Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Looks like my barrel idea has worked! Check this out

I'm not much of a writer, but there is alot of things to say in this post. I'm going to try and keep it from getting too scattered! I hope you all enjoy reading about my project.

First off, my background includes being a Navy Machinist(MR), then a graduate from The Colorado School Of Trades for gunsmithing back in 1999. I'm 52 and medically retired now, so I have alot of time to think about stuff and try to keep busy.

I really like Tikka Rifles, and wanted to take one to the "next level", even though all that I have owned have shot nice and tight right out of the box!

I started with a stainless T3X chambered in 243 Win. I decided on a Mesa Precision Altitude stock(from the classifieds), added a Mountain Tactical trigger guard, MT trigger spring, then started looking for a barrel.

I wanted to go with a Proof, or other carbon wrapped barrel to keep the weight down. As most of you know, they are about $850 and I didn't want to spend that much on one barrel. That's when the gears started turning. I decided to make my own lightweight, "bull" barrel.

Why not do three, and make it a switch barrel? So, I bought a new take off 6.5 CM, and a CTR barrel in 308 win. I ended up leaving the 308 barrel alone, so my project started with the other two.

I decided to use 6061 T6 Aluminum for my barrel sleeves, because it would act as a heat sink, drawing heat away from the inner SS barrel, and cooling it very quickly. So, I turned my barrels to 1/2 inch diameter and had my aluminum round stock drilled .020 over. Here is what they looked like after being turned on the lathe.






And here is what a turned barrel looks like in the barrel channel





More coming