Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Barrel recontour and accuracy

I have a custom 257 imp on a model 70 action. The barrel is a Shilen and shoots very well. The barrel contour is a custom that the smith did.
Was wondering if haveing the barrel recontoured to a lighter profile could cause stresses that will change accuracy potential?

It could.

I’ve done a few cut barrels. Worked as I wanted.

If the weight is bothering you, I would take a chance. Shilen is a good barrel maker. Stress relieving is part of the barrel making process. Probably the most important thing is whoever re- contours your barrel, is they take light cuts to not heat up the barrel. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Going to a lighter contour might change the accuracy potential, but probably only because it's lighter. Turning a barrel doesn't introduce stress into the barrel, unless the cutter is dull. Removing material removes stresses which may exist in that material. As Alan said, these barrels are properly stress relieved. I have contoured a whole bunch of Shilen barrels.
When turning a barrel, or anything else, for that matter, proper practice is to take as much as the machine can handle. A properly ground tool bit will generate minimal heat as it cuts. The heat should be carried away in the chip rather than staying in the workpiece. GD

If anybody could predict with any degree of certainty what happens to a barrel in the lathe when the initial stresses are an unknowable...they'd be millionaires. I've had jobs as simple as turning the steps off a military barrel cause accuracy problems...supposedly. But I have no way of knowing if the customer is savvy enough to develop a load for the changed barrel harmonic, so naturally it's the machinist' fault. All he knows is his old pet load doesn't shoot anymore so it's my fault automatically.
I have one horror tale I'll share, Jerry know-it-all came in a few years ago, he had a nice Lilja heavy contour in 280AI that was a helluva shooter. Jerry wanted to lighten it up for hunting. I talked like a Dutch uncle, just buy a hunting contour barrel and you can have 2 barrels. Oh no. So at least I talked him out of profiling and talked him into fluting. My mill table was too short of travel so I sent it to a gunsmith in Medford and he cut the flutes, beautiful job, fairly cheap.
Of course you can guess the rest, the barrel was bent, it would not shoot according to Jerry (I don't know how hard he tried to tune a load). He wanted a full refund, I said I'll straighten the barrel for free, but that's all. I did, he never has been back, so I really don't know if he got it to shoot.
My long winded point...it's a crapshoot.

Me too. I've had several cut barrel blanks recontoured by my gunsmith with no issues.

Also, lilja used to (maybe still do) turn down in stock blanks to lighter contours for a small fee if you wanted to avoid waiting on a new order. I guess they assumed it didn't hurt anything either.

Dozens and dozens and dozens of times,while patiently awaiting my first regret,or anything "weird". Hint.

STANDARD fare here. Hint...............