Recontouring a barrel

[Clay Target Guy]

I have a Remington 700 with a Krieger HEAVY barrel that is approx 28" long that is chamber in 260 Rem.
The barrel has a brake on it and is a straight taper contour with the muzzle being approx 1" in diameter.
When I had it built is was going to be a bench gun. It is in a McMillan A4 sniper fill stock. All up it tips the scale at approx 17 lbs.
When I had this built it was going to be a shoot off the bench gun.
Fast forward several years and I am wanting more of a #4'ish contour barrel to walk around with.

My question is, who can/will recountour this barrel? I have talked with Hart, Krieger, and Twisted barrel and none will do this.
I would like to finish up with a 24" #4'ish contour barrel without a brake.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[BountyHunter]

IF Krieger will not contour their own barrel which is cut rifled and theoretically could be, my bet is there is a very good reason. Removing that much material is bound to effect the bore dimensions even on a cut rifled barrel.

What did they say why?

Second a #4 countour in a Sniper fill stock is a mismatch IMO to begin with and not a walk around stock.

I would get a new barrel and a new stock (Stockys laminate) to do what you want.

Letting a "gunsmith" turn it is a recipe for you being real unhappy and out money is my bet.

 

[Broz]

I was needing a .308 cal barrel once in a hurry. I bought a Kreiger off the shelf barrel from a dealer. I sent it in to Kreiger and they re-contoured it to what I wanted. It cost $40 and that was 4 yrs ago. The rifle never shot worth a darn. After over 100 rounds of development I took it back to the smith and we put a new barrel on it. That fixed the rifle and it is a tac driver to this day. I doubt I ever waste more time and money doing it again. It is a crap shoot at best if it will shoot like a custom barrel should after a re-contour job.

Jeff

 

[J E Custom]

Re: Re contouring a barrel

+1 for Broz and Bounty Hunter. Very good advice.

Cut rifled barrels are only stress relieved once (Before they are rifled) buttoned barrels are stressed relived Twice (Once before they are buttoned and once they are contoured).

I have had good luck with contouring buttoned barrels But have stayed away from contouring cut
rifling barrels for the same reason mentioned.

You have two choices in my opinion. One would be to cut the existing barrel down to 20 to 22"
inches. (The 260 doesn't need more than that).

The second choice would be to buy a new barrel with the contour you want and chamber it.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Clay Target Guy]

Thanks for the advise. Krieger said they would only contour a barrel down two sizes and ONLY if it had not been touched (chambered/crowned/threaded).

I had a Hart recontoured several years ago and it worked out great, so I thought I would give this another try but did not think about the cut rifling part.

I was going to ditch the Sniper Fill A4 and go with something more like a Remington LVSF type stock.

 

[Joel Russo]

There's always that one guy....

A few years back, I had a 34" Krieger 1.450" .338 barrel that was chambered and threaded. I sent it back to Krieger and they re-contoured it to 1.350" for 5" then a straight taper to 1.100". They did tell me that they would not guarantee how it would shoot. No worries on my end, I had others on the shelf if this one would not produce...
After I got the barrel back from Krieger, I stuck it in the mill and fluted it. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...
The barrel was then re-chambered and installed. Much to my surprise, I have shot ridiculously tight groups with that barrel all the way out to one mile.

Yep, I'm that one guy....

 

[J E Custom]

There's always that one guy....

A few years back, I had a 34" Krieger 1.450" .338 barrel that was chambered and threaded. I sent it back to Krieger and they re-contoured it to 1.350" for 5" then a straight taper to 1.100". They did tell me that they would not guarantee how it would shoot. No worries on my end, I had others on the shelf if this one would not produce...
After I got the barrel back from Krieger, I stuck it in the mill and fluted it. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...
The barrel was then re-chambered and installed. Much to my surprise, I have shot ridiculously tight groups with that barrel all the way out to one mile.

Yep, I'm that one guy....

Just clean living Joel. Ha Ha

J E CUSTOM

 

[Hired Gun]

A few barrel makers contour and flute as the last step before they ship. They use heavy high speed cnc lathes and they still loose barrels to chatter and warping.

I lead slug every barrel as part of our quality control checks and have found every manufacturer cut or buttoned will frequently be loose under the flutes and on thin contours get looser towards the muzzle.

Anytime you cut metal it relieves stress so depending how much is cut it will change the bore size slightly. A couple tenths of a thousands won't hurt anything as the bullet bumps up under pressure and seals just fine.

If you can't do it yourself I doubt you will get anyone to do it. Kind of a rule that if a gunsmith wrecks something he buys it. Any chatter on a cut this big and you might never get it out. Better to pass than take this risk.

 

[Broz]

Just clean living Joel. Ha Ha

J E CUSTOM

Ha ha!! That is exactly what I was thinking... What's that like anyway??

Jeff

 

[Joel Russo]

Just clean living Joel. Ha Ha

J E CUSTOM

Ha ha!! That is exactly what I was thinking... What's that like anyway??

Jeff

Yep, clean living alright... At least that's what I keep telling myself.

 

[sureshot21]

I re-contoured an ER Shaw barrel that I ordered short chambered and crowned.

IT turned out to be ridiculously accurate, but they are button rifled.