Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Slow Switch Barrel Bolt - Action Question

Specifically for Mule Deer, but anyone's info is greatly appreciated:

If you have a "slow-switch" barrel gun, is it just a matter of having both barrels fitted and headspaced and getting an action vice and a barrel wrench to switch them out?

How long does that take and is there a practical limit to how often you can switch them out?

Do you stick quick-detach scope bases on the action and have two scopes sighted in and ready to go?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking of re-barreling a Tikka .243 to .338 Federal, but I think it would be awesome to have a switch bbl gun on both ends of the .308 case. Any issues I might have? Only thing I could think of would be possibly different magazines and maybe a wider barrel channel on the .338...

I've done it with two different actions, a Remington 700 and a Winchester Model 70 Classic. I used Talley bases on the action and kept different scopes for each barrel. The switch-over takes about 45 minutes, at least for me.

The barrel channel can be a factor. I've had four different barrels on the M70 action and one of them required a different stock. The two barrels on the 700 are a factory 7mm SAUM and a custom 9.3 Barsness-Sisk, and I use the factory stock for the 7mm and a Bansner High-Tech for the 9.3.

They can be switched out indefinitely.

Thanks, MD!

For relatively little money, wouldn't the new Thompson Center Dimension rifle be a strong candidate?

Yes. Mine are all 700's and pinning the recoil lug lets you change out the barrels w/o pulling the barreled action out of the stock.


Maybe five minutes. Keep the threads clean and well greased and they'll last forever.


Yes, more specifically, Leupold's Quick Release rings and bases. The five minutes for a barrel swap includes switching out the scope.

John, please tell us more about the 9.3 BS (I could not resist that), but the request is serious. Thanks, jack

It just takes me 1 minute to take a barrel off my rifle, replace the bolt head install another scope load and go shoot. The Blaser R-93 and the New R-8 have switching barrels down. Its my hunting rifle of choice, going on seven seasons now.

Have a Dakota with 257 and 340 Wea barrels. My vise clamps on the barrel just past the end of the scope objective so I just take off the stock, clamp the barrel and then stick the wrench in the action. I never move my scope. 20 mins. I love my set up.

Hi Jack,

The 9.3 BS (which is what most people call it) is the .350 Remington Magnum necked up .008" to 9.3mm. I came up with the idea because Charlie Sisk kept bugging me to design a wildcat, and he would build the rifle.

The idea was to duplicate the ballistics of the 9.3x62 in a short action, and from previous experience Charlie knew the .350 case fed really slickly from any action designed for one of the short-fat beltles magnums. In fact it usually fed even slicker than any short-fat belted magnum. The idea was also totally redundant, like 99% of wildcats, which qualified it even more, and we really liked the idea of naming the Barsness-Sisk, due to the BS intitials.

In reality, it turned out to be more practical than we'd hoped. My rifle was a lightweight built on the 700 action mentioned, from a 7mm SAUM factory rifle, and Charlie built himself was a heavier rifle built on a Model 70 Classic that I believe was originally a .300 WSM. Both rifles were really easy to load for, sort of like .308's on steroids, and I even discovered that 250-grain Nosler AccuBonds could be seated without first necking up .350 brass. Instead the boattail did it in one pass.

After some experimentation I found Ramshot TAC was about perfect for the case, and I believe Charlie mostly uses the very similar Ramshot X-Terminator. It was easy to get 2400+ fps from 286's, 2600+ from 250's and 2700 with 232's. So far I've taken game from deer on up to a grizzly with mine. I believe Charlie has used his on water buffalo, and maybe bison.

My rifle weighs around 7-1/2 pounds with a typical lower-powered scope, while Charlie's weighs around 9. Redding makes the dies, and apparently other people order a 9.3 BS from him from time to time. Last time I asked him he'd made around 20.

Thanks guys for all your responses.

As far as the TC goes, 1. my eyes hate it 2. I already have the Tikka which is probably going to be re-barreled anyways...and 3. they don't offer the .338 federal, at least from what I can tell from a cursory glance at their website.

John, many thanks. I follow your writings, but I let that one slip through the cracks. Sounds nice! Thanks, jack