Is this barrel worth rechambering?

[msinc]

This is a tough call...I would probably give it a try, I have my own lathe and can do it myself though. If someone thought enough of the barrel to put 700 rounds thru it, then it surely must shoot. I mean, who is going to put that many rounds downrange out of a barrel that's spraying bullets, especially in competition??? To ask it another way...how long did the last non-shooting barrel stay on an action at your house??? About three days at mine!!!!
On the other hand...if you gotta pay for every aspect of this swap I might be thinking brand new too. Still, brand new is no guarantee it will shoot any better. I think I would flip a coin...how lucky do you feel???

 

[MGYSGT]

700 rounds is nothing. Set it back. Rechamber and Crown. Just make sure there is enough shoulder on the chamber end to do the job.

 

[222 rem]

worth it if you do the work yourself in time you wouldn't normally be charging others for. Not even remotely worth it if you have to pay a gunsmith do do it. --Jerry

+1

 

[varget204]

Depends on cost,you should bore scope it, [if you don't have one ask friends if they do]. to see what throat looks like,If it looks good you could cut 1-2" off ,make sure crown is freshened up; faced off.010-.015.A lot of good barrels shoot as good.You can buy Lyman Digital Bore Cam,look at,take pictures of it w/ SD card.If ya get it threw Wal Mart,and are poor,Take it back for Refund If in New Looking Condition-lol

 

[tobnpr]

Two questions...
Barrel contour? You're planning to cut off the cylinder- is the contour heavy enough to cut a chamber into the "new" end of the barrel?

Barrel "life"... it has always been my understanding that barrel "life" as we talk about it is really throat erosion- not wear to the rifling until you get into many thousands of rounds. Otherwise, how could one get 8,000-10,000 rounds of .308 vs. a mere fraction of that for some .30 cal magnums? Once you take the extreme heat out of the equation, it's a different evaluation IMO.

I would give it a go- at least as far as having the smith borescope it to determine that the lands have plenty of life left. After setting back (assuming you can), it's a Krieger with what should be minimal wear to the rifling.

 

[JohnD]

FWIW,I had a 30” barrel that had about 1100 rounds down the tube when accuracy started to fade. It was a laser up to about 900-1000 rounds. Had 5” cut off on chamber end,rechamberd to a much lesser cartridge and accuracy came back very good tho not as good as new. YMMV

John

 

[AckleymanII]

If your gunsmith can bore scope and gauge barrel wear, you may come out pretty good. Some barrels, depending on powder used and shooting strings, may have serious erosion for 8".

Most quality barrels have uniform dia, so if you can locate that new throat in a dia that is the same as the muzzle, you have an excellent chance of getting a good shooting barrel.

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This Hart barrel was chambered in 223 AI, and the .2186 number is the dia at the muzzle determined by pilot bushing sizes.

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Here you can see how the throat wore, and I have located where the new throat will be

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How much to cut off

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This is a colony shooting barrel. I bought a 40x used in 223 with the owner saying he had 800 rounds on the barrel. Barrel was pristine when I bought it used. I cut off the threads, re chambered to 223 AI, and I wiped the throat out in 1200 rounds with 50g noslers and a hot load of N133.

After I set the barrel back, it still shot in the 2's.

Barrel set backs are a quagmire of problems for the machinist doing the work. In the very least, you need to cut off as much of the old chamber as you can, as you don't know how crooked the first chamber was reamed...never assume anything. If your new chamber is somewhere between .003-.006 out of alignment, you are screwed when it comes to bullet alignment(getting the bullet started straight in the bore), and tuning a load will be fickle issue to deal with. I have played with this in known, accurate, low round count to new barrels. Anything over .003 in run out, you waste a lot of money on components trying to find the tune for the barrel, with the tune window being very narrow.

So, a set back is a lot more work for the gunsmith, IF he does his due diligence. Also, with the 2.7" interapid indicator, you can certainly pick up land height wear from cleaning rod, even though bore dia wear with reamer pilots has been established.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Wonder what choice he made?
F class is very hard on barrels. They shoot them 3-4x more rounds between cleaning than id like to see.

 

[msalm]

I used to buy every shot out 30” 6.5 barrel I could find and make 20-22” 6.5 Grendel AR barrels out of them. They all shot incredibly well. This was most 6.5-284’s. Might be apples to oranges but these looked toasted. Cut 5+” off the breech and rechamber and they all looked like new at the throat.

$50 krieger barrels, it was worth it to me!

 

[TAJ45]

What state you in ?

 

[msalm]

WI, and if you’re wondering, I never put a used tube on claiming it was new. They were for friends that wanted a cheaper bbl but these did shoot every bit as well as a new bbl.

 

[Link]

Does a rechamber job ever shoot better than the original chamber / barrel? It seems it would if the first chamber was junk, or do you never get a junk chamber from a good smith? The op is a good one, $300 for a barrel and $300 for a chamber job. Save 50% or a waste of money? Great question. I have struggled with this myself and still don't know.

 

[338 dude]

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen.

I don't have a borescope, so that is out of the question. As for the cost of it, by the time it is fitted it would owe me about half what a new barrel would.

I guess what I am wondering is if there is any reason that rechambering the barrel that is probably only halfway through its accurate life and taking a few inches off won't result in an accurate rifle? A diminished barrel life I can live with, a bad shooting barrel I cannot.

Thanks again

It is better to spend twice as much on a new barrel then half as much on something you will not be happy with for a very long if at all

 

[338 dude]

If your gunsmith can bore scope and gauge barrel wear, you may come out pretty good. Some barrels, depending on powder used and shooting strings, may have serious erosion for 8".

Most quality barrels have uniform dia, so if you can locate that new throat in a dia that is the same as the muzzle, you have an excellent chance of getting a good shooting barrel.

[/URL]

[/URL]

This Hart barrel was chambered in 223 AI, and the .2186 number is the dia at the muzzle determined by pilot bushing sizes.

[/URL]

Here you can see how the throat wore, and I have located where the new throat will be

[/URL]

How much to cut off

[/URL]

This is a colony shooting barrel. I bought a 40x used in 223 with the owner saying he had 800 rounds on the barrel. Barrel was pristine when I bought it used. I cut of the threads, re chambered to 223 AI, and I wiped the throat out in 1200 rounds with 50g noslers and a hot load of N133.

After I set the barrel back, it still shot in the 2's.

Barrel set backs are a quagmire of problems for the machinist doing the work. In the very least, you need to cut off as much of the old chamber as you can, as you don't know just how crooked the first chamber was reamed...never assume anything. If your new chamber is somewhere between .003-.006 out of alignment, you are screwed bullet alignment(getting the bullet started straight in the bore), and tuning a load will be fickle issue to deal with. I have played with this in known accurate low round count to new barrels. Anything over .003 in run out, you waste a lot of money on components trying to find the tune for the barrel, with the tune window being very narrow.

So, a set back is a lot more work for the gunsmith, IF he does his due diligence. Also, with the 2.7" interapid indicator, you can certainly pick up land height wear from cleaning rod, even though bore dia wear with reamer pilots has been established.

I have never seen what you’re saying illustrated so clearly it looks like you do awesome work sir and I am very impressed