243 AI

[Jim n Iowa]

How do you go about getting a 243 into a AI version? Do you send it off to a gunsmith and they return it tuned, trued ready to go? The terms are confusing, I want one stop shopping for my old 243, or should I just trade it in? Any referals would be appreciated. I don't believe we have any gunsmiths left in Iowa that perform this service with quality performance.
Jim

[John Traveler]

The proper way to make an Ackley Improved chamber is to disassemble the rifle, remove the barrel, and set up and chamber, and polish it on a lathe.

Some quick-and-dirty gunsmiths simply do the re-chambering with the barrel on the action.  This frequently makes for misaligned chambers.

It's a simple machining operation, but done incorrectly, the new chamber will not fireform factory ammunition correctly and brass loss will be high.

John

[gunnut69]

As John said the proper method will produce excellant results.  The barrel will be set back 1 thread before the re-chamber.  This is to allow the AI reamer to be set up for a crush fit on the headspace guage. Failure to do this will cause losses in fireforming brass as it will have to stretch to fill the AI chamber..  The rifle can be trued while the barrel is off and should be fairly easy for a competant smith..