Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Let's Just Say . . .

Let's just say I got a wild idea about building a custom rifle. I've not done this before, so I don't know what I'm asking.

I find a donor rifle-- a bolt gun, maybe a Savage, a Remington, or a Winchester at a decent price. I'm looking to have the barrel replaced with something mundane and rechambered to something fairly mainstream (something based off a 30-06 or 308 Win case)

What do you think it would cost to get the re-barrelled action back in my hands?
Who would you suggest do the work?

A fitted chambered barrel with a squared off receiver and squared off bolt face will cost at least 600 from Bartlein. One stop shopping. Less if you piece out the work.

Do a search since there are many threads on this subject.

Thanks. $600 gives me a good benchmark. I read these threads, and I always see some bit of esoterica thrown in that muddies the waters. I was looking at a website the other day and trying to figure out why it would cost me $1500 to get a barrel replaced. This is enough info so that I know which end of the pool I need to remain.

My guess is that, for the most part, it'll behoove me to keep myself in the shallow factory end of the pool. If I get a sudden urge to get a barrel job done, then I need to get my dosages checked first.

Thanks for the quick comeback.

Yeah, its not cheap no matter what barrel you choose. Add in the cost of a replacement stock, trigger, metal finish etc and things add up quick. With the out of box accuracy of rifles today it's no wonder why resale of semi customs take a dump.

Re-barreling a shot out barrel on a rifle you love is another matter.

It's all about what it's worth to you and what makes you happy. No right or wrong way.

Having built a couple rifles over the years, if this is a hunting rifle, buy a Tikka and sink the money you saved into optics and ammo. Unless your an accuracy loon, comp shooter or very long range varmint hunter, save your money or buy another gun.

For a hunting rifle Douglas is hard to beat. Call and ask for Stan Taylor. Stan is one of the better long range shooters in the US of A.

Good Morning, I have a quick Douglas story from February 2020 that I wanted to share. I had a push feed Model 70 that I was looking to re barrel to 6mm Remington. I emailed Stan at Douglas and we got the ball rolling.
I sent the barreled action out via UPS on a Tuesday, it arrived at Douglas on Thursday afternoon. The following Thursday I had a call for my credit card number as the job was complete. The barreled action was back in my hands on the following Monday. The bill from Douglas was $ 500.00 including return shipping.
Stan put on a Stainless Steel No 7 barrel and bead blasted it. So far I am extremely impressed with the way the rifle shoots and cleans up. I have barrels from most of the big names both cut and buttoned and so far as very happy with Douglas.

Can’t beat that! I have and have had a few Douglas barrels that Mr. Coleman put on for me. They have all been great and seems to equal the big names from the named smiths. That said it might be said that I can’t see an improvement on barrels and Smith’s until my loading and shooting skills improve? Either way I’ve been very happy with Douglas barrels.

One thing to keep in mind is if you use a CM barrel and prefer steel and blue, you will have to pay for bluing, which can run from $150-$300 depending on who does the job... soft rust blue can run quite a bit more than that.

Also, I don't know anyone who just replaces a barrel when they do a custom rifle.... if you're going to start down this road, pencil in a new stock, trigger, possibly different bottom metal, and whatever mods you may end up with down the road....

Good point about a CM barrel needing to be blued.

But the second point is utter crap. This isn't a "custom rifle" more like a custom barrel/rebarrel. There are dozens of shops including most barrel makers who are more than willing to slap another barrel on a customer supplied action. How much gets done to the action is up to the customer. Do you want the action trued? Other Mods or custom touches?

Reign it in there a bit Bubba.... the OP stated he wanted to build a custom rifle. I assumed the barrel work was just one piece of the puzzle.....

And I'm just saying that sticking a new barrel on a rifle doesn't make it a custom rifle. Losta liberties taken with that word.

Yes Sir

@OP, I've had good luck with Douglas Barrels for a "one stop shop" to have rifles barreled / rebarreled. You are close enough that you could do a day trip to Douglas to drop off your donor. Stan is a very interesting and knowledgeable individual to talk with if you call ahead and he has the time.

Just had a Shilen stainless varmint barrel installed and chambered. On a Rem 700 action. Believe it cost a little over $600.
And it’s very accurate.

Frontier Gun Shop
Helena, MT

406-442-4533

Dennis Erhardt is the best ‘smith I’ve done business with, and his rates are very reasonable.

Might want to think long and hard about just what exactly you want to accomplish by doing this. No wrong answer to that question, btw.

At my age, even with the money in hand, a true custom might well be finished after I no longer can use it, or (gulp!) live to see it. The last smith work I had done, one hole d&t'd, took three months.

For turnkey build.

Alamo Precison rifles.

I sent them my bighorn origin action for a 6.5 pic build.

Good bunch to deal with.

After having has 10-12 custom rifles built over the years, I'd save myself the cost and LONG wait and just find something out there that is as close to what In want and buy it.