Intro, and DIY Gunsmithing question

P

PurpleHeartSGT

Guest
First of all, I am new to the site, so this is a question and introduction. Some personal history:
I am 24y.o. and am a Veteran of the United States Army for 5 years. I was an Infantryman and have been to Iraq twice. 15 months the first time and 3 months the second before an IED took my Right hand. The Army retired me and I wish I could get back in. I Love my country and the U.S. Army. I currently an retired and unemployed in the Reno area. I have almost 200 job applications out in this area and no one is willing to hire me. So, I been afforded the luxury of shooting alot. I am on the M1's for Vets shooting team and will be attending my first competiton in Camp Perry this august. Shooting in Service rifle and just about anything and everything with my M1 Garand.

My question is; I want to start shooting F-class more. I want a Left handed Rem 700 action. I want to use the new 6.5mm CREEDMOOR cartridge. I am planning on buying a Rem 700 chambered in .308 win. and rebarreling it in 6.5mm CREEDMOOR. I want the creedmoor rifle built on the TUBB rifle platform but cant afford it on my pension. So if i go with a Rem 700 in .308 WIN. and all i need to do is rebarrel it. This would be much cheeper. Heres my question; Can I change out the barrel myself? If so what is required (Tools, materials, Tips and tricks)? If not, any gunsmiths in Reno/ Sacramento area that you would recommended that is inexpensive? What barrel brand should I go with? How many places have barrels chambered in 6.5mm Creedmoor? How long and what twist rate?

Thank you,
SGT R. Evans
U.S. Army (RET)
 
find yourself a good gunsmith, and have him build you a rifle. even for the simple( not really so simple) act of changing a barrel, tooling is cost prohibitive for only doing 1.
 
PurpleHeartSGT said:
First of all, I am new to the site, so this is a question and introduction. Some personal history:
I am 24y.o. and am a Veteran of the United States Army for 5 years. I was an Infantryman and have been to Iraq twice. 15 months the first time and 3 months the second before an IED took my Right hand. The Army retired me and I wish I could get back in. I Love my country and the U.S. Army. I currently an retired and unemployed in the Reno area. I have almost 200 job applications out in this area and no one is willing to hire me. So, I been afforded the luxury of shooting alot. I am on the M1's for Vets shooting team and will be attending my first competiton in Camp Perry this august. Shooting in Service rifle and just about anything and everything with my M1 Garand.

My question is; I want to start shooting F-class more. I want a Left handed Rem 700 action. I want to use the new 6.5mm CREEDMOOR cartridge. I am planning on buying a Rem 700 chambered in .308 win. and rebarreling it in 6.5mm CREEDMOOR. I want the creedmoor rifle built on the TUBB rifle platform but cant afford it on my pension. So if i go with a Rem 700 in .308 WIN. and all i need to do is rebarrel it. This would be much cheeper. Heres my question; Can I change out the barrel myself? If so what is required (Tools, materials, Tips and tricks)? If not, any gunsmiths in Reno/ Sacramento area that you would recommended that is inexpensive? What barrel brand should I go with? How many places have barrels chambered in 6.5mm Creedmoor? How long and what twist rate?

Thank you,
SGT R. Evans
U.S. Army (RET)
Click to expand...

Couple of ideas:

Buy a Savage left hand target rifle in 308 and buy a drop in shilen or pac-nor bbl in 6.5 creedmore. (still get a gunsmith to help you, but it will not cost much) If you plan to use the factory creedmore ammo, you'll need to order the correct twist and freebore for the specific ammo you plan to use.

Buy a left hand rem 700 bolt action and take to a gunsmith to fit the bbl and trigger and fit an F-class stock yourself, after doing plenty of research on stock fitting/bedding etc.
 
Ok, i kinda like the savage idea. Right now I could probably find a brand new savage F class cheaper than a used M700. But I would like to hunt with it as well after thinking about it and the savage may not suit that as well as an accurized M700. Besides I like the Blacked out look. But I'll go with a gunsmith, last thing I want to do is spend around $1K and screw it up.

Thank You
 
Mr. Evans, A twist in the 8-8.5 range would work with that chambering and 140 class bullets. Hornady has probably spent thousands on testing and could tell you the exact twist with their factory fodder, and the velocities they are getting. For a 1000 yard f-class gun I would go with a 28" barrel minimum. Depending on the weight your looking for, most guys run a straight taper to .870-1.000" at the muzzle. Brux is making a great 6.5 barrel and the price is $280 to your door.
 
You could always

have two barrels and calibers with a Savage quite easily as you could with a Remington. It is a relatively simple process to change barrels. Even if you wanted to go with a different sized case head it is simple to change out the Savage bolt head to the case size one wants to use. Hard to beat the versatility of a Salvage. Stocks, same thing.
 
Ok, what kind of tools am i looking at? Barrel vise, clamps, drive tools etc.

Also, I dont need to change the bolt for .308 win. to 6.5 Creedmoor. Thats why it is all important I get the .308. So the F class savage is an easy barrel swap? About how long does it take? Can it be a weekend thing? Field?

Thanks for the feedback, I'm pricing the Savage F-Class in .308. I found one for around $870.00 And will look into Brux barrels. I want the rifle as accurate as possible as long as it make weight rules, I dont care how heavy it is.
 
savage barrels are indeed an easy swap. tools required are either a barrel vise, and barrel nut wrench, or an action wrench and barrel nut wrench. i personally prefer for the savage's to use an action wrench and barrel nut wrench. also you'll need headspace guages. once you figure out what your doing, a savage barrel swap takes less than 15 minutes.
 
Go with the Savage . .

First of all - "Thank you for your service to your country", sorry about your injury. Second, go with the Savage Receiver ! They are every bit as good as the Remington's. I don't own but one Savage, a small caliber one, but "several" of my friends do and they will shoot as well as any of the Rem's that they have, and some of them own several of them. But their go to PD guns are Savages, and when it comes to pinpoint accuracy - Savage will do the trick, I don't think you will ever be sorry. I don't know about other people that assemble "F" Class rifles but if you brought one into a shop that I was in - you would get a large cut rate on the service. You will most likely get conflicting opinions about the statement above on the Savages vs. Rem's, but I have shot them both and for a quick turn around on the barrels and the price of them, Savage is hands down. I'm still looking for a good one to put a nice varmint rifle together on. Just about all of the barrel makers have Savage barrels either set for head space or short chambered, it just doesn't get any better than that. Depending on what you order for a caliber, a head space guage, a barrel nut wrench, and a small barrel vice and you are ready to go, and the guy went on a coffee break if it took him 15minutes to change a barrel. The longest part of the job is getting the receiver and barrel out of the stock . . . :D

Phantom
 
Re:

So I've got some blades laying around with no handles and want to make handles for them. Bone handles. We have BBQ pork ribs in the fridge. The ribs have been BBQ already. Are these good bones? What is a good bone and how should it be prepared?

Thanks.

Tommy Bahama Comforter
 
I have both switch barrel Savages and Rem. Been there and done that with both brands.

I favor the short action single shot Rem 40X action. Mine has both 223 and 308 bolts. Barrels include 222, 22-250, 6 BR, 25-06, 6.5 X 284 and 308. I have two stocks for this rifle. Second stock is a BR stock "edge".

I have similar Stocks, barrels and bolts for my Model 16 Savage. After playing and working with these two rifles for since 2000 I have came to the conclusion that I like the barrels with the shoulder, Rem style, better than the Savage Style with the nut. Most of my Savage barrels are not shoulder fitted.

I can fit most barrels to either rifle provided the thread is correct by using correct thickness recoil lugs.

I favor the shoulder fitted barrels because I do not have to use the nut wench to switch barrels. With the Savage nut I have to take the scope off and take the rifle out of the stock to replace the barrel. And I have to head space the barrel with the gage. With the shoulder mounted barrel I can change the barrel with the scope on and the rifle in the stock. Head space is preset! Fast and perfect each time.

If you can find a good used Rem 40 that has been a BR rifle it will likely have a trued reciever and a good stock. The knowledge base on accurate Rem rifles is large and most good gunsmiths are better at setting up Rem than Sav.

For the $ a new Savage is an excellent value. It shoots better than a new Rem out of the box. But a good used Rem BR rifle done be a good smith will likely be better in the long run. Check out the gun list and see if there is anything there close to what you want. There are lots of deal's around now days.
 
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