Gunsmithing Possible to cut this barrel?

[Exo]

Real basic question:

Is it possible to get a light contour Rem 700 .308 barrel cut down to say 18" or 20" and re-crowned? (Its the light barrel, hunting barrel, pencil barrel??? basically the skinniest barrel remington makes)

I dont see why it wouldnt be, but I also dont know shit about this type of procedure.

 

[7mmRM]

No problem.

 

[Ledzep]

Shouldn't be a problem at all. The only constraints you commonly have on cutting a barrel down is the 16" ATF minimum legal limit, and for gas systems with semi-autos.

 

[Exo]

Fantastic! Im going to keep this in mind then! I was told it couldn't be done by someone who was going to gunsmithing school, it sounded like he was trying to way over complicate this though so I figured I would re-ask people who actually knew what the hell they were talking about!

Thanks guys!

 

[Ledzep]

One thing I figured I should add, too. If the barrel profile is too thin, it can limit the thread size/pitch, or even if you can have it threaded at all. The plus side is that as you cut the barrel shorter, the muzzle becomes thicker, increasing your odds at successfully being able to thread it to something useful.

 

[Exo]

With this rifle...on this barrel...im not really overly concerned with putting any break, suppressor or otherwise on the end of it. Really just want a nice short rifle.

When cutting a barrel, I know it looses (roughly) 100fps for every inch removed (???), I am assuming this will yield some negative results on its current bullet tastes? I lucked out with this one, it is really accurate with 150gr bulk. There really is not alot of difference between 150, 168 and 175 grain ammo until out passed 600ish yards. Past that distance, it seems to shoot 168 better.

 

[dougfxdl]

If you screw it up, I have a barrel to replace it for you

 

[Idaho CTD]

On a .308 you's probably only lose 25-35fps/inch not 100fps. As the powder capacity increases compared to the bore size the more you lose in velocity per inch.

 

[Ledzep]

Yeah 25-35fps per inch is a pretty solid rule of thumb. Some interesting things can happen as you cut a barrel back inch by inch, where 1 inch you lose 50fps, and the next you lose almost nothing, but the average over several inches is almost always 20-40fps/inch.