Building a bolt gun?

[LoonWulf]

Much like @Legionnaire, I really LIKE doing the work myself.
For me the barrel nut wrench, and guages are the only tools I bought. When I've done short chamber barrels I've rented a the reamer guages and T-handle.
Cost per swap either way is between 20-50 bucks.
I'm actually very comfortable reaming a short chamber, but the first couple times was a little nerve racking (I practiced on some take of barrels before hand).

I haven't screwed up a job with my limited tooling, but for any premium work, I wouldn't be using a nut, and I'd have it outsourced.
Outsourcing would cost me an extra 100+ in shipping, but compared to the cost of a premium barrel/action combo that's minimal.

I also agree that it really depends on what your looking for. Nothing I've done has NEEDED to be better than your average Sporter, tho I've gotten lucky on all of them.

 

[Nature Boy]

I’d rewrite this a little:

If you’re shooting out barrels to the point of replacement, you’re spending a lot more than the cost of a smith.

Comparatively, most nut compatible barrels are only about $150ish more than a standard blank, and smithing is typically in the $300-400, so a guy might save $150 per barrel, which can turn into savings on your second or third barrel, once you get through buying the barrel nut, go/no-go gauges, nut wrench, and barrel vise on the first one.

But let’s look at a 6.5 creed with a 2500rnd barrel life, shooting $1/rnd reloads - you’re quibbling over $150 per barrel when you spent $2500 burning out the last one. The barrel is a drop in the bucket, comparatively.

I have both styles, and I’m sure I will for the foreseeable future. But guys make WAY too much fuss over not wanting to pay a smith.

Hell, have your Smith thread the barrel and remove it after headspacing. After the first barrel, your Smith never needs to touch the action ever again anyway, so you’d be getting drop in barrels from then on. You’ll get just as much satisfaction installing that barrel as you do screwing on a nutted barrel, or screwing in a lightbulb...

Well, my point was that we often don’t see the forrest for the trees when it comes to costs. If that’s the nuance you’re after then we are in violent agreement

 

[rbernie]

I have probably built close to two dozen Savage bolt guns over the last handful of years. I have taken to building my own because it allows me to experiment, at relatively low-cost, with different parts and configurations to find out which I prefer most for a given application. Using a custom gunsmith, especially one not local to me, to work through all of the possible permutations and options seemed particularly unwieldy.

I buy ‘pre-fit’ barrels (McGowen or X-Caliber, mostly) that require no finish work. I use an action block to hold the receiver in a vice, screw in the barrel until I’m just touching on a ‘go’ gauge, and tighten on the lock nut – assembly doesn’t get any more simple than that.

I am absolutely convinced of the argument that a more precise fit, with tighter tolerances and more trued surfaces, can be accomplished using more traditional assembly methods. I also believe that the accuracy difference that I might get using more traditional assembly methods is largely irrelevant for my purposes.

 

[coloradokevin]

Thanks for all of the ideas, everyone. I need a bit of time to digest the ideas and look at some of the products that were mentioned... I feel like I need to build myself a bolt gun; it just has to happen at some point