better barrel for remington 700 .223

Jacobpoirier

Jacobpoirier

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kitchener, ON
I've got a Remington 700 in .223, but it has the sportster light barrel with 1 in 12 twist. Barrel is in decent condition, round count not too high. I'm wanting to go to a 1 in 7 if possible, at least 1 in 8. From what I've read I'll have to get it smithed to fit regardless of brand. A brand new SPS tac is only about 800, but there's nothing wrong with my action. Do I spend the $ on a barrel, or just get the whole SPS tac? I'd rather not buy a whole new gun. Any suggestions of barrels and suppliers?
 
You on the right track having it re-barrelled rather than just picking up the SPS, not that there's any thing wrong with that but if you have the action already just have a good barrel put on.
 
Mystic or Big Horn Sales.

If you buy another factory rifle, you would then own two crappy barrels with two actions that are not true.

Get a barrel you want, send it to a reputable 'smith, have them true up the action, chamber and install your barrel. You'll likely need to upgrade your stock in the EE or you can try and hog out the barrel channel in your existing stock. Best way to go would be to send your barrelled action, barrel of your choice and upgraded stock all at once to a good smith. Have them true the action, chamber & install barrel and then bed the action in the new stock. When you get it back, it will likely out shoot you for years to come!
 
Replacing factory barrel with the best barrel available and truing action will cost $900-$1000, all costs in. Money well spent. Only downside, you will never be satisfied with factory barrels.
 
I had Ted Gaillard make me up a 1:7 .222 before fast twists had caught on, and it really opened my eyes. There was no reasonable load it would't shoot well, regardless of bullet weight, where 1:12s have distinct limitations when bullet lengths approach 4 calibers. You will probably get a Canadian made barrel from Gaillard, Smith, or Jury quicker than from one of the big American outfits, unless Mystic, or one of the the other precision barrel emporiums, have what you're looking for.

Edited to add . . .
Send the gunsmith a dummy cartridge of the particular load you have in mind, that way he can cut the throat accordingly. If you do intend to shoot long, heavy bullets, it might be worth your while to seat them so the boat-tail doesn't extend below the shoulder of the case, thus powder capacity is maximized.
 
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Boomer said:
Edited to add . . .
Send the gunsmith a dummy cartridge of the particular load you have in mind, that way he can cut the throat accordingly. If you do intend to shoot long, heavy bullets, it might be worth your while to seat them so the boat-tail doesn't extend below the shoulder of the case, thus powder capacity is maximized.
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I personally have the chambers cut so that only the boat tail sits below the top of the shoulder. It does cut a small amount of case capacity but also allows me to easily chase the lands as the throat erodes for a long time to come. The other thing it allows for is a decent case to bullet grip. Some cases have extremely short necks and in combination with a bullet with a long boat tail, leaves very little bullet holding into the case. I just witnessed a fellow competitor in FTR drop a shell after pulling it out of his ammo box, only to have the bullet come out of the brass case thus dumping powder out and leaving him minus one shell.

Not saying I'm right, just explaining what I do and my reasoning behind it.
 
Give Gary at big horn sales a call he probably has something on hand and has the best prices in canada. Jerry at mystic is good if you want to pay in advance and not know when your barrel will show up.
 
Thanks everyone for the helpful and informative responses. I've got a b&c stock that I bedded, timney trigger, tac bolt knob, and pic rail I fitted to this action. I'm definitely going with a new barrel after consideration through your help. I've deceided on a 1-7 twist as I'd likely be using 80-90g. Mystic has shileen and mcgregor for a reasonable price, and they're great to deal with, but I'm going to do a little more research first. route. I'm in Cambridge, ON if anyone has any smith recommendations to see first/after, or if anyone just wants to get out shooting. Thanks again
 
Shooter ----/ said:
I personally have the chambers cut so that only the boat tail sits below the top of the shoulder. It does cut a small amount of case capacity but also allows me to easily chase the lands as the throat erodes for a long time to come. The other thing it allows for is a decent case to bullet grip. Some cases have extremely short necks and in combination with a bullet with a long boat tail, leaves very little bullet holding into the case. I just witnessed a fellow competitor in FTR drop a shell after pulling it out of his ammo box, only to have the bullet come out of the brass case thus dumping powder out and leaving him minus one shell.

Not saying I'm right, just explaining what I do and my reasoning behind it.
Click to expand...

I think we might be saying the same thing is different ways. That is, the neck of the case has full length contact with shank of the bullet, the angle of the boat-tail is in the shoulder area of the case, thus the base of the bullet does not intrude into the full diameter body of the case. Seating the bullet deeper cannot increase the bullet pull weight, as the neck already has full length contact with the shank, and I am not advocating having any part of the boat-tail in the neck. That said, folks who purposely choose to minimize their case neck's wall thickness through reaming, or who use oversized bushings in the belief that better accuracy is achieved with light bullet tension, can end up pulling their bullets if they seat them to jam lengths. That should be clear as mud, but I can't think of a better way of explaining it.:redface:
 
Boomer said:
I think we might be saying the same thing is different ways. That is, the neck of the case has full length contact with shank of the bullet, the angle of the boat-tail is in the shoulder area of the case, thus the base of the bullet does not intrude into the full diameter body of the case. Seating the bullet deeper cannot increase the bullet pull weight, as the neck already has full length contact with the shank, and I am not advocating having any part of the boat-tail in the neck. That said, folks who purposely choose to minimize their case neck's wall thickness through reaming, or who use oversized bushings in the belief that better accuracy is achieved with light bullet tension, can end up pulling their bullets if they seat them to jam lengths. That should be clear as mud, but I can't think of a better way of explaining it.:redface:
Click to expand...

Your right now that I re-read your post.
 
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