The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Hey guys Merry Christmas. My son has an old family .22 Stevens, tube fed bolt action, the chamber is worn so bad the cases are splitting and won't eject. My question is could a gunsmith make a .22 WMR out of this? Even a sinsle shot would be something useable. Whatcha think?

Stevens made huge numbers of .22 rifles for many years, call Numrich Arms and see if they have a good barrel hanging around and swap it for the worn one. I must have five or six Stevens .22 myself, and they made some for Sears JC Higgins.

It can be done. I actually have a Daisy Legacy single shot .22 rifle that a neighbor brought me to take a look at as it wouldn't fire 99 times out of 100 and the one time that it did it wouldn't extract the shell. Someone had reamed it out for .22 Magnum but didn't do any of the other work needed to finish it up. It had been dry-fired so much that the firing pin was mushroomed flat. He told me to just keep it as no parts are available for those, later on I tore it down and made the necessary machine work on the firing pin and took a swipe or two off the tip of the extractor and it works fine. Some shells are a bit tight in the bolt recess and require a little extra nudge to lock the bolt down, but not enough for me to bother adjusting it further. Still won't eject the shell as the plastic "nub" that is supposed to kick it out is completely broken off and I haven't had time to mill a replacement block out of aluminum. It's actually very accurate, due to the very slightly larger bullet used in the .22WMR, although I shoot mostly .22WRF through it as I snagged a bunch of it awhile back during the shortage. Gander Mountain had tons of it on the shelf and I guess not many knew that it could be fired in .22WMR chambered firearms.

Working perfectly, it is probably worth $125. I would retire it to the parts bin. Then take the $125 and buy another one.

millman wrote:Working perfectly, it is probably worth $125. I would retire it to the parts bin. Then take the $125 and buy another one.

Preservation Man..... It's a fine 80 year bore

steelbuttplate wrote:

millman wrote:Working perfectly, it is probably worth $125. I would retire it to the parts bin. Then take the $125 and buy another one.

Preservation Man..... It's a fine 80 year bore

ROI Man.(Return on investment ) It makes NO sense to spend more on a fix than it costs to buy a much better specimen. You might twist the logic on a rare milsurp, but not on a common commercial sporter.

If it has sentimental value then retire it to the wall, don't go altering it. As I said earlier, Stevens .22's are available and inexpensive, they are the most commonly encountered of all .22's in my travels.

How many 22's have you seen with a worn out chamber? Are you sure it isn't already a 22 magnum? Just thinking out loud.

bunkysdad wrote:How many 22's have you seen with a worn out chamber? Are you sure it isn't already a 22 magnum? Just thinking out loud.

I'll know tommorow. You may be right on., I hope. It runs unfired ammo thru it like a swiss watch. They guy that owned this was a dentist, hunter, shooter, that hung out with L.E.O & all the men in town that traded and worked on guns etc. Would a bolt for a L.R. work on a Magnum round?

Yep. The underside of the extractor has to be filed a tiny bit, but if it was worn it would probably work as it was.

Oh well, it is wore out. First I've seen, I never really thought about it til you stated it, but it's not chambered for Magnum. Now, Question for gunsmiths, How big a deal would it be to drill out the chamber with the bolt removed, to .22 mag specs.? It should make a great single shot.

It doesn't take much, but you need to use a chamber reamer, not a drill.