rechambering

[Sinixstar]

A few of you may have noticed my question in rifle country about the 6mm "sidewinder" rifle that I found today.

Long story short, found a rifle that I really like, that was chambered in some odd-ball wildcat that no one has ever heard of.

Question is, generally speaking - what would be the possibility of having it rechambered, or would it make more sense to have it rebarreled completely?
What does rechambering typically cost? (i know rebarreling is going to be a little pricey).

 

[rcmodel]

Without knowing what a 6mm Sidewinder is, it is impossible to say.

If it happens to be a very short bench-rest type cartridge, you might be able to re-chamber it to a standard size .243 or something.
If it is an over-bore blown-out 30-06, or belted Magnum, you are SOL, because there would be no other 6mm round that would allow the big chamber to clean up.

The other alternative, is to set the barrel back a couple of threads, by lathe-cutting off the back end and cutting the shoulder further forward.
That gets rid of part of the old chamber and might allow the remaining barrel to be re-chambered.

First thing you have to do is get hold of a fired case, or Cerrosafe chamber cast, and find out what the case dimensions are.
Then go from there.

rcmodel

 

[Clark]

One question is "Was the original chamber concentric to the bore?"

I recycled a 6mmPPC benchrest to put on a Sav99 in 6mmBR.

Whoever the benchrest smith was, he got the chamber concentric, and my 6mmBR has shot a 0.3" 3 shot group at 100y.

 

[Sinixstar]

I have no idea about any details of the gun. It was something that I saw in a shop, fell in love with how it felt and handled - but was chambered in something odd. No details about who did the work to get it that way, what they did, how they did it - or anything. All i know is it's a "6mm sidewinder". Could be anything.
That's why i was asking about potentially rechambering or rebarreling.
The wildcat thing is honestly not something I want to be bothered with, and even if I did - i don't have the space to reload (yet), so it would be kind of useless for me right now.

 

[Jim Watson]

A rechamber would not be expensive, but you would probably end up with something still counted a wildcat with little or no factory ammunition.
They made the L461 for .222, .222 Magnum, and .223. If yours has that bolt face, the 6mm Sidewinder is some way related to the 6x47 and MIGHT could be rechambered for that or the 6mm TCU, if, IF the Sidewinder chamber is not already larger than one of those. Still a wildcat, but a better known one.
It was also available for .220 and 6mm PPC. If the Sidewinder is some sort of 6mm PPC improvement, there is not much place to go.

You could pay more and have it rebarrelled. About the cheapest barrel worth considering would be a Shaw. One of their barrels would be $150 plus $70 to fit plus $100 for polish and blue plus $24 return shipping. I don't see where they make any contour other than their own and Remington, so there would be some stock work required to get it back in the wood. Some makes and independent gunsmiths will match an existing barrel taper but the costs are higher.

If you went that way, a 6mm x .222 sidewinderized could become a .223 and a 6mm PPC snaked could actually be made a 7.62x39, so you could have a custom rifle to shoot surplus crap ammunition.

I think you'd be better off to get over your heartbreak and leave it to somebody willing to fool with the rifle and dies in an oddball caliber.

 

[nicholst55]

I think you'd be better off to get over your heartbreak and leave it to somebody willing to fool with the rifle and dies in an oddball caliber.

+1. Unless the shop owner is willing to do the research necessary to find out more about the cartridge, you're probably better off walking away - especially since the gun is offered without the reloading dies (which would probably be quite expensive). The bore could be anywhere from nearly new to shot-out, anyway. Without a borescope examination, there's no way to tell.

The saying about rifles chambered for wildcat cartridges is to keep them forever, because you'll neverget anywhere near what you've got into it.

 

[krs]

and a 6mm PPC snaked could actually be made a 7.62x39

Umm, not a good suggestion Jim.

6mm uses a .243" barrel bore, 7.62x39 uses a .30 cal bore.

a 6ppc is just a necked out .220 russian case.

 

[rcmodel]

He was talking about re-barreling in that paragraph.

I think his point was, the bolt-face size would enable rebarreling a 6mm PPC to make it a 7.62x39.

rcmodel

 

[krs]

I was pretty sure that was what he had in mind RC, but thought that the word "snaked" could be taken to mean "rechambered" and if it was taken that way and followed on someone would be in for a surprise.

 

[birdshot8's]

"snaked", was pun for sidewinder.

 

[nekwah]

Whats wrong with the 6mm. I know several people who use them.

 

[Jim Watson]

By "snaked" I meant "Made or altered to a wildcat configuration that the designer thought would sound way kewl if named after a reptile."

And I did indeed mean that a 6mm on .222 head diameter or a mutated 6mm PPC could (only) be converted to .223 or 7.62x39 by rebarreling. It is hard to rebore a hole, as the one down a gun barrel, to a smaller diameter.

The problem with "the 6mm" is that there is no THE 6mm; there are many different chambers behind that 6mm barrel and we cannot identify just what a "6mm Sidewinder" IS, just by its name.

 

[krs]

Well unless my eyes crossed and I missed it Pacific Tool and Die has no listing for 6mm sidewinder.

http://www.pacifictoolandgauge.com/products/reamers/chamber.htm

Was there a stamping on the barrel to indicate caliber?

Kinda' wishing that this rifle was in my hometown gunshop. I've got some unused Shilens in .22 and .243
left over from my benchrest days...

 

[moosehunt]

Mr. rcmodel kind of eluded to it, but why don't you make a chamber cast and do some measuring to determine what you have. It may not be very "wildcatted" and consequently easy to load for--then again? But I suggest you find out what it is first.