Screwed the pooch

[specweldtom]

I just messed up a 21" T/C Contender .22lr carbine barrel doing what should have been a really simple job. I rechambered it to .22 Mag with a reamer that had a .218" pilot. Ate the rifling in front of the throat. Had all kinds of clues, but never snapped. The .22lr barrel needs a .216" pilot. Probably I'm the only one on this site that didn't know that, but just in case..........!

What do you think about rechambering to .22 Hornet or .223 Rem? Any other suggestions?

Thanks, Tom

 

[James Jones]

Hey Tom , it happens , Thats the trouble with the TC guns , you dick up a chamber and your stuck with it cause its a major project to cut the lug off , set the barrel back and rechamber it. Or take the easy way out and just rechamber to the 22 K-hornet , its an improved desgine that realy works well , good velocity increase and drasticaly reduces the need to trim cases so often. I've never realy checked out how the ejector system works on the older TC frames so you better do your homework on that and make sure that the new bigger case will work out or can be made to work.
Thats the best parts about being a machinest , don't have the tool , make it.

I screw with the butt head programmers at work all the time when they ask "can you make thistool , or jig" I always tell them
"if I ain't got it , I can make it and if I can't make it , you don't need it"
They generaly pout up and walk off back to their box.

 

[specweldtom]

Yeah James, I don't know much about the Contenders except that they can become a disease. One frame my ***! I do like the hornet or k-hornet though because of the rim. Rimmed cartridges work really well in Contenders. The hornet ammo and components are in good supply too. The .223 Rem might be a little intense with the .224 bullets in the .223 l/r bore. I'm not sure. The barrel twist will probably keep me around 45 gr bullets anyway.

Talked to Dave Manson after it was too late, of course. He sent me a .22 WMR live pilot reamer with .216" and .218" pilot bushings. I'll probably go ahead and order the .22 hornet from him, and should be able to use the bushings off the WMR reamer. I'll ask. I'll use .224 diameter bullets, but don't expect a problem. P.O. Ackley shot 8mm mauser ammo through .30 cal barrels without a problem. That's a whole different league.

Thanks, Tom

I still think that Len's redface icon looks constipated.

 

[James Jones]

ream it to a 22K-Hornet , get yourself a few lbs of H-110 and a thousand 30gr Berger varmint bullets and get to work , you can easly get 3000fps out of this combo in a 20" barrel and at 200yds its way more than vamints can stand , its easy on the pocket book , not to bad on the ears if you happen to forget the muffs for the first shot , and the recoil is zilch. I have a little old bolt action that I reamed to the K-hornet and I can't tell you how many rounds it has through it thousands and thousands , the poor little gun has been very well used and plenty abused being used for severl kids first center fire rifle to a handy little gun to take offshore fishing to dispatch big sharks.

 

[specweldtom]

Thanks again James. I'll read up on the K-Hornet and ask Mr. Manson about it when I call him.

I ended up buying the barrel for next to nothing,(since it was screwed up!), and bought an old frame that had rust on it, and a set of used wood. I cleaned up the frame and parkerized it. Looks pretty good. Whatever they are made of, it came out a nice black, not grey. Chrome-moly usually comes out nearly black, but this one is BLACK.

This is a crappy way to get back in the Contender business, but I think I'm going to enjoy the little gun.

Later, Tom