I have a 338 win mag ruger rifle and want to build a 416 taylor - can anyone recommend a company to rebore the barrel so I can keep the existing sights and look of this rifle (instead of buying a new barrel,etc.) ?? I am aware that the barrel might be a bit "light" but I desire this configuration - thanks - KMule

Your Ruger barrel is .625" diameter at the muzzle.
.625" - .416" = .209"
.209"/2 = .1045" = kinda thin (ie sending a barnes bullet down that tube will look like a small python trying to shit a large bowling ball)
Your Ruger sights are probably attached to the barrel by screws versus silver soldering. The re-bore that you propose might very well result in those screw holes turning into a custom port job.
I'm not sure, but I believe Ruger may have invested in a hammer forge set up for their in house barrel making. If your gun is indeed hammer forged, it is not a candidate for reboring. If, on the other hand it is an outsourced button rifled barrel it is not a candidate for reboring. Button rifling puts stresses into the barrel steel. By reboring many of those stresses are relieved in unpredictable ways. The result is a bore that looks like the AlCan highway after a season of serious frost heaving.
If your barrel happened to be cut rifled, it still is not a candidate for reborring because the walls would be too thin to shoot high pressure cartridges with modern high performance bullets.
Prior to WWII barrels were cut rifled. An older rifle with historical, collector, or sentimental value that is shot out would be a candidate for a rebore or freshening as the poofters at Holland & Holland would put it.
As my dear departed grandma would say: "forget it, get over it, buy a new tube and sights, and use your old barrel to club red salmon on the Russian river in July".
She also used to say: "John Charlie, you are a good for nothing lazy-assed layabout. You will never amount to anything, and you will waste your middle age typing on a keyboard when you should be sleeping."
Wise woman, eh?
JCN
PS Ruger only has about $25.00 invested in that barrel and sight set. A rebore would set you back about the price of - a new barrel.

Good question. Most that do it charge an arm and a leg from what I "hear" on these forums. I miss Sam May out of Flagstaff, AZ, he used to rebore and rechamber for $75 and it was done right. Had one 375 JRS that was phenomenally accurate and several of my friends had various 338s, 375s, 9.3s and 300s that were amazing. Unforutunately Sam has passed on. Rumor had it that he had a gov't contract to make some type of barrel for the army that was in three sections and screwed together, and when assembled of course the rifleing lined up. Quite good. By the looks of the prices now, you'd might as well just buy a new barrel in the correct caliber and chambering instead of reboring. I never have quite figured out how come you can go buy a barrel that is rifled,chambered, threaded, and contoured and it cost more than you paid for it just to have it rebored.
Doug

Try Danny Pedersen @ Classic Barrel in Prescott AZ.
928-772-4060. I sent him last February, a pre64 M70 in 30/06 to be rebored/rechambered to 9.3x64 . I should have it back this week. He has done several rifles for me and I have always been pleased. Bob

KMule,

Unless your Ruger is one of the Express models with integral rib, the sights can be removed, and installed on another, higher quality barrel.

Reboring is only marginally less expensive than a re-barrel, and the turnaround times are long. I had a .30-06 rebored to .35 Whelen by LaBounty Precision about fifteen years ago, and it took five months and eight phone calls to get it back. Accuracy was inconsistent no matter what bullets I used, perhaps because of stress induced by the reboring process.

Get a new barrel; Shilen, PacNor and Lothar Walther make very good barrels in .416.

George

I agree with George. In fact if you send your dimensions to pac-nor they will match the contour and you won't have to re-stock to a different contour.
Frank

Thanks for all the responses - Pacnor states that the lightest contour I can obtain is .700" at the muzzle and the contour can be matched so I can retain the original stock. This is to be a hunting "tool" only, will bead blast the exterior and apply some type of dull / protective finish - thanks again - KMule

KMule,
You will be very happy with the Pac-Nor barrel. They are also great people to deal with.
When I lived in Alaska I heated up a stainless barreled action and sprayed on a couple coats of Rust-Oleum semi gloss barbecue grill paint. Kinda homely, but it worked. When it flaked off eventually I would just rough up the area with OO steel wool, degrease, and re-coat. Another low cost option would be to have someone bring a can of Brownells Aluma-Hyde II up when they visit from down here. The Parkerizing Gray color matches the Susitna river silt pretty well. The Earth Brown color is dead on for the mud flats in Turnagin Arm (and bear shit, too).
JCN

sounds like a gun only phil shoemaker could love......silt, mud and bear shit