Rebarrel Remington 700?

[crazyjennyblack]

I inherited a Remington 700 BDL .243 rifle from my grandpa's estate last year. The stock, receiver, and exterior are in pristine shape, but he used it so much that the barrel's interior is not in good condition. In order to be able to use this rifle and honor his memory, I'd like to rebarrel the rifle and put it to good use.

Since .243 and .308 are quite similar, how hard would it be to have a gunsmith put a .308 barrel on the gun? How much would this cost me in terms of parts and labor?

I'm not looking to simply "let the gun be" and I don't use .243, so simply lining the barrel isn't what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

 

[Jim Watson]

E.R. Shaw will sell you a barrel for $185 and put it on for $115. Another $115 for polished blue and $35 to ship it back, and let's say the same to send it in.
That's $485.

If you have a local shop, you would save on shipping and maybe on labor.

 

[joed]

Jim W is quite correct, I had one done about 6 years ago by one of the local benchrest builders near me. I went with a Krieger barrel in stainless for about that price. The builder stressed to me that it should be stainless and I listened to them. Were I to do it over I'd do blue as the rest of the rifle.

 

[Reloadron]

Since the .243 is only a .308 necked down the bolt face is fine. You can do as Jim suggest or have it done by a local smith tooled up to remove and replace the barrel. The 700s are relatively easy to do.

Ron

 

[StrawHat]

Reboring to a larger caliber on the same case is also possible. Then everything except the bore is as your Grandfather left it.

 

[Jim Watson]

Yes, but a quality rebore costs nearly as much as a new barrel ($350 plus shipping at Clearwater) and takes longer, both in shop time and turnaround time.

 

[StrawHat]

Dan Pederson charges $220 for to rebore/rerifle to a larger caliber. Change the chamber for an additional $75.

Wayne York charges $275 and $50 for a new chamber.

New barrels, E.R. Shaw $185 plus $115 to install, sights extra.

Douglas, approx $285 plus installation.

 

[BBBBill]

Lots of folks buy 700s just for the action in order to build a custom rifle. Check the gun auction sites for take-off barrels. I've seen brand new ones go for as little as $25.

 

[lightman]

A Kreiger is $300+ and my rifle builder gets $250 to thread,chamber,crown and finish the barrel.I have not done one yet that doe's not shoot great.
I think the .308 is a great choice. Lightman

 

[Jim Watson]

By Jove, I think BBBBBBill has got it.
An as new second hand factory barrel would put that hunting rifle back in shape for little cost.

 

[Uncle Grinch]

I just picked up a nice 30-06 barrel take-off for $50. They are easy to find, you may have to look a while to find your caliber, but they are out there.

 

[Clark]

I have rebarreled a few Rem700 rifles, but I am not a professional gunsmith, just some guy with a lathe and mill.

It is not worth the effort unless the new barrel is:
1) hand lapped at the factory
2) heat stress relieved

The original Rem700 barrels are actually quite good.
To put something better on, it is going to cost you at least $255 + shipping for a tapered select match barrel.

Then you will need to pay someone to cut threads, chamber, and headpace.

If the recoil lug is all rusty, get a Holland recoil lug and pin it to the receiver. The man you hire to do that would have to be able to drill a hole in the receiver end wise.

 

[Jim K]

It takes a lot of shooting to wear out the barrel of a Remington 700 and with non-corrosive ammo (there is no other kind in .243), a rusted out barrel is unlikely even if the barrel was neglected.

Is it possible that the barrel is just badly fouled and needs a good cleaning? Do you know if your grandfather might have fired non-jacketed cast bullets through it? That could certainly foul the barrel if he didn't use gas checks or got the velocity too high.

Jim

 

[Zeke/PA]

I reality, the existing barrel ain't that bad!
Mu guess IS that it's CERTAINLY not "shot out".
Give it a good cleaning and expirement with reloads.
You WILL be surprised!
You STILL own a good rifle!

 

[BBBBill]

The OP says that he doesn't use 243. Were it me, I'd certainly clean it very well first, check for any real wear or damage, shoot it, and then if really not able to group, rebarrel. If it shot well, I'd start using 243.

 

[crazyjennyblack]

Well, I've cleaned it well with brushes, and the inside of the barrel is definitely pitted. I got some .243 ammo, and the rifle groups about 4" at 100 yards. I've handled a friends .308 rifle in the same configuration, and I shot much better with it than the .243.

Anyway, I will probably get a new or lightly used .308 barrel at auction.

 

[lefteyedom]

I re-barreled the 700 Remington 270 that Iinherited from my dad. It now wears a Remington 308 sendero barrel that was a cast off of somebody's project. Basically I built a M24 clone

Build it the way you want, it will always be your grandpa's rifle regardless of what barrel you have mounted on it

 

[Canuck-IL]

The Accurateshooter.com and SnipersHide.com forum areas regularly have take-off barrels at reasonable prices.

/Bryan

 

[x_wrench]

i had my 300 win mag re barreled. the cost was right around $200.00 labor, which included reblueing the entire assembly so it would match. i supplied a new take off barrel, that i bought off from gunbroker.com (now ebay is allowing them also) which i purchased for $35.00 including shipping. i am sure some people will say that those barrels have something wrong with them. but this is a sub moa gun again (it was before i had it re barreled also). though not quite as small of groups (.783 new vs. .486 with the old). i would have never had it done if i had not goofed big time and ruined the oem barrel. now, i will say this, just for the purpose of you fully understanding the wonderful things that can happen. i am the 1 person, that if something can go wrong, it will. and it did. the gunsmith who installed the barrel, re cut the chamber to get the headspace correct. when he did that, he cut it out of round. then tried to blame it on "an internet barrel" he might have gotten away with it if i had not done a little checking first. the chamber was originally smaller that the one that was on my gun. and my fired neck sized brass would not fit in the chamber all the way. i figured he would most likely have to cut it, so i did nothing to my brass. when i got the gun home, my neck sized brass fell right in. so i knew he had cut the chamber. ok, fine, as long as he did not go crazy and make it huge. well, i fired a box of shells thru it, brought the brass home to neck size, measure and reload. which i did. but, the brass was egg shaped. i tried to chamber it, and sure enough, it got stuck. so back it went. to shorten this story considerably, i ended up buying another new take off barrel, that the smith paid me for. he did a chamber cast BEFORE he started to make sure there was no problem, which there was not. and i got the gun back with the chamber still correct the second time. all of this took almost a year. so if you go the new take off barrel route, have the smith do a chamber cast before he starts. that way if there is a problem, you will both find out about it before it is installed, and you can return the barrel, and get your money back. haveing a chamber cast done first would have saved me a lot of headache and hassel, not to mention money and time.

 

[lefteyedom]

Whenever you have "gunsmithing" work done, finding a skilled and honest "smith" is the most difficult part of the project.

 

[jdduffy]

bergara barrels

has anyone tried one of the remington 700 replacement barrels Bergara sells? I just saw them the other day ,they have a jam nut like savage and are pre chambered.they make it sound like all you need is a vice,barrel wrench and chamber guage.

 

[Hummer70]

If you attend your local tech school you can learn to operate a lathe. Get the NRA Gunsmith Guide and Precision Rifle Barrel Fitting by Hinnant. While you are at the tech school in evenings you can make barrel vice, action wrench etc.

I dropped out of college one semester and went to local tech school machine shop and then next semester went back to college. The stuff I learned in college was basically useless, the stuff I learned at the tech school from the retired Navy Machinest I use every day. I have a lathe and a mill and cannot contemplate life without having them as they have come in so handy over the years.

 

[Zeke/PA]

IMHO, It ain't "shot out" yet so give the barrel a real good scrub with Hoppes#9 and go from there.
Save yourself the expense of a re-barrel job as you, in reality don't need it.

 

[lefteyedom]

Save yourself the expense of a re-barrel job as you, in reality don't need it.

Why must we always rain on somebodies parade?

I'm not looking to simply "let the gun be" and I don't use .243, so simply lining the barrel isn't what I'm looking for.

The OP does not want a 243, yet he wants to keep and use his Grandfather's rifle. What could be wrong with him rebarreling into 308, a caliber he wants?

 

[fguffey]

I took 10 Remington take-off barrels to the last gun show, 270 W, 30/06, 7mm Remington Mag, 300 Win Mag, 257 Weatherby mag, 22/250, 2 8mm57 Turkish small shank barrels and one very large shank Parker Hale barrel , I was asking $40.00 each, the next day I took dies, cases and presses, I sold all the presses and most of the dies and scales. I sold every 223 case I took. I did not sell a barrel.

I also took chamber gages cut from shot-out barrels, not an easy sale when the question is asked “What are these?”.

F. Guffey