Custom barrel for a Remington 700 ?

4406v

I am customizing my Remington 700 BDL in 7mm Rem Mag.I just ordered a Bobby Hart Accublock laminated stock from Stocky's.I've also ordered a Timney trigger from Midway.

I am looking into a custom barrel and have no idea which one to use. I'd like to send my action out and have a barrel installed "ready to drop in".What do you guys suggest?

nononsense

4406v,

quote:I am customizing my Remington 700...
I am looking into a custom barrel...
I'd like to send my action out and have a barrel installed...

Wading through all of the efforts required to get a custom rifle built is a difficult process. Selecting the best barrel for the price and end result is paramount to enjoying a custom rifle for the rest of your life.

Fortunately, there are over a dozen superb barrel makers around today who will be able to supply a great barrel at a competitive price. However, I would stop here by stating that a "ready to drop in" barrel should NOT be included in ANY of the choices found for a custom rifle. If you are making the effort and spending the money to build a high quality custom rifle and are willing to send it away to have a barrel fitted, why not make it the very best possible selection and use a gunsmith to fit and chamber your barrel?

The barrel and chamber fitted to the action is the one process which can make or break a potentially accurate rifle. Why spend hard earned money on a generically manufactured pre-fit barrel when you can have a properly fitted barrel for your custom rifle?


Bartlein Barrels - Top of the line for hunting and competition barrels.
Benchmark Barrels - Benchmark built its reputation with record-setting rimfire barrels, and now they are producing excellent centerfire barrels as well.
Border Barrels - Traditional Obermeyer-style "5R" cut-rifled barrels made in Scotland. Long barrel life, high quality. Distributed by O.K. Weber in the USA
Broughton Barrels - Conventional and canted land (5C) pull-buttoned barrels. Stress-relieved and meticulously hand-lapped, Broughton barrels clean easily and the 5C offers enhanced velocities.
Brux Barrels
Hart Barrels - High grade push-button, hand-lapped barrels. Long, effective barrel life. Along with Shilen, Hart barrels have dominated 100/200yd BR for decades. Great choice for 6mm BR varmint guns too.
Krieger Barrels - Cut-rifled barrels with very long barrel life. Top smiths say Krieger barrels are almost always straight and true. Fewer duds than some other brands. Hard to go wrong with a Krieger.
Lilja Precision Rifle Barrels - Hand-lapped button rifled barrels. Lilja's 3-groove 6BR barrels are very accurate and clean fast. Lilja's rim fire barrels are among the very best.
Pac-Nor Barreling - Barrel-maker and chamberer. Conventional barrels plus pre-fit, three-groove, and polygonal rifling.
Rock Creek Barrels
Schneider Rifle Barrels - 1403 Red Baron, Payson, AZ 85541, Phone: (928) 474-2852, Hand-lapped, pull-buttoned barrels with superb accuracy. Conventional and 5-land Polygon (P5) rifling options. Good prices ($254/blank). David Tubb uses Gary Schneider's barrels exclusively.
Shilen Barrels - Big-name Texas barrel-maker still produces the lion's share of winning short-range BR barrels. They now offer ratchet (canted land) as well as conventional push-button rifling in 3, 4, 5 and 6 grooves.
Spencer Rifle Barrels - Accurate, button-rifled barrels available completely chambered in a wide variety of calibers. Tight control of tolerances. Considerable success in big-bore 1000yd guns and accuracy-guaranteed Varmint guns.
Lothar Walther Precision Tools - (770) 889-9998 Buttoned barrels from proprietary super high-grade German steel. Polygonal rifling available in .223 and .30 calibers. Good value on prechambered and threaded barrels. Finished barrels for the M 98, Savage and CZ rifles. 54 standard contours and 1500 other contours are available.

Virtually any barrel from these manufacturers will make a great addition to your build.

If you have any other question you can always use my e-mail contact in my profile.

Best.

MG1890

440, if I interpret correctly, you want to send out your action & have it barreled to a contour that will "drop in" to your new stock? If so, it first depends upon how your new stock is inletted. If it is sold as a "no fitting required" for Remington 700 long action, you will need the barrel installer to match the Remington 700 contour. The custom #1, #2, #3, etc. contours will require additional stock inletting.

My opinion is to get away from the factory contour, select a contour that will match the intended function of the rifle, and have the stock properly inletted for the new barrel. Custom contour barrels typically have more material in the breech area, regardless of muzzle diameter. For a 7mm Rem Mag, a #3 is a good sporting contour. 26" will help to burn the powder!

cpermd

I use Broughton
Overkill for my uses but that is the way I am[:I]

CP

4406v

This is why I asked here first.I am an absolute newbie to all of this.I have only ever shot factory guns and factory ammo.Now approaching 50 yrs old I am reloading my own ammo.I am not satisfied with "close enough" accuracy anymore.A custom rifle has always been a dream until now.

I hope to make good choices and build a rifle more accurate than I can shoot.You guys always provide great advice.

Mobuck

My question is"are you good enough to realize the difference between the barrel already on the rifle and a custom barrel?" If you're only doing a custom barrel to have something to brag about, any brand will do. I've shot a Remington 700 7mmRem mag at long range and can honestly say it shot beyond the capabilities of 90% of the shooters in the world.

4406v

Bragging about my rifle has nothing to do with my build.

I have shot the same 700 for 25 years,lots of rounds,lots of animals.Did not have to adjust the scope since the initial sight in.Two years ago that changed.I have already ruled out the scope.Now the goal is extreme accuracy for my own piece of mind.My guns are for hunting first,shooting smaller groups means cleaner kills period.

I figure for the same amount of money as a new quality rifle (Sako,Cooper,Montana) I can rebuild my 700 into something better and have a true custom rifle.

MG1890

440, tell us a little bit about what you want the rifle to do. Accuracy is a package. Some packages are more difficult to work with than others. Do you want a 100 yard 1 hole rifle that lives on a benchrest with a 3" wide forearm, or a hunting rifle for 700 yard shots at pronghorn? Vastly different recipes for success. Chambering is subjective, but 7mm Rem Mag is far from the top of the list for benchrest rifles.

In light of the new stock having a barrel channel already opened up for a factory varmint contour, I suggest you move forward with replacing your barrel. Your sporter barrel is going to look pretty funny in that big barrel channel. Have your gunsmith order up a 1:9 twist stainless steel blank in Remington Varmint contour; chamber to SAAMI 7mm Rem Mag; never look back. Barrel brand will not matter for a hunting rifle. You should buy some good reloading dies, if you don't already have some. Something without an expander ball.

nononsense

In the first place, the new stock has an existing barrel channel which is:

- Cleanly inletted for factory varmint/police barrels and larger only;
- Standard factory Remington 700 Varmint/Police barrel contours "Drop-in" (i.e. SPS Varmint, SPS Tactical, 700 VTR, etc.);
- Easily opened for full 1.25" bull barrels;

This translates in to the contour referred to as a Varmint/PSS by most of the barrel makers.

However, if you decide that a slightly heavier contour would be more appropriate then you have the barrel channel enlarged to make room for a Light Varmint or Heavy Varmint contour. In the Douglas/Shilen contours this is referred to as a #7 contour.

In the second place, I'd find the gunsmith you want to handle the new barrel and discuss this with him. If you decide that his choice is not up to your desires then move on to the next 'smith. If his choice is in line with your expectations then I'd decide about the other variable.

Bear in mind, with all the hub bub about hoarding and buying firearms related parts, getting a custom barrel ordered can run into about 6 months wait from any of the top makers. Some gunsmiths carry a few of the most useful contours, calibers and twist rates. If your 'smith doesn't have what you need, you can try suppliers such as Bugholes, who stock some of the better makers.

My #1 choice is Bartlein for all contours, calibers and twist rates. I specify 5R rifling in Stainless Steel.

#2 and on:

Krieger

Rock Creek

Schneider (M40 contour, 6-groove)

Best.

4406v

The reason I picked 7mm Mag is just owning and shooting one for 25 years.It has worked well on whitetails,bear,moose,and elk.As I stated above my guns are for hunting.Above average accuracy is my goal.Maybe just the right hand loads is all I need???

I've already purchased a new stock since the original is cracked.The new trigger is a Timney adjustable 1-1/2 to 4 lb which I've read alot of good things about.I may just put it together with the original barrel.Then head to the range to test my hand loads.

charliemeyer007

I never enjoyed the factory stock on the Rem 700 in 7 mag.

If you can get two bbl.'s fitted at the same time.

I like ball powder in my 7 mag.