I have pretty much decided to have my Remington 700 re bored from 30-06 to .338-06. It has acceptable hunting accuracy of 5 shots in just over 1 1/4 inch. With reading different sites I take it I need the re bore, re crown, and to have the neck reamed. Is it common to send a dummy round with the bullet I plan to use to get best distance to rifling?

If I get a choice what twist should I opt for. I am looking at 210-225 grain bullets as most used.

I'll answer the questions you asked, then offer an unsolicited observation.

You'll have to ask the gunsmith that is doing the work if sending a dummy round will be necessary or useful. Depending on who does the work and the tooling they own, they may or may not have the ability to independently set the freebore (maybe better word is throat) to match your round. A 12 twist barrel will handle 200 to 225 grain bullets. A 10 twist will handle any, even the heavy, heavy ones. If you're willing to limit the weight of bullets to 225, the 12 twist will produce lower pressures and slightly less felt recoil, and arguably will be more accurate.

Now the unsolicited advice. A barrel that won't group with the original chambering, has a good chance of not grouping with a rebore. If it is residual stresses in the barrel, or poor steel that caused a defect in the barrel, the rebore won't fix that, and the new caliber will shoot poorly also. Inherently, the rebore is more difficult to get a good shooting barrel than a new blank. This is because there is a sacrificial inch normally cut off a blank at the muzzle, and the chamber cleans up a couple of inches also at the breech. A rebore doesn't have that luxury, however the rifling comes out at the chamber is how it will be; no real cleanup except a minor amount at the throat. The muzzle is not normally cut off on a rebore, so whatever the rifling comes out is what you get. It is harder for the barrel man to lap a rebore, because he can't cut off the end where he reverses the lap.

I would normally not rebore anything except a very special barrel, or a historical barrel (collectible rifle) that is absolute garbage inside and I really want to shoot it. By special barrel, I mean something that has a unique shape such as integral rib barrel, or something shaped and fitted to an exceptional custom stock.

On a Rem 700, you can rebarrel for less than $300 to a quality barrel that will shoot better than a factory one. Or add more money to that to get better barrel and more work done during the rebarrel, and have an exceptional shooting rifle. The last time I priced quality rebores, they weren't a lot less than an economy rebarrel, and were more than I can rebarrel a rifle for myself.

dave

About 15 years ago or so I sent my Rem 700 270 to Cliff LaBounty to be rebored to 338-06. He welcomed the work, drilled, rifled and lapped the bore and rechambered and throated it for the 210 gr Partiton "load" that I supplied. It has been a consistent sub-moa rifle using bullets from 185 gr (TSX) to 225 gr (Partiton and Accubond). I have two other rebores, 35 Whelen and 9.3x62, by Cliff. Both excellent. The same quality work is provided by Jim Dubell who bought Cliff's business. I have not been disappinted and I have saved money over a similar rebarrel, re-sight, re-bed, reblue...

quote:

It not has acceptable hunting accuracy of 5 shots in just over 1 1/4 inch.

WOW, you must be one "heck" of a offhand shooter of field mice, for an 1 1/4" moa NOT to be acceptable accuracy.

Anything that "needs" a .338" bullet, should be big enough that 5/8" one way or the other will not affect the outcome.

Keith

Hate to ask the obvious questions but have you had the action, trigger, bedding, etc checked by a smith with a reputation for accurizing M700s?
And I agree with Keith, unless you are shooting squirrels, 1 1/4 MOA aint bad. Not great but not bad.

I remember when 1 1/4" was considered exceptional accuracy in a factory gun..."normal" acceptable hunting accuracy being 2-3".

Accuracy isn't a function of caliber per se anyway, it is a function of a tuned rifle system...ammo, bedding, scope and shooter.

Reboring or rebarreling in many instances costs the same and the accuracy of a rebored barrel reflects the care and quality of the reborer and his equipment.

If you want a 338-06 then do one and forget all the snow job "reasons"...wanting one is reason enough.

Just DO IT!!!!!

1 1/4" accuracy isn't up to my standards and YES I shoot squirrels with ALL my guns no matter what the caliber...17 to 50...If I can't nail a squirrel with my very large cals within their normal hunting ranges, I keep working on the load or the rifle until I can...sage rats are wonderful targets to keep your targeting abilities and eyes sharp.

Luck

[QUOTE] If you want a 338-06 then do one and forget all the snow job "reasons".../[QUOTE]

Then do as "Larry the cable guy" says, "Get'er done"!

Keith

I haven't had a great many re-bored rifles, but every one I have had done actually shot BETTER than in the original chambering/bore size.

None of my rebored barrels were in bad shape before reboring either. I simply wanted a different bore size, and had a suitable and expendable donor on hand.

Back "in the day", when LOTS of folks had barrels rebored, many folks reported the same results. There were even fairly common magazine articles (several per year?) speculating on why that was the case.

One of the most common conclusions was that the workman doing the reboring had either better equipment, better skill, or both, than the factory employee who made the original barrel...or that he paid more attention to what he was doing.

A second theory advanced fairly regularly was that the shooting of a barrel for several years or more tended to "relieve" the stresses inherent in the barrel.

Whether either or both of the "reasons" are "right", or "wrong", I don't know. Don't really care all that much. All I know is that for me, I have no fear whatsoever of having a barrel re-bored. All have worked fine for me so far.

Hope to bring this thread back to life. What I should have said is that the 1 1/4 inch accuracy is acceptable for hunting but not enough for me to keep the rifle as a 30-06. I have a Remington 760 that will shoot as good and some days even better. I have a .308 that is sub MOA every day as well as a sub MOA .300 Win Mag. So 30 Caliber is covered. I bought the 700 in hopes I would get one that shot as well as one I made the mistake of selling years ago. Or if not use it as a donor action for a build of a 6.5-284. Well I bought a .270WSM that is shooting very well and I am thinking less of the 6.5 build and thinking I need something over 30 caliber in the safe. This 700 has a perfect matte blue finish and I just was thinking that a rebore to .338-06 would be cheaper than building or buying a new rifle.

That said can anyone who has had a successful rebore recommend someone I can contact?

See my original response above for my recommendation on who to contact.

Jesse Ocompaugh(SP?) at JES reboring has done a few for me. I would recommend him in additon to the above

Thanks Rockrat I have a call into JES. Found many good reviews on him online. Now do I get 3 -4- or 5 groove? Well actually he called me back already. His price and turn around time are great. Looks like I will be having him do the job.