Rem 700 .308 to 30BR, which direction?

[Dan877]

I have a stone stock 700 BDL in .308 with a sporter barrel, that I hardly ever shoot any more. After finding 6mmBR.com I've become very interested in the 30BR and think I'd like to give it a try just for fun paper punching and varmints. Would I likely be better off to have the .308 built into a 30BR,rebarrel, action work, new stock, new trigger) or just sell the rifle as is and buy a "ready to go" 30BR?

Thanks for any ideas
Dan

 

[savet06]

This is a very good question. Getting a 30br to be able to shoot to its potential would require a custom barrel, and action truing of your remy as well as pillar bedding. The rest of the equipment is a given,dies, powder, bullets, brass). Some of it really depends on how much you want to wring out of your rig.
if you can find a used rig,I have looked and 30brs are fairly rare on most lists) you may fair well, and it would potentially get you into a rig faster. Just may not have the components that you want.
I think that if you have the money to invest, a custom rig is the way to go in order to get the most out of your investment. You will end up spending close to if not equal to the amount needed to accurize your remy, but it will allow you to hand pick your parts and make sure the components are what you want.

So many choices!!
Mike

 

[Ogre6br]

If the sporter barrel has good life in it- why not-

I'm getting mine built on an ex- F class barrel and it will work fine.

I'm getting my neck cut at .334 so i only have to do a skim turn of the neck to take the neck/shoulder ridge out.

A cut and shut of the factory barrel wont be that expensive and it will enable you to test out the 30 BR concept and see if you like it or not..

mine being built as a short 308 hunting rifle for recoil reasons and it's just an inherantly accurate round like the 6BR is.

My 6BR cut and shut from a factory .243 is more accurate that I am in both live varmints and paper punching.

and thats with rough thrown loads of R10-x and 65 V-max

Dont sell a cut and shut short- or grab an adams and bennets barrel from Midway for under $100 and get your smith to install it and get a basic action true done- just to make sure everything is running to the same center lines.
$100 or so for the A&B and between 150-250 for the fitting and chambering- cheap fun for 5-8K of shooting- which is the expected barrel life of a 30 BR

later
P

 

[tootalloutdoors]

What is the definition of the wording, "cut and shut??"

Thanks, Kelly

 

[Dan877]

I didn't think the using the .308 Win. barrel would be worth the trouble of set back and re-chamber.

I haven't checked mine, but I'm under the impression that the .308 barrel is going to have around a 1-10 or 1-11 twist, and the 30BR is supposed to be best with a 1-17 or 1-18 twist. Also it's a 22" sporter weight, which in my mind seems a bit short and light for optimum performance, and of course it's a factory Remington barrel, not that it's bad, but just ordinary factory quality.

If I go with a short, average quality factory barrel with the wrong twist and wind up with a 30BR with mediocre accuracy will it have been worth the effort? I'm not ruling out the idea of set-back and rechamber, but genuinely asking would the factory .308 barrel be worth considering?

I guess I should have also thrown into the equation that I am capable of doing the stock & bedding work and trigger change myself, I would only have to farm out the action and barrel work.

 

[NeilNE]

I took a old 308 Hart barrel,1 in 12, and had it rechambered to 30 BR. I've had this barrel for 25 yr. and did not use it and had a bunch of 150 and up bullets. So tried it. Shot it last year and worked fine, not BR groups but not bad. Even tried some 110 V-Max and it shot those very well. Was getting group with variety of bullets form .2 to .5. It could not agg. this, but did OK for 5 shot groups. Hope to shot more with this gun this summer.

 

[tightneck]

I didn't think the using the .308 Win. barrel would be worth the trouble of set back and re-chamber.

I haven't checked mine, but I'm under the impression that the .308 barrel is going to have around a 1-10 or 1-11 twist, and the 30BR is supposed to be best with a 1-17 or 1-18 twist. Also it's a 22" sporter weight, which in my mind seems a bit short and light for optimum performance, and of course it's a factory Remington barrel, not that it's bad, but just ordinary factory quality.

If I go with a short, average quality factory barrel with the wrong twist and wind up with a 30BR with mediocre accuracy will it have been worth the effort? I'm not ruling out the idea of set-back and rechamber, but genuinely asking would the factory .308 barrel be worth considering?

I guess I should have also thrown into the equation that I am capable of doing the stock & bedding work and trigger change myself, I would only have to farm out the action and barrel work.

Dan, your thinking is right. I wouldn't rechamber a factory tube for anything except a fireform barrel...and if I had to pay for it, I wouldn't do that. Get yourself a good custom barrel with a 17 or 18 twist and build your 30BR. I'm coming to the conclusion that it may be the most fun and accurate 100-300 yard cartridge out there. Day in and day out, nothing performs as well as the short 30's without having to play with the tune a bunch.

 

[mrjdasr]

if the factory barrel can be taken off without damage, it could be saved for reinstalling at a later date. if you like the 30br, you can always put the factory barrel back on the junkington action and sell it to finance a good custom action. i think stiller makes a remington clone with the same barrel threads, so you could use your 30br barrel on it along with any other after market stuff you accumulate
warning this stuff becomes addictive and pricey in a hurry