I'm considering a Remage barrel, what do I need to know

[jepp2]

I have a Remington 700 SA 308 BF I am considering converting to the Remage barrel. From some searching, I find Criterion barrels at Northland Shooters Supple, or McGowen prefit barrel.

I would intend for my smith to remove my factory barrel and I would install the remage barrel.

What can go wrong?

Of the two options I have listed, is one preferred? Any better options available?

Any other guidance to keep me out of trouble?

 

[Prose]

You won't save any money installing yourself if you already have him pulling it off, in fact, it'll only be in the press once which will save possible wear and tear or scratches. Also, the smith will have a go/no go gauge and that will save you 80 bucks to verify.

 

[jds holler]

My local guy was gonna charge me ten US dollars to remove my factory barrel. I had to force a 20 on him. I'd recommend having a pro do that chore, and make sure he's done Rem factory barrels before.

From that point on, I did everything myself, and got lucky with finding a wrench, and go/no go gauges. ((Ebay) With 308 you should be able to borrow head-space gauges pretty easy. There are plenty of guys who never use them I think, opting for a new brass. If I ever planed to shoot factory ammo, I'd use gauges.

My barrel came from PacNor, and I love it. The rifle I did was small bolt face, (222) and I've got a 40x large bolt face rifle I'm probably gonna do Remage barrel on someday, just don't know what yet. Did I say that I LOVE my PacNor barrel?? It wasn't cheap, but I learned a little lesson about buying rifle barrels. Don't scrimp! jd

 

[hoz53]

I have a Remington 700 SA 308 BF I am considering converting to the Remage barrel. From some searching, I find Criterion barrels at Northland Shooters Supple, or McGowen prefit barrel.

I would intend for my smith to remove my factory barrel and I would install the remage barrel.

What can go wrong?

Of the two options I have listed, is one preferred? Any better options available?

Any other guidance to keep me out of trouble?

I would also use an aftermarket recoil lug that’s nice and flat with parallel faces. I’d also lap the lugs. One thing that could go wrong is you wouldn’t have enough or Mabie have to much FB depending on what you want. Ask where you buy about this.
Remove the cocking piece,ejector and extractor when you set the headspace.

 

[1911nut]

You’ll need a barrel nut wrench and either an action wrench or a barrel vice and go and no-go gauges.

PacNor will do a RemAge barrel and will throat to dummies.

I’ve done 3 Shilen Savage prefits and they worked out very well.

 

[dsculley]

If you let the smith spin the new barrel on you will miss the fun & experience of doing it yourself. Since you are going prefit, you may as well buy the tools you need (Barrel nut wrench & action vise) because you will be using them again.

Setting headspace is not hard, just takes a bit of touch. You can get the go/no go gauges or use a piece of brass. It is your rifle, set the headspace the way you want it. I use new brass to set the headspace. This allows for ~ 0.002" of growth in fireformed brass, which is also how much I try to size the brass when loading, therefore I am setting used brass back to new brass specs. New brass shoots the same as fireformed brass.

 

[Fast14riot]

I recommend getting a barrel nut from pac-nor (pac-nut), far better looking than any of the short savage type nuts. Also, it may not fit back into your original stock.

 

[DennisH]

I have used both!

I dialed in loads for both with no problem. I have probably dialed in 50 or so 308 "Pre-Fit" barrels, and I have never failed getting one to shoot 1/2 MOA @ 100 yards. NOTE: Trigger Time is your best asset. Wind reading past 400 yards is second, JMO.

"HeadSpace' is critical, make sure it's perfect before firing. When removing your extractor & ejector, do it inside of a clear 1 gallon plastic baggie.

"MY PROCESS", I always take 3 cases with "PRIMERS" only and test fire them (NO powder or bullets installed). I inspect and measure the firing pin penetration into the primer. Clean barrel before firing a live round after this test. 99.%% of the time, there is a load/settings that will drill nails with your new barrel. I have ran into 3 that I could not dial in, and there was a problem with the barrel on all 3 of these.

 

[NZ_Fclass]

I have done several barrels using brass as a gauge. Since screwing one up, I always fill new, sized, brass with epoxy to stop any crushing when the bolt is closed.

Recently bought my first Criterion blank. Love it. 6brx that shoots in the .4's - and I haven't quite got the load right yet.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

Did I not see something about the Recoil lug has to be "pinned" to the received to keep aligned when tighten the nut

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Did I not see something about the Recoil lug has to be "pinned" to the received to keep aligned when tighten the nut

Or use the jig to keep it aligned

 

[jepp2]

Just to end the story. I decided to sell the used action I had, so that saved me work of removing a Rem factory barrel. I had gotten a 6mm CM built using a Kelbly Atlas Tactical action and a Krieger 8T barrel. Then I picked up a new trued Rem SS action. I wanted to compare the accuracy from a shouldered barrel to a prefit. So I went with another Krieger 8T with a bug nut.

I bought my action wrench from Northland and picked up the recoil lug from them as well. So I got their taper bushing to hold the recoil lug in place when tightening the bug nut. I set the headspace exactly the same as my shouldered barrel, just to see if I could. I scratched my head from just a bit until I came to realize my shouldered barrel had a 0.278" neck and my prefit had a 0.275" neck. Took me a couple of tries to get the head space where I wanted it.

Overall I like the finished appearance of the rifle, and while my load development isn't complete (is it ever?), the prefit on the Rem action seems to mirror the performance of the Kelbly.