308 chamber

C

c.g

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i just installed my new prefit savage barrel chambered in 308 with a .340 neck.i fired a few rounds measured the brass at the neck it measured around 344.5 the same as my factory savage 308 barrel brass .so even though the recipt says .340 neck and the barrel is marked .340 that the barrel has a standard chamber? and it took six months to get here. should i try sending it back or just be happy?
 
Who did you get the prefit barrel from? If its not what you want then you shouldnt just be happy.
 
alinwa said:
I would refuse it. A rifle cannot possibly shoot well with an oversized neck.

al
Click to expand...
Well, maybe. Couple of things. The first thing I'd like to point out that is to a benchrest shooter, a .340 neck for a .308 is oversized to start with. With a .340 neck, you'd need case neck walls of .015, and a die that sized the neck to .338. Oh. And necks that are even in wall thickness.

Secondly, I shot a .223 Factory rifle at our winter league. In one of the four matches, I would have placed top five shooting against the bench guns. Of course, that was at 200 yards & a windy day, but it was competition, and some darn good IBS score shooters were there. (Probably not with their best barresl, though.) Anyway, the neck on this factory barrel is .010 over.

Thirdly, this is a factory rifle. If the man expects significant accuracy improvement by fixing one "problem" (the neck diameter of the chamber), he'll probably be disappointed.

* * *

As to whether to keep the barrel or not, that is a tough one. I'd break it in, say 25 rounds, & see how it shot. If it shot well, I'd keep it. If it didn't, I'd send it back & hope they would replace it (in spite of that little bit of wear). That would let me get another free try at a good barrel.

The only thing is, if the reamer really did have a .340 neck, and the chamber cut a neck diameter that was at least .004 over that, it probably isn't a very good chamber -- The body will be at least .004 over, too.

Most of us on BR Central *Centerfire Forum* have played with factory rifles & found them lacking for our sport, & moved onto custom rifles. There are just too many potential variables in a factory rifle to come up with a recipe for fixing it. Replacing the barrel removes a bunch, but it would have to be a benchrest-quality barrel/chamber, with all that implies. And even with a good barrel, remember that the "badness" is the sum of the reciprocal of ALL "bads":

1/total badness = 1/badness(1) +1/badness(2) + 1/badness(3) + . . . 1/badness(n)

Fix a couple; that is, drop them out, and you'll see total badness isn't affected much. Try it.

FWIW
 
The last two reamers I've had made for 30 cal barrels I specified a .334 neck, and some say that is too thick!

There seems to be a great dispersion of opinion on this matter.
 
the barrel is a shilen select match .i use lapua brass and a neck bushing die with a.338 bushing .when i seated the bullets they seemed a little snug .i could turn the neck or use winchester brass it has a thinner wall.measuring the case body the chamber is tighter than my factory savage chamber .i have shot 20 rounds through it in 5 shot groups at a 100yds using different wieght charges of varget and 168 sierras the smallest being around .525 .with some tuning i think it will shoot.the 340nk wouldnt make any differance anyway if i still have to turn th neck which i didnt want to have to do.my point being when you wieght six months and dish out 400 dollars you should get what you pay for.maybe the wrong reamer was picked up everybody has a bad day .i believe i will just shoot it .c.g
 
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