I bought my Remington 700 SPS Tactical 308 a couple years ago just to punch paper and it shot pretty good. Then a friend of mine got tired of shooting his stainless 308 5R Remington and rebarreled it to 6.5x47 Lapua, so I bought his barrel and the Lapua brass that came with it. Shot it for a year or so and could keep it in 3 inches at 500 yds. with the Berger 168 gr. Hybrids.
A while back a gentleman posted a 1.450 Dia. 28.5 in. long Krieger barrel in 300 WSM with 300 rds. down the tube and didn't seem to have any takers, ( not really knowing what I would do with it, but a barrel that big from Krieger costs 450 Bucks ) so I got it for 130 bucks. I had it bore scoped and the guy said it looked great inside, just some copper and powder residue, no fire cracking, so all I had to do was cut off the 300 WSM chamber.
I thought I would try shooting some F class so I did a lot of reading and decided to use a PTG 308 95 Palma reamer and stick it on my action.
I put it in the lathe and turned the chamber end to 1.250 Dia. and then turned it around and put it between centers and offset the tailstock to get the muzzle down to 1.100 Dia. Never having to do something like that before I kept getting chatter after getting about 4 inches into the cut. I tried all sorts of different carbide inserts, even grinding different tips and profiles on them. I finally switched to a tool steel bit and had a lot better success. After 2 passes, which would take 15 min a pass, I would take the barrel out and cool it with water and regrind the tool bit. I was going .010 deep and .004 a rev. So to malke a long story short it took me over 7 hours to get it finished.
I then made a muzzle brake ( just like one of the most effective brakes going ) and installed it ( I know brakes aren't allowed in F class competition, but where I shoot the Gentleman that runs it says just bring what you have and come out and have a good time. I like to just punch paper a lot so the brake makes it kick like a 223. I am going to make a sleeve to cover it if I decide to compete some where else. ) and then threaded and chambered it. The chambering went fairly easy at first but once I got about halfway it got really hard, only taking .010 and then cleaning and relubing like the Vipers video showed. I don't know if it was because the barrel was used, but I heard a KEEK at about .250 left to chamber and then found out I had cracked 3 flutes on the reamer just at the shoulder junction. So I took it out of the floating reamer holder and got the tapping handle and tried it by hand. I would turn the handle and push and after 10 turns I took it out and cleaned the chips and after doing that 3 times I would measure my progress and it would be between .007 and .010 SO 2.5 hours later the bolt closed on my gauge.
I took the barrel to a place here in Phoenix that does Melonite, just like MMI Tru tech ( salt bath nitriding, supposed to double barrel life ) and it was finished the next day, it had a nice satin black finish that felt really smoth and hard. It took an hour to clean it out really good with some JB and then some Bore tech.
I installed it and threw some Varget in some cases and off to the range. Testing at 300 yds with the Berger 168 Hybrids 43 grs of Varget shot the best, 2 groups of 3 shots each right at 1/2 inch.
I loaded up some more and sighted in at 500 because in 2 days I wanted to shoot the F class match.
This was only the second time I had shot F/TR and the first time with my new build and I shot a 570-15X out of 600 at 500 yds. and my last 7 shots were 6 x's and a 10.
So my end Results were well worth all the problems along the way. ;D
My rifle with scope and rings weighs 15lbs 14ozs and my bipod weighs 1lb 7ozs.
Here are a couple pics.
Tarey
Fitting the barrel in the Bobby Hart LRT stock and Devcon bedding including 6 in. of the barrel which is straight 1.250.
Barrel before Melonite next to the factory 5R barrel
Barrel after Melonite
The bore is a little dirty from the salt bath.
This is what it took to clean it
This is the finished project.
Rem. 700 Faced and lugs trued, firing pin bushed and turned to .060, EGW 20 MOA base, Burris Black Diamond 6x-24x and Burris XTR rings. Shilen 2 oz benchrest trigger, Bobby Hart LRT stock. Bipod made by me and I have some to sell, will try to post some pics tomorrow. That is my 6.5 WSM that I built in the backround with the stainless barrel.
And that is me at the match.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long but I told it like I would tell it to one of my friends, which everybody here seems to be.
A while back a gentleman posted a 1.450 Dia. 28.5 in. long Krieger barrel in 300 WSM with 300 rds. down the tube and didn't seem to have any takers, ( not really knowing what I would do with it, but a barrel that big from Krieger costs 450 Bucks ) so I got it for 130 bucks. I had it bore scoped and the guy said it looked great inside, just some copper and powder residue, no fire cracking, so all I had to do was cut off the 300 WSM chamber.
I thought I would try shooting some F class so I did a lot of reading and decided to use a PTG 308 95 Palma reamer and stick it on my action.
I put it in the lathe and turned the chamber end to 1.250 Dia. and then turned it around and put it between centers and offset the tailstock to get the muzzle down to 1.100 Dia. Never having to do something like that before I kept getting chatter after getting about 4 inches into the cut. I tried all sorts of different carbide inserts, even grinding different tips and profiles on them. I finally switched to a tool steel bit and had a lot better success. After 2 passes, which would take 15 min a pass, I would take the barrel out and cool it with water and regrind the tool bit. I was going .010 deep and .004 a rev. So to malke a long story short it took me over 7 hours to get it finished.
I then made a muzzle brake ( just like one of the most effective brakes going ) and installed it ( I know brakes aren't allowed in F class competition, but where I shoot the Gentleman that runs it says just bring what you have and come out and have a good time. I like to just punch paper a lot so the brake makes it kick like a 223. I am going to make a sleeve to cover it if I decide to compete some where else. ) and then threaded and chambered it. The chambering went fairly easy at first but once I got about halfway it got really hard, only taking .010 and then cleaning and relubing like the Vipers video showed. I don't know if it was because the barrel was used, but I heard a KEEK at about .250 left to chamber and then found out I had cracked 3 flutes on the reamer just at the shoulder junction. So I took it out of the floating reamer holder and got the tapping handle and tried it by hand. I would turn the handle and push and after 10 turns I took it out and cleaned the chips and after doing that 3 times I would measure my progress and it would be between .007 and .010 SO 2.5 hours later the bolt closed on my gauge.
I took the barrel to a place here in Phoenix that does Melonite, just like MMI Tru tech ( salt bath nitriding, supposed to double barrel life ) and it was finished the next day, it had a nice satin black finish that felt really smoth and hard. It took an hour to clean it out really good with some JB and then some Bore tech.
I installed it and threw some Varget in some cases and off to the range. Testing at 300 yds with the Berger 168 Hybrids 43 grs of Varget shot the best, 2 groups of 3 shots each right at 1/2 inch.
I loaded up some more and sighted in at 500 because in 2 days I wanted to shoot the F class match.
This was only the second time I had shot F/TR and the first time with my new build and I shot a 570-15X out of 600 at 500 yds. and my last 7 shots were 6 x's and a 10.
So my end Results were well worth all the problems along the way. ;D
My rifle with scope and rings weighs 15lbs 14ozs and my bipod weighs 1lb 7ozs.
Here are a couple pics.
Tarey
Fitting the barrel in the Bobby Hart LRT stock and Devcon bedding including 6 in. of the barrel which is straight 1.250.
Barrel before Melonite next to the factory 5R barrel
Barrel after Melonite
The bore is a little dirty from the salt bath.
This is what it took to clean it
This is the finished project.
Rem. 700 Faced and lugs trued, firing pin bushed and turned to .060, EGW 20 MOA base, Burris Black Diamond 6x-24x and Burris XTR rings. Shilen 2 oz benchrest trigger, Bobby Hart LRT stock. Bipod made by me and I have some to sell, will try to post some pics tomorrow. That is my 6.5 WSM that I built in the backround with the stainless barrel.
And that is me at the match.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long but I told it like I would tell it to one of my friends, which everybody here seems to be.
If you would just READ the post, I EXPLAINED Everything. I said muzzle brakes aren't allowed in F/TR Class but since I just PUNCH PAPER a lot that I like it because it kicks like a 223. I could remove the brake if I get serious at competing in F class. And if I did make a sleeve to go over the brake it would completely cover the brake and not let any gasses out, it would not turn it into a supressor. Browing make a brake that was adjustable and you could turn it so it was completely closed, it wasn't concidered a supressor. And pertaining to my truck axle as a barrel, most guys that I know that shoot want their barrel as stiff as possible so heat doesn't change POI. My barrel if you READ the first post is 1.250 Dia at the action as are all Remington barrels, it tapers to 1.100 at the muzzle. My barrel is 27 in long and 2 in of that is the brake. That is why it looks fatter.
