I have Remington 700 that I'd like to swap barrels on. Can someone give me the lowdown on what this proceedure takes, and an approximate on cost? I don't have a huge amount of money to spend and would probably use a factory take-0ff barrel. How does one set headspace in such a situation?

Thanks,

CAL9

Find a good gunsmith! Send him money and a barrel!-Rob

Cal9,

The procedure: Pull old barrel. Measure replacement barrel and make it resemble that of the original. Set headspace by either deepening the chamber, or, set the barrel back and recut the chamber. If the replacement barrel has sights, make sure that the sights index top dead center when action is tight.

Cost to have this done is probably going to run somewheres between $100.00 and $150.00. If there are sights involved, it will require more work so expect to pay extra for it. If you are sending this off to have the work done, add return shipping as well.

Malm

Or, if you are not going to use the same brass in different rifles, you can either fireform brass to size (if slightly longer than normal headspace), or full-length size shorter to fit slightly shorter headspace.

Sometimes the latter involves grinding a bit off the bottom of a sizing die, but it is still a lot cheaper to get that done than to rechamber a barrel.

Note that either way, you don't want to use the brass so altered in any rifle but that one it was made to fit.

[ 03-17-2003, 12:37: Message edited by: Alberta Canuck ]

That pretty much says it all. If you have a barell and don't need a bolt face modification, then it is normally about $100 or so depending on how much work needs to be done, sights oriented, chamber deepened, barrel set back, etc.

Alberta Canuck---

To set up a factory rifle that's factory marked for caliber, with *another* caliber, is to invite a TON of liability.

NEVER do as you suggest. It's dangerous and a booby trap that YOU're setting, you're responsible for and you'll have to pay for if things go wrong.

It's a VERY scary thought.

CAL9: If you have the tools to take off the barrel, it could be as simple as taking one barrel off, screwing the other on. Check headspace with headspace gauges. If it includes sights, 90% of the time the sights will not index correctly. If it doesn't headspace correctly, it will have to be chucked in a lathe and either have headspace shortened or lengthened. What calibers are you talking about?

Yes, Mr.Belk, if you are doing it for someone else, you are absolutely correct. I would never recommend it to anyone as a business practice. It could cost them everything, monetarily.

If one is doing it for himself, though, and IF one removes the add-on barrel and replaces the original barrel BEFORE one ever transfers the gun to anyone else either permanently or temporarily, it will work for their own use.

I certainly agree that one should NEVER dispose of such a rifle in the converted state, not even as a short-term loan, as the new owner would not know what was necessary to make/obtain safe, useable ammo, and could hurt him/her self or bystanders.

But, for personal use by knowledgeable rifle users, there are two ways to handle this new barrel quest.... 1) make the barrel fit the cartridges (rechamber, etc.), or 2) make the cartridges fit the barrel.

It is also quite correct that seldom will the sights line-up corectly when factory barrels are switched. But, then, how many people use the factory open sights on most bolt actions? Again, for personal use, that may or may not be a concern.

AC--

I understand your point, and things may be different north of the border, but here (legally), a gun is assumed to have a 100 year useable life-span. The one that alters the gun is legally liable for that gun EVEN if it's stolen, or sold after your death.

IF you're going to do what you propose (and I have several times) take a flat punch and peen out the caliber markings so nobody sticks a factory cartridge in a gun that's not suited for it.

It's sheer stupidity to have a gun that's marked for a caliber that would be unsafe if shot in it. It would be bad enough to be sued......much worse to know that YOU were directly responsible for some one getting hurt by shooting your rifle....THAT's worse than a law suit to me.

In my opinion, of course.

Liability is probably worse in some ways north of the border.

And, I agree with the approach of stamping out the original caliber designation.

Practically speaking, though, unless a lawsuit arose before the estate had been probated, I think it would be interesting even in the lawyer-ridden US to see how a claimant would pursue damages against a dead man should the gun transfer after his death...particularly if the owner dies without heirs and intestate, and the State disposes of the rifle. [G]

Of course, I realize your major worry is the liabity of a wife or child who transfers a firearm after the death of the husband or father. That is a valid concern.

Basically, we agree 100% on the liability aspects. I thought, perhaps mistakenly, that the person posing the question was a person starting to do his own gunsmithing. For him the approach I mentioned would work fine.

I also think it would work fine if he bought a take-off barrel, had a smith screw it in and check for headspace. If it is between "go" and "no-go", no problem. If it is not, then it is likely up to the smith and himself how to best handle the situation.

I have perhaps a dozen take-off barrels which I use as "switch-barrels" on my own rifles, and every one gauged within acceptable limits when first screwed on. I suspect Remington's headspacing process is pretty dependable and repeatable, as I doubt they want to spend a lot of labour cost on custom re-headspacing every barrel for every rifle produced.

Of course, there are always greivous exceptions, thus headspace determination is an important step.