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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Rifles, Bullets, Barrels & Ballistics
Building a switch barrel rifle, slowly.
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<blockquote data-quote="BallisticsGuy" data-source="post: 2466499" data-attributes="member: 96226"><p>I've been down this road a few times trying to make something I could swap barrels in the field on. It's not all daisies. Gotta decide what you expect of a switch barrel and aggressively pursue the goals via selection of design elements. Doing things over time, could be good, might not be. I know because that's the exact road I went down the first time. Just .308 & .223 to start then everything went off the rails. Next I wanted belted magnums and then I thought a .338Lapua might be fun.</p><p></p><p>The best option is to go with something that's designed to be used as a switch barrel. Blaser, Accuracy International, Barrett, Desert Tech and a very few others do make rifles that have barrel switching engineered into the design. Blaser is the best option as its core design is switch barrel functionality. Barrett and Desert Tech have the next best engineered options. Accuracy International comes a close third but their AXMC is more or less just an adapted AX. Bighorn TL3 and other actions with an integral recoil lug come in last because they don't have a system to fix the barrel in place. WTO switch lug tries to do the same thing as an integral lug gets you and you wouldn't want one on a TL3 since it has an integral lug.</p><p></p><p>Issues:</p><p>1. Feed/extraction reliability. Action length is a real thing and it affects the heck out of feeding/extracting reliability. If the magazine system isn't thought out well all you'll get is an unreliable mess. .223 being really short causes issues with ejection. The only great solution I've seen other than the Blaser R8 is Short Action Customs' .223 conversion for Desert Tech as it shortens the distance from bullet nose in the magazine to breech face which makes for great feeding and ejection reliability.</p><p>2. Bolt face size is a thing. How big/small do you want to be able to go? Very few options exist that allow more flexibility than .473" & .532" but there's also .384" (.223Rem bolt face) and .588" (.338LM bolt face) and the less commonly desired .445" and .422". So far only DT spans from .223 bolt face to .338LM bolt face.</p><p>3. How easy is it actually going to be to change barrels? Blaser and DT are trivially easy. Hand tight shouldered barrels in a TL3 is also trivially easy.</p><p>4. What about zero repeatability? First shot repeatability with shouldered barrels on actions like TL3 can be hit and miss. I've had it work out and not work out. Machining precision matters and you don't find out till it's done.</p><p>5. What special tools needed? Can you change barrels quickly in the field? Depending on how you do it you might just need your hand or a box end wrench or a specialized torque limiter.</p><p></p><p>A Savage style barrel nut and similar things like the switch lug just are not repeatable. A shouldered barrel on a rifle with an integral recoil lug like a TL3 actually can be fairly repeatable even without torquing the barrel as long as everything is faced super true. Hand tight is sufficient in such cases. Thing is, in my experience it's the 2nd or 3rd shot that'll be back to barrel-zero, not the first if you're spinning it on hand tight and quality of machining is paramount.</p><p></p><p>After repeatedly not accomplishing the goal, I went Desert Tech because that system is designed to allow in-the-field barrel changes with a single small and easy to tote tool and it's very repeatable and it's really reliable with anything from .223Rem to .338Lapua. Admittedly only Short Action Customs makes a .223 kit for it but one is available. Blaser R8 would have been a good choice too but it's a little less optimal for competition and a little more for big game hunting and I wanted kinda the opposite... a little more for precision shooting competition and a little less for offhand shots in the woods or in the veld.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BallisticsGuy, post: 2466499, member: 96226"] I've been down this road a few times trying to make something I could swap barrels in the field on. It's not all daisies. Gotta decide what you expect of a switch barrel and aggressively pursue the goals via selection of design elements. Doing things over time, could be good, might not be. I know because that's the exact road I went down the first time. Just .308 & .223 to start then everything went off the rails. Next I wanted belted magnums and then I thought a .338Lapua might be fun. The best option is to go with something that's designed to be used as a switch barrel. Blaser, Accuracy International, Barrett, Desert Tech and a very few others do make rifles that have barrel switching engineered into the design. Blaser is the best option as its core design is switch barrel functionality. Barrett and Desert Tech have the next best engineered options. Accuracy International comes a close third but their AXMC is more or less just an adapted AX. Bighorn TL3 and other actions with an integral recoil lug come in last because they don't have a system to fix the barrel in place. WTO switch lug tries to do the same thing as an integral lug gets you and you wouldn't want one on a TL3 since it has an integral lug. Issues: 1. Feed/extraction reliability. Action length is a real thing and it affects the heck out of feeding/extracting reliability. If the magazine system isn't thought out well all you'll get is an unreliable mess. .223 being really short causes issues with ejection. The only great solution I've seen other than the Blaser R8 is Short Action Customs' .223 conversion for Desert Tech as it shortens the distance from bullet nose in the magazine to breech face which makes for great feeding and ejection reliability. 2. Bolt face size is a thing. How big/small do you want to be able to go? Very few options exist that allow more flexibility than .473" & .532" but there's also .384" (.223Rem bolt face) and .588" (.338LM bolt face) and the less commonly desired .445" and .422". So far only DT spans from .223 bolt face to .338LM bolt face. 3. How easy is it actually going to be to change barrels? Blaser and DT are trivially easy. Hand tight shouldered barrels in a TL3 is also trivially easy. 4. What about zero repeatability? First shot repeatability with shouldered barrels on actions like TL3 can be hit and miss. I've had it work out and not work out. Machining precision matters and you don't find out till it's done. 5. What special tools needed? Can you change barrels quickly in the field? Depending on how you do it you might just need your hand or a box end wrench or a specialized torque limiter. A Savage style barrel nut and similar things like the switch lug just are not repeatable. A shouldered barrel on a rifle with an integral recoil lug like a TL3 actually can be fairly repeatable even without torquing the barrel as long as everything is faced super true. Hand tight is sufficient in such cases. Thing is, in my experience it's the 2nd or 3rd shot that'll be back to barrel-zero, not the first if you're spinning it on hand tight and quality of machining is paramount. After repeatedly not accomplishing the goal, I went Desert Tech because that system is designed to allow in-the-field barrel changes with a single small and easy to tote tool and it's very repeatable and it's really reliable with anything from .223Rem to .338Lapua. Admittedly only Short Action Customs makes a .223 kit for it but one is available. Blaser R8 would have been a good choice too but it's a little less optimal for competition and a little more for big game hunting and I wanted kinda the opposite... a little more for precision shooting competition and a little less for offhand shots in the woods or in the veld. [/QUOTE]
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