convertin a 308 to 307!?

[danny pay]

Hi
It may sound crazy ,but the 308 is concidered as military round and in many countries the ownership is forbiden!. what to do for converting 308 to 307? is it only oppening the bolt face to accept the rim of 307? or there are more to do?
cheers
danny

[PJgunner]

I don't have any .307 brass to see what might have to be done, but besides opening up the bolt face, I do believe you might have to alter the feed rails a bit.
You would have to be very careful in loading the magazine, placing the rim of each case in front of the one just below it, otherwise you will have a jam, sure as God made little green apples. Not the best situation for a fast second shot or if you have to reload the magazine in a hurry.
One thing you might take into consideration is that the .307 has been pretty much of a sale flop and the brass just might be discontinued without warning at any time.
Without knowing what type of game or shooting regimen you're planning on, it makes it difficult to try and advise you on a substitute cartridge. The 7mm-08 is a good one and no alterations of an action would be needed. Ballistics are similar to the 7x57 mm Mauser. I really like the 7x57, but I suppose it's considered a military cartridge as well, even though I don't think any country still uses it.
There is also the .260 Rem. to consider. ballistics similar to the 6.5x55 Swedish round.
Personally, I really like the .358 Win. (8.8x51mm in Europe), but ammo and brass can be difficult to find. Recoil would be a bit more stout than from either a .308 or .307.
I hope all my ramblings have been of some help. No one else seemed to want to tangle with the question.
I think the conversion to .307 is possible, but considering the brass situation, it might be a good idea to buy a goodly amount if you do take that route.
Paul B.

[buckhunter]

If it were me I would rebarrel to either a 7mm-08 or 260. Should be simple and more cost effective. However if Moose is on the schedule I would probably rebarrel to a 358 which has been discontined. Like already stated brass can be a little hard to find but you can resize 308 pretty easily.

[William Iorg]

[i] is it only oppening the bolt face to accept the rim of 307? or there are more to do?
cheers
danny [/B]

The real problem comes in making the rifle feed from the magazine. This has been done. I remeber reading in the Fouling Shot about a guy who has made several Savage 110 rifles feed the .307 round from the magazine.

Bearing in mind you are in Sweden... You can make brass easily from the .444 marlin case. You may not have a ready supply of these either!

[PJgunner]

Originally posted by buckhunter
If it were me I would rebarrel to either a 7mm-08 or 260. Should be simple and more cost effective. However if Moose is on the schedule I would probably rebarrel to a 358 which has been discontined. Like already stated brass can be a little hard to find but you can resize 308 pretty easily.

Not so. The rim of the .444 Marlin is quite a bit larger than the .307.. It would take some work with a lathe to bring them to the proper size. THe cases would also have to be trimmed to proper length, and possibly either inside or outside reamed as well. Not really sure if I'd want to go to all that trouble when there are suitable rounds available without all that hassle. The .358 ammo isn't all that hard to find, and brass is easily made by running 7mm-08 or .308 brass through a full lenght sizing die with t tapered expander button and trimming just enough to insure the necks are square.
Winchester does one run a year of .358 ammo and brass, so getting it is not really all that hard. A friend of mine from out of town sells brass including a lot of difficult to find stuff, and he usually has a good supply of .358 brass. I'm not too worried about running out as I bought 500 rounds of new brass from him and haven't even made a dent in my supply. Might be a bit much for smaller game like roe deer, but a 250 gr. bullet loaded to top levels sure will get the attention of any moose you stick one into.
Paul B.

[William Iorg]

Heres a picture for you of some formed cases.
Looking from the left you will see a .308 Winchester, a .307 Winchester and a reformed .444 Marlin case.
In the center is a .444 Marlin, note the rim and extractor cut just above the rim.
On the right is a reformed .444, .358 Winchester and a .356 Winchester.
the reformed Marlin cases work fine through the action of the Winchester Model 94 Big Bore rifles. There was no need to neck ream the cases for eaither caliber.The loads apear interchangeable as far maximum loads go. that is to say a maximum load in the .307 case is fine for the reformed .444 case. The point of impact for the bullets is slightly different though. As you point out, brass is available about all year round if you seek out one of several vendors that carry it so there is not a lot of point in working hard to make the cases..

I meant to mention the guys name who made the Savage 110 series rifles feed the rimmed .307 cases. I cannot find the issue of the Fouling shot that mentions his name. My understanding was that once you know the trick it was not terribly difficult to make the Savage feed a rimmed cartridge. But I have not done it!

[William Iorg]

Sorry, I meant to post this second picture of the form trim dies. The dies make the job a lot easier