Chrome lined barrels and reboreing ?

[Badnews Bob]

Is it any harder to rebore a chrome lined barrel than one not lined? I have it in my mind to rebore an SKS to .35 cal makeing it an .358x39 or 9x39 if you will, I read up on the chambering and it get pretty close to a .35rem. I think that the .35 would make an excellent choice for hunting deer here in the hills of Kentucky.

I carry an SKS sometimes now but the.35 gives alot better bullet selection than the .311 russians.

[Rangr44]

A few years ago, I quizzed three different National rebore 'smiths, about their requirements as to what gunbarrels they would rebore to .358.

They all told me that the rebore candidate would need a muzzle O.D. of .600" minimum, and not have a chromed bore.  Anything else was a "go".

With a gas-operated rifle, the barrel's bleed-off hole, which directs gas to the gas piston/cylinder, would most likely need to be changed in size for the rifle to operate.

[John Traveler]

The rebore smiths refuse to work on chromed bores, period.  It ruins their tooling, and the rare chromed barrel that gets the reboring work is not worth the expense of retooling.  Also, chrome plated barrels are almost exclusively the domain of military applications, where increased barrel life due to extended rapid fire and errosive ammunition is the rule.  The military does not need rifle barrels rebored.

You will find the same problem in wanting rechambering work done.  Smiths refuse to work on chromed chambers because it ruins the reamers.  Chromed chambers require carbide reamers, and they are NOT cheap!

[Badnews Bob]

Thanks fellas I thought that might be the case, figgured I'd ask here first and not take up a busy smiths time. I may try to find one of the rarer unchromed SKS barrels,Don't really need it, I have a safe full of hunting rifles, don't matter thou when I get an itch I gotta scratch if you know what I mean.

[mrbgt]

you need Yugo sks , they don't have chrome bores . fortunately they are the ones being imported now , however the prices on them are going up.