JTPinTX
Custom Call Maker
I have a CZ-527 that the barrel is about shot out on. It started life as a high volume practice rifle for me, but the last few years it has been cut down and modified as my daughters primary rifle. She loves it and shoots if for everything, jackrabbits, coyotes, deer, whatever. She is recoil and noise sensitive, but it wears a Specwar 556K suppressor which really helps. She loves this rifle and shoots it a lot.
The original barrel is a 12 twist, but a couple years ago I picked up a brand new factory takeoff 9 twist from James Calhoon. The original plan was just to swap barrels when the throat was gone (checking headspace of course) and roll on. The new 9 twist would let her shoot some heavier bullets (like the 65 SGK) for deer, making it much better for her. Once this deer season is over I plan to do the swap, sometime in the next 2-6 months.
One of our members on here that lives 30 miles away from me has agreed to help me with the swap, he has a lathe and has re-barreled several of his own rifles with wildcat cartridges.
Here comes the question part. Simple thing is just to keep it a 223 and roll with it. Second option is punching the chamber out to something larger.
223 AI is the first thing that comes to mind. I could buy/rent a reamer for that. I know that to be done right the barrel should actually be set back a thread to get everything correct. OAL should still work just fine with the factory magazine, but I am not sure if the 223 AI would feed good out of the factory magazines due to minimum body taper?
I know there are going to be folks who say just buy a new barrel blank and go from there. But I already have this one and my experience is that factory CZ barrels generally shoot plenty good enough for what I am needing out of this rifle. It isn't going to be much of a target rifle, it is a field shooting, practicing, and killing rifle.
I would like to hear thoughts and opinions on this project.
The original barrel is a 12 twist, but a couple years ago I picked up a brand new factory takeoff 9 twist from James Calhoon. The original plan was just to swap barrels when the throat was gone (checking headspace of course) and roll on. The new 9 twist would let her shoot some heavier bullets (like the 65 SGK) for deer, making it much better for her. Once this deer season is over I plan to do the swap, sometime in the next 2-6 months.
One of our members on here that lives 30 miles away from me has agreed to help me with the swap, he has a lathe and has re-barreled several of his own rifles with wildcat cartridges.
Here comes the question part. Simple thing is just to keep it a 223 and roll with it. Second option is punching the chamber out to something larger.
223 AI is the first thing that comes to mind. I could buy/rent a reamer for that. I know that to be done right the barrel should actually be set back a thread to get everything correct. OAL should still work just fine with the factory magazine, but I am not sure if the 223 AI would feed good out of the factory magazines due to minimum body taper?
I know there are going to be folks who say just buy a new barrel blank and go from there. But I already have this one and my experience is that factory CZ barrels generally shoot plenty good enough for what I am needing out of this rifle. It isn't going to be much of a target rifle, it is a field shooting, practicing, and killing rifle.
I would like to hear thoughts and opinions on this project.
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