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Post by dartonjager on Dec 21, 2015 21:20:05 GMT -5
As my primary deer rifle is a wonderfully accurate 12ga Browning A-Bolt that has a beautiful walnut stock and equally attractive mat blued barrel that has served me admirably without fail in hunts in both IN and IL and has given me my all of my best gun killed bucks. I have recently come across basically it's twin in .308 for a extremely attractive price and for strong sentimental reasons I would love to make it my donor rifle for my .358 Hoosier build.
Does anyone reading this know a smith that for certain can re-barrel a A-bolt in .358 Hoosier? I would like to avoid pestering all the smiths listed here if possible with bothersome phone calls. Thank you, Arthur. |
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 21, 2015 21:58:24 GMT -5
SKI RIFLES 317-401-6222 www.skirifles.bizHe chambered mine for me. Mine wasn't a browning but he can do it. |
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Post by dartonjager on Dec 21, 2015 22:19:41 GMT -5
Thank you will call him to confirm. I appreciate your help.
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 21, 2015 22:21:53 GMT -5
He does REALLY GOOD work.
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Post by drs on Dec 22, 2015 5:49:12 GMT -5
As my primary deer rifle is a wonderfully accurate 12ga Browning A-Bolt that has a beautiful walnut stock and equally attractive mat blued barrel that has served me admirably without fail in hunts in both IN and IL and has given me my all of my best gun killed bucks. I have recently come across basically it's twin in .308 for a extremely attractive price and for strong sentimental reasons I would love to make it my donor rifle for my .358 Hoosier build.
Does anyone reading this know a smith that for certain can re-barrel a A-bolt in .358 Hoosier? I would like to avoid pestering all the smiths listed here if possible with bothersome phone calls. Thank you, Arthur. I also own a Browning A-Bolt in .308, and of-course I can use it down here in Kentucky. As for converting the A-bolt to .358 Hoosier, it would require a new barrel as the factory barrel would be too small in diameter to re-bore to .358. This would also mean buying a new stock as well. As for the magazine, it too may not work with the .358 Hoosier as the magazine would be too long to feed properly. I've tried the shorter cartridge in my rifle and it will not feed, due to it being too long. |
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 22, 2015 10:47:47 GMT -5
As my primary deer rifle is a wonderfully accurate 12ga Browning A-Bolt that has a beautiful walnut stock and equally attractive mat blued barrel that has served me admirably without fail in hunts in both IN and IL and has given me my all of my best gun killed bucks. I have recently come across basically it's twin in .308 for a extremely attractive price and for strong sentimental reasons I would love to make it my donor rifle for my .358 Hoosier build.
Does anyone reading this know a smith that for certain can re-barrel a A-bolt in .358 Hoosier? I would like to avoid pestering all the smiths listed here if possible with bothersome phone calls. Thank you, Arthur. I also own a Browning A-Bolt in .308, and of-course I can use it down here in Kentucky. As for converting the A-bolt to .358 Hoosier, it would require a new barrel as the factory barrel would be too small in diameter to re-bore to .358. This would also mean buying a new stock as well. As for the magazine, it too may not work with the .358 Hoosier as the magazine would be too long to feed properly. I've tried the shorter cartridge in my rifle and it will not feed, due to it being too long. I don't see why it won't feed from yours. Must be a Browning thing, maybe. I have my 358 built on a Jap Arisaka 7.7 receiver and they are a longer round than the 308 but the 358 cycle just fine from the mag well
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Post by omegahunter on Dec 22, 2015 12:00:05 GMT -5
Different stock will be dependent on what profile the new barrel is. Some are going for heavier profile, some are sticking with a standard profile.
The Hoosier SHOULD feed in any rifle that had a standard, short round receiver without much if any modification if it used the .308 parent cartridge head. If it doesn't, it should not take a 'smith much effort to get it to feed.
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Post by drs on Dec 23, 2015 5:26:28 GMT -5
I also own a Browning A-Bolt in .308, and of-course I can use it down here in Kentucky. As for converting the A-bolt to .358 Hoosier, it would require a new barrel as the factory barrel would be too small in diameter to re-bore to .358. This would also mean buying a new stock as well. As for the magazine, it too may not work with the .358 Hoosier as the magazine would be too long to feed properly. I've tried the shorter cartridge in my rifle and it will not feed, due to it being too long. I don't see why it won't feed from yours. Must be a Browning thing, maybe. I have my 358 built on a Jap Arisaka 7.7 receiver and they are a longer round than the 308 but the 358 cycle just fine from the mag well
Brownings' magazine is different than your Arisaka action. However Brownings' A-Bolt magazine would need some modification, which I guess is possible. Now on my Remington M-722 chambered for the .458 X 2" AMERICAN; I can reduce the length of the case to 1.8" and it works and feeds fine. Another "donor" rifle that might work better than the Browning A-Bolt would be Rugers' Model 77 Hawkeye or their older version Model 77. I'd think if one would run across a Ruger M-77 MKII in caliber 7.62 X 39 m/m, this one should work fine or better if converted to .358 Hoosier cartridge. Feeding shouldn't be an issue with this length of the action follower. |
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Post by art338wm on Dec 23, 2015 23:52:11 GMT -5
Thank you for all the feed back thus far. If the A-bolt ends up not being able to work, my second donor rifle of choice is a Marlin X7 as most if not all of the smiths I spoke with said a X7 chambered in the .308 family of cartridges would work well as a donor rifle. I will definately confirm with the smith I end up using which rifle will work best BEFORE I buy. As I said my prefernce for using a A-Bolt is strictly sentiment based and I find a wood stocked mat blued A-Bolt extremly pleasing to the eye.
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Post by drs on Dec 24, 2015 5:08:40 GMT -5
Thank you for all the feed back thus far. If the A-bolt ends up not being able to work, my second donor rifle of choice is a Marlin X7 as most if not all of the smiths I spoke with said a X7 chambered in the .308 family of cartridges would work well as a donor rifle. I will definately confirm with the smith I end up using which rifle will work best BEFORE I buy. As I said my prefernce for using a A-Bolt is strictly sentiment based and I find a wood stocked mat blued A-Bolt extremly pleasing to the eye. Marlins' Model X7 might be a better choice for a donor rifle. Another one you might consider is an old Remington Model 600 that was chambered in either the .308 or .243, as their magazine length would be doable for conversion to .358 Hoosier Cartridge. Again, you would have to re-barrel and re-stock your choice. No one down here in Kentucky knows much about the .358 Hoosier, and one Dealer/Gunsmith said: "Why don't those folks use a regular cartridge they can buy off-the-shelf?" I told him because of the crazy laws, Indiana has, regarding case length with .357" being the minimum caliber of bullet. |
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Post by oldhoyt on Dec 31, 2015 13:41:17 GMT -5
My Savage Model 10 .308 with wood stock had a typical taper, not heavy, and I was able to use the factory stock. AJ Brown got my Hoosier barrel with a very similar taper as the factory 308. It fit the stock with out modification, but I chose to open the channel at end of the forestock just slightly to float the barrel. A few strokes with dowel wrapped with sand paper did the trick. Then brushed on a bit of epoxy sealer.
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Post by drs on Dec 31, 2015 14:20:26 GMT -5
My Savage Model 10 .308 with wood stock had a typical taper, not heavy, and I was able to use the factory stock. AJ Brown got my Hoosier barrel with a very similar taper as the factory 308. It fit the stock with out modification, but I chose to open the channel at end of the forestock just slightly to float the barrel. A few strokes with dowel wrapped with sand paper did the trick. Then brushed on a bit of epoxy sealer.I've free-floated a few of my rifles, using the "coarse sand paper" wrapped around a proper sized dowel. Then brushed the inside of the barrel with epoxy sealer. Works great!!  |
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