Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Has this ever happened to you?

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I suspect some people besides me have had a similar experience.

I pulled out my Stevens 200 "243" out of the safe, restocked it, mounted a 4-12 scope on it, and was cleaning up when I noticed that the barrel stamp was "308 Winchester". Oops... Then I remembered. [bleep]! I sold it in the spring to fund another rifle build. I was too busy with some other projects, and it slipped my mind. I have always had a 243 around because its a great dual purpose cartridge. Coyotes and whitetails.



When the Stevens 200 first came out, I bought three because they were a cheap platform on which to build. I rebuilt two, but left the 243 Win as is, except for the trigger. My plan was to replace the plastic OEM Savage stock with a Boyds AT-ONE and see if it would group tighter. I guess that's not going to happen now. Much to my chagrin, I now have three 308s, not two, so another rebarrel is in order.

I was tussling with the idea of building a 6mm Creedmoor, but the idea quickly went away. I will stick with the 243. I've got lots of brass, dies, etc. It's not worth the bother.

...

A nice Shilen match barrel, prethreaded for a Savage should do the trick.