Cost for rebarrel -- and how

Amammn writes, I did the same thing JCummings did with my old model 12. It was not hard to do and I get very nice groups with it at 100 and 200 yards, but I would never try to pass it off as a bench gun. If you don't feel up to rebarreling the rifle yourself Sharpshooter Supply's services cannot be beat.
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I think this makes a good point. My rifle is not a benchrest rifle, but a varminter. As heavy barrels go, mine is not very heavy. The overall weight minus scope is just 8.5 lbs. Right now -- at this point -- I think the barrel is doing about all that could be expected. One guy put it right, saying, "your rifle does okay for a field gun." Agreed.

You know, fellows, I suspect I'm not ready for a full-scale benchrest gun, such as Fred Moreo makes, as described in the thread. I just need to learn a lot more. A new, tuned trigger would make good sense, just as one incremental step to getting the best out of this particular rifle. Thanks for the ideas, to abintx, chisolm, and Allen. I once had a Timney target trigger put into a Win 54 .270 -- a wise decision and made good shooting easier. So I have some idea what this means.

Purchasing some Sinclair tools and other aids to good shooting would be a learning curve. I may not be ready right now for tight chambers, neck turning, and run-out measurements and the like. Take these one at a time and learn something. Next summer, maybe I would be ready to go for something more sophisticated.

Right now the ammo development effort is paying off. As I said, for yesterday's range trip, all groups under MOA, with one group going 0.331 -- this is pretty decent for a varminter (not a BR rifle).

My buddy in Montana knows a lot more about this sophisticated stuff, and tells me I am getting darn good performance out of a factory rifle. One thing that helps is many hours at the loading bench, testing a number of load formulas, writing lots of notes, trying different seating depths, and finally having a few pretty good days at the range.

I need a better benchrest set-up for the range, and something better than the little Outers Varminter metal frame benchrest device, which was really designed for a car hood. Is the so called "lead sled" the right product?

Thanks to all--
 
Lead Sled

IMHO the full gun rests that are on the market are those who can't handle a little recoil. I don't believe your gun is going to recoil the same as it would off your shoulder a will not print the same POI.
I would start with a Sinclair light wt. model tripod rest with the appropriate bag. If you want to take it up a notch go with one of their full benchrest models. Give them a call and they will walk you through it. Great folks.
My bench rifle is an absolute ball to shoot. With a bipod I know what I aim at at 300 yards is history.
They ain't cheap, but I always wanted a 1 hole rifle and $5,000 later I got it. If you build one don't cut corners you'll only be cheating yourself, especially when it comes to the barrel. A poorly built custom is no more than an expensive factory rifle.
I like shooting my 22-250 and have taken a lot of groundhogs with it, but it's nothing compared to shooting a custom.
 
Charles...

Charles E said:
The British term for "rebarreling" is "fitting a barrel" and maybe that's a better description. It isn't simply the quality of the barrel. The quality of the chambering is where everything starts.

I wrote this long ago in response to a question about case neck turning in a factory rifle, but in passing, it covers the advantages of a good chambering job.

http://www.benchrest.com/FAQ/2.2.shtml

If my factory Savages are typical, you will get both a better barrel from one of the custom benchrest barrel makers, and a better chambering job from a custom benchrest gunsmith. But *better* is a loaded term here. When we shoot competitive benchrest, the difference between a rifle capable of shooting .200 MOA and .250 MOA is tremendous -- when you think about it, it is the difference between winning and losing with those two rifles.

The question you have to ask yourself is, for your application, is .050 or even .100 improvement in grouping ability worth the $450 or so it will cost you?

If you decide to go ahead, don't call local smiths unless one of them happens to build competitive benchrest rifles.

FWIW
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nice article. My experience has been that after 10-12 firings with a group of cases I start to get very uneven neck tension in the group. A smaller bushing hasn't seemed to help. Annealing has always returned quite uniform neck tension to the group. --Greg
 
I also priced re-barrelling but for a Remington 700. It ads up to very high number very quickly. By the time you pay for a premium barrel which in most instances is about $285+, have it installed which is at least $250 and then get it blued you are over $500 without any truing or bedding. It is hard to swallow when you can buy a whole new rifle for less than $200 more. These are two different things I know, but still hard to justify. As and option consider having your existing barrel set back. This is a good thrifty option. I have not yet done it but others say that is a good alternative. You only lose about 1/2" of length. Good luck, Peter.
 
A couple of suggestions

Sticks driven into the ground, with pieces of surveyor's tape attached to their tops, (long enough to not quite reach the ground), will greatly improve your shooting, for very little cost. If you are shooting at 100 yd., try one at 25 and one at 50. Obviously, you should strive to shoot all of the shots within a group in the same wind condition. Watching these ribbons will teach you a great deal. When I see fellows at the range "testing" loads without the benefit of anything to help "see" the wind, invariably, they seem to think that the wind they feel at the bench is the same as that down range; it is not. A lot of what is credited to differences in loads, is really the wind. On this board, it is common for shooters (non-Benchrest) discount the need for flags. They usually write that they only test in the morning or evening, when there no wind. No one who has much experience shooting over flags would buy this.

As to rifle rests, a front tripod with sandbag and a rear sandbag is the way to go. I would stay away from most all of what you see in most sportsman's catalogs and pay more attention to what Hart, Bald Eagle, or Sinclair sell. Once you have a proper rest setup, you will never look back.

Looking forward, I would keep your Savage as a varmint rifle, and if you decide to build a bench rifle ,that would eventually be used for competition, use an action that has more of a proven record in that application. This is not to say that someone will not prove that a Savage action, with one of Fred Moreo's 2 0z triggers, is Benchrest worthy for competition, but it is always better for a beginner, or anyone on a budget, to go with what is proven, so as not to tie up money in something that turns out to be uncompetitive.
 
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flags

+2 for Boyd. I had never shot with flags before until I put a 30BR barrel on my Savage. All of a sudden 0.3s became a reality if there was no wind. If there was any wind it opened up to 0.5s. I started using the dowl rods and tape and watching them to study the wind pattens before I pulled the trigger and started seeing 0.2s. Flags..... Definitely get some form of flags. tiny
 
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