Gunsmithing Should I let a newish gunsmith Chamber a barrel for me.

[BoltActionBrotherhood]

Hey Guys I wanted some opinions. I have a buddy (online buddy) who has been doing his own barrels for quite some time, and he started doing it full time and charging for them, etc. I have seen the results of his barrels and they look really good on paper (But that's based of his social media post)
I need a 7 saum barrel for a semi-budget custom HUNTING build 20 inch barrel etc. I just want something capable of producing about half moa.
Hey is giving me a SCREAMING deal because we are buds (xcaliber barrel), all he is going going to do is chamber it.
So my question is, would you trust a new gunsmith I think he has only been doing it for about 3 years, but I do know this guy is pretty OCD.
If I do have him do it should just have him do a remage barrel for me because there is less that could go wrong?
My action is already trued and blueprinted etc, so no work being done there.
I guess I am wondering, how easy it it to F**K up a chambering job? For the barrel and chambering he would only be charging me $355
Thanks for the input guys its really appreciated.

 

[Mordamer]

I think you should let him do it. We all started somewhere and it is possible to do very good work even with less experience. I would give him a shot at it if I were you, but I have money to burn and wouldn't be up a creek if I lost a couple hundred bucks on the deal. I think it is a good thing to trust a buddy and get him more business, but you have to go into the deal knowing that if the outcome is less than perfect you are willing to lose the money rather than the friendship.

Don't have him do a Remage barrel. They aren't easier. Have him do a shouldered barrel especially because your action is already trued and a Remage might not work.

It is very easy to screw up a chambering job, but it's also not that hard to do it right.

 

[Mordamer]

I'll also say this, the 3rd and 4th barrels I ever chambered when I was learning were for 2 friends. That was several years ago and both guys still send me messages every now and then about how the barrels are awesome and how good they shoot.

 

[Edds]

He is your buddy and you don't know if you should trust him to do the work?

The answer is, no. You should not get him to do the work.

 

[BoltActionBrotherhood]

I'll also say this, the 3rd and 4th barrels I ever chambered when I was learning were for 2 friends. That was several years ago and both guys still send me messages every now and then about how the barrels are awesome and how good they shoot.

Thank you for the input, to 355 Is just for a remage barrel chambered, if I wanted it shouldered and installed on my action it would be an extra $180. You say a remage barrel might not work on a factory r700 action that has been trued, can you elaborate more please I haven't heard about this before?

 

[Wannashootit]

You say a remage barrel might not work on a factory r700 action that has been trued, can you elaborate more please I haven't heard about this before?

Depends on what was done to "true" the action.
If it included single-pointing the receiver threads oversize to clean them up/get them concentric to the bolt raceway then a factory Remage may be undersized resulting in a sloppy thread fit. Whether or not it would be "excessively" sloppy depends on how much they were opened up.

 

[Mordamer]

Thank you for the input, to 355 Is just for a remage barrel chambered, if I wanted it shouldered and installed on my action it would be an extra $180. You say a remage barrel might not work on a factory r700 action that has been trued, can you elaborate more please I haven't heard about this before?

A trued Rem 700 often has the action threads opened up as part of the truing process. The Remage design assumes that the factory threads are 1-1/16x16. This means a Remage barrel can have too loose of a thread fit on a trued action.

 

[wadebrown]

An upcharge of $180 for a standard shouldered barrel over a remage seems a little stout unless he is having X-Caliber do the remage barrel and he just does the install. The machining for either is pretty similar I assume he would indicate the blank the blank the same regardless of what route he goes.

Just my 2 cents and maybe I missed something I do that sometimes.

 

[Mordamer]

An upcharge of $180 for a standard shouldered barrel over a remage seems a little stout unless he is having X-Caliber do the remage barrel and he just does the install. The machining for either is pretty similar I assume he would indicate the blank the blank the same regardless of what route he goes.

Just my 2 cents and maybe I missed something I do that sometimes.

I agree. It usually takes exactly the same amount of time to do a Remage.

 

[Holliday]

“Buddies” are tricky. My best friend had one of his new gunsmith “buddies” do some work on one of his rifles and it was a disaster. I had a “buddy” do some paint on my motorcycle and he swore on a stack of proverbial bibles it would be back before riding season. 6 months later I told him I was picking up my parts done or not. They were still drying when I showed up with half the season gone. Thankfully our friendship remained intact.

Conversely I sharpen my buddy’s blades on my WE pro. He considers himself lucky to have a buddy able to put a god’s edge on his blades. I was learning when I did his first one.

Only you can judge you “buddy’s” competency but if things go south it could well trash your friendship. Consider that.

 

[supercorndogs]

Face book friends.



What is the name of his shop? Maybe someone here has used it. That looks pretty similar to the price i paid for couple Remage x-calber barrels.

 

[larryh128]

What I know is this, if he has machining skills, when the indicator reads 0 in 360 degrees it doesnt matter if he is world renouned or not. I have decent machining skills and my rifles typically will shoot sub 1/4 minute at 300 yds. I only do barrels for myself and a very few friends because I'm not making a job out of a hobby. I have people turn their noses up at my barrels all the time because they werent machined by a "top notch" smith. Remember that guy started at ground zero too.

 

[Steel head]

Those are some pretty high prices from a so called friend.
The guy I get my barrels from is cheaper than that and I don’t know him at all but he is a pretty well known entity.

 

[BoltActionBrotherhood]

So “buddy” was a simple way of saying it.
we are not buddies per say. We connected online and talk shop on occasion. He has a pretty popular YouTube channel.
thanks for the input guys. His point of charging more for a shouldered barrel was if he was to install it too.
I think I’m going to give him a shot on a remage barrel, because at the end of the day he seems like a good guy I would like to throw some businesses at.