Remage Barrel

[Jud96]

Looking into doing a Remington with the Savage style barrel and nut. I normally have access to my Uncle's lathe and he does my barrel work, but he is backed up and I don't want to bother him about it. I am looking into Criterion, McGowen, and X-Caliber. My cousin has an X-Caliber on his .270 WSM and it shoots as good or better than our other rifles. The X-Caliber Remage barrel is a little more money than the others, but I know they are good barrels. I have heard good things about Criterion and McGowen barrels, so I need to choose between the three. This barrel will be replacing the factory one on my Remington 700 Long Range. My factory barrel is very picky and will shoot certain bullets outstanding but will shoot 2" groups with others, even after a lot of load development.

I will most likely go with a .300 Win Mag again because of all the components I already have. I have always liked the 7mm SAUM but I have a hard time finding brass for it and have no experience with it. The .28 Nosler also interests me, but the brass is very expensive. Not really interested in any other .30cal besides the .300 WM because I don't see a point in changing to another .30 when I have all the brass and the dies for the Win Mag and won't gain much in performance. Mainly looking at a 7mm to try something different, but not dead set on one.

Thanks for any input or advice.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Get a 7mm STW or .28 Nosler with a 1:8 twist so you can launch the new Berger 195 EOL's.

 

[Jud96]

I was looking at the STW but I worry about feeding those big long rounds out of the magazine especially with a 175-195gr bullet .020 off the lands. McGowen will chamber a 7mm WSM, and from everything I have read it is basically a 7mm Rem Mag but in a shorter case. I don't know much about McGowen barrels though, I have heard guys praise them but I know X-Caliber makes a top notch barrel. I really just want something to be a consistent .5" or better at 100 yards.

 

[FEENIX]

Looking into doing a Remington with the Savage style barrel and nut.

Not really interested in any other .30cal besides the .300 WM because I don't see a point in changing to another .30 when I have all the brass and the dies for the Win Mag and won't gain much in performance.

Get a 26"+ with 1:9" (or faster) barrel and launch the 215/230 Bergers and you're golden.

 

[MudRunner2005]

7x300 WinMag... That way you get to reuse your old .300 WinMag brass. And it should fit in the magazine just fine seated .015 or so off the lands.

 

[Jud96]

Get a 26"+ with 1:9" (or faster) barrel and launch the 215/230 Bergers and you're golden.

I was planning on a 28" barrel with a 1:9 twist. Don't really need anything faster, that will handle the 220s-230s. Heard of a 225gr ELD-X coming from Hornady with a .700+ BC so I will look into that. Hopefully this barrel will like the 208gr ELD-M because it has a .670 BC and I can get them up to 3000fps in a 28" barrel. That would be deadly on whitetail at long range!

 

[tbrice23]

I have several Criterion barrels, 6BR, 6.5 -284, for savage and 7mm Rem Mag for a Rem 700(Remage). They all clean easily next to no break-in involved.
I have two McGowan barrels, 300 wsm and and 300WM . Both needed very little break-in and clean up nicely. My only problem with McGowan is the 300wsm has a loose bore, the 300WM has a very tight bore. Criterion's bores ,on the other hand, are predictable as to the bore specs.

As far as accuracy goes, both manufacturers I'm positive can shoot better than I can ( Im convinced I'm only a .3moa shooter at best) . As to barrel life, I have yet to shoot out one. My Remage 7mag has more than 800 rounds and shoots as good as it did when it was new with very minimal throat erosion and still looks perfect from my borescope with no fire cracking.

 

[tbrice23]

I have several Criterion barrels, 6BR, 6.5 -284, for savage and 7mm Rem Mag for a Rem 700(Remage). They all clean easily next to no break-in involved.
I have two McGowan barrels, 300 wsm and and 300WM . Both very little break-in and clean up nicely. My only problem with McGowan is the 300wsm has a loose bore, the 300WM has a very tight bore. Criterion's bores ,on the other hand, are predictable as to the bore specs.

As far as accuracy goes, both manufacturers I'm positive can shoot better than I can ( Im convinced I'm only a .3moa shooter at best) . As to barrel life, I have yet to shoot out one. My Remage 7mag has more than 800 rounds and shoots as good as it did when it was new with very minimal erosion and still looks perfect from my borescope with no fire cracking.

 

[tbrice23]

Also, I don't shoot powder puff reduced sissy loads either.

 

[Jud96]

Thanks for the solid info tbrice23! I really liked how many chamberings McGowen offers. Criterion and X-Caliber are both kind of limited, but if I go with a .300 it doesn't really matter because they all offer it. Really considering Criterion because I can order it from NSS cheaper than the other barrels and get all of my parts from there as well.

 

[tbrice23]

No problem, I almost forgot to mention my Savage 6AI barrel is McGowan but I had Fred at 4D Reamers chamber it with a custom contour.(Fred has ALL the reamers). Unfortunately he is not going to be using Criterion barrels any more because it's taking him 6 to 8 months just to get a blank from them. He's had my order for a 264 WM for 6 months now.

 

[FEENIX]

I was planning on a 28" barrel with a 1:9 twist. Don't really need anything faster, that will handle the 220s-230s. Heard of a 225gr ELD-X coming from Hornady with a .700+ BC so I will look into that. Hopefully this barrel will like the 208gr ELD-M because it has a .670 BC and I can get them up to 3000fps in a 28" barrel. That would be deadly on whitetail at long range!

Yes, the 1:9" should work just fine as you noted. I have a 27" SS Lilja 1:9" 3-G Rem contour on my .30 Lara specifically designed to propel 230s.

The only reason I said or faster is because that's what Hammer Bullets recommends for their .308" heavies and also for 230+ heavies in works by bullets manufacturers just in case you want to explore them as well when they are made available to us.

Cheers!

Ed

 

[criterionbarrels]

No problem, I almost forgot to mention my Savage 6AI barrel is McGowan but I had Fred at 4D Reamers chamber it with a custom contour.(Fred has ALL the reamers). Unfortunately he is not going to be using Criterion barrels any more because it's taking him 6 to 8 months just to get a blank from them. He's had my order for a 264 WM for 6 months now.

I'm not entirely sure why Fred says it would take 6-8 months to get one of our blanks. Current lead time on uncontoured blanks is 3-4 weeks, and uncontoured blanks are about 6-8 weeks out. Complete pre-fit barrels are currently averaging 12 weeks, with a quoted 14-16 week delivery timeframe.

 

[tbrice23]

I'm not entirely sure why Fred says it would take 6-8 months to get one of our blanks. Current lead time on uncontoured blanks is 3-4 weeks, and uncontoured blanks are about 6-8 weeks out. Complete pre-fit barrels are currently averaging 12 weeks, with a quoted 14-16 week delivery timeframe.

Not sure, he wanted me to use Green Mountain instead and I have no clue how or what they're about. I told him to use Mcgowan if he cant get Criterion (which would be my first choice).