All:

This may very well be a case of needlessly sweating the small stuff, however, I wanted to run this by the cognoscenti here.

I am planning a 7mm-08 on a win model 70 SA and want to go with a basic featherweight barrel contour.

My thinking is slightly modify the FWT contout however to give it a little more thickness at the muzzle. My thinking was to get a muzzle dia of around .585 at 22 inches.

The FWT taper has a bit of a double taper which starts to thin more rapidly about 10 inches in front of the receiver. My thought was to modify this "secondary" taper to the muzzle to give .585. The thought was that this extra wall thickness might give the barrel a little more inherent accuracy and maybe slow the tendency for accuracy to change as the barrel warms.

So, does this sound like a bad idea. I don't mind a few extra ounces out front either. Anyone ever done something similar?

Thoughts and opinions appreciated!

Nothing wrong with modifying the taper. You will need to submit the dimensions you want to the barrel maker or the person that is contouring the blank.

Not that it's a bad idea; you can make the barrel any contour you want, but don't expect any increased accuracy. I frequently contour barrels to my whim of the day.

Skinny barrels are not intrinsically more or less accurate, they just heat up faster.

Not only do they heat up faster I've found them to be in my "opinion" very whippy. They seem to react more to slight changes in load and while the potential is there for an accurate load I've usually found it harder to develop.