A 17 caliber rim fire barrel lining project

[Dennis Sorensen]

I am just posting this for general information.

This was a neat project I started quite some time ago. I had a 77/22. I had a worn out centerfire stainless heavy barrel. I had a 17 caliber rim fire liner and the required tools. I had a new 17 HM2 chambering reamer.

I took the stainless 6mm barrel and bored it out to accept the liner. I turned the barrel to a maximum weight to fit the stock. It is about .710" at the muzzle and 22 inches long. The trigger has been worked to about 1 pound and it is glass bedded for accuracy with the barrel floating.

I did a deep crown hiding the "joint" where the liner meets the barrel. I fitted the barrel close to the bolt and a minimum chamber was cut.

An older 6 x 18 Bushnell scope is installed. (Parallax correction down to 10 meters) Total weight 8.5 pounds.

I shot it today and July First must be my lucky day. It shoots fantastic. I used Hornady 17 grain ammunition.

Kind of a neat pattern on the crown from escaping gases.

.

 

[Don]

I took the stainless 6mm barrel and bored it out to accept the liner. I turned the barrel to a maximum weight to fit the stock. It is about .710" at the muzzle and 22 inches long. The trigger has been worked to about 1 pound and it is glass bedded for accuracy with the barrel floating.

.

So how did you bore a 22" hole and keep it straight, any special drill or reamer holders for this deep hole operation?......................Don

 

[Dennis Sorensen]

So how did you bore a 22" hole and keep it straight, any special drill or reamer holders for this deep hole operation?......................Don

Dave Kiff (PTG) makes a removable piloted tool for doing this. Normally it would have a .22 pilot for doing .22 rim fire barrels, I just put a 6mm pilot on it. You work it from each end to the middle.
I should have referred to this as reaming, not boring...

 

[Don]

Dave Kiff (PTG) makes a removable piloted tool for doing this. Normally it would have a .22 pilot for doing .22 rim fire barrels, I just put a 6mm pilot on it. You work it from each end to the middle.
I should have referred to this as reaming, not boring...

I was anticipating, possibly, a single flute gun drill with fluid/air flow for fast chip removal on a deep hole like that. Probably had to back out the reamer a few times for chip removal on a 22" inch barrel. Guess that depends upon hole size to fit the barrel liner.

Hole straightness is probably not an issue as long as the liner itself is straight, and by all indications by target grouping that seems to be the case...............Don

 

[Rick W.]

Dennis,

I have considered using a barrel liner for a Ruger No.1 conversion to rimfire as a project. I was wanting to use the factory barrel. I looked at an internet site that has PTG piloted drills but smallest diameter was 3/8" and all the rimfire liners I could find were 5/16", so thinking I have not found all the right parts yet. I could not find much on the PTG site about piloted drills, but probably missed it somehow.

May I inquire about the diameter of the PTG piloted tooling that you used? Is it 8mm or 5/16"? Sure would be nice to have the removeable pilot in front, worth the extra money over the fixed diameter piloted tooling at other sites.

I assume that you added the extension onto the PTG tooling, silver soldered on?

Thanks for the pictures of the project, gets me going again on such.

Rick

Dave makes them in 5/16" as well... and I silver soldered the extension on.

It works very well.. stop and clean often as I don't oil feed from behind the reamer...


Dennis,

I appreciate your time on my question.

 

[Rflshootr]

Dennis

What method did you use to hold the liner in the barrel?

 

[Dennis Sorensen]

What method did you use to hold the liner in the barrel?

Brownells Acraglas.. the chamber is cut, a headspace gauge or a case is in the chamber on a closed stripped bolt, excess liner is hanging out the muzzle.. I stand this all upright in a vise and place a bit of weight on the liner to hold it firmly against the bolt and let it set up... the chamber end is cleaned up before you close the bolt...

 

[alinwa]

The 17HM2 is a wonderful round. I hope that it stays around for a while.

Neat fix, I think you'll like it.

al