Has anyone ever rechambered a savage factory varmint barrel in 243 to a 6mm Rem? I would like to have a 6mm Rem but savage doesn't offer it in a rifle. I don't have the specs for a 6mm Rem in front of me, but I was worried about the shoulder being set too far and running out of barrel to thread. I didn't know if I would have enough barrel to work with before the contour started changing and re-threading wouldn't work.

I'm not a gunsmith, but I know that the above issues would be my biggest problem. Anyone have any input? Can it be done and how much barrel would I lose?

Can it be done? I know the 6mm has a tapered case and that could be a problem.

I would have to cast your actual chamber and then measure it against my 6mm reamer to be certain, but, you can expect to lose somewhere between .600 and .750 of barrel length. That should be enough to get past the .243 shoulder dimension...

Yes. You *can* rechamber a .243 to a 6mm. My gunsmith just did one not long ago. Bear in mind though that you'll have to set the barrel back quite a bit to get the reamer to clean up the chamber as the .243 case is quite a bit wider than a 6mm ever thought about.

However, since you have a Savage, you might just look around and see if you could buy an aftermarket barrel in 6mm. Savages are supposed to be pretty easy to rebarrel and I bet you could find a finished, chambered barrel cheaper than you could rechamber the current one. I am no Savage expert, but FWIW, I think you could go about getting a 6mm easier than you'd think.

Tex21 is right. Way too much taper in the 6 M/M REM to clean up a .243 chamber. If you want more OOOMPH!, have it rechambered to 6 M/M AI.

Master beat me to it. If you want to use a .243 chambered barrel as the starting place, chambering for the 6mm AI is the most logical alternative.

i put a 6mm new barrel in a sako 579 action(.243) and it was a mistake. oal on the 6 will only let me put one round in magazine. i hate to admit it but i never even thought of it until i was done.

bounty hunter

Go ahead and run the 6mm reamer into the .243 chamber till you get a go no go with 6mm gauges The first 6mm round you fire will have a slightly double neck or telescoped necks . You will be able to neck size all those cartridges you fire with a .243 die and seat bullets with the .243 dies also.

As long as you don't severely overload and your chamber is not elipticle you'll not need a FL wildcat die that fits your new cartridge. Could not help myself after following this thread since it was started. roger

Thanks for the input guys, I think I will probably go ahead and get an aftermarket barrel in the 6mm or AI. I figure that if I'm going through the expense of rechambering, might as well be a good barrel like Pacnor.

Thanks again for all the input.

I was going this route several years ago on a Remmy 700 and my Smith said I didn't have enough barrel because of the taper issue that was discussed earlier. He recommended the 6MM AI or the .243 AI. I chose the. 243 AI and have been very pleased. Besides shooting flat and very accurate it is a racy looking catridge.