I have a Remington 78 Sportsman, it is currently chambered in .308 Win, I would like to rebarrel it to 22-250. I already have a "new" take-off 22-250 barrel from a 700 ADL. My question is: How hard is it to do a simple barrel swap? One shop quoted me ~$45, another told me from $65-$175. The barrels are both drilled and tapped for iron sights, but I have no intention of using them. Also, if I wanted to set it up for 22-250 AI, how much would I have to set the barrel shoulder back? Thanks in advance.

Mark

My question is: How hard is it to do a simple barrel swap?

Depends,if you get lucky the headspace will correct. Just screw it on and go. If it is long, no biggie to shave a bit off the shoulder. If it is short you will need a reamer. Let the $45 guy do it.

22-250 AI?? Hmm, I bet you could just rechamber no setback necessary. The factory 22-250 should headspace on the junction of the neck and shoulder. You would be enlarging the chamber. George says to set it back one thread. That would be better to have an all new chamber. I would have to look at the chamber specs to know if it is 100% necessary to setback..... But why? The 22-250 is fast enough to burn out the throat pleanty soon enough for me. Suit yourself though.

Mark[/qb][/QUOTE]

[ 10-21-2002, 22:16: Message edited by: scot ]

There should be little difficulty screwing on the new barrel and headspacing it. If the 'smith quoting $45 is GOOD and will stand behind his work, then go ahead. That is very inexpensive.

The convention on rechambering is to set the barrel back one thread.

George

scot---

ALL improved cases on rimless cases should be headspaced .002 tight on the GO gauge. That means the barrel MUST be set back.

Factory chambers are usually out of round or off center anyway and setting the barrel back helps straighten that out at the same time.

Clymer reccomends a .004" interference with the normal go gauge. Here we go on the go gauges again.

Jim

Jim--

I knew that! LOL

I've heard everything from .001 to .006. .004 is a good number. I get worried if there's no "feel" on a factory round but don't want to use a cheater bar to close the bolt. Usually minus .002 will do that.

I guess $45 is pretty good money "IF" the gunsmith doesn't have to adjust headspace.I've always been told that Remingtons are pretty darn close and I found out a couple weeks ago just how close they can be. Cranked the barrel outta my 700/300 Win Mag and screwed in another unfired stainless takeoff in 300 Win Mag. Using the depth mic from face to shoulder and face to the belt counterbore, the stainless barrel was .0005 longer.That's only a half a thou and I could still feel resistance on two fired cases I had resized to chamber snug in my old barrel.Perfect.Your Sportsman 78 is mechanically a 700.

[ 10-22-2002, 07:17: Message edited by: rembo ]

rembo---

I've seen far more excess headspace in Remington M-700s than all others combined.

About 1987 Ross Seyfried wrote an article in Guns and Ammo magazine on the 22-250 AI called "The Hottest 22 Around". In that article he reccomended me to do the work. I did more than a hundred set back and rechambers in 4 months. I saw up to .012 excess headspace in brand new Rem 700s and NEVER saw one with less than .003.

Since you HAVE to have negative headspace on an AI chamber there is NO way to rechamber without setting the barrel back by at least one turn.

Thanks for all the good input.

Mr. Belk, what is your experience with regards to the sight registration between factory Remington barrels? Should I expect much lathe time?

RENRAF--

I don't reuse old barrels so I really don't know how close they might be.