Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Tools for installing shortchambered barrel

Other than barrel vice and action wrench, what tools are required to install a shortchambered 30-06 barrel to a mod 98? Thanks for the help.
dave

Reamer, gauges and a lathe, in case you go too far, would be nice.

Not to mention having a lathe to take a cleanup facing cut on the action putting a decent crown on the barrel will likely make for a huge improvement in accuracy.

I quess the question should be do you just want to install the barrel, or are you interested in a quality rifle when you are done. My personal expereience is have a good gunsmith do the job properly, it's well worth the additional expense.

I have often wondered what the point of a short chambered barrel was. You still need a reamer, you still need gauges. A deep chambered barrel can be fitted with a file and gauges. No reamer required. If I have to have a reamer anyway, I would just as soon cut the whole thing. GD

+one what greydog said!

Ed

I'd hate like hell to have to file the shoulder to set the headspace.

Yeah, it would suck but it could be done and has been. Not saying it's a great way to do it just saying it can be done. It used to be common to buy Mauser barrels which were chambered about .005" too deep. These could be fitted by simply filing the face since they seated on the c-ring. GD

HHmmmm, a file. I wonder how that would work on the face of the barrel's c'bore if it was for a Remington 700; or for that matter, the barrel's shoulder for any other fit.

SHeeeesh what experts we have here, keep at it guys, make more work for someone who will do it right.

I think I'm firmly in the Malm/Jkob camp on this one.

The only sensible way to offer a no gunsmith pre-chambered barrel is with a savage nut so you can adjust headspace. With a short or long chambered barrel it's still properly a lathe job to fit the barrel, and much of the labor in that job is setting up and zeroing the barrel.

The only thing I can figure for the short chambered barrels is it's supposed to appeal to the guy who doesn't have a lathe and wants to think himself a gunsmith.

Obviously, Jim, you wouldn't be getting Remington barrels done that way and such were not offered. The pre-chambered barrels for hobbyists were mostly just for Mausers. I have to mention, I have seen a guy cut a Remington counterbore with a piloted cutter and a brace.
The only thing a short chambered barrel does for you is allow you to finish the chamber by hand. This is fine for the hobbyist who wants to buy a reamer and gauges and do this one time but, if I am going to fit a barrel to an action I would just as soon do the whole job instead of having to try and straighten out a crooked start or wish a thread was a better fit or a counterbore was tighter.
When one chooses to go the short chambered route, it is assumed that he is doing so because he does not have a lathe etc. This being the case, advice to get a lathe and so on, is of little value.
To get back to the original question, what does he need? He needs a reamer, he needs a "GO" gauge, he needs a tap wrench. He needs to know enough to not hold the barrel in the barrel vice to finish ream. Things will be easier if he has a depth micrometer and knows how to use it. GD

Well, yes and no! If anybody were to try that with a takeoff barrel, then what. How many thousands of takeoffs and garage mechanics are out there? somebody will try it.

458 Lott
Only someone without pretentions and ego would simultaneously admit to ignorance and lack of funds.