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Barrel profile for range 308

jlorenzo

I am going to rebarrel my Howa 1500, I want a 22" barrel. Looking at a Bartlien heavy varmint. I want a lot of weight to soak up the recoil, the factory barrel is 1.17" at the shank and .850" at the muzzle. In a 3.5# Bell and Carlson, the gun bucks pretty hard (not braked either).
This gun will be for range fun off a bench or bipod. Won't be shooting much past 7-800y or using it in comps so I'm not worried about getting max velocity with a 308. Its a 308 after all. I will be putting together a 6.5 for more competitive long range work.

Anyone ever cut a Bartlien heavy varmint around 22"? I worry the barrel will be thicker than most muzzle devices right before the threads.

Any other thoughts?
 
A Bartlein Sendero Remington Varmint would be almost an exact copy of what you have now .850" at the muzzle 22" I have in 308 9 twist. I run 200 SMK .715 BC in it 2740 fps...
The M24 28" is .915" at the muzzle with an Area 419 match brake...it would be .970" at 22".
The 30" heavy plama 308 is .906" at the muzzle next to the brake.
So no problem fitting muzzle brake to heavy barrels...all depends on how much you want to spend, and how much noise ya want to put up with.
For Bench work I'd choose the Area 419 bench rest brake, it has left hand thread detachable by hand at anytime with a taper adapter easily taken on and off for cleaning...and it works good at reducing recoil with out the backwards vents that blow your hat off, and clean the neighbors shooting bench.
 
Do a full bull barrel. Weight here is a good thing. And skip the muzzle brake so you won’t be so obnoxious to yourself and others. 308 isn’t so stiff that a good bit of weight won’t be sufficient.

A bull barrel will get you closer to 4# or more in just the barrel. Get that rifle closer to 15# and the recoil of full power 308 even with heavy bullets will be plenty tolerable all day. (I’m recoil sensitive and find this to be true for me).

For a mostly bench gun, there’s essentially no downside to more weight. And a longer barrel gets the muzzle blast farther from you AND has less pressure when it does uncork. Both make the shooting much more comfortable.

IMO, a bench gun means the heaviest and longest barrel I can actually manage on the gun. It just makes the shooting so much more enjoyable.
 
"the gun bucks pretty hard"

Why continue to punish yourself? Since you are doing a new barrel it would be just as easy to chamber it for something pleasant to shoot. Bullets would be less expensive also. There are several 6.5 and 6mm cartridges that are ballistically superior to the 308 and fun to shoot. You could use 308 brass to make 6.5-08/260 Rem. Dies are easy to get, they are a standard order from several manufacturers.
 
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SteveOak said:
"the gun bucks pretty hard"

Why continue to punish yourself? Since you are doing a new barrel it would be just as easy to chamber it for something pleasant to shoot. Bullets would be less expensive also. There are several 6.5 and 6mm cartridges that are ballistically superior to the 308 and fun to shoot. You could use 308 brass to make 6.5-08/260 Rem. Dies are easy to get, they are a standard order from several manufacturers.
Click to expand...
I'm building another 6.5 soon. I have a ton of .308 components and ammo.
 
Here's a HV cut to 22". A R700 long action I had sitting around without a purpose. Now it's a 6.5CM hog gun.

Obviously with the can it looks much longer, but at 22" with a brake it balances really well. I use the Area 419 system due to it's compatibility with my cans and brakes.

I also had a 18" 308 barrel cut off my FTR reamer spun up for this same rifle. If the 22" 6.5 CM barrel didn't shoot lights out, I'd probably screw that on to save some length with the can on.

1677560505219.png
 
MikeMcCasland said:
Here's a HV cut to 22". A R700 long action I had sitting around without a purpose. Now it's a 6.5CM hog gun.

Obviously with the can it looks much longer, but at 22" with a brake it balances really well. I use the Area 419 system due to it's compatibility with my cans and brakes.

I also had a 18" 308 barrel cut off my FTR reamer spun up for this same rifle. If the 22" 6.5 CM barrel didn't shoot lights out, I'd probably screw that on to save some length with the can on.

View attachment 1416053
Click to expand...
Sweet thanks a bunch for the pics, makes a big difference to be able to see the profile at the length I want.
My stocks barrel channel in front of the action is 1.35 wide where the barrel channel starts after the recoil lug and .95" at the end of the forend. Do you think that would be enough clearance for a 22" HV?
What does your gun weigh?
 
I would question how much a modestly heavier barrel contour is actually going to reduce felt recoil. Certainly the effect would not be zero, but would it really be enough to make a noticeable difference?

I shot nothing but .223 Rem rifles with commercial ammunition for years before I purchased my first .308 Win bolt rifle. The .308 Win I purchased was a DTA SRTS Covert that was fairly lightweight with a really short 16" barrel and a stupidly hard plastic butt plate. The first tine I shot it, it felt like I'd been hit by a truck. The felt recoil was actually quite shocking to someone used to shooting a .223 Rem. Nonetheless, within a couple weeks, I was shooting it regularly with no issues at all. To a certain extent, your body will adjust to the heavy recoil faster than you might think if you continue to shoot the rifle regularly.

Have you considered working up a load with 155 gr bullets? Even if you decide to go with the heavier barrel, it might not be a bad idea if you're recoil-sensitive. 155s can be loaded with excellent precision and although they might exhibit a bit more wind deflection at 700-800 yd than a much heavier bullet might, the difference shouldn't be a complete deal breaker.
 
MikeMcCasland said:
Here's a HV cut to 22". A R700 long action I had sitting around without a purpose. Now it's a 6.5CM hog gun.

Obviously with the can it looks much longer, but at 22" with a brake it balances really well. I use the Area 419 system due to it's compatibility with my cans and brakes.

I also had a 18" 308 barrel cut off my FTR reamer spun up for this same rifle. If the 22" 6.5 CM barrel didn't shoot lights out, I'd probably screw that on to save some length with the can on.

View attachment 1416053
Click to expand...
Thumbs up for the gun and the Shiner Bock. Both are good. Jeff
 
If you don’t plan on carrying the rifle hunting, a HV is a good choice. It will additionally help with cooling the barrel. As for longer barrels just match your powder burn rate as close as you are able to the barrel length.
 
Ned Ludd said:
I would question how much a modestly heavier barrel contour is actually going to reduce felt recoil. Certainly the effect would not be zero, but would it really be enough to make a noticeable difference?

I shot nothing but .223 Rem rifles with commercial ammunition for years before I purchased my first .308 Win bolt rifle. The .308 Win I purchased was a DTA SRTS Covert that was fairly lightweight with a really short 16" barrel and a stupidly hard plastic butt plate. The first tine I shot it, it felt like I'd been hit by a truck. The felt recoil was actually quite shocking to someone used to shooting a .223 Rem. Nonetheless, within a couple weeks, I was shooting it regularly with no issues at all. To a certain extent, your body will adjust to the heavy recoil faster than you might think if you continue to shoot the rifle regularly.

Have you considered working up a load with 155 gr bullets? Even if you decide to go with the heavier barrel, it might not be a bad idea if you're recoil-sensitive. 155s can be loaded with excellent precision and although they might exhibit a bit more wind deflection at 700-800 yd than a much heavier bullet might, the difference shouldn't be a complete deal breaker.
Click to expand...
I shoot 155s almost exclusively. This isn't my only gun, I am keeping at least one bolt gun in 308 for as long as I'm alive. The factory barrel has a few thousand rounds on it at least.
 
jlorenzo said:
Sweet thanks a bunch for the pics, makes a big difference to be able to see the profile at the length I want.
My stocks barrel channel in front of the action is 1.35 wide where the barrel channel starts after the recoil lug and .95" at the end of the forend. Do you think that would be enough clearance for a 22" HV?
What does your gun weigh?
Click to expand...

You're going to need to open that barrel channel up for a HV.

Obviously this is stock dependent, but my A5 has a 1.35" channel all the way down. Where the barrel exits the stock at the fore-end, the barrel OD is right around ~1.120".
 
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