357AR

[moleman]

If I get around to making the 357-5.45x39 round I most likely will make an undersized chamber reamer and make a sizing die, or try to modify a 5.45 die set. Either way it's a lot more work than using off the shelf die sets. Here's a pic of the five 357 reamer attemps including the screw ups. The top reamer is a 3-flute that I tempered too much and ended up too soft. The 2nd down is the reamer I chambered my test barrel with which was a 357 1-20" twist with a .346" bore and .356" groove diameter. The 3rd reamer down I feed in the wrong amount and knew it right away so I just used it as practice. The 4th reamer blank down I snagged the cross feed knob on my jacket pocket which caused it to feed in slightly and leave a mark on the begining of the rifling leade. The bottem reamer is the one I used to chamber the finished rifle in the pic which has a 1-14" twist, .350" bore and .358" groove diameter. A 1-20" barrel is supposed to stablize up to 160gr, and some 180s but not all. I wanted to shoot mainly 160-200gr so I went with the 1-14" twist. The headspace gauges were also easy to make for a straightwall case. I only made a go and no-go gauge since I'm chambering a new barrel. If the bolt ever closes on the no-go I'll make a field gauge. The bullets next to the gauges are top sierra 200gr rn, middle hornady 180gr psp, bottem hornady 158gr sjhp.

[zoom6zoom]

Some crazy mad skills in this group! Nice work!

[moleman]

I finally got a chance to go and shoot the upper at paper. I kept the cheap red dot on the upper so this isn't really an accuracy test as much as it was a functioning test since the dot covered the target. My first impression firing from a bench was that it kicks more than a 223, but not a whole lot more. I'll need to work on the feed ramps a little as it isn't feeding as well as my test barrel was. I'll just have to look at the test barrel extension and modify this a little more like that one. The red dot was also a little low which caused me to have to contort in order to see the dot. I have a riser mount somewhere to bring it up to a more comfortable heigth. I'll also have to dig around to find what extra scopes I have laying around to see what kink of accuracy I'm getting. The 180gr feed well, but I was having trouble with the 158gr feeding smoothly. It shouldn't take much to get it feeding like the test barrel was though. My helper also was throwing a few 22s my way

[j427x]

humm-- it feeds the 180s but has a little issue with the 158s?

any short strokes with the 158s??

[moleman]

No short stroking, the stubby 158s weren't sliding up the feed ramps smoothly. I was a little more conservative with the feed ramps on this barrel than I was on the test barrel. I just need to change the angle on the feed ramps a bit more and it should feed the 158's just as well as the test barrel did. The test barrel initially did the same thing until I got the angles right. I probably won't get to work on this barrel again until next week. I'll also have to load up some ammo since I shot it all off.

[mtdew]

If you get to where you can make these bbls for people I'm in for 1! This is one sweet idea.

[moleman]

Thanks mtdew! Still a few things to figure out and finalize first though. If everything does work out well , there might also be some premade 357AR brass available for those barrels!

[digitalranger]

realy nice