Anyone who is having troubles with their ZKK601 in .308Win can just send it to me and I will relieve them of all the stress and anguish of owning such a rifle!

I recently bought one in .243 simply because I couldn't find one in .308 but I am still looking for 601s in .308 and .222 - they are just lovely guns.

And I have thought about finding a cheap one (yes, I am dreaming) and turning it into a .358; now that would be a fantastic project. I have a Savage 99 in .358 and it is a great, and largely overlooked, cartridge.

If I was looking at turning a ZKK601 (.308 or .243) into a .358, I don't think I would go the re-bore route myself. Many years ago, when I lived in Adelaide, I took a lot of projects to Sprinter arms (Church St., Hahndorf) because at the time they did re-bores for around a third of the price of a new barrel. However, John Bridgeman (who passed away many years ago) got sick of doing re-bores and not selling many of their own barrels and that is when they raised the price of re-bores to equal the price of a new barrel. In short, they are not keen on re-bores and if there is one thing I have learnt about gun projects, it is make sure the gunsmith likes and approves of your project before you leave it with him otherwise the job is likely to be shabby or simply take a very long time to do.

My suggestion would be a Walther barrel in a ZKK profile - you retain the appearance of the original rifle with a top quality barrel. I think that the slightly greater investment would pay off far more than a re-bore. And, by the way, Graeme Spraggon is not the only source of Walther barrels.

As for finding the components to re-build the aperture sight - good luck! Years ago I owned a ZKK601 that came with the aperture missing. I looked for replacements for a very long time and, eventually, was forced to make my own with some very careful and painstaking file work. However, there are good gunsmiths who can duplicate the parts and they will cost you but finding the replacements is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.

It is the same with the triggers for the ZKKs, I hate the set trigger (it works well but looks ugly) but so many ZKKs come with it while the standard trigger has been lost (in a forgotten parts bin along with the missing apertures, no doubt!).

I am about to use one of my standard triggers to get my pet gunsmith to make up a couple for ZKKs I own that still carry the set-trigger. Anyone want ZKK set-triggers? I have a few I don't want!