Lay me some odds on my screwing chances.

B

Bill Ohio

Guest
Odds of a Rem factory takeoff barrel fitting on another Rem factory action

I have a Rem 700 VSSF .22-250 in original factory-barreled configuration. Some years back, I purchased a take-off VSSF barrel in .308. What are the chances that I can unscrew the .22-250 barrel, and then screw on the .308 barrel, and have it fit well enough to work safely and accurately?

Assuming I obtain the right tools to remove the installed barrel without bending the action, and a set of headspace gauges, is it nevertheless highly unlikely that the .308 barrel can simply be screwed on and headspaced accordingly?

I presume Remington cranks out actions by the hundreds, and chambers barrels en masse. I suppose that this means their products have quite a variation in fit, and thus maybe they have a group of workers who actually fit the barrels individually, rather than just grabbing action X and screwing on barrel Y. I suppose this is maybe why Savage uses the barrel nut feature.

Even so, I'm curious as to how far off one Rem takeoff would be vs. another when it comes to fitting a specific action. Has anybody out there bothered to try to swap takeoff barrels like this?:confused:
 
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What you are hoping to do is like asking a mechanic to change an engine with a crecent wrench. You need a barrel vise and an action wrench to disassemble and re assemble without damaging the action. A depth mic and headspace guages would be useful to establish some measurements that will indicate what if any adjustments would be needed to fit the 308 bbl to your action. If you want to use iron sights you will most likely need to make some adjustment to get the holes to come up to 12 o clock. Sometimes they will draw down and will be safe to fire but you need to use the proper and safe procedures to be sure it is correctly installed. I would assume that the barrel would need a setback of at least 1 thread and then the tenon counter bore and headspace adjusted accordingly this will allow the barrel to be indexed correctly as well. Could be it will swap out but no way to tell without taking it apart and checking it out, just be sure to use the proper tools or damage to your action could result
 
I have 3 Remington actions that I can swap barrels on, Just the luck of the draw (they have all be checked by a gunsmith for fit). With the proper tools and having someone with the proper gauges check it, there should not be a problem.
 
I have actually seen it work and headspace correctly, but the lettering did not come out correctly to look like a factory installation. However, it shot ok but never good.
 
Yes....there is a better than 90% chance it will fit and headspace within tolerance...swap barrels and check with a headspace gage...I have done the same some 8-10 times...


Eddie in Texas
 
I have a friend that posts here that has changed barrels like the OP asked. He has a bunch of recoil lugs and some are different thicknesses that he uses to get head space right. Every now and then he has to grind a thick one to get what he wants.
 
Barrels from 700, 7, 600, 721, and 722 will interchange. As mentioned above the head space needs to be verified. You can control that withe the aforementioned recoil lugs. If you are concerned with the orientation of the lettering you have a different can of worms.
 
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