I am looking at making my pre 64 a little more interesting than it is now, I've always wanted to go to one of the AI versions in one of my rifles. What do you guys think? 270AI keep the original barrel? Or go to a custom barrel in 270 or 280 AI? Should a guy do this with a pre 64? its a standard rifle with a 24" sporter weight barrel not a supergrade of course. Also I'm having trouble finding velocity data on the 270AI vs 280AI which would be a better choice for "improving" Thanks

I bought a very nice, but plain Jane pre 64 std grade in boring old .30-06 several years ago. NEVER used it. My friend PJ Hart had the idea to rebarrel it so I'd at least use it. He had a .257 bbl so I had him do me a .257 roberts AI. Same taper as the original bbl,except we went with 24" not 22" as it was originally.
It was a drop in deal and now I have a gun that fit an opening I had in my ten gun battery.
I could always reinstall the stock bbl and have my gun back to original.
Have a Rem 700 in .280AI and in a 26" bbl I picked up about 100-125 fps with the AI over the std chambering. Worth doing? Thats debatable...... but it IS one SEXY looking case.

FN in MT

Also take a look at the Gibbs wildcats. They offer a bit more than the standard or Ackley improved versions but forming cases is a bit of work.

I have a pre-64 that is set up as a switch barrel. I have barrels for the 220 Weatherby Rocket and 270 Gibbs.

If you don't alter the bolt and/or stock you can always put it back together or you can sell the original parts for good prices, especially on eBay. I would not alter the barrel, get a replacement. PacNor will match contours for reasonable prices, I think 25.00.

quote:

Originally posted by bearcat:
I am looking at making my pre 64 a little more interesting than it is now, I've always wanted to go to one of the AI versions in one of my rifles. What do you guys think? 270AI keep the original barrel? Or go to a custom barrel in 270 or 280 AI? Should a guy do this with a pre 64? its a standard rifle with a 24" sporter weight barrel not a supergrade of course. Also I'm having trouble finding velocity data on the 270AI vs 280AI which would be a better choice for "improving" Thanks

If you're going to mess it up, make it a .280. It may not be any faster, but the .280 caliber will allow you to use a lot larger selection of bullets!!

Well I'm not sure that I'm going to "mess it up" but I do think I will do it in 280AI. I am looking at a Remington Varmint contour barrel fluted, some of the barrels I've been researching are: Krieger, Pacnor, Schneider, and lilja. Can anyone comment on any of these for preference and why, also twist rate and number of grooves 3,5,6, ect... or polygonal rifling. Thanks a bunch for the info so far its been really helpful.

If it's a nice pre 64 then leave the factory barrel as it is.

I went thru this back in the 80's when I just had to have a wildcat on a magnum bolt face and I found a 264 Westerner. I never even shot it but had the barrel pulled and got my new "invention" screwed on. A few years later my "invention" was toast and I had the 264 WM factory barrel put back on and it cost $75. Sure enough it shot 1.5 MOA just like the seller said it would 15 years or so in the past. So I did the crown over myself and now it's one of the most accurate rifles that I have.

I had a lot of fun with that rifle and it's still worth more than a lot of stuff people bought twenty years ago.

280AIall the way. 1/9 twist I have Pac_nor and Lilja very nice. I just bought a Hart. Check Mid-Way first. I saved over $50 on my Hart