Last winter I bought a new Remington 700 SPS in .223 with the standard 24" sporter barrel. I mainly use it for target shooting from 100-300 yards. I love the rifle, its accurate and fun to shoot but my only complaint is barrel heat. I can generally fire about three or four consecutive shots before the barrel feels fairly warm. Then it takes a good ten minute cool down period before I can fire a few more shots.
I know the advantages of a varmint barrel, so I was considering trading this rifle for the 700 SPS Varmint in .223. Question is, how much of an advantage would I gain, as in how many more shots could I typically fire before the barrel warms up? And with a heavy varmint barrel, don't they take longer to cool off once they get warm? I figure I could trade for around $200 but I'm not sure if I would gain a significant advantage. Plus I like the lighter weight of my current rifle.

If your gun is in good shape it will be worth more than $200. Maybe a good bit more. Aren't those new around $500???

If you want the heavier barrel, one option would be to rebarrel the gun. Not a cheap option, but you could select the quality of barrel, barrel manufacturer, twist, et cet. that you want.

If this is good shooting gun that you like, you may be better of keeping it as is. Any option will cost you money and you run the risk that the next one won't be as good.

This is obvious, but take more guns. Shoot one, and then shoot another while the first one cools. This doesn't have to be expensive either. A 17 HMR can be had pretty cheap, the ammo is much less than centerfire, and you can plink with them at 100 yards. Of course, the .22LR is the cheapest to shoot, but if you are on the 100 yard line or longer, it's not a great choice. OTOH, the best thing I ever did was buy a high quality .22. Mine is much more accurate than I am, and I can practice as much as I want for very little $$$.

So, maybe you just need to buy more guns!

LWD

I paid $430 for this rifle new. My local Cabela's retail store has the 700 SPS Varmint model in stainless on sale starting today for $549 plus it has a $30 mail in rebate which would bring the cost down to $519 plus tax. I'm figuring they would allow me $350 cash for mine because it still looks like its fresh out of the box, which would leave me with around $200 in the difference by the time I paid the sales tax.
I love this rifle otherwise, I just wish I could shoot it more without heating up the barrel. I would love to have both but by the time I put some decent glass on another new model 700 I'm looking at over $1K again.

Re barrel ; That way you get a new barrel and choice of manufacture of said barrel !.
Accuracy would more than likely be better rather than worse . You may be unhappy with the other 700 SPS Varmint model who says it will shoot better ?.

If you've got to blast away , have the new barrel fluted , it will dissipate heat more rapidly . How many more shots could you get , I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that one . Maybe some one else does .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

If you are only shooting from the bench, then the heavier contour barrel is advantageous. It will take longer to heat up (proportional to the mass), but will also take longer to cool down. The advantage of the heavier barrel is that it is more stable as it heats, thus providing more consistent accuracy with multiple shots.

If you want the heavier barrel gun, by all means do the trade. Rebarreling you gun will cost you two to three times the amount of the trade and will have your gun out of service for weeks, depending on who you can find to do the work. Your current stock will NOT fit the heavier contour and will have to be modified (if that is possible on that stock), adding to the cost and the time. It is always more economical to trade for an existing gun than to modify one.

Be advised, however, that there is nothing intrinsicly more accurate about a heavy barrel gun for the first few shots. You may not necessarily enjoy the same or a better level of accuracy than you are getting from your current rifle -- it is the "luck of the draw" with individual guns. But the same would be true of a replacement barrel on the same gun.

The advice to re-barrel is good, in my opinion but, if barrel heat is your only complaint and the rifle shoots good, keep shooting it until it doesn't anymore. Then re-barrel it with a varmint weight, fluted barrel from Lilja, Krieger, Hart or PAC-NOR. You're going to loose money in any trade regardless of how new your current rifle looks. Gun dealers, at least the ones I'm familiar with, will really low-ball you on your trade and a $30 mail in rebate is chicken feed for what you will lose in a trade. Just mu opinion.

Use Blue Dot, and it won't heat up as quickly...

( what else do you expect Seafire to say????)

I have an ADL in sporter weight.. I use it as a walking varminter..

I also have the heavy barreled Model 700s in 223....

If you let it go, I can see you regretting it...

Maybe you should consider getting another Heavy Barreled 223....while keeping the Sporter Weight 223...

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If you let it go, I can see you regretting it...

Yes, if this is a good shooting gun that you like, don't sell it. My rule is never sell a gun that I like that shoots good. Really good guns that you like are just too hard to find.

LWD

if moneys not an issue,buy another rifle. a heavy barrel will heat up in 10-17 shots depending how fast you shoot it.
imo advantage goes with the heavy barrels.
custom barrels is a fun box to open. they blow factory tubes out of the water,many choices but it yours to make! stainless tends to stay cooler,where chromemoy(blued) absorbes sunlite and warms up quicker,yes heaver barrel take more time to cool,theres more steel to cool,pull the bolt and let the wind blow through the barrel,or grab another rifle an let the hot one cool. regards

rowdyredneck. You do not say what happens when it heats up. Does accuracy suffer? How much? A 223 is a high velocity round. It is going to heat up any barrel. If this an accurate rifle keep it. As mentioned above, there is no guarantee that a heavy barrel rifle is more accurate than yours.
Peter.

I would keep it also. Take other rifles to the range and also try Blue Dot loads.

quote:

You do not say what happens when it heats up.

I always stop when it gets warm so I don't know. I haven't tried shooting it hot so I don't know how the accuracy holds up. I just feel the barrel after a few shots and once it feels fairly warm I stop before it ever gets hot. I just don't want to overheat it and cause damage.
I decided to keep it for now. I might buy a Stevens for the action and build a heavy varminter in either .223 or .22-250 sometime. I hope to go out west next year on a prairie dog shoot so I would like to have something a little better suited to extended shooting periods.

quote:

I might buy a Stevens for the action and build a heavy varminter in either .223 or .22-250 sometime. I hope to go out west next year on a prairie dog shoot so I would like to have something a little better suited to extended shooting periods.

I understand that many serious prairie dog shooters take several rifles due to the volume of shooting. So like we've said, buy more guns!

Also, a few rounds sent down the barrel when hot isn't going to kill the barrel. (But shooting it hot quickly until you're out of ammo or the local SWAT team responds surely will.) Generally speaking, you're right not to be shooting the gun with a hot barrel. But you won't know what happens with the barrel hot if you don't try it. So, try a couple of groups with a warm to hot barrel to see what the impact on accuracy is.

For about a $100 you can get set up to rebarrel the Savage/Stevens action. All you need is a barrel vise and barrel nut wrench and a GO headspace gauge though an action wrench is probably also a good idea. With relatively inexpensive but decent barrels available for these actions, they make good high volume shooters since you save the cost of gunsmithing to rebarrel.

LWD