's not a tubular magazine and (though I have not tried this) many folks report very good results with boolits in that cartridge.

Three 44s

[peerlesscowboy]

Some things to think about. Some of my books show the twist rate for the 25-35 at 1 in 8". Winchester model 70s used a 1 in 9" for the 25-35 ( sort of a rare gun). Green Mountain has a 25 cal. barrel with a 1 in 10 twist for under $100. Probably work fine if you don't go with a heavy bullet. Machine work, thread and chamber, contour and dovetails, in my shop would run about $250. Blue about $60. Total $410. This would be for a 94 Win. , 93 or 336 Marlin.
I do about 3 a year for the model 70 in 25-35.
Out of curiosity, how does the 1:10" twist handle the 117gr j-bullets? The reason I ask; some years ago I picked up a nice .25-35 mod 94 carbine (original, made sometime in the late 40's-early 50's) from a local used gun rack. It had a worn extractor problem so I took it up to my old (now retired) gunsmith at Havre, MT. After he fixed my rifle he showed me a mod 94 (originally .30-30) that he was in the middle of converting to .25-35 for a customer by fitting a barrel that had originally been a .25-06 with the standard 1:10" twist. I've often wondered how that turned out/if the rifle would shoot 117gr bullets with anything like acceptable accuracy?

John C. Saubak