My first Remington switch barrel rifle

J

johnsopa

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 13, 2007
128
0
Pennsylvania
#1
OK, I will admit that I am a big Savage fan. So, after buying my first 700 (SPS Varmint in 243), I started thinking about how depressing it was that I couldn't swap barrels.

So, I ordered a 260 Remington barrel and also bought a Pac-Nor barrel nut.

After a !@#$%^ of a time getting the stock barrel off (and breaking off the trigger in the process), I screwed on the new barrel, headspaced it, and tightened the barrel nut with my Savage barrel nut wrench.

I was worried that the barrel nut would not clear the forearm of the AICS chassis, but everything was fine. There is a good bit of clearance still under the barrel nut.

Today, I shot a few rounds just to see what the 260 was like, and I will work up some loads this week.

The flash suppressor is actually the mount for an AAC 762-SD. I guess I should have mounted the suppressor for the picture but I forgot.

img2848yd5.jpg


img2851yi5.jpg
 
#6
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: skeetlee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Did you have any work done to your action before you installed the pac-nor barrel? thanks Lee </div></div>

Nope. It is a bone-stock action from a 700 SPS Varmint with the stock X-Mark Pro trigger. I lowered the trigger to about 2 lbs.

I will shoot some five-round groups, probably on Wednesday, to show you whether it shoots or not. If it shoots around 1/2 MOA consistantly, then I am not going to true up the action.
 
#7
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

That's Awesome! I've asked about this before, and everyone acted like I'd grown an extra head or something. So, is it a special barrel for the 700? Or is a barrel originally for a savage?
 
#8
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

O.k.,

We need pictures. I'm thinking that they have to pin the recoil lug to the receiver so it doesn't move during the swap. Curious minds want to know.
 
#9
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

Nice looking rifle there, johnsopa!
Will look for your range report.

For those who have not seen this before;
This is not new, and Pac-nor has offered this for a few years now.
The barrel is not special, other than profle, and threaded farther than normal .....without a shoulder. The threads are same as any Remington, different than Savage. This can be done with almost any action.
 
#10
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

RAF is right.

I didn't even pin the recoil lug. All I did was lightly snug the barrel nut by hand when the headspace was right, then align the recoil lug visually (sighting down the bottom of the barreled action) then tightened the barrel nut.

Since I am using an AICS, the exact timing of the recoil lug isn't important like it might be in a bedded stock. Even then, if you use enough tape on the sides, the timing of the recoil lug wouldn't have to be 100% perfect.

I'll post more pics when I do the range report. Give me a few days.
 
#13
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

I have thought about this myself and wondered if it could be done. With a pinned recoil lug you have a switch barrel Remvage!

Tell us how it shoots.This is interesting!
 
#14
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

I had no idea! What are the issues and the reason guys are not doing it in the main stream? Seems it would be the ideal way to make a switch barrel. My Savage is simple, cheaper and repeatable too. No big deal to do at all - would love to be able to do that to the Remmy : )

JamieD
 
#15
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

That's a slick rig, one I would be proud to own and shoot.
It's got better credentials and components than any of my rifles.

The reason Savage went with the barrel nut, as I understand it, was that they could chamber/thread/crown barrels in mass production without regard for headspace. No matter which barrel was mated with which action, they could be headspaced correctly.

The only reason I can think of for creating a nut-system where none exists is to allow you to order complete barrels and install them without the need for any machine work.

If the average guy wants a switch barrel Rem, the only thing holding them back is a trip to the smith for each barrel, unless more than one is fitted at a time.

As a Savage user, I can tell you that getting the headspace right is a bit tricky with a barrel-nut. You are likely not going to get the "exact" same headspace every time.

jonsopa already knows this, and is prepared to deal with it.

Another choice is to simply get another "shouldered" barrel made for your gun, and the headspace will fall the same every time you remove and replace a barrel. No measurement, no tricks, no removing bolthead components to better gauge fitment.....more accurate headspace. No gauge needed.

The nut brings only the advantage of no need for custom fitting by a smith. In this it is superior, unless there is another method I am ignorant of. That is likely.
laugh.gif


 
#16
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

This is not new. As previously stated Pac-Nor has been doing this for a few years. I do find it kind of ironic however. I have seen Savage owners re-barreling rifles like a Remington and Remington owners re-barreling like a Savage, go figure.
 
#19
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

I'm toying with this idea also. How the accuracy with this setup without truing the action? Is that a pacnor barrel? What was the contour? Did you ever post a range report? Thanks much.
 
#20
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

Northlander over at savageshooters.com is pushing one of his own barrel nut systems now also, with use of regular Savage barrel nut and pre-threaded, pre-chambered barrel by McGowen.

The only limiting factor is the diameter of the chamber end has to be 1.055" or something like that, limited by the ID of the barrel nut, but I guess any barrel blank from top end makers can be turned down if too large, chambered, and threaded for this system by gunsmiths familiar with Savages, like Sinman on savageshooters.com.

Although since the bolt head on Rems aren't floating, I would think that the Rem action will still need to be trued with threads recut, otherwise the results may be less than ideal. I would like to see johnsopa's shot groups with his rifle for confirmation also.
 
#21
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

The Northlander system is exactly what I was thinking of. I've been doing a lot of searching on the net for reviews and testing on this very idea so that i could decide if this option is right for me. Unfortunatly I have not seen too many things to confirm or deny that this system is a good upgrade.
The reason I want to use this "Rem-age" system is so that I don't have to give my rifle to a smith for half a year. Conversely, if I gotta cut and true the action might as well have the smith fit the barrel also.
 
#22
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

My thoughts exactly Heavies... I am contemplating the same thing and was very excited when I found the "Rem-age" post by Northlander, although that post seemed to have gone by the waist side so I will have to contact Northlander to see what is going on. I also did not want to wait half to a full year for something to come back to shoot, but if I'm going to true up the action I'll just go with a Savage instead that was meant to work with a barrel nut. There are still several smiths who can true up a Savage action besides SSS and do just as good a job and do it faster...
 
#23
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

this is a feasable setup that interests me as well. I too am curious what the cost is comparable to the smithing involved in a straightforward swap. The whole wait time is something that has held me back as well.
 
#24
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

The sick thing about it is that mcgowen just had a sale on their Remington prefit barrels. It would have been a done deal if I could have got my tax return a month ago! Hehe.
 
#25
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

I really like your setup. Pac-Nor did a nice job on their version of a barrel nut - sleek.

When ordering a barrel, for your setup, what do you specify?
 
#26
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

Wow, seems like someone resurrected this one.

I didn't have much luck with getting this platform to shoot. I really had a hard time getting consistency under 1 MOA.

Considering that all of my Savages (223, 6.5x47 and 260 barrels from Shilen; 308 from LW; one stock Savage 22-250 barrel) shoot 10 shot groups between 3/4" and 1.1" at 200 yards, I kind of gave up on this AICS/Rem700/McGowen platform.

I did get the action trued by a top name precision/benchrest gunsmith here in southern PA, so I'm leaning towards "blaming" the McGowen barrel.

I was the first guy that asked them to build a switch barrel Remington and had to give them all of the measurements, etc.

But, I'm going to TOFTT and go try again. I dusted off the gun, put a new scope on it (Bushnell FFP 6-24x50) and will go try working up some loads again next week.

If it doesn't shoot, I'm going to order a barrel from PacNor and see what happens.
 
#30
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Heavies</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Johnsopa, are you associated with http://www.mysticprecision.com/? I've seen your rifle sported on thier web site. If you are not associated with them you might want to have some words with them using pics of your rifle to sell barrels.

http://www.mysticprecision.com/htm/barrels.php</div></div>

Very interesting. Nope, never heard of them. Do they post here?

I guess I will email them and ask for a free barrel and barrel nut since they are using my rifle for marketing purposes.

I find this very disturbing and deceitful. You'd think that they'd have a rifle, barrel and barrel nut to assemble and photograph if they had a real product.
 
#31
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

johnsopa, all this time I had thought you had gotten a PacNor barrel and nut, since McGowen was not mentioned in the first thread...
laugh.gif


McGowen did have spotty period of history for the Savage shooters so who knows, maybe you got one of the experimental barrels that have not been perfected yet. I would love it if Rock, Bartlein, or Brux got into the action with this... It would be neat to see if one of these matched up with a Surgeon action would shoot.
smile.gif
The negation of time spent at a gunsmith is incentive enough for me to try.

Thanks for jumping back on your thread and letting us know how it shot/will shoot!
 
#32
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

Yeah, I agree that other barrel makers should jump in. I think, though, that people looking for top-notch accuracy will be a bit disappointed unless they have the action and bolt face trued. IMHO, without doing this, you don't have as good as chance at building an accurate platform as you would with the Savage because of the floating bolt head.

However, mating it to a top-notch action like a Surgeon would be great.

Also, supposedly, Shilen is considering making prefit barrels for Remingtons as well.

IMHO, PacNor should have marketed this more. They've been doing it for awhile and in retrospect, I wish I had just gotten the barrel from them.

Here's some more background that I posted over on SavageShooters back in 9/09 when Northlander started marketing these Remington prefits from McGowen.

From here: http://savageshooters.com/SavageForum/index.php/topic,25549.msg185500.html#msg185500

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">« Reply #23 on: September 12, 2009, 06:23:36 PM »

Pre-fits have been available for Remingtons from one barrel maker for awhile, but usually only an order basis (not in stock, like Jim is doing).

I am the first person that asked McGowen to make a Remington pre-fit. Jim facilitated the process per my request. I purchased the appropriate barrel nut from the vendor that makes them, did all of the measurements and provided pictures, etc. for McGowen.

There is one thing that folks should be aware of. It will usually not be an issue, but I think it needs to be put out in the open.

The Remington barrels have a recessed breach face that is part of Remington's safety feature of containing the case, bolt face, etc. in case of a case rupture.

Just make sure that when you install a pre-fit barrel on a 700 that there is proper clearance at the front of the bolt face, bolt head, breach face and side gas port.

I installed this first barrel (a 260) on a bone stock 700 and the accuracy results were not terribly impressive compared to the improvement that I'm used to seeing with Savages.. Once I had the action and bolt trued, then things got better.

I suspect that switching to a floating Savage bolt head design would probably improve things as well -- then the action/bolt wouldn't need to be trued. That's part of the beauty of the Savage design.

I, too, would love to see a floating bolt head installation or purchase option!</div></div>
 
#33
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

lets bring this back again - why start new and miss what already has been found on this

the bighorn action got me thinking about this, the floating, switchable boltface that uses rem 700 dimensions in an aisc stock ( so the alignment of the recoil lug would not be critical) this would be a natural for a barrel nut remington set up
 
#34
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

The nut is not a good idea as it adds another variable to the setup. At a minimum, it is more difficult to get the headspace exactly the same every time. Any good smith can make you 2 or more conventionally shouldered barrels for the same rifle in different calibers. Bolt face, action and magazine lengths are considerations of course. An action wrench and barrel vise are not complicated tools to use. If you have a separate recoil lug, pin it. I don't even have to remove my scope on my 257Wea/340Wea switcheroo.
 
#36
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: gabbott</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The nut is not a good idea as it adds another variable to the setup. At a minimum, it is more difficult to get the headspace exactly the same every time. Any good smith can make you 2 or more conventionally shouldered barrels for the same rifle in different calibers. Bolt face, action and magazine lengths are considerations of course. An action wrench and barrel vise are not complicated tools to use. If you have a separate recoil lug, pin it. I don't even have to remove my scope on my 257Wea/340Wea switcheroo. </div></div>


This is the way to go. If you use the same smith to fit new barrels, he should be able to keep a record of the dimensions that properly fit and headspace your rifle. With those dimensions he should be able to chamber a barrel and mail it off to you without the need for your action. Kelbly's does that for ther Panda actions
 
#37
Re: My first Remington switch barrel rifle

Or, after you headspace your barrel with the barrel nut, you squeeze a little JB weld a few places between the nut and barrel, wipe it smooth and let it dry. That way, the nut itself acts like a shoulder, without having to pay a smith (I'm a cheap ass haha)

You can do this with all your barrels, then when you want, you just spin one off, spin the next one on, snug it up good, and you're good to go (You might have to widen the barrel channel on your stock if it's too small) My shooting buddy did this, and if I had a need for another caliber I would too.
 
#38
Johnsopa,

What was the outcome on your change barrel system, did you end up getting a Pac-Nor barrel or did you get the groups you wanted. I am getting ready to change the barrel on my 22-250 to 260 Remington and I was thinking of ordering two barrels from Pac-Nor both with a barrel nut one in 22-250 and the other in 260.
 
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