Rebarrel rifle to?

[taylorce1]

I have an older M700 BDL in .308 Win I'm thinking of changing up. So keeping it .308 caliber or smaller to continue working with my .30 cal suppressor, what would you do? It's a constant 1.5" shooter with me behind the trigger for five shots.

I bought as a barreled action with a factory barrel sporter contour currently cut to 18" and threaded. I added a TT Primary trigger to it, and a Greyboe Trekker stock. Hunted it, it's about was about 10 lbs all up with mountain sling, Omega 300 suppressor, NF 3-10X42 SHV, Warne MT pic rail and rings, plus five rounds. I'd like to keep it the same weight or a little less.

I'm open to most ideas for cartridges, but I'm kind of stuck between .308, .250-3000, and .22 Creedmoor. I'm thinking of possibly adding M5 Hunter bottom metal as well, and that would open things up as to what cartridges I could make feed like the BR and Dasher.

 

[Nathan]

If you are wanting to go smaller, I would give 6 Creedmoor a long look. or maybe 6x47. Both are good rounds and lots of great 6mm bullets.

 

[Hawg]

Why change a good thing?

 

[taylorce1]

@Nathan, I have two 6 Creedmoors, a .243 Win, 6X47 Rem, and a 6X45. All except the .243 are sub MOA, and the 6X47 sub ½ min.

@Hawg, I think it should shoot better than it does.

 

[stagpanther]

You might consider the world of quarterbores--they make better .257 bullets nowadays.

 

[hammie]

My musings went in the same direction of "stagpanther's". I've never been a real fan of the 6mm's. They seemed to me to be a bit too large for varmints, and a bit too small for big game. But, I've always liked the .25's. I thought: If you're going with the .250 savage, then why not go for the improved version, since the tapered case responds very well to the process and provides a significant increase in performance. But then, going one logical step further, an improved .250 savage is essentially a .25 Creedmoor. Head stamped brass for the .25 Creedmoor is already available. The historical drawback to the quarter bores, has been a smaller bullet selection, but as "stagpanther" observes, the selection of .25 caliber bullets has greatly improved.

 

[HiBC]

Look to the "Why?" What need are you trying to fill?

Theb.308 is a great and versatile cartridge. You have a matched suppressor,dies, components,etc.

Accuracy? OK. You have a sample of one ...is it a Rem production bbl?

It might be a quality replacement barrel in 308 will shoot better.

All that said, Only You can decide the why and how of what cartridge will scratch your itch. Maybe a 7mm-08? I don't know if its for crows or elk!!

I believe you know enough to puzzle through it. When it comes to these things,you get to make the choice and you don't have to justify it to anybody!!

You can even be wrong! Its OK. (We get used to these things! )

 

[taylorce1]

The .308 is a great and versatile cartridge. You have a matched suppressor,dies, components,etc.

.308 is top on my list for a new barrel. I'm just trying to see if I'm missing anything.

 

[Rimfire5]

How many rounds have you shot down the barrel?
It takes a lot of shooting to wear out a .308 barrel, even if you load up near Pmax all the time.
If you want to try a new barrel thinking it will improve accuracy, go for it, but unless you are seeing degrading accuracy from your existing barrel, it will take a lot of shooting to wear out your existing barrel, IMO.

Case in point:
I have a 2010 Savage 10 FCP-K with just over 5,000 rounds down the barrel that I shot last Monday with 8 5-round groups, 4 each with 168 SMK bullets with N540 and Varget powders, at 100 yards to a vombined average of 0.307. The N540 shot 0.332 and Varget shot 0.283 averages respectively. I got careless with two groups of the N540, it shot 0.280 with the first two, so I can't conclude N540 wasn't performing as well as Varget.

I have a bit or experience with barrel wear.
I did wear out a .308 barrel at 6,300 rounds in a 2008 model because the chamber came 80 thousandths deep from the factory and eroded by another 90 thousandths after 6,300 rounds. I was seating bullets further and further out to maintain the jump the rifle shot best with and eventually couldn't maintain consistent neck tension, so my group sizes started to grow, and I finally replaced the barrel at 6,500 rounds when I convinced myself the degradation in group size wasn't caused by me. That new barrel now has 4,475 rounds down it's barrel and it is still shooting great. The two .308 rifles shoot just about the same, with less than 10 thousandths difference in long term averages, although one shoots better with lighter bullets and the other shoots better with heavier bullets.

The 10 FCP-K barrel and the new barrel came from the factory with chamber depths right on SAAMI recommended OAL, so I may have up to 4,000 rounds more life in these barrels.

 

[taylorce1]

I have no clue how many rounds are down the barrel, it is a used rifle built in the 80s. I've put a few hundred factory and handloads 125-168 grain down the barrel, and it's never shot better than 1.5" for five rounds. First cold bore is always ¾-1" from the next two. I have a Howa Superlite that weighs 7 lbs that shoots nearly the same as a rifle weighing almost 10 lbs.

Do I think the barrels worn out? Absolutely not, I'm plenty comfortable using this on big game out to 400 yards. However, I don't think the rifle will ever shoot better than 1.5 MOA consistently for five rounds.

I've spent quite a bit of money and time trying to get this rifle to shoot better. It is just telling me it won't.

 

[Rimfire5]

Understood.
IMO, you're a candidate for a new barrel, but the barrel might not be the only cause of repeated poor accuracy.
However, I do believe that the barrel seems to be the biggest contributor outside of 'shooter induced variation'. Good barrels generally shoot well. I have been very lucky with my rifles and have 7 that I currently shoot regularly that average under 1/2 MOA for all the groups shot (regardless of powder or bullets used). 5 of them actually average under 1/3 MOA.
That said, I have a couple that just don't measure up to that level, regardless of what I do with them.

Being an experienced shooter, you can obviously judge the difference in barrel accuracy.

Having the first round go awry from the intended POA is pretty common, even with good barrels.
I find that most of my rifles also show that tendency if the barrel is clean and unfouled. As a result, all my hunting rifles were fired at least a few times before I went hunting and not cleaned until after I returned. The problem was reduced significantly.

Even competition shooters send sighters down range to be sure of the barrel's performance before they begin competitions to eliminate such an occurrence.

 

[taylorce1]

Having the first round go awry from the intended POA is pretty common, even with good barrels.
I find that most of my rifles also show that tendency if the barrel is clean and unfouled.

It's just the first cold bore shot, it doesn't matter if the barrels clean or fouled.

 

[oldbear1950]

Why not go with either a 30-06 Ackley improved, or 308 ackley improved.
Can use the same bullets, a little more power and improved bullet coefficient, and use the same suppressor, Just a thought,

 

[oldbear1950]

at one time Parker O. Ackley was a premier gunsmith. Who worked with his own line of cartridges, and understood ballistics almost way above everyone else.
Try one and you might be surprised.

 

[taylorce1]

@oldbear1950,

There just arent enough gains to justify the costs to go Ackley. At least not on the .308 Win case, and the 06 just won't fit in my short action.

 

[Hawg]

I'd get a quality .308 barrel with single point cut rifling like Krieger or Obermeyer. I have an Obermeyer on my 98 Mauser and it shoots tiny, tiny little cloverleafs at 100 yards.

 

[jetinteriorguy]

I’d go 7mm08, a few years ago it was a tossup between the 7-08 and 6.5CM and I went with the CM. Had I known the requirement of having to wear a manbun at the time I would have chosen the 7-08.

 

[stagpanther]

I love .284 cartridges and have two rifles in 7mm-08, I don't especially care for them because I think they are under-powered for the better bullets--but that may be just my bias from having some of the bigger .284's.

 

[USAF Ret]

7mm-08

 

[old roper]

Weaver got 284 reamer, might ask him which is best.