25-06 AI back to 25-06

[sub.sonic]

A friend of mine wants to know if he can have his sporterized 1903A3 in 25-06AI be re-chambered to a standard 25-06 using the same barrel?

 

[Sin_arms]

no unless there is alot of barrel shank left over. When you cut to an AI you blow the case out so the whole chamber is larger.

 

[sub.sonic]

Sin, he actually fired a couple of factory 25-06 rounds in the gun, he told me he had to force the bolt closed brfore firing but after firing the bolt was easy to open. When he brought the gun to me, he showed me how hard it was to close the bolt and when he ejected the round I compared that round with a factory 25-06 that had not been chambered. I discovered that the shoulder had been pushed back to form the Ackley type shoulder and the round was now shorter than the factory 25-06. So is this a 25-06 AI or some other 25-06 wildcat.
To everyone reading this post, if you have or konw someone who has a 25-06AI set of dies or whatever this chambering is and they no longer want or need them and would like to sell them please let me know.

Thanks,
Ron

 

[orwapitihunter]

The 25-06AI chamber when properly done should have a slight crush fit when chambering 25-06 ammo. The crush is what establishes proper headspace. You might try chambering a couple of different brands of ammo if the type he was using is overly tight. Another option would be to buy new brass and run it through a 25-06AI resize die set to give you an acceptable crush then loading and fireforming. Measure the cases he has already fired and if they are close to the AI specs I would go with option 2. If they don't measure out pretty close you could take it to a gun smith and see if he can recut the chamber. My guess is either the factory ammo is on the large side of tolerances or the chamber is cut with the headspace on the short side or a bit of both.

 

[RJinTexas]

Most AI chambers are cut for crush fit on std factory brass to accommodate the fire forming of brass and as stated for safe head spacing. In most cases I've found the fire forming loads to shoot as well as the loads do after the brass is formed. I also doubt if you'll have enough length in the"C" area of the barrel to allow you the cut off and rechamber.

Regards
RJ