I was thinking of rebarreling my win 70 300 wsm featherweight with a match barrel. I live in Ca and would like a quality gunsmith (in my state)to do it. where is one and how much? I want a chrome moly barrel (blued of course) maybe slightly heavier than stock. stock barrel is around .600 at the muzzle. thanks

Trahscanman,

Can't help you with a smith in CA as I am located in MT but I can give you an idea of what I would charge for such a project.

First off it would depend on what you ment by "Match Grade" barrel. Most after market barrels are advertised as match grade. The lower end match grade barrels from Shilen and Douglas will run you $160 to $180 + shipping. These are generally fine for big game rifles but for an honest Match grade barrel, you have to go with the Shilen Select Match Grade, the Douglas Air Gauged match, the Pac-Nor select match or my prefered Lilja barrel blank.

These barrels are held to much tighter specs and the accuracy results show this. These barrels will run in the $250 to $280 range.

To fit a new barrel, I charge $125 which includes threading, chambering, crowning, caliber engraving on the barrel and final 400 grit finish.

I charge $60 to blue a chrome moly barrel. To be honest, it is actually cheaper to get a stainless barrel because you save the blueing cost.

TO matte finish the barrel I charge and extra $30.00

So basically if you went with a Lilja barrel of your discription, I would charge $465.

This is the best quality barrel you can get so if a lesser barrel would do then you would save alot of money.

Good Shooting!!!

50

You will have to decide which you want; a quality rebarrel, or modestly priced. I just had a Lilja put on an older Ruger 77. It was fairly priced, but there wasn't a whole lot of change left from a $500.00 bill because I had it rebedded and the trigger cleaned up at the same time. Sure was worth it, though. Sow's ear to silk purse in one visit to the gun doctor's office.
The best thing in life, God's love, is free. All the other good things in life are going to cost you time or money which are the same thing.
JCN

I agree with both replies.

You can ship a gun anywhere in the country for about $20 or so. Let me say, it certainly shouldn't have to be a gunsmith in your homestate. I live in Ohio, my gunsmiths are in NM, OREGON, AL.

On the chrome moly/stainless issue: I have 2 select match grade Shilens, 1 lilja, 1 Kostyshyn, 1 Hart, 1 Broughton-Richards, 1 Pac-Nor, and a Krieger. I personally would go with the Stainless barrels for reasons already mentioned and that they are INHERENTLY more accurate, and easier to clean, etc. A bead blasted SS barrel looks real good with a blue action. Nice contrast.

Douglas is the way to go for expense but you should know that they do NOT handlap their barrels.

Fiftydriver certainly has fair prices. If you rebarrel, I'd encourage you to blueprint your action as well, get everything lapped/bedded. You won't be sorry.

You absolutely cannot go wrong with a Lilja, Broughton, Pac-Nor, or Krieger, OR Hart. The pacnor barrels I think would be next in line for least expensive compared to Douglas and Shilen.

There are some good gunsmiths in Calif. Go over to benchrest central and can get some #. I had my model 70 fwt 300wsm rebarrel and new McMillian stock put on. I got a #4 Contour with a 1/12 twist 5r SS from Broughton and picked up appr 150/200fps more in velocity with the 5r barrel depending on bullets 150/180gr. I have a tikka t3 lite 300wsm so comparing loads from one rifle to the other. I may order another barrel from Broughton for the tikka. Cost the same to rebarrel so might as well get a good barrel what I mean is a SS (select)match barrel. If set on a CM barrel I's send the rifle off to Krieger and have him fit and chamber it plus anything else you may need done. Good Luck.

Faster, Betterr, Cheaper (pick any two)
Good luck!

Try Dave at I.T. & D. in Ohio. His number is 330-868-6867. Or send him a SASE at I.T. & D. Custom Gun, 2229 Leisure NE, Minerva, OH 44657. He'll send you a price list.

He deals in Douglas barrels. Last I checked, you could have the whole package (barrel blank, installed {threaded, chambered, crowned, etc}, test fired and finished in your choice of satin or gloss blue), for "about" $300.

Don't restrict yourself to CA, unless you have some compelling reason. You can legally ship your action to any FFL carrying 'smith for work, and they can send it straight back to you.

Hey trashcanman, Would you mind mentioning "Why?" you are considering the rebarrelling?

What kind of groups are you getting with it?

I'm wondering if it might be something other than a barrel "problem".

Brownells has several grades of barrels available in their catalog and they have them in stock; you won't have to wait through many moons to get what you want.



A quick check for "rifle barrel" reveals 70 possibilities. I found a .308 bore, 1:10 twist Lothar Walther in a #2100 contour (24" long and .700" at muzzle) for $213. It is made of LW23 steel, finish contoured and in the white. P/N is 950-000-002. Sounds like a deal; I paid $562 for my Krieger, but it's a one-off.

TCM,
You can ship your gun to any FFL anywhere in the country and they can send it back to you with no problems whatsoever. Pac-Nor is reasonably priced and pretty quick with turn-around. If you absolutely want to do it in-state, I have a great gunsmith who can do it in the Sacramento area. Where are you located?

NoCAL

I own a few Shilen cm's and a few Lothar Walther cm's and there is no comparison. The LWs are so much better there is no competition.

Hey NoCal, you do not need to use FFL facilities when shipping a firearm for repair.

The rifle can be shipped straight to the gunsmith via UPS from the owner to the gsmith and right back again. I didn't know if you knew that based on your post. If you did, sorry.

"I personally would go with the Stainless barrels for reasons already mentioned and that they are INHERENTLY more accurate, and easier to clean, etc"

A stainless barrel is more heat resistent and any barrel that is hand-lapped cleans much easier. To say a stainless barrel is more accurate than C/M barrel is not a factual statement.

Doc,

A gunsmith is not allowed to keep a firearm overnight or to the next business day without having an FFL license.

This makes things a little tricky.

Another example is if I wanted to go to customers houses and do minor gunsmithing work I would not need an FFL, nor would I need one if they bring the firearm to my shop, I do the work and they take it home before the close of business.

If I have to keep it overnight, the ATF conciders the ownership of the firearm temperarily transfered to me and for that I have to have my FFL.

Good Shooting!!!

50

Jim White,

Your are correct that stainless barrels have not been scientifically proven to be more accurate then CM barrels but the top barrel makers will clearly state that their top Stainless barrels are held to 0.0001" uniformity for the length of the bore compared to 0.0002" for the same makers CM barrels.

Is this enough to make a difference, I do not know, but in reality, the stainless barrels have 50% less variation then the CM. Its just that its 50% of a very small variation to start with.

GOod Shooting!!!

50

FiftyDriver, While what you are saying is correct, I believe Doc meant that you do not need an FFL to send the rifle to another FFL.. Many these days are claiming that you do.

Z1r,

I reread Docs post and I agree with your comments.

Sorry Doc, read your post wrong last night, long day in the shop!

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

That's what I meant too. You don't need two FFL's just the one who recieves the rifle to work on it needs one. Sorry for the confusion. Where did TCM go? He's the one who posed the question in the first place. If you want the name of my gunsmith here in Sacramento, just let me know.

NoCAL

It's ok, I did not know about the overnight keeping of a firearm anyway, however, you both understand what I meant. The point again: you do not need a FFL to SHIP a gun to a gunsmith for repair, rebarrel, etc. When I shipped my first gun at UPS, they asked me for my FFL, I told them I didn't need one, the supervisor concurred.

Regarding Mr. White's comment on SS vs. CM: I RESPECTFULLY disagree. For reasons already mentioned. I am simply going from personal experience AND quoting several barrel makers. So to split hairs and say I am making an incorrect statement that SS is more accurate, it is simply not worth arguing. I've never seen a CM barrel at a bench shoot though.

Doc,
You are correct that it is not worth arguing about however it is still a fact that one material is not more inherently accurate than the other. Is a stainless barrel held to closer tolerances? Absolutely. Is the reason because it is a more accurate material? Absolutely not. It is more resistant to heat therefore it lives longer therefore it is the material of choice. If a C/M barrel were made to the same tolerances as a stainless barrel there would be no difference in accuracy until the C/M barrel began to wear and get long in the throat. Shilen said it, I believe it and thats all there is to it. It's strictly a matter of longevity and has nothing to do with accuracy. Jim

I also agree that to say that a stainless bbl is inherintly more accurate than a cm is a misgiven. It would probably be more accurate to say that stainless has more accuracy "potential" and even that is debateable, but whether it does or not is still going to depend greatly on the bbl making process and the rest of the rifle. It is certianly possible to have a cm rifle more accurate than a stainless one.

I would not argue that a stainless bbl would have more longevity, and Im sure that is a consideration for bench shooters who spend so much on a single rifle.

One thing I will say concerning the chrome-moly vs stainless debate has to do with barrel life.

I have read several articles over the last few years stating that chrome moly will have just as long a barrel life as stainless.

If these articles are backed up with actual shooting and not theory I would give them a little credit but most are simply one shooter with one barrel saying his CM barrel lasts as long asn any stainless barrel.

I prefer to use Lilja barrels for two reasons. First, they are as fine a barrel as you can get anywhere today and second he is a local Montana business and with our Montana economy, every business needs local support.

Dan Lilja has stated to me that his stainless barrels provide 25% longer acuracy life then his chrome moly barrels. From the shooting and testing I have seen, along with barrels I have put on customers rifles that I have been able to inspect over time, I would fully agree with his comments.

So to add my little one liner to the debate:

"I would say stainless barrels have the potential to be more accurate then chrome moly barrels and for a longer period of time then chrome moly."

Even if each barrel is of equal accuracy on paper, the longer barrel life of the stainless is well worth it in my mind. THis is why there are so many stainless barrels on the BR circuit compared to CM. They just last longer.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

Well I guess we are all in complete agreement. Fiftydriver I also have a lilja barrel that I put on a 721 and chambered to .243 Ackley and it is superb. Between Dan's website and Shilen's there is all the information on barrel materials anybody needs to make an informed decision on what his/her next barrel should be made of. I choose stainless strictly for barrel life. Jim