What difficulties might I run into with rebarreling a M700 Rem using a factory new takeoff barrel. Caliber will not change.

Thanks

Jim

Small possibility that the headspace might be off. Invest in a NO-GO gauge and, after wrenching the barrel up tight, see if it will close on a cartridge and then check to see that the bolt will only close about half-way down on the gauge (or, at the very least, have really firm feel if it closes completely). Otherwise, have a smith with a lathe fit it for you. If this is a belted magnum, get the GO gauge and use it like a NO-GO. The factories chamber belted mags with built in excessive headspace, IMHO.

jesilva

There COULD be many problems. Headspace, tenon length, bolt recess, alignment, just to mention the 4 most often encountered. If you do your own fitting, takeoff barrels are a big moneysaver and let you do a lot of experimenting with different cartridges. However, if you have to pay somebody to do it, it could cost more than the price of a new barrel. The problem is you won't know until you screw the barrel on. If you can try the barrel before buying it (and have a way to try it on your action) it would certainly save you a lot of possible grief.

Ray

Had a Ruger 77 Liberty Model that I "rescued" from someone who was hurting for bucks. Shot it a couple of years and accuracy kept falling off from .75" at 100 yds, even though I kept chasing the lands with bullet seating depth. Found a new factory takeoff and for $40 for the barrel plus $70 for my 'smith to install it, got a gun that now shoots under .75 all the time. Consider the cost of a Kreiger, Shilen, or Hart barrel, and I'd say it was a bargain.

9 times out of 10 the barrel will screw right on and headspace will be spot on.

Tennon length? I'd probably got 10-12rem barrels in my "collection" and the tennon length doesn't vary enough between them for me to see it with a dial caliper.

Counterbore diameter? Ditto.

Where you WILL run into an issue is how the barrel "clocks" relative to the receiver.

Remington barrels are fitted to thereceivers BEFORE the roll marking is done and the sight holes are drilled.

My "working" rifle, an Older ADL on it's third or fourth barrel (I've lost count) currently wears a takeoff barrel that didn't clock right
the front&Rear sight plug screws point to 8 O'clock...

Rifle has been shooting fine for 10 years though putting iron on it is not gonna happen....

The new (stainless) 24" barrel for that rifle is leaning against the desk as I type.
That barrel I'll actually bother to turn the tennon shoulder to get the barrel to "clock"
correctly, though that barrel isn't drilled for iron anyway.

from a practial perspective, it can be, and m ost of the time is, more work for the smith to install you a take off barrel.. you've got a 50/50 chance that it will be timed too early, which is an easy fix to make match and match the stock.. and too late, which means you will have the stock showing a gap.
j

Jeffe,

I think most people who are looking at swapping on "Take off" barrels are looking to do things "on the cheep"
and have a "If it works then who gives a sh!t" attitude...
(there's a reason there are so many 336W's bouncing around behind the seats of pickup trucks)

I think if the guy wanted perfect wood to metal fit he wouldn't be asking about installing a takeoff barrel in the first place.

In my case it was a working gun that needed to shoot.
It's like worrying about having a matching spare tire (on a matching rim) for a car that's being entered into a figuire-8
demolition derby.

BTW, when you have a remington barrel "loose"
that RIM around the breech face bolt counterbore is supposed to be exactly level with the back of a "GO" headspace guage.

Basically the design of the Remington 700 is such that the barrels can be properly headspaced while loose and simply screwed into the actions then rechecked to verify a lack of "tolerance stack up".
This eliminates (in actual practice) the need for "finish chambering" when the rifles are assembled.

Also in the Rem700 ALL factory calibers from 221fireball
to 416Rem use the same diameter counterbore

Of course on my ONE custom rifle the gunsmith who built it decided to shrink slightly the diameter of the counterbore to create a tighter fit between the counterbore and the bolt head... but custom rifles on factlry actions are another discussion....

swapping a takeoff barrel onto an exsisting rifle is more like throwing a junkyard fender onto your beater car
because the dented fender made it difficult to open and close the door (who even cares what color that "new" fender is?)

AllanD