Hello all,
I'm Scott, 50 years old and I have lived in Mesa, AZ for ~4.5 years now. I'm considering rebarreling my Rem 700 .308. The purpose of this gun is long range target practice. I may never compete but that doesn't deter me from trying to get the most out of this weapon as I can. So far I have installed Jewel trigger, Burris bases and rings, a SWFA SS 3-9x42 scope and set everything in a laminated thumbhole stock with aluminum bedding system. Oh, and, it has a short Harris bipod. For a while now I've considered cutting the varmint contour barrel down to 20" but yesterday I ran into an active duty US Military sniper at the range and he had a .338 lapua mag AI and the issued version of the Rem 700 action in .308. I didn't want to bother they guy with many questions but it seemed that the 20" bbl on the .308 was extremely heavy - like 1", 1 1/4", or 1 1/2". He told me that he regularily shoots 1,000 yards with the 20" bbl so I decided right then and there I'm definitely going to rebarrel. I'm so sorry this has been so long, but I'm simply asking for experienced input here. My current 1:11 twist really seems to favor 168 gr ammo. At longer distances I'll want to try stepping up to 180 or 185 - will I want to tighten up that twist rate and if so is there such a thing as over-stabilizing the 168? What barrels have you had good success with, should I flute it and can flutes be cut deep without adversely affecting anything? Please pardon my ignorance of the subject - I've just never customized anything past a trigger job or doing basic mods to my AK-47 and Saiga-12. This is a completely different kind of precision monster.
Thank you,
Scott
I'm Scott, 50 years old and I have lived in Mesa, AZ for ~4.5 years now. I'm considering rebarreling my Rem 700 .308. The purpose of this gun is long range target practice. I may never compete but that doesn't deter me from trying to get the most out of this weapon as I can. So far I have installed Jewel trigger, Burris bases and rings, a SWFA SS 3-9x42 scope and set everything in a laminated thumbhole stock with aluminum bedding system. Oh, and, it has a short Harris bipod. For a while now I've considered cutting the varmint contour barrel down to 20" but yesterday I ran into an active duty US Military sniper at the range and he had a .338 lapua mag AI and the issued version of the Rem 700 action in .308. I didn't want to bother they guy with many questions but it seemed that the 20" bbl on the .308 was extremely heavy - like 1", 1 1/4", or 1 1/2". He told me that he regularily shoots 1,000 yards with the 20" bbl so I decided right then and there I'm definitely going to rebarrel. I'm so sorry this has been so long, but I'm simply asking for experienced input here. My current 1:11 twist really seems to favor 168 gr ammo. At longer distances I'll want to try stepping up to 180 or 185 - will I want to tighten up that twist rate and if so is there such a thing as over-stabilizing the 168? What barrels have you had good success with, should I flute it and can flutes be cut deep without adversely affecting anything? Please pardon my ignorance of the subject - I've just never customized anything past a trigger job or doing basic mods to my AK-47 and Saiga-12. This is a completely different kind of precision monster.
Thank you,
Scott