Gentlemen...

I've got a left handed M700 currently chambered to .243 Win and want to re-barrel to 7mm/08. Is this as straight forward as it seems? If not, what are the "gotchas" that I may be overlooking?

Thanks!

It is a straight forward barrel job.
Butch

Thanks Butch... was hoping for as much. Now, just need to find a 7mm/08 take-off barrel!

You have to get a left hand twist barrel or it will unscrew when you shoot it.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
You have to get a left hand twist barrel or it will unscrew when you shoot it.

That only applies to those south of the equator!

As stated, it's a simple rebarrel.

But, why look for a takeoff barrel? 7mm-08 is one of the popular calibers, not one of the ones usually bought to rebarrel. Most likely, any 7mm-08 takeoff you find will be a loser.

It's only $125 or so more to do a custom barrel, in good quality.

$75 takeoff + $75 to refit to your action = $150, and unknown quality.

$250 will get you a new barrel threaded,chambered and crowned to a quality better than the original Remington. Just have to final polish it yourself, and another $35 or so to blue it most shops if it's ready to go into the tanks. If you go stainless, the barrel costs a bit more but you don't have the bluing cost.

dave

I sure agree with ssdave.
And if you are looking for a good smith, try Jim Kobe. He has done a bunch of these for me with great results.
I went with Shilen and Lilja barrels.
Jim is at 952 884 6031.

I agree with the others that it makes sense to go with a custom barrel. However, if you decide you want a take-off barrel, I have an unfired stainless 7mm-08 barrel. I bought a new Remington 700 for a donor rifle and took the barrel off without ever firing it. So I don't know well the barrel shoots. Send me a message if you are interested.

quote:

Originally posted by ssdave:
$250 will get you a new barrel threaded,chambered and crowned to a quality better than the original Remington.
dave

Just curious, what quality barrel would that be for that price, installed?

Westpac,

I could do it with a Montana Rifleman barrel at the moment, in the past few months, I could have done a douglas or a shilen, but those barrels are used up.

I watch out for good deals on barrels, buy them when I can, and shelf them for when I need them. I'm guessing I could find a bargain 7mm barrel blank on the classifieds here or elsewhere about as fast as I could find a good takoff 7mm-08 barrel.

If you can get into the barrel for $150 or less, there's more than one decent smith that will do a simple remington rebarrel for $100 or $125. My premise is that a guy that is willing to put on a takeoff barrel, will probably be okay with a $100 thread/crown/chamber job.

You could just as easily pay $450 for the same job and same quality, or pay $750 or more for better quality and get a half inch better group at 100 yds. There's a lot of ground in between those numbers,also. There's a lot of room for different qualities, level of service, and desired rate of pay in the gunsmithing world. I've been amazed at how good a job some guys in low cost areas of the country will do for a reasonable price. Likewise, I've been amazed at how much some guys want for their work.

In a full retail setup, you'd pay about $200 to $300 for the barrel, and from $125 to $450 for the fitting without getting into high precision accuracy work. The $450 guy is feeding his family better, and probably doesn't have a day job.

You may not choose to do $250 supply and fit barrel jobs in your shop, and you probably have much more salable skills. I think that's great, no argument with that at all.

I also do not do that kind of work, I'm not licensed for it and don't have the interest. I work on stuff for myself for my own amusement. But, there are guys that are in that business, and generally they're glad to have the work. I've had a couple of them work for me, and been satisfied with the job.

dave

Seems to me the $250 new rebarrel as stated would be in the white.

I have a new 700 ADL matte CM 22" 7mm-08 take-off barrel with open sights if that would work for you. I bought a dozen or so 700 ADLs for for the actions, mostly youth guns with 20" 243 barrels, but I do have this barrel and a 700 BDL SS 24" 7mm-08 barrel that came on a used rifle that was also purchased for the action.

Jeff

quote:

It's only $125 or so more to do a custom barrel, in good quality.

This is a joke, right?

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Seems to me the $250 new rebarrel as stated would be in the white.

You're right, Paul, would have to final polish and blue. To me, that's my own labor polishing and $25 to $35 to the local shop to blue it if it's polished already. You might have a reblue on a takeoff barrel also, depending on the care that is taken in the removal and rework.


John, Not a joke, just careful shopping. If you want to experiment on your dollar, I'll sell you a nicely contoured barrel for $165, shipped to a shop that I specify that you ship a good (no receiver work required) remington or mauser receiver to. That shop will thread, chamber, crown and return it to you for a bit less than $100. Most places I know charge about $75 for a new takeoff barrel, and about $75 to retime lettering to correct position, rechamber and check a reinstalled takeoff barrel. My math says that's $265 - $150 = $115 more for the rebarrel over the takeoff barrel reinstall.

It doesn't have to be a 7mm-08. I've got .22, 6mm, 7mm, .30, .338, 9.3mm, and .416 barrels, my choice of twist, contour and stainless or Cro-moly, but you can state your preference and I'll do that if I have it. In the 30's and 22's, I have a good assortment of contours and twists, and most are SS. The larger calibers are usually heavy sporters and cro moly and in heavy for caliber twists.

If you're interested in experimenting on my dollar, I'll send him a barrel and action, and have him ship it to you finished. After you examine it, you ship it back to me. You'd be out the postage to satisfy your curiosity.

Either way, you critique the work. In all fairness to the fellow that will do the work, I ask you don't post his name in any critique, as he's not involved in this thread and hasn't made any representations in it.

Can everyone, in every case do it for this cost? No, but by careful shopping, it can be done occasionally. I know that I have at least 60 barrels that I'd do this with at the moment, and make a small profit in it.

dave

I have no doubt there are hobbyists who can and do this work well for little to no cost, but I do not know any gunsmith who makes ther living by doing this who can do the work for that price.

John,

No disrespect on your opinion, I pretty much agree with you on making a living at it, but there are guys that do this full time for that price. I'll PM you some info on two I know of that do.

I wouldn't do a thread/crown/chamber/stamp/testfire job for $100. Minimum time I'd have in by the time I logged in the order/action, did the work, logged the work back out, invoiced it, and packed to ship would be 4 hours. Falls below what it takes to keep a shop open and a family fed, by a large margin. Even paying clerical help to do the log in, shipping and invoicing would not keep the margin acceptable to me. Obviously, some people are faster or make less money than my target rate.

Back in the pre-internet days (early 1990's) there used to be a shop in Trinidad, CO that advertised in Shotgun News turning a barrel to contour, 400 grit polish, crowning, threading for mauser and short chamber for $40. I had them do one for me at that time, and it was an okay job. I couldn't believe they could do it for that, but they advertised for at least a couple of years.

I've had the under $100 shop do three projects for me in the past year, and they were all nice commercial work. And, turned around fast. Best of the best? No, but I'd expect to pay a lot more for that. I always check the chamber and headspace myself, and so far has been good.

dave

quote:

Originally posted by ssdave:
John,

No disrespect on your opinion, I pretty much agree with you on making a living at it, but there are guys that do this full time for that price. I'll PM you some info on two I know of that do.

I wouldn't do a thread/crown/chamber/stamp/testfire job for $100. Minimum time I'd have in by the time I logged in the order/action, did the work, logged the work back out, invoiced it, and packed to ship would be 4 hours. Falls below what it takes to keep a shop open and a family fed, by a large margin. Even paying clerical help to do the log in, shipping and invoicing would not keep the margin acceptable to me. Obviously, some people are faster or make less money than my target rate.

Back in the pre-internet days (early 1990's) there used to be a shop in Trinidad, CO that advertised in Shotgun News turning a barrel to contour, 400 grit polish, crowning, threading for mauser and short chamber for $40. I had them do one for me at that time, and it was an okay job. I couldn't believe they could do it for that, but they advertised for at least a couple of years.

I've had the under $100 shop do three projects for me in the past year, and they were all nice commercial work. And, turned around fast. Best of the best? No, but I'd expect to pay a lot more for that. I always check the chamber and headspace myself, and so far has been good.

dave

I love those $100 shops, I get sent quite a bit of work that they didn't get right the first time. Makes no sense to me to scrimp when having a good barrel installed.

quote:

Originally posted by z1r:
I love those $100 shops, I get sent quite a bit of work that they didn't get right the first time. Makes no sense to me to scrimp when having a good barrel installed.

Mike, I would recommend getting the best job you can afford, and the best barrel also. An accurate rifle is a lot more fun. Remember that I was comparing to a re-used takeoff barrel job contemplated by the original question.

You have more patience than I do if you love following up on badly done work. I did some reverse Bubba gunsmithing yesterday on a mauser. Bolt didn't close right and hung up, turns out he hadn't inletted the stock for the cocking piece, it was dragging, just at the point where the bolt also hit the back of the poorly ground follower where he'd tried to remove the empty magazine bolt stop feature.

Safety wouldn't go on. He had put in a Dayton Traistor low scope and not notched the cocking piece to fit. Not only that, but hadn't inletted deep enough for the bolt handle, so the safety wouldn't rotate anyway. Problem is he had hit the safety with a hammer trying to force it and bent the front slightly, and got a bur on the edge. Re-inlet the stock for the bolt handle, straighten and stone the front of the safety, add a shim washer to take out the slop in the fit, and notch the cocking piece for the safety to work right. Made an hour and a half job out of a 20 minute safety install if I'd started with new parts.

dave

quote:

Originally posted by ssdave:

$250 will get you a new barrel threaded,chambered and crowned to a quality better than the original Remington. dave

If I'm going to pay for putting on a new barrel then I start with a blank from a high quality barrel maker. I pay more than $250 for contoured barrel blanks.