Kevin,
As a former disciple of the late, great P.O. Ackley, I have to put in my two cents:
P.O Ackley was probably the greatest riflesmith, experimenter, and wildcatter throughout the 1930's thru the 1970's until his death in the middle 80's. His qualifications included an engineering degree from MIT, supervision of ammo production at Ogden Arsenal during WWII, and running a highly sucessful barreling business and custom rifle shop for a comple generations.
He wrote that he had worked on many, many winchester 1895 .30-06 rifles, and a common problem was severe indentation of the breechface resulting in apparent excessive headspace from extended firing. He believed the factory bolt material to be too soft, and remedied it by boring out the bolt face and silver soldering in a hardened insert.
If you are going to rebarrel for the 7x57, moderate loads are probably an excellent idea. We are not suggesting that the action is weak, but rather stating that the primary extraction is weak, without the gas handling safety of the mauser, and hotrodding a 100+ year old rifle action is probably not a good idea. Other than that, I too, find the idea of a lever action for the 7x57 an intriguing idea.
Let us know how it works out.
HTH
John
