I've got a Remington .223 Varminter that probably needs rebarreling. It still shoots good, but when I use my Stoney Point OAL tool, the bullet ends up waaay up the tube. LOTS of freebore!

Then too I have noticed that Hornady SX's will sometimes come apart on the way to the target after a prolonged shooting session (i.e., no cleaning). I can see a nice little vapor trail on the way to the target and the intended victim, usually a prairie dog, will remain untouched. All this tells me that the barrel has seen its' better days.

It appears to me anyway that the tools to do a DIY barrel job are readily available from Brownell's and Midway. Brownell's sells a SS Shilen 1-14" short chambered .223 barrel already threaded for the 700. An action wrench and a barrel vise and away I'd go, right? (The 1-14" twist is fine since the heaviest bullet I normally use in the .223 is 55 grains.)

Of course, I'd have to buy/rent a finish chamber reamer and I suppose a go/no-go headspace gauge set as well, but I don't see what if anything else I'd need other than determination and a solid workbench.

I'd probably go ahead and buy the Wheeler lug lapping device and the bolt face truing device as well since I'd have it all apart.

Are there any advantages to going to a heavier/thicker after market recoil lug with a .223? The rig sits in a H-S Precision composite w/the integral AL bedding block.

I don't know that I'd end up saving any real money doing it myself because of the cost of the tooling, but like everything else, there'd be the immense satisfaction of having done it myself.

It seems pretty straight forward. Am I asking for trouble or is it full speed ahead?

Tim

PS I have access to a tool and die man with 30 some years of experience should I run into trouble. I am not a machinist by trade, but I get by.

[ 11-11-2002, 10:15: Message edited by: NETim ]

A couple of years ago, I thought the same thing. I bought the tooling, and I bought a used barrel and luckily it worked. A year or so later I found that you can take an NRA one week class at several of the gunsmithing schools around the country for "Rifle Rebarreling". You have to know your way around a lathe to take this class, or you can take a one week class to learn how to use the lathe prior to the rifle rebarreling. I strongly recommend going to these classes instead of trying what you want to try here. In the class, most of this tooling is available for use there, and you will end up with an accurate, in spec, square rifle. If you know your way around a rifle before you get there, you can do as many as 3 chamberings from blanks.

Since the Brownell's/Shilen barrels are already threaded and short chambered, I don't think I'd need a lathe, just some hand tools (vise and action wrench and reamer) to do this job. Patience and headspace gauges would be needed as well.

Brownell's states in the catalog that the short chambered Shilen barrel would/could be chambered by hand using a finish reamer. No lathe is apparently necessary in this case. Just going by what Brownell's catalog is suggesting.

I'd probably be better off sending it away to a pro... probably be money ahead too, but it seems like a fun project.

Thanks!
Tim

[ 11-11-2002, 21:40: Message edited by: NETim ]

JD,

I was not aware of the NRA schools, I will check this out.

Saludos..Frank

Tim, how many rounds ya got thru that barrel? Sounds like it only needs setting back and rechambering to me. MUCH cheaper than rebarrelling, but just as much work. Setting them back is very standard practice for us paper shooters and has saved me a ton of money over time.

FWIW, my Rem factory barrels still shoot pretty well despite being throated out to the front sling swivel

Redial

Tim,

I try to stick to Mausers and don't claim to build benchrest or ultra accurate long range varminters, but hand reaming a short chambered threaded barrel is definitely doable.

Good measuring equipment helps. I have done a many a one using a decent vernier caliper, but that is doing it the hard way.

I started off with a batch of unfitted military replacement barrels that I bought for $25-35 each.
Best do your practice runs on something you can afford to junk.

Hand reaming is doable, but you might start with something cheaper than a Shilen barrel.

Build yourself a truck gun/loaner on a Mauser action with a cheapie barrel before you try the high buck stuff would be my advice.

I have seen several hand reamed chambers and they
all had one thing in common, the chambers were out of round. some more so than others. when hand reaming you lack the ability to hold the reamer true to the center line of the bore.
They all shot fairly well but it was hard to reload for if you neck size the brass.
Dave