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I have a poorly cut chamber on a Lilja barreled 280AI. 700 stainless action with a Bansner stock and Timney trigger. I am not happy with the way the chamber was cut and want to rebarrel. Talked to Benchmark who will true the action and will chamber and replace the barrel for 850 bucks with stainless. This is my second go round with this action. Would this be the time to go to a custom action or should I just have the 700 trued up again? Can an action be re barreled and re trued twice? This gun is turning into a money pit. I like the stock and trigger. Plan to stay with 280AI.

Last edited by bonefish; 04/15/14.
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I'd send that to Redneck for an evaluation. If it can't be saved with current barrel, his price would be way below that price. Not a gunwriter, but just my two cents.

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You might also check with Greg Tannel of Gre-Tan rifles. I've watched him true an action and he really knows his stuff.

Last edited by Jocko_Slugshot; 04/15/14.

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Have you had the action "trued" already, if so, what was supposedly done? I spent $600+ a barrel with Greg Tannel on one action just because I wanted to see what this was all about. He does nice work but my rifle went from shooting 1.5" groups @ 100 yards to shooting 1 1/8" groups. To me, this was NOT worth it. I sent it back to him and he said that the Hart barrel was bad and would replace it with a Krieger. (no charge). I got the rifle back and [it was a Rem mt. rifle contour] had a new SS barrel. I was told Krieger wouldn't do SS barrels that thin so who knows. The rifle then shot about 1". I decided to leave it alone and went and killed a bunch of stuff with it.

If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't waste the money "truing" a 700 on a standard hunting rifle. I believe for that money he recut the face of the receiver, recut the action threads, faced the bolt, recut the lugs and in my case, he bushed the firing pin and had me 300 below zero cryo treat it.

A custom action may or may not shoot any better but has better resale value that anything you can do to a 700.


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Either an action is true, or it isn't. They don't morph over time.

I had Kempfeld totally true up my action. He squared the face, recut the tenon, lapped the lugs, and squared the bolt face. I recently talked to a new place about getting a new tube on it, and they said they would have to true my action first. I said it was already done. They said every gun that comes in needs trued, I disagreed. Once I told them Kampfeld did it, they said "ok, well he probably did it right."

I think truing is an upsell for most places.

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Originally Posted by bonefish
I have a poorly cut chamber on a Lilja barreled 280AI. 700 stainless action with a Bansner stock and Timney trigger. I am not happy with the way the chamber was cut and want to rebarrel. Talked to Benchmark who will true the action and will chamber and replace the barrel for 850 bucks with stainless. This is my second go round with this action. Would this be the time to go to a custom action or should I just have the 700 trued up again? Can an action be re barreled and re trued twice? This gun is turning into a money pit. I like the stock and trigger. Plan to stay with 280AI.


Truing an action is gay. Just have it re-tubed by somebody that knows WTF they're doing.



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I re-machine a lot of Remington actions (also a lot of Winchesters, MRC's, and various military actions) because people want it done. On my own rifles, I re-machine when it seems necessary. Back in the day, Mike Walker recommended re-cutting the face of a 700 and that was about it. When one pulls the original barrel off, it is often apparent that the recoil lug has not contacted the receiver all the way around. Plainly, that is a receiver which will be improved by re-cutting the face. Whether or not this will have any effect on performance is another matter.
If you are unhappy with the chamber, perhaps you might consider simply having the barrel set back a couple of turns and re-chambered (probably not by the original 'smith unless he can improve his methodology).
The improved resale value of the custom action may well be factual but it isn't probably as great as one would hope. The thing is, you have this action in your hand.
If Benchmark wants 850 dollars to re-barrel and the barrel is worth 350, they are figuring on 500 dollars in labor for the job. That is a substantial charge for barrel fitting IMO but it's their shop. GD

Last edited by greydog; 04/16/14.
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Originally Posted by bonefish
...... Would this be the time to go to a custom action or should I just have the 700 trued up again?


How would you know if the custom action was actually true? I have heard of some that were not. I would just send it to a good gunsmith and try to salvage the present barrel or have it rebarreld. I would not pay to have it trued again unless some blacksmith hack did the original work on it.


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The face of the action is the only thing that really needs trued on a hunting rifle action before barreling . The barrel should and must screw on straight if you want it to group well.


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Originally Posted by bea175
The face of the action is the only thing that really needs trued

Best put on a parallel/surface ground lug or it's all for naught....

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Originally Posted by aalf
Originally Posted by bea175
The face of the action is the only thing that really needs trued

Best put on a parallel/surface ground lug or it's all for naught....


I always replace the lug with a Holland or other custom lug when building a rifle


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Originally Posted by bea175
Originally Posted by aalf
Originally Posted by bea175
The face of the action is the only thing that really needs trued

Best put on a parallel/surface ground lug or it's all for naught....

I always replace the lug with a Holland or other custom lug when building a rifle

Long as it's parallel, it don't matter.....

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Originally Posted by bonefish
I have a poorly cut chamber on a Lilja barreled 280AI. 700 stainless action with a Bansner stock and Timney trigger. I am not happy with the way the chamber was cut and want to rebarrel. Talked to Benchmark who will true the action and will chamber and replace the barrel for 850 bucks with stainless. This is my second go round with this action. Would this be the time to go to a custom action or should I just have the 700 trued up again? Can an action be re barreled and re trued twice? This gun is turning into a money pit. I like the stock and trigger. Plan to stay with 280AI.


To be specific, what is it that you do not like about the way the chamber was cut? Typically, if the chamber was NOT properly indicated in line with the bore, the bullets simply get started crooked in the bore. If this is in fact the case, then a good gunsmith can cut off half the threads and re-chamber the existing barrel, as greydog has already mentioned.

Then you say that this is the second go round with the action, are you saying that you have had two barrels on the action that would not shoot to your accuracy standards?

Last edited by keith; 04/16/14.
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Was a factory gun. Then became a donor action. Now getting yet another barrel.

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What is it about the chamber that is off? I have had barrels with questionable chambers or throats still shoot well. In an extreme case the once fired brass was over sized and out of round. With minimal sizing and indexing the cases it would shoot fairly well. I got rid of the barrel anyway. Make a chamber cast and measure carefully and spin on a concentricity gauge before going too much further.

Unless I know there is a problem I will only hand lap the lugs and have the action face squared when re-barreling for hunting rifles. The cost for a full "blue print" gets you pretty close to a custom action.


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Originally Posted by bea175
The older we get , the farther we get away from what we think we are.


I have to take issue with this bea; I'm well-aware that I'm getting to be more and more a broken down old fart with every passing year. And the years are passing likes months did when I was younger!

Getting old ain't for wimps.

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Chamber is oversized and not concentric. Still shoots but bugs me. Going to take the advice here and just have a new barrel and chamber done.

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Call Clarence Hammonds. Over 30 world records in benchrest and that same skill goes into his hunting rifles which are about 60% of his business. You won't be sorry. A lot cheaper than some of 'smiths mentioned here at the 24HCF.

Not the friendliest on the phone at times and some people have complained about that but you're having work done and you don't have to kiss him on the lips.

I've been using him for about 20 years.Last year I drove 700 miles round trip just to have him do a simple job. It was worth every inch.


http://benchrest.com/hammonds/

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Oversized where? Not concentric to what. Who checked it out?


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