upgrade stevens 200 in .223 or sell and buy new rifle?

canuck75

canuck75

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Hi all,

I need advice, I love shooting gophers and I love my stevens 200 in .223, but after a bit of sustained shooting, the barrel heats up pretty quick and obscures the scope view. I was thinking of getting a new heavy barrel, but the best price I can find is $350. In my head I have a hard time spending more on the barrel than I did on the gun. I'm not looking for total tackdriver as I'm not that good of a shot, just something that can hold up for longer duration shooting. So; do I sell my 200 as is, and buy a new rifle with a heavy/varmint barrel, or just buy a barrel and upgrade the 200? If new, any suggestion for a bolt rifle in .223 for around 500-700 dollars that has the heavy/varmint barrel?

Thanks
 
buy a back up gun..............heavy barrels might take longer to heat up........but they take even longer to cool back down.....

so for the price of a new barrel you can get a second rifle.............
 
Or maybe install a water jacket around your existing barrel and never worry about it ever heating up again. :p
 
what you are seeing is mirrage . I have 204 ruger heavy flutted barrel and even on that I will start to get mirrage after 10 shots or so. Heavy barrel take longer to heat up but they also take longer to cool down. Mirrage also is more evedent on higher power scopes. Try turning the power down on your scope when the barrel heats up. Google " Scope Mirrage" good imformation on the subject can be found there. Here is a fast easy and cheap fix, get your self a lat from a venetian blind and a couple of small peices of velco . attach the blind lat to your barrel with the velcro this will deflect the heat comeing off your barrel to the sides. You will find a vidio about it when you google Scope Mirrage. Have you ever noticed on a lot of bench rest guns there is a little piece of velcro at the front of the barrel and another piece just in front of reciever. Well that velcro is for attaching a mirrage shield.
 
Count on around $900 to $1000 for backup gun. Even a Remington 700 SPS Varmit is going to set you back $600 and that does not include a scope.

But after saying all that....buy another gun....
 
Don't buy a heavy barrel for coyotes as too heavy so the advice to keep old gun makes sense. I have a sako .204 with the heavy barrel and works real good on gophers. It is often reported that fluted barrels cool down quicker. I don't know if this is true
 
mackillan said:
Don't buy a heavy barrel for coyotes as too heavy so the advice to keep old gun makes sense. I have a sako .204 with the heavy barrel and works real good on gophers. It is often reported that fluted barrels cool down quicker. I don't know if this is true
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Theoretically they should cool down slightly faster than a regular barrel of the same diameter (slightly more surface area and less metal to cool off). In practice I doubt the difference would be significant.
 
I'd get another barrel. You can screw it on yourself and you will probably have a very accurate rifle in the end. It will also be fun to do the work and have something a bit different in the end.
 
upgrade the Stevens!!! Well, I certainly wouldn't do that! I'm surprized that there hasn't been any real negative responses here, yet! But, as they say, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all! I'll make an exception and abide by that, this time!:p
 
two-dogs said:
upgrade the Stevens!!! Well, I certainly wouldn't do that! I'm surprized that there hasn't been any real negative responses here, yet! But, as they say, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all! I'll make an exception and abide by that, this time!:p
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The Stevens is a perfect package for the home hobbyist to upgrade. Ready to go, pre-chambered high quality barrels can be had for $400 (Shilen, McGowan etc) and can be installed in your home with a minimal investment in tools. IMO the barrel is one of the keys to excellent accuracy, and you can be shooting such a set-up with a very small investment.
 
1899 said:
The Stevens is a perfect package for the home hobbyist to upgrade. Ready to go, pre-chambered high quality barrels can be had for $400 (Shilen, McGowan etc) and can be installed in your home with a minimal investment in tools. IMO the barrel is one of the keys to excellent accuracy, and you can be shooting such a set-up with a very small investment.
Click to expand...

well, that may be so! But, I hope it's heart warming to know that I won't be of any competive competition to scramble and buy any of those hobbyist bargain busters that pop up! I know where my 400 bucks would go........... Please excuse my grade 8 spelling, the spell check on this site does not seem to work for me.
 
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