Hello gents, thanks for the welcome! This seems to be a much friendlier forum than some of the others out there, I like it.

This rifle exists mainly as a plinking gun, but I do have friends in Alaska and I'd like to take it with me, mostly for piece of mind against our friend mister bear. Problem is it likes to rimlock. I replaced the magazine box, spring and follower, and it dramatically improved, but it will still cause issues if I don't stack the rounds in just right. Now if I could make it foolproof and have the cartridges stack themselves in the right order, like the lee-enfields, i wouldn't mind.

And as far as the financial viability of a caliber conversion, I'm not too worried about it. If I were, I'd go and buy a brand new CZ in whatever caliber I liked, or maybe an M1917 enfield and call it a day! My father and I had the same discussion 8 years ago about my 73 ford pickup, yes it would be better to buy a newer truck, or even a 73 ford in better shape, but I like this one. In the end it's worked out because I've learned a ton about auto repair. That's kinda what I plan to do with this rifle.

Sam