Re: What barrel to get?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There is more than the rifle that does the shooting. </div></div>
Like so many things in sports, equipment just facilitates skill and talent. Good call.
Have you offered to have him shoot your rifle to see what he can do with it? If he gets a few down the tube to get an idea and you see his groups aren't better than yours, you have a good case to change up some things. If he's not markedly better than you are with your own rifle, then I say keep working on trigger time and not messing with something that's already a good shooting rifle.
1) I wouldn't change the barrel yet, it's a shooter from your group sizes. Under 4" at 600 is nothing to sneeze at.
2) What caliber is MC shooting? The ballistics on a 308 just aren't going to beat a 260 for the same shooter and equal sticks. Saying he's shooting under 2" at 600 is damn impressive, if he's doing it with a 6.5-284 or a 260 Rem then he might just have a ballistic edge you're not going to match with the 308.
3) Keeping #2 in mind, if you have the short action already, if you're set on having it tru'd up neatly, and you want to switch barrels, why not go to the 260? It's a 1k cartridge, it will kill anything in North America with the right shot placement and bullet.
4) Back on #3 now... If you're going to put the expense into a custom barrel and custom work into an action like that, it seems like you're robbing yourself by sticking to the 308. You can sell the brass and dies and other components you have for it to defray the costs of changing calibers.
Now, all that being said.
I would not change a thing on the rifle, if you have good glass on it, keep it that way and try working on the loads more and learning from Mr. Crowe
