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.308 shot out barrel donor rechamber ?

Road_Clam

Plastic
Joined
Mar 10, 2023
So I have collected a few R700 barrels over the years. I have a heavy varmint contour barrel that I started observing a loss in consistiency. The round count was over 5K . "If I decide to attempt a rechambering what would be a good choice for target out to say 1K yds ? I am deeply vested into handloading so I have no real preference. I have a R700 Long action that i'm currently not using. I was leaning towards something of the 7mm family ?
 
How do you rechamber a .308 barrel to a 7mm round?
So i'm guessing it can't be done ? Was not sure if you went from a short action round, that you could go to a 270 large action round. No worries, I also have a heavy contour .243 barrel i'm not using.
 
You could rechamber to some .300 Magnum case but would have to alter the bolt face and probably the magazine. If you want to go to a larger caliber, you will have to have the barrel rebored/rerifled and alter the bolt face. This used to be a commonplace process but it has gone by the wayside with the proliferation of custom barrel makers. Buy a new barrel of the desired caliber, chamber it and fit it to your action. Or put a new .308 Win pre-chambered barrel on it and maybe have to do a finish chamber job which is much easier.
 
You could rechamber to some .300 Magnum case but would have to alter the bolt face and probably the magazine. If you want to go to a larger caliber, you will have to have the barrel rebored/rerifled and alter the bolt face. This used to be a commonplace process but it has gone by the wayside with the proliferation of custom barrel makers. Buy a new barrel of the desired caliber, chamber it and fit it to your action. Or put a new .308 Win pre-chambered barrel on it and maybe have to do a finish chamber job which is much easier.
Thanks for the feedback, im just not thinking logically as far as bores and chambers. Im trying to absorb a lot of info on chambering and as a newbie im getting myself easily confused .
 
First of all, why would you want to reuse a barrel that has 5000 rounds through it for anything? 2nd, if you must, look at the 300 PRC for distance shooting. Outperforms the 338 Lapua in just about every category for shooting out to 1000 and beyond. Also less expensive to reload.

If I were building a target gun for long shooting right now, I'd be building a 7 PRC. I'm building one for hunting, as soon as my Proof Research carbon fiber barrel arrives. I'm a lefty, so I have to do everything myself, it seems.......so far, based on their research, Hornady says that the new 7 prc won't be a barrel burner like some of the other cartridges pushing the envelope.......my buddies 28 Nosler barrel lasted just over 700 rounds.
 
if you are not adverse to switching calibers I would go with a 6.5 x 55mm swede. works perfectly in a long action, very accurate. Jim
Very interesting, i did some quick research a lot of long range accurate history behind the 6.5 x 55 .
 
First of all, why would you want to reuse a barrel that has 5000 rounds through it for anything? 2nd, if you must, look at the 300 PRC for distance shooting. Outperforms the 338 Lapua in just about every category for shooting out to 1000 and beyond. Also less expensive to reload.

If I were building a target gun for long shooting right now, I'd be building a 7 PRC. I'm building one for hunting, as soon as my Proof Research carbon fiber barrel arrives. I'm a lefty, so I have to do everything myself, it seems.......so far, based on their research, Hornady says that the new 7 prc won't be a barrel burner like some of the other cartridges pushing the envelope.......my buddies 28 Nosler barrel lasted just over 700 rounds.
Because for my first attempt at a rechambering, i would rather screw up a cheap tired oem Rem 700 barrel vs. a $400+ Krieger / Lijila / Shilen barrel.
 
Glad to be of some help. I think the general consensus is to use some form of floating reamer holder to give you the best chance of perfectly centering the tool, but it seems like people have been using so many methods and getting good results it hard to say what really is the best way I think. Jim
 
Glad to be of some help. I think the general consensus is to use some form of floating reamer holder to give you the best chance of perfectly centering the tool, but it seems like people have been using so many methods and getting good results it hard to say what really is the best way I think. Jim
It was very interesting reading how guys have figured out how such a simple and basic home fabbed (i dont want to use the insulting term "crude") tailstock floating reamer holder works with such repeatable precision. Again GREAT read. I also just purchased the Complete Guide to precision rifle barrel fitting book by John L. Hinnant . Hopefully get me on the right path with minimal mistakes moving foward.
 
The method used will vary depending on the lathe and tooling available and the skills of the operator. Match winning barrels have been done with all the methods. The most important part is getting the chamber aligned with the bore and a good crown on the muzzle. My suggestion is to read the different methods and then look at the equipment that you have and evaluate your own skills. Then compare the different methods to what you are comfortable doing. Once you have decided on a method, you might decide to incorporate other methods into yours as you practice. Cut lots of practice chambers and tenons, even if it is just on short pieces that you drill a hole in to simulate a bore. Practice indicating a bore in. You can use the same barrel over, just make sure to rotate it before putting it back in the lathe, so there are different surfaces in play.
 
The method used will vary depending on the lathe and tooling available and the skills of the operator. Match winning barrels have been done with all the methods. The most important part is getting the chamber aligned with the bore and a good crown on the muzzle. My suggestion is to read the different methods and then look at the equipment that you have and evaluate your own skills. Then compare the different methods to what you are comfortable doing. Once you have decided on a method, you might decide to incorporate other methods into yours as you practice. Cut lots of practice chambers and tenons, even if it is just on short pieces that you drill a hole in to simulate a bore. Practice indicating a bore in. You can use the same barrel over, just make sure to rotate it before putting it back in the lathe, so there are different surfaces in play.
Thanks for chiming in with help, i did not think of a scrap piece of material and machine a stubby barrel blank to learn. I actually found a 1-1/4 x 17"L piece of 303 stainless at my work. Ill try and find a used set of chamber reamers to buy, and i already have sets of 223, 308 , and 6.5 go / no-gauges.
 
I’ll throw this in there. Take your current barrel
Cut off the current tenon threads
And re chamber it
Taking an inch off of a sendero barrel should get you past the shot out throat and into good rifling
Take that , go shooting and see what it does
Maybe it shoots ok, maybe not, but you’ll learn something

Then start ordering expensive blanks

FYI a lot of my “fun” guns and hunting guns are “ shot out” barrels from my highpower/ service rifle friends
Cut enough of the breech out to get into good rifling, recontour/ cut muzzle/ etc
They often shoot pretty well
 








 
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