[kciH]

CS,
The only cost effective switch barrel I'm familiar with is the TC Contender and/or Encore, neither of which will remedy your current situation. If you've got a brother in law you don't like, you could always sell the rifle to him.

Just out of curiousity, what EXACTLY did you do to the barrel?

 

[kciH]

CS,
The cheapest fix for this, if not the most accurate, would be to have the rifle rebored if the gunsmith can't fix it.

Personally, I'd have just done some fire lapping of the bore. Marshall has all the stuff right here to do it, from what I understand, and there is no waiting on that stuff. Did you work through your dealer? or directly with Ruger? If I get something that seems unnaceptable, my dealer will usually go to bat for me with the mfg or distributor. Hindsight, at this point I guess. How bad where the burrs? Would it tear fabric off your cleaning patch?

 

[kciH]

CS,
another thought came to me about this project, it could be a signifigant factor as to you making your rifle a 6mm or 7mm. The 7mm TC/U, as it's chambered in a Contender, is set up to seat the bullets almost all the way out of the case, which probably will not be possible within the constraints of your current box magazine. I realize that you're just punching paper, but the long sleek 7mm bullets may need to be seated so far into the casing that you're going to have the ogive of the bullet in the case neck. I would check into this before doing a conversion because the above mentioned topic would make it unworkable unless very light bullets where used. I wouldn't want a twist any slower than 1 in 10" and faster would probably be better.

The 6mm TCU will work well out of even a AR-15 magazine, provided you limit youself to bullets of 80 grains or less. This might be the better choice if the 7mm TC doesn't seem like a good fit in the short action and magazine. If you went the rebore route, the less work you have to do with the magazine and other things, the more economical the project would be. The 6mm TCU is a very close cousin to the cartridge most all of the benchrest shooters where using before the PPC's and BR's came along also.

 

[kciH]

CS,
I started reloading at 14, my dad got tired of buying me ammo, so he took me Target and bought me a RCBS RS3 reloding kit and a couple sets of dies. Things kind of took off from there. I had been reloading shotgun shells since I was 12, when I convinced my dad that a Mec Sizemaster would be a good investment, turns out I was right. I took an interest handguns early on, probably had a half dozen of them before I was old enough to buy one, never shot anyone either. My first of many contender barrels was a 7 TC/U, then a XP-100 in 7BR, which is now a .284 Winchester. I also shot a 6.5 TC/U. Started casting bullets about the time I got my first car and first .45, the .45 was a Clark and cost a quite a bit more than my car. I've picked up a some knowledge over the years, I've done a bit, and read more, so that's where the gun interest comes from. Enough of that, because I'm only up to 21 so far, and that was before I had a decent job.

As far as the chambering goes, I would stick with the 6x45 if I was on a budget, or even if I wasn't. I believe the 6x47 is based on a 222 Remington Magnum casing, and I don't often see the opportunity to pick those up once fired, commercial, for $30/1000. Good luck with your project. Let us know if you do the rebore, as I'm interested in the results.

 

[kciH]

CS,
sorry I missed the fact that your barrel was stainless! I though you where giving us general info about that. If you keep your eyes open on Ebay, you will find dies for the TCU cartridges for very reasonable prices, no need for the Reddings, which I prefer when I can get them, but I've had good luck with most types I've used.

Any word back from your gunsmith as to if the rifle will be shootable? I don't own a cleaning rod that is more than one piece, and you've given me another reason not to. I think you'll be able to salvage it unless you where using a sledge hammer on the cleaning rod.

Another thing that might really save you some cash on this is to call some of the gunshops that do lots of custom barrel work. Most of them keep the barrels they take off as part of the fee for a rebarrel job, and these "take off" barrels can be had for little more than the job of fitting them to the rifle in some instances. These barrels can also occasionally be found on some of the gun/gun auction sites, but most of them will be from 700's.