drop in Savage barrel choice

[favload]

I may be looking to upgrade my LRPV barrel to a pre-fit drop in from SSS or McGowen,or some other). I would love some feedback on which barrel maker to go through and what types of tools I would absolutely need to do the job. I know SSS says they use Douglas blanks but I'm not sure how they compare to some others. I am thinking on going with a 24" 1:8 6mmBR. I have a 26" 1:12 factory barrel now and want to be able to take advantage of factory Lapua 90 and 105gr ammo. Not to mention better accuracy. A quick overview of the process would also be great.
thanks

 

[memilanuk]

I think they all work well enough to get you on the road.

Here are a couple pics from a 10FP, trued & timed by SSS w/ an SSS barrel,27" 6mm BR, .272 no-turn neck, 1-8" tw). The 'bigger' one is a little more 'typical', but there were plenty of ones like the small one that came out of that tube as well. I bought it as a take-off from someone who 'just had too many 6mm-whatevers in the safe'.

As far as hardware... barrel nut wrench, barrel vise w/ blocks,or some oak blocks and a stout metal workbench vise), and a set of GO/NO-GO gauges.

 

[favload]

That looks good!
here is my project gun! LRPV 6mmBR in an H-S precision stock, Bushnell 6500 4.5-30x, Buris extreme tac. rings on a Millet pic. base.

 

[OldPhil]

I have used a barrel vise a lot. It is a little hard to get the factory barrel loose with it. The factory gorilla is strong. I recently bought an action wrench from Sinclair. It goes into the bolt raceway and you put a wrench on the back of it. Much easier to hold onto. Then you use the standard barrel nut wrench. Made my life easier.
For barrels, Pac-nor, McGowan, and Shilen offer prefits. I have a McGowan ordered. I have a Shilen and a Pac-nor and have gotten good product from both of them. Smooth, fit good, clean up easy. Much smoother than Savage factory barrels. I use a bore scope. It will really open your eyes.

 

[JCummings]

I put a prechambered Shilen 6BR barrel from Midway on my 22-250 12LPV. Barrel shoots great, doesn't copper foul, and was one of the easiest to work up a load for I own.

 

[RJinTexas]

milanuk,
Please explain why you subtracted 0.206 from your oal group size instead of 0.243?

Thanks
RJ

 

[memilanuk]

Ever measured the diameter of a single bullet hole in a piece of target paper?

The thin stuff,like those Outers/Redfield targets) tends to stretch quite a bit as the bullet goes through. The holes are almost never the same as actual caliber size. Also, its very often not possible to get a good read on the edge of the hole. This is especially apparent if you happen to scan a target into special software like On Target - the caliber 'holes' you put over the bullet holes in the image are almost always noticeably bigger than the physical holes in the paper.

The thicker paper,almost card stock) you see used in formal targets used for sanctioned competitions leaves a relatively crisp edged hole, which also happens to be closer to caliber size,but still not quite).

In the first group, if I took .395" - .243" = .152" then the group would be unrealistically small. Hence, I took the actual size of a single bullet hole,elsewhere on the paper) to find the real group size.

If a person wanted to get *really* picky about it, apparently the BR crowd has specialized tools for magnifying and measuring the group sizes.

 

[BoydAllen]

Perfect answer