03-a3...good news...follow up

[mike in co]

i few months back i got an o3-a3 and was all hot to trot with cast boolits. slugging the muzzle resulted in a disgusting big bore. i shot a few loads thru the gun and nothing was great. while looking for leading, i noticed a "hole" in the muzzle "star". it was low and right.....just where a right handed person would be stroking a cleaning rod.......i quit shooting, cleaned the gun and took a hacksaw to the bbl ! i cut about 3/8's off, refaced and crowned. i then tried some condom loads still thinking i had an oversized bore. i was shooting berger 175's..... this gun loves them.
i was contimplating using the hbc in this gun but not with the big bore.

just realized i had not re-slugged the muzzled after re-crowning.....duh.
ok the good news,,,,it is .309 x .309......yeah !
back in biz with the hbc and whatever else i have left in the mould line.

[Scrounger]

i few months back i got an o3-a3 and was all hot to trot with cast boolits. slugging the muzzle resulted in a disgusting big bore. i shot a few loads thru the gun and nothing was great. while looking for leading, i noticed a "hole" in the muzzle "star". it was low and right.....just where a right handed person would be stroking a cleaning rod.......i quit shooting, cleaned the gun and took a hacksaw to the bbl ! i cut about 3/8's off, refaced and crowned. i then tried some condom loads still thinking i had an oversized bore. i was shooting berger 175's..... this gun loves them.
i was contimplating using the hbc in this gun but not with the big bore.

just realized i had not re-slugged the muzzled after re-crowning.....duh.
ok the good news,,,,it is .309 x .309......yeah !
back in biz with the hbc and whatever else i have left in the mould line.

Mike, you're probably familiar with 'hindsight', but I have to say this anyway. On a collector piece like that, I'd have tried counterboring to a slightly larger diameter for an inch or so...If it doesn't work, then I'd consider cutting.

[StarMetal]

Mike...they need you on the CSI show, to tell them if a rifle was cleaned by a right or left handed person. har har har.

Joe
P.S. Scrounger's right!!!!! Hear that Art? You're right!!!!

[mike in co]

not so sure if i would call it collector....its one of the greek returns..or so i have been told.....rock island rebuild....( the thing that is amazing is that is the most expensive of all my mil surplus rifles....right from camp perry...most of my rifles are under 150 with one at 325 and a couple in the low 200s').

[brimic]

If cutting wouldn't work, NOS 03A3 barrels are pretty cheap. Rebarreled my shot out 03A3 and it now shoots like a champ.

[0802]

I've got a similar problem in my 03 Mk 1. Lots of pitting, but it seems to be limited to the very end of the barrel. This thread says counterboring an inch is possible -- I think that would get most all the pitting out.

Today's discussion on this rifle.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=18668

What should I expect to pay for counterboring? How difficult a procedure is it i.e. how hard do I have to look for a good smith? I'm only here for a year and don't have one that I've used before.

Thanks for all the help.

Josh

[brimic]

Counterboring shouldn't be too difficult for a gunsmith with the right equipment to do. Don't attempt to do it with a hand drill- its a bad idea and I have the scars to prove it.

[Bob S]

Oversize bores are not unusual on WW II production barrels for 03A3's and 03's. At about the same time that the two-groove barrels were accepted, the tolerances for bore dimensions were relaxed so that groove diameter could be up to .3095" and still "pass". I have several two groove barrels that were NOS from the DCM with groove diameters of .392 and .393" That may be where the two-groove barrels got the rep for being "good with cast bullets", because most cast bullet shooters will slug the bore and make the bullets fit. With jacketed bullets, you were pretty much stuck with .308", unless you squeezed your own. Performance would therefore be more likely to be better with cast bullets than jackets. (Most low intensity cast loads are also much more tolerant of mediocre bedding, too.) The oversized bores are not limited to two-groove barrels though ... I have one 4-groove SC barrel that is .3094", and one little-used Remington '03 barrel that is a full .310. The inspectors must have been asleep for that one.

Resp'y,
Bob S.