Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Barrel contour for New build

I want to build a super accurate 308 on a trued rem action but I want it to have a shorter barrel, either 20 or 22. the goal is accuracy, not light weight, so suggestions? the only limiting factor would that I DO intend to carry the thing so don't want it to be rediculously heavy, just not lightweight either.
I realize a good talk wtih the barrel maker would give me my answer, but looking for actual experiences in the field.
thanks

How are you mostly going to shoot it, and what would you consider super accurate?

I would think a #4 would be about right.

I built a 284 with a 23" #4 to use when hunting open field from Box blinds. Its heavier than a typical sporter, maybe even a touch more than most "magnum" sporter.

I personally like magnum countour barrels on ALL my hunting guns, I have krieger #5's on my 270 win and my 243 ai, both guns come in bare at 8-8.25# with remington classic mcmillan stocks. for a shorter barrel and maintaining that same weight, a #6 would prolly work or a 5.5 krieger. It also depends on the stock you want to use. a remington classic MIGHT hold a 5.5 krieger if it had a short shank.

I just carried a 23" fluted hart number 5 in 300saum around Colorado for 4 days and it was perfect. It sits in an edge stock on a model 7 action - with zeiss victory scope it is under 8lbs.

It bastardizes a lot of rules of thumb about building rifles here on the fire but it worked wonderfully for me and the guides at our camp chose it as the ideal rifle vs a Christensen arms 300 win mag and a jarrett 300 jarrett among other factory rifles in our camp. Everybody that fondled it loved it. It shoots quite well too

CC- that scoped weight?

Short mag, that's a good weight, what is your muzzle o.d.?

OP - if I were you and you like short stiff tubes, and portable, and want a 700 action, why not just buy an XCR compact Tactical 308? I think it will do all you need. You can always change the stock out if you want something different.

They're kind of pricey. If you've got the time you can build better for less.

I'd go with a stock that weighed no more than 26 oz or so and a 21" barrel that was .65" at the mzl or a bit less. This should be plenty stout and yet very user friendly.

Best of luck to ya

Dober

8 1/2lbs 308win-21" Bartlein #3(similar to other Mfr's #4).685 muzzle od. 8-9 lbs is perfect for carrying/shooting.

You oughta quit chewing on that piece of wood Stoney.

Nice rig

20in. #5 Rock 5C in a A1-3

Ronny, My freagin Lab eats 4x4 post's! And now his latest thrill...chasing ducks. Worse than a 3 year old!

3 days ago behind my house.

The top two are the same barreled action (.308) in two different stocks. In either configuration, I didn't find it any particular problem to carry, but I didn't do any mountain hunting with them either. The barrel was a 22" Krieger #5.





Accuracy was very satisfactory:



I liked the configuration so much that I went very similar on this .260. It's a 24" #4 Brux with interupted fluting. I guessed that one smaller contour and the interupted fluting might offset the weight of the of the smaller bore and 2" of length. I haven't been able to compare weights, but this one handles extremely well too.



Haven't shot it much, but it looks like it's going to be pretty darn good:



John

That's awesome. How does he do on the dead ones?

I have a turd sniffing redbone in the back yard that weighs about 80lbs. She could eat a piece of steel I believe. You should have seen my block 4x4 target after that bitch got ahold of it. She's a 4x4 chewer as well.

Mathman, I figure the SS 700 action w/40x trigger and all bottom metal is easy $500, the stock is $200+ used, so you have about $300 in bbl and install is how I break down an XCR if you get it close to cost.

One was going for a song the other day barely used on another forum.....personally, I could do fine w/a Howa 1500 Heavy bbl action, 20" dropped in a decent stock for hundreds less.

Then you would not have to worry about a bolt handle breaking or anything else. Just load, bang, extract/eject, repeat and still be well under an MOA gun. Dead nuts reliable and accurate just as it's predecessor, the L579 Sako that it copied.

The Series 2 Vanguard is under $500 and gives you the 1500 action which is very high quality design, materials, and workmanship, and is stamped Weatherby, coming w/a rather stout sporter, and in a newly designed stock, complete with a new adjustable trigger, and a sub MOA guarantee.

The above S2 will be more portable than the heavy bbl model, and yet still do a great job at the price of just a 700 action. You can walk out the store with one in the same day, ready to mount, sight, hunt. It's what I'd look at, and a smith can shorten it from 24" to 21-22 if preferred, and that would be very inexpensive. One can even do it themselves w/a few basic tools at home for free if wished.

Many options. If one has a 700 action already, or sources one dirt cheap, no doubt, you can put one together for less, though I think an XCR will retain more $$$ on re-sale should that be important.

Of course if you want the best, build completely custom.

You don't have to sell me. I've seen first hand what a Howa made barreled action bedded into a McMillan can do. It's a very nice way to go without a lot of fuss.

Krieger #7 at 22" on my .308 - it shoots 1 hole when I do my part!!

Because you've still got a factory remington barrel on an untrued receiver which means it's as likely to be a 2 MOA gun as a .5 MOA one. I think he wants something that's more likely to shoot well.

while i think the odds of getting a good M700 are better than that, i do have to say my Compact Tactical XCR in .223 was a turd. i had a 1-7" Hart installed on it, chambered it .223 AI and all is well except the wallet.

I have a 700 LTR in 223 that's eventually going to wind up with a 7" twist Hart if my local smith has his way.

My XCR CT, XCR LRT and VTR in 308 have been really good so far. A local store has a 5R MilSpec giving me an itch right now.