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Remington 700 308, want 6.5 should I replace the barrel or buy new?

laremm

Private
Minuteman
Sep 10, 2020
10
4
Just like the title, I have been searching forums because I cannot be the first to ask this question. I have a SPS Tactical with a 20 inch barrel. I want to be able to reach 1,000 yards easily, I have been shooting hand guns and shot guns in competitions for decades and want to be able to reach out with a bolt action rifle.

I see many good names, Remington, Bergara, Ruger... that are about 800 - 1200 for them with a Hunter chassis. I put a KRG on mine.

Should I just replace it? I have a Leopold 6.5x25x50 scope on it, bipod, the chassis is magazine fed.

Or buy another rifle like the magpul hunter 700 in 6.5?

I am getting in my late 50's and arthritis

https://www.eabco.net/EABCO-Accuracy-Barrel-fits-Remington-700-65-Creedmoor-18-Blue_p_15624.html
https://straightjacketarmory.com/gunsmithing-services/ 25.00 for them to put it in.

What do you guys think?
 
I would rebarrel the 308. While $600-700 for a barrel blank + gunsmithing work sounds steep, especially when you can get a new rifle for $800-1000... A Bartlein, Krieger, Brux, Proof, Rock Creek, etc. Barrel is almost guaranteed to hammer. A factory rifle is a gamble somewhere between .5 and 1.5 MoA.
 
If the remmy is already a bughole shooter rebarrel it. If the remmy is marginal get a Tikka or A R700 footprint custom. Because you’re gonna need $600-700 chambered barrel and another $300-500 blueprinting the action plus adding a bolt release.
 
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If the remmy is already a bughole shooter rebarrel it. If the remmy is marginal get a Tikka or A R700 footprint custom. Because you’re gonna need $600-700 chambered barrel and another $300-500 blueprinting the action plus adding a bolt release.

Accuracy is in bullets and barrels-- it doesn't matter how the factory barrel shoots. When you put a new quality cut rifled barrel (or quality button barrel for that matter) on it will hammer. As long as both lugs are already making contact blueprinting is a waste of money unless you're into the placebo effect. The only additional upgrade that can be worth the money is a bolt handle timing job for primary extraction.
 
If you are just recreationally shooting and wanted to dip your toe in the long range world, I would just order a quality rem-age barrel and barrel nut. Your rem700 with a quality barrel and KRG chassis will serve you well for quite a while. If you want to shoot some matches with that rifle you will be able to. Then you can decide on where to spend the big money should you decide long range is your cup of tea.
 
Rebarrel with a remage barrel. Northland shooter supply will get you squared away for just a few hundred bucks. You can get 2 barrels for what you’ll pay for a new rifle or some barrels. My rigs with Criterion remage barrels shoot 1/2 moa and if you look around in old posts I’m sure you’ll find posts from others that like them too.
Edit: When you have the old barrel off you can lap your lugs and get the most out of your new barrel. Good luck
 
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Accuracy is in bullets and barrels-- it doesn't matter how the factory barrel shoots. When you put a new quality cut rifled barrel (or quality button barrel for that matter) on it will hammer. As long as both lugs are already making contact blueprinting is a waste of money unless you're into the placebo effect. The only additional upgrade that can be worth the money is a bolt handle timing job for primary extraction.

Thank you @Ledzep. I keep hearing it from the experienced shooters on the hide but keep forgetting it: The quality barrel makes or breaks the precision rifle.
 
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If the remmy is already a bughole shooter rebarrel it. If the remmy is marginal get a Tikka or A R700 footprint custom. Because you’re gonna need $600-700 chambered barrel and another $300-500 blueprinting the action plus adding a bolt release.

If you are spending $300-500 to true up an action then someone is ripping you off. GA Precision charges $100 when they are installing a barrel. $290 to install the barrel itself.

Also adding a side bolt release to a 700 is a waste of money.

OP, rebarrel the rifle you have. It will be night and day from a factory rifle. Get a 26-28" Creedmoor barrel put on. Don't skimp on barrel quality. If you do you will see it on the target.
 
For the Remag who would I send it to to have the old barrel removed. I do not have someone close
 
For the Remag who would I send it to to have the old barrel removed. I do not have someone close

I agree, the majority of precision is in the barrel, followed by a trigger that allows you to shoot with out disturbing the sights, after that is a stock/chassis. I've always got about .5 moa with little effort on prefit type barrels like the remage.

You might find a fellow Hide member close to you to help. In the accessories PX, there was a post with a loaner kit floating around. I donated a gauge and other bits for it. Not sure where that is, and don't want to try to search for it now. Take a look though.

You can buy most of the tools from Northland Shooter to do it. An action wrench, barrel nut wrench, and a barrel vice are all that is needed. I use the Viper barrel vice from Grizzly, it is very good. Just took off three Howa factory barrels this weekend. I put some leather covered with resin and clamp down on the barrel in the vice. A solid smack with a sledge on the action wrench is usually enough. For Savage, they are on super tight, I had a massive block of steel that must have been 15 to 20 pounds that would break them free. It is a good sharp/solid smack with something heavy that breaks a barrel free. I have never used a cheater bar, that is the wrong sort of force.

Once you take the factory barrel off, you don't need to torque the barrel nut on that hard. I use my vice all the time for changing barrels.

Call Jim at Northland, he will talk with you about it.
 
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Go 26". You will get more velocity and the 2" won't hurt anything. If you don't mind weight then go with a heavier contour. Will help with recoil but put a good brake on it also.

Yup that set up, even with 24", will get you to 1000 pretty easy.
 
I second rob01 with the 26” heavy barrel. I like the M24 or MTU contours. You can drop just about any contour barreled action in a Krg bravo up to a straight barrel aka the truck axle. 👍
 
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If you want a 308 and a 6.5, buy another rifle. My recommendation for that option is the Bergara. I’ve never owned one but I’ve shot them past 700 yards and (at that price point) I prefer them to Remingtons and Rugers.

If you only need/want one bolt gun, go with a 6.5 barrel. I’m a big fan of Remage barrels but plenty of gunsmiths can install a barrel at reasonable prices with good results.
 
I see on companies like Bergara offer the 308 in a 20 inch barrel and the 6.5 in 22. Why wouldn't they do the 308 in a 22 inch barrel? Is the 20 inch long enough for 1,000 yard competition?
 
For the Remag who would I send it to to have the old barrel removed. I do not have someone close
If you’re doing the remage then in all likely good you will have the tools to remove it yourself. Action wrench and barrel vice.
 
Figure out which gun you want and go buy it. Keep the one you have either as a backup or save for your kids, nephew etc.
 
I talked to Northland, for a great price I will get the barrel and the tools to make the change. I have a question, once the Remage it is easy to change to different calibers. Why wouldn't Remington offer a package like this from the Factory. I sot Trap and Skeet for years, Many Over/Unders offered the advantage of changing from 12 guage all the way down to 410. Why not have the ability to change calibers in a quality rifle.
 
I have a question, once the Remage it is easy to change to different calibers.
It is easy so long as they have the same bolt face and action length.
It is time consuming though.
Some people loctite the nut so that once it’s set the nut won’t move to make it easier to swap quicker without the gauges. But I would still have to remove it from the stock, stick it in the vice etc, it’ll take time.
Some don’t take it out of the stock and torque it on less, just depends on what you’re comfortable with.
 
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Give LRI a call and find out what they could do for you and your Rem 700:
Or if you have a barrel vise and torque wrench and know how to use them get yourself a Zermatt Arms Bighorn Origin, you can get pre-fit barrels and do them yourself, using a nut set up, or without the nut set up.
 
I talked to Northland, for a great price I will get the barrel and the tools to make the change. I have a question, once the Remage it is easy to change to different calibers. Why wouldn't Remington offer a package like this from the Factory. I sot Trap and Skeet for years, Many Over/Unders offered the advantage of changing from 12 guage all the way down to 410. Why not have the ability to change calibers in a quality rifle.
My guess is liability, you have to at least understand headspace, how to set/check it and have a set of gauges.
 
I talked to Northland, for a great price I will get the barrel and the tools to make the change. I have a question, once the Remage it is easy to change to different calibers. Why wouldn't Remington offer a package like this from the Factory. I sot Trap and Skeet for years, Many Over/Unders offered the advantage of changing from 12 guage all the way down to 410. Why not have the ability to change calibers in a quality rifle.

Caliber swap for a rifle is massively different than a shotgun. Zeroing a shotgun isn't as hard. Headspacing a shotgun is far different.

There are rifles that have quick change, but it is not very popular. No way Remington messes with that.

Swapping barrels at the range is super simple, but after you change barrels, you have to mess with zero, etc.

Eventually, guys just buy another rifle, lol. Including me.

But, it is nice to be able to switch calibers for purposes. I ran a 308 for my bison hunt. I wasn't swapping back and forth though.
 
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I bought another rifle instead. I liked the Ruger Precision rifle. Great shooter, 1/2 inch first time out. The bolt action is different than the R700. Zeiss Optics.

I am keeping the 308, can't have enough guns.

Now I have to find ammunition. I am ordering everything for reloading and same luck
 
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Did you get another Ruger? For reloading have you tried Graf? They seem to have stuff in stock.

I bought another rifle instead. I liked the Ruger Precision rifle. Great shooter, 1/2 inch first time out. The bolt action is different than the R700. Zeiss Optics.

I am keeping the 308, can't have enough guns.

Now I have to find ammunition. I am ordering everything for reloading and same luck
 
It's just my opinion but Id shoot out the 308 learning how to shoot then switch over to 6.5 cm mostly because of the lack of decent ammo maybe by the time the 308 is shot out you will be able to get ammo again if that ever happens . If not at least you will have more money in your pockets to get a nicer barrel if that is still what you want to do or to get something even nicer .
 
well i dont have money growing on trees, so the best option is tge rebarrel what you got.

though its not cut and dry. if you had money invested in trigger, inletting, and truing the rem 700 it would be a definite rebarrel. without those investments its in the gray area.
 
I like having guns. But now that I have shot the Ruger 6.5 I can see that keeping the Remington 308 and shooting it for a long time would have been a fine choice and change caliber later. I could have changed the Chassis down the road, and may still. This is a good lesson learned that is not tough on me but worth passing on.
 
While there's little wrong with having more than one gun, it's sensible to ask oneself how many people will be shooting your guns at any single time, For me, this translates as "Gee,, I guess I really only needed one gun after all". This conclusion not only saves you the entire horribly inflated current cost of a new rifle, but the scope you were going to put on it too. Believe me, nobody earns a living by spending more of their own money.

As long as there's nothing wrong with your R700 action, there's nothing wrong with having an R700 action, and BTW, get the thing bueprinted when you get that second barrel. By not buying all that extra gear, a blueprint job becomes ever so much more affordable.

I use Savage rifles and barrel nuts, but switching barrels is pretty much the very same thing with either the Rem or the Sav. Although I prefer the barrel nut, for your case, keep it simple and get the new barrel threaded, chambered and shouldered for your particular action. This simplifies the matters by taking the chamber gauge out of the barrel change equation. Your original .308 barrel (keep it!) is probably already properly headspaced to begin with. At that point it's spin one off, spin the other one on. Simplicity!

That 20" 308 is going to work great at up to about 600-800yd, it's beyond that where the 6.5's really shine.

6.5 barrel... Right now the ones you want are o/o stock because they're the ones everyone else wants too. With the market the way it is at present, the chambering can be important because folks are wising up to the fact that all that wonderfully available 6.5CM ammo is just as unavailable as any other chambering, so that advantage just evaporated.

I've been shooting the 260 for going on 20 years now, and it's still every bit as good now as it was when I started; and I handload, too (this can be mucho importante with the 260). So 6.5 CM is more popular, and therefore less available right now.

If you're going to shoot 1000yd with the 6.5, you can either flog it to death to get it there, or give the poor thing an even break and let it get there with less mayhem in the engine room. As barrel lengths lengthen; things go from the former respect, to the latter. I consider my 28" barrel to be a most excellent cruise missile launcher. The extra length allows the bullet to get the same velocity for less bore temp/pressure, and prolongs bore life. I bought my 28" in 2003. Velocity isn't everything, having a familiar barrel for going on two decades has far more value to me.

A 1:8" rifling twist is gonna handle all the 140-ish bullets, and I don't think the even heavier ones are all that appealing to me.

Since I'm not a master match shooter, I don't bother with match reamers and the sometimes tricky things they require one to do with one's ammunition. I use SAAMI chambers in EVERY rifle I own. I do this because I respect the wind, and understand that no chamber design will get you a string of "X"'s if you cant handle the wind at the master shooter level.

By now, you've figured that I'm not out to sell guns or barrels, and that after 20 years of pleased shooting with the 260, I'm at least speaking from experience.

One final thing, If you're going to keep the stock (I would, unless it's a torture wrack to shoot), order the new barrel with the same contour as the Remington barrel you already have on the gun.

Greg
 
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I like having guns. But now that I have shot the Ruger 6.5 I can see that keeping the Remington 308 and shooting it for a long time would have been a fine choice and change caliber later. I could have changed the Chassis down the road, and may still. This is a good lesson learned that is not tough on me but worth passing on.
Enjoy!