Chamber and contour opinions

F

Fury

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I have a .243 in a Savage w/ accutrigger. I am thinking of modifying the rifle with a Shilen barrel and perhaps a McMillan stock. Currently I use the rifle for casual target shooting and a backup hunting rifle (my .270 is my primary hunting rifle). I have started to become more serious about target shooting. For F-class shooting I am using a Remington 40-xb in 7mm Rem Mag (which shoots great by the way). I was thinking that I would like to modify my .243 such that it would make a decent target rifle (as a back up and just for the fun of shooting a different rifle) but still it could serve the role of backup for hunting in case something goes wrong with the .270 during deer season (my .243 saved the day last deer season when I had some scope issues on my .270 which have since been resolved). So with that preamble.....

I was thinking:
Chamber the rifle in .260 Rem
Barrel - savage varmint weight (0.800 at the muzzle vs 1.00 for a bull barrel) and I was thinking of a 1 in 8 twist rate. I can't decide between a 26" and 24" barrel length. I am leaning towards 26". Is that barrel heavy enough to maintain accuracy for a 15 shot string?

For a stock I thought the McMillan HTG would be nice (of M40A1 fame).

This is a long term project (just had our first kid so priorities have shifted) so I am really in the planning stage.

I would appreciate any thoughts you would have on the issue.

Cheers.
 
If you have not acquired the stock yet, then you are free to choose any contour and that is good. My recommendation would be a #17 heavy Varmint/Target contour which comes with a 28" finished length and a .900" muzzle. This is the overwhelmingly most popular F-class contour.

Why? 5" of straight barrel shank in front of the action and 28" with a straight taper means you have enough barrel left to re-chamber and set-back when the throat is done. It's like having two barrels in one. Setting back a 26" barrel will leave you with around 22 inches at the most. The contour is also heavy enough to tolerate the sort of 15 and 20 shot strings in F-class shooting, and helps maximize the 22 pound limit you want to strive for in F-Class.

FWIW we have a small quantity of these Kreiger barrels in stock right now in 1:8 twist.
 
Thanks guys. I guess I wasn't clear. This won't be my primary target rifle. I know what the rules are for F-class. The 40-XB is primary target rifle. What I want out of this project is a rifle that target shoots pretty well (well enough to practice with it about half of the time or so). I don't want the rifle to weigh 22lbs as I want to able to use it as a back up rifle for deer hunting. I wouldn't mind if the rifle weighs in around 12lbs or a little more as I want it to be a good shooter.

Obtunded, I would be interested in the barrels you carry except that I doing some preliminary research for the project at this point (read: I'll hope to assemble this rifle for next summer).

I am interested in Shilen because they make barrels ready to be directly installed into savage actions. Thus I am limited to one of two contours:

1 - varmint 0.800 at the muzzle
2 - bull - 1.000 at the muzzle

I think the varmint barrel weight would suit my needs of an accurate rifle that I can use to target shoot (but keeping in mind that for 40-xb will be used for competition) and I can take it hunt in pinch (but not it's primary use).
 
Shilen barrels are fine, but do yourself a favor: buy a blank have it properly mated to your action instead of buying a generic replacement. Headspacing, timing, and chambering should be optimized for each individual action. If pre-threading and chambering were such a good idea, all the top barrel makers would be doing it
 
I was planning on getting a gunsmith to do the headspacing. If it's a bad idea I would be surprised that Shilen would compromise their reputation.

What would it cost me to get a barrel from your business and then pay a gunsmith to chamber and install it? I know it will depend on a few factors but if you had a ballpark figure that would be great. Budget is a definite consideration for me.

Thanks Obtunded.
 
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