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Looking to rechamber to 7mm/08

1911JMB

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 29, 2020
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I am looking for a gun smith to rebarrel my Kimber model 84M and rechamber it to 7/08. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
 
Don't know how deep in the weeds you want to get with the 7-08 chambering, but if I were to order another 7mm reamer, I would make a coupe subtle changes that would make life easier for hand loading and shooting the 7-08. For some unknown reason to me, 7mm chambers have throats cut .2845. This is also the diameter of some popular 7mm bullets. Gets a good seal (Obfuscates) in the rifling. (Compared to 30 cal chambers with typical .003" throat diameter clearance). This makes that throat tight and engrave the bullets upon chambering. This can throw off DTL measurements by getting a false read with the throat walls marking up the bullet and not the lands. With that said, I would order the reamer with a throat diameter .2852". Second change, if you want to shoot the thicker necked brass, like *Lapua with .016 thick necks, I would set the neck diameter up from the common.316 to .320". This would alleviate any neck turning needed to allow proper neck clearance. Otherwise one keeps the .316 neck diameter and shoots thinner necked brass or neck turns the thicker Lapua type.

ETA after further research on this:
*308 Lapua brass starts out life .014 thick. My fireforming 708 necks necked down 308 Lapua brass and then fireformed to 708AI causes the increase in thickness to .016. (Donuts too)
- So, if one were to shoot straight 708 Lapua brass or even necked down 308 brass with .014" neck thickness, this chamber neck dimension of .316 is tight, but only needs .318 for "no turn" necks using Lapua brass.
- On throat diameter, the standard .2845 on 7mm chambers does keep centered the bullet in the chamber if there is any bullet runout. Who cares if it gives false DTL reads if one knows this, and knows to look for the rifling marks on the bullet and not the "scrape" mark of the chamber on the bullet near the case mouth. With that said I would only go .285 max.
 
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based on the cost of a new barrel versus a new rifle i'd probably just buy a whole new rifle

kimbers are pretty unpopular here especially for rebarrels
 
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I hoping to find a Smith who already has a reamer
Buying a new rifle would be the economical choice but my daughter shot her first deer and antelope with it

Who is LRI
 
I am looking for a gun smith to rebarrel my Kimber model 84M and rechamber it to 7/08. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Chad Dixon @LRI , and I would go with 7mm SAW over a standard 7mm-08, unless you don't reload. If you reload, 7mm SAW is the way to go. It's basically a 7mm-08 Improved and will net you some extra velocity. Also, Alpha Munitions makes headstamped 7 SAW brass that is SRP and very high quality (Lapua quality). So you don't have to worry about fire-forming brass. They also sell the reamers to cut the chamber.
 
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John Schutzius southern Indiana Precision rifle
Jim See elite accuracy
 
Chad Dixon @LRI , and I would go with 7mm SAW over a standard 7mm-08, unless you don't reload. If you reload, 7mm SAW is the way to go. It's basically a 7mm-08 Improved and will net you some extra velocity. Also, Alpha Munitions makes headstamped 7 SAW brass that is SRP and very high quality (Lapua quality). So you don't have to worry about fire-forming brass. They also sell the reamers to cut the chamber.
IIRC Kimber 84M has a 2.825” mag box so he’d have to use type 1 SAW reamer. Not gonna gain that much over standard 708 IMO, and especially if he’s already set up for 708.
Lilia makes a modified Kimber 84 contour that keeps the muzzle diameter 0.60”. If I were to rebarrel a 84M, I’d be going with that Lilia barrel contour.
 
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Chad Dixon @LRI , and I would go with 7mm SAW over a standard 7mm-08, unless you don't reload. If you reload, 7mm SAW is the way to go. It's basically a 7mm-08 Improved and will net you some extra velocity. Also, Alpha Munitions makes headstamped 7 SAW brass that is SRP and very high quality (Lapua quality). So you don't have to worry about fire-forming brass. They also sell the reamers to cut the chamber.
Why use small rifle brass with a 7mm SAW chamber if you want higher velocity? My experience with 708 is that if you want higher velocity you need a longer barrel.
 
Why use small rifle brass with a 7mm SAW chamber if you want higher velocity? My experience with 708 is that if you want higher velocity you need a longer barrel.
Thats how it was designed. 308 palma brass sized down. And Alpha continued. More support around the primer. Same reason a lot of people like SRP CM brass.

But yeah any cartridge reacts that way. Longer barrel more speeeeeeed