I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a Remington 700 takeoff barrel better than the .308 sporter barrel my 700 SPS came with.
I narrowly missed out on a 20" Tactical t/o barrel here on the Hide.
Since I've amassed quite a supply of .308 SMKs (3k .168s and 1k 180s) I'm motivated to find a decent .308 barrel but had plans to rebarrel in .260 Remington some day.
A few weeks ago a fellow Hider was selling a Brux 6.5mm stainless M24 profile fluted 24" barrel with Little Jimmy brake with 100 rounds down the tube since being chambered .260.
It was on a Defiance action, meaning it had already been threaded 1-1/16" 16 TPI.
Although I have a decent lathe and 20 years in the machine shop I do not have the change gears to make imperial threads with the metric lead screw on said lathe.
I bought the barrel with the hopes I could use it.
Saturday I removed the old barrel and to my delight the Brux threaded into my receiver... it was a bit tight so I put some silver never seize on the threads since I would have to crank it on and off to do what I wanted to do.
I ran it on with a go gage in the chamber and the bolt installed until the headspace was just right, then used gage blocks to check the gap I needed to fill between the .300 thick recoil lug I bought to replace the original.
I determined I needed a .194" thick ring which I then whipped up on the lathe out of 303 stainless.. actually I made it .1955 since I figured I would lose a thou or 2 when I torqued the barrel on.
After tightening the new(ish) barrel on, I had to clock the brake back in, which required .0085" faced off the brake.
I ran the barreled action through my glass beader, cleaned her up real well, torqued her into the McRees chassis, and bore sighted the scope in.
Got to the range yesterday with 20 rounds of Federal Vital Shock (120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips) and 10 rounds I threw together with Remington nickel plated .243 brass upsized in a Lee FL die with CCI 200 primer, 43 gr H4350, 140 gr Nosler Custom Competition HPBTs at 2.780 COL.
2 shots of the Federal to zero at 100 yards then the next 3 shots were pretty tight, maybe 1/2" (did not keep that target).
I shot two more 5 shot groups of the Federal at 100 yards and 1 group at 150 (longest range at this club, my other club has 400 yard ranges).
The 100 yard groups measured .6 and .7, and the 150 yard group measured .67" or .43 MOA
Then I switched to my handloads.
I started at 150 yards and basically wasted 5 rounds. I later found nicks at the right edge of the paper; they were pulling quit a bit to the right.
I finished off with the last 5 reloads at 100 and while they were grouping .3 mils to the right of the Federal ammo, they grouped right at .650.
Not bad for just slapping something together based on a quick Internet search.
I'm not sure if this satisfies "the rules" about posting groups here but these are 4 of the 5 groups I shot in that range session, all at 2/3 MOA or less... and if the backer at 150 wasn't totally annihilated, it's possible that the 5th group was sub MOA, too.
Next I will do some ladders with H4350m RL17, and H4381
Pictures below.
Joe
I narrowly missed out on a 20" Tactical t/o barrel here on the Hide.
Since I've amassed quite a supply of .308 SMKs (3k .168s and 1k 180s) I'm motivated to find a decent .308 barrel but had plans to rebarrel in .260 Remington some day.
A few weeks ago a fellow Hider was selling a Brux 6.5mm stainless M24 profile fluted 24" barrel with Little Jimmy brake with 100 rounds down the tube since being chambered .260.
It was on a Defiance action, meaning it had already been threaded 1-1/16" 16 TPI.
Although I have a decent lathe and 20 years in the machine shop I do not have the change gears to make imperial threads with the metric lead screw on said lathe.
I bought the barrel with the hopes I could use it.
Saturday I removed the old barrel and to my delight the Brux threaded into my receiver... it was a bit tight so I put some silver never seize on the threads since I would have to crank it on and off to do what I wanted to do.
I ran it on with a go gage in the chamber and the bolt installed until the headspace was just right, then used gage blocks to check the gap I needed to fill between the .300 thick recoil lug I bought to replace the original.
I determined I needed a .194" thick ring which I then whipped up on the lathe out of 303 stainless.. actually I made it .1955 since I figured I would lose a thou or 2 when I torqued the barrel on.
After tightening the new(ish) barrel on, I had to clock the brake back in, which required .0085" faced off the brake.
I ran the barreled action through my glass beader, cleaned her up real well, torqued her into the McRees chassis, and bore sighted the scope in.
Got to the range yesterday with 20 rounds of Federal Vital Shock (120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips) and 10 rounds I threw together with Remington nickel plated .243 brass upsized in a Lee FL die with CCI 200 primer, 43 gr H4350, 140 gr Nosler Custom Competition HPBTs at 2.780 COL.
2 shots of the Federal to zero at 100 yards then the next 3 shots were pretty tight, maybe 1/2" (did not keep that target).
I shot two more 5 shot groups of the Federal at 100 yards and 1 group at 150 (longest range at this club, my other club has 400 yard ranges).
The 100 yard groups measured .6 and .7, and the 150 yard group measured .67" or .43 MOA
Then I switched to my handloads.
I started at 150 yards and basically wasted 5 rounds. I later found nicks at the right edge of the paper; they were pulling quit a bit to the right.
I finished off with the last 5 reloads at 100 and while they were grouping .3 mils to the right of the Federal ammo, they grouped right at .650.
Not bad for just slapping something together based on a quick Internet search.
I'm not sure if this satisfies "the rules" about posting groups here but these are 4 of the 5 groups I shot in that range session, all at 2/3 MOA or less... and if the backer at 150 wasn't totally annihilated, it's possible that the 5th group was sub MOA, too.
Next I will do some ladders with H4350m RL17, and H4381
Pictures below.
Joe
