Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Turning down a barrel

I tried doing a search but came up with nothing. Does anyone know who does good work turning down barrels? How much is the expected cost?

I let the barrel maker do it.
Butch

Can you still have a barrel turned down if it's been chambered, crowned and threaded onto an action? I already contacted the barrel manufacturer and they are not set up to do so.

I had a Krieger barrel pulled off of a custom Model 70 and turned down to Win. fwt. contour. Shoots just as good as before.

Huntr, that's very interesting. This barrel is made by Krieger. I indeed called them and talked to a barrel tech. He told me they were not set up to turn down a barrel that has already been chambered, crowned and threaded. Apparently I talked to the wrong person??

I have addressed this question many times and will say the same thing as the very first, any reasonably competent gunsmith should be able to recontour a barrel. A typical charge would be from 125 to 150 dollars including bluing. Recrowning is pretty well mandatory. GD

I'm having one done as we speak and the only requirement was to lop some of the muzzle off and recrown, which was fine with me because I like 22" barrels and it started out 26"

Roger Ferrell in Fayetteville, GA.

Mike

When i first built my 6mm Remington it was with a Shilen Number 7 Heavy barrel. I decide i would rather have it more manageable for both deer and varmint hunting so i had the local smith turn the barrel down to the Remington Sporter Contour. The rifle still groups under 1/2 inch with the Hornady 87 gr BTHP and Win 760. The barrel is 1&12 twist . Most smiths can turn your barrel down for you . The reason they don't like to do this is because it take a long time to turn it down so you don't stress the barrel. It is a all day job if they do it right. Here is the rifle after being turned from # 7 heavy to Remington Sporter.

May I assume that this is the barrel that I had to replace because you didn't like the contour of the last one and I had to replace it with a different contour that you specified that was different than the original one you specified and I had to do the whole job and did not charge you for it? I still have your old barrel, want to buy it back?

Jim

Huntr didn't say that Krieger did the job.. He just said he had one of their barrels turned down.

It's a factor of having the right setup to do it - usually entails a much more sophisticated lathe than many smiths have..

Redneck is correct, Krieger did not do the work.

Don't know all that much about lathes but that must be the reason Pac-Nor was able to turn down my barrel. It was a 23" Remington Sporter contour (.660" at muzzle) and I decided it would feel better as a 22" barrel about halfway between the Sporter and the Mountain rifle contour (.550" at muzzle). They got pretty close, it's now .605" OD at the muzzle. Shaved maybe 3 ounces total weight but the rifle's balance is significantly more neutral.

Anyway, P-N said no problemo, it cost $35 plus shipping. Probably helped that it was stainless so it didn't need rebluing. I'm taking the rifle out this weekend to see if I've fixed it to the point of breaking it.

Jim didn,t you have the 70 06 Pac-Nor that I own, barrell turned down also? If so it still shoots great. Kurt

I am pretty sure Kampfeld will do it. I had Hart do it as well as flute it on one of their barrels.

Jim was the barrel you had PacNor do one of their own or would they do another makers barrel?

To answer both questions.

kk, yes, that one you bought started as a #3 and they turned it down to a #2.

That and this last one were both Pac-Nor barrels. I do not know if they would turn someone else's barrels but they are always available to chat with and very friendly.

(541) 469-7330

HMMM! funny thing, no response yet!!!

Jim

I'm 4 betting that he pm'd you...

Dober

Yup! Kreigers turn down good if done correctly.M70 pre 64's do also.

Greydog has done several for me, some as part of the original barrel work, a couple he had to pull the barrel and turn down for me as the rifles were too muzzle heavy. All have shot as well after the weight loss as before.

I have been out of town since early Friday on a fishing trip to Leech Lake. Jim, you know where that is! I went up for Muskie opener and actually had some luck. It is the same barrel you replaced my old one with and you have a PM. I'm opting for a lightweight blueprint on this rifle now. On another note, why is Krieger so conservative on their SS barrels? This barrel is roughly a large #5 or close to a #6. A #5 is the smallest Krieger will do in this caliber in SS. They use the same steel, 416r as Pac Nor or Lilja of which they will do contours as small as #2,#3 in SS. They all obviously have a different manufacturing process. But is that enough to make up the difference in policy? Krieger won't even recommend turning down one of their #5 SS to even say for example a #4. When Krieger used 410 SS a few years back they would do the smaller contours like all the other manufacturers. Now they're using the same steel but won't. What is the deal with that? Does anyone see an issue with having someone else turn down a SS Krieger to #3 or #4?