If a cartridge or chamber size reduction is warranted, here’s what you’ll need for secondary barrel refitting and chambering.

by Norman E. Johnson

Perhaps you won’t find the word “downchambering” in the dictionary or as a commonly used gunsmithing term, yet this is precisely that which will be undertaken here. In this somewhat unusual gunsmithing endeavor, the rifle barrel chamber will have been downsized from 6.5-284 to .260 Remington. The reason for this change was sound enough. While the 6.5-284 is a fine long range target and hunting cartridge, it is highly erosive and recoil is quite pronounced. The .260 Remington yields more than double the barrel life with reduced recoil. Though accuracy is quite comparable with these two cartridges, the smaller .260 Remington cartridge costs less for both cartridge cases and loaded ammunition, and it is more readily available to the shooter.

Revision Up Close…

Read more in the March 2017 issue.

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