how much to AI a 700 .223 Rem

Roughly the same cost to re-chamber any firearm. Remove barrel and setup in lathe.
Move shoulder forward a few threads, re-acquire threads if needed, re-bore nose recess, ream new chamber and headspace to Ackley chamber. That is the correct way.

The amateur way is to run the reamer in through the barreled action. New chamber is made, but excessive headspace results. Bad situation, but much cheaper and I won't do it.
 
lejarretnoir said:
Roughly the same cost to re-chamber any firearm. Remove barrel and setup in lathe.
Move shoulder forward a few threads, re-acquire threads if needed, re-bore nose recess, ream new chamber and headspace to Ackley chamber. That is the correct way.

The amateur way is to run the reamer in through the barreled action. New chamber is made, but excessive headspace results. Bad situation, but much cheaper and I won't do it.
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What does it cost?
 
Epp's smithy starts at $125. A lot depends on what tools a smithy already has. Anything he has to buy or rent, you pay for.
 
You can get a Pac-Nor prefit in 223 AI that can replace what you have and the smith only needs to headspace for you. Cost starts at $450 for a chambered pre-fit, plus whatever the smith woulkd charge... likely in the $100-150 range.
 
With regards to these pre-fit barrels, does headspacing involve cutting down the threads of the barrel shank, or just tightening the barrel on the action more and more until the headspace is perfect?
 
Headspace has to be right when fully tightened. It's not the threads you will be cutting down, but moving the shoulder slightly or not or maybe reaming in a little to get it right. It all depends on the action first. No two are alike and if it has been blueprinted that changes specs too. Then the bolt recess/nose clearances have to be checked too.
 
So they send the pre-fit barrel with the headspace a little on the short side, and then the gunsmith installs the barrel to a certain torque spec (I assume?), and checks headspace. Then the 'smith uses the reamer to cut the chamber slightly until the headspace is correct. Is this right? Is that what you mean by "moving the shoulder"?
 
No, I mean moving the shoulder of the barrel. When the barrel is properly torqued that is where you want the correct headspace to be. This needs to be done on a lathe if headspace is excessive/chambered long.
As to prefits, I'm no expert on all the brands if they are chambered short or not for the Rem 700's.
If the chamber is short it will need to be reamed until headspace is correct.
 
Got it. Thanks.

One last question. What is the correct torque spec to use when installing a barrel to the action? How do you know when it's "tight enough"?
 
Thanks again. I'm really enjoying learning about simple gunsmithing stuff, here. So is it safe to say that a new barrel cannot be properly headspaced without a lathe? Either the chamber has to be cut deeper or the barrel shoulder bumped back a bit in order to get the headspace right, correct?
 
On the other hand you could get lucky with a pre-fit and it will screw in tight perfectly headspaced and not learn anything so I've been told. ;)
So far in my limited experience it hasn't happened.
Any barrel new or old, same story.
 
Prefit (not to be confused with short chambered barrels) barrels are complete of all major machining (threading, crown, contour, chamber) and are purposely chambered slightly deep, you cut the shoulder back to establish the correct head space. There are the extremes, I just got a second Shilen replacement barrel (first one wasn't to spec) and the chamber was so deep (.030+) that I ended up having to re-cut the bolt recess clearance. All the Pac-Nors I have used have been bang on, only maybe a .004-.007" shoulder cut for perfect head space. Advantages of a prefit - don't have to buy reamer & gage for a "one of" project and saves machining time. Down side - when it ain't right - it really ain't right.
 
But you need a lathe to finish installing a pre-fit, right?

I'm just thinking about whether or not I could buy a prefit and then install it myself without a lathe. It looks like I would need a lathe in order to cut the shoulder a bit for proper headspacing...
 
Jordan Smith said:
But you need a lathe to finish installing a pre-fit, right?

I'm just thinking about whether or not I could buy a prefit and then install it myself without a lathe. It looks like I would need a lathe in order to cut the shoulder a bit for proper headspacing...
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Yes, you need a lathe.

Unless you are talking about a Savage pre fit in which case the bbl is screwed into the action untill the head space is correct then the bbl nut is tightened down to hold the bbl in place. Head space is double checked and you are good to go. Think of the bbl nut as an adjustable shoulder.

The one thing doing this is you must trust the bbl was indeed chambered correctly. The protrusion of the case (distance from bbl to bolt nose) is normally not measured it seems and people don't think of this when switching bbls on their savages. Never hear of a problem though.


You can buy pre-chambered bbls for Remington's that use the same bbl nut system as the savage if you want to go that route on a remington too.
 
if you have to move the shoulder of the barrel then you need a lathe and if it is short chambered you can get by with a chamber reamer and a wrench and a headspacing gauge
ty
 
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