How can I determine what contour is my 1963 Remington 700 30-06 20" factory barrel?
I am stock shopping and being asked what is the contour? I haven't a clue. Is it as simple as measuring the barrel diameter at the muzzle and again at x" towards the receiver?
I would like to wind up with a classic wood stock on this woods gun and keep the original hand checkered monte carlo in the safe.

Btw, please school me it this in the wrong forum.

Thanks

Look at this link and compare your barrel dimensions to these.

http://www.shilen.com/contours.html

the first thing to measure with a caliper is the muzzle diameter, that will put you into 30% of the profiles fast, then figure out which one you have out of those.

If you have or can borrow a Brownells catalog there is a lot of info there, because there is no standard between manufacturers of factory bbls or replacement bbls. Douglas, with a table in Brownells, was kinda, sorta a standard for many years and some of the more famous stockmakers used their profiles for fitment.

My barrel is more or less a lightweight using the Shilen chart. I'll go with that for now.
Thanks..

Remington contours do not correspond to most aftermarket contour numbers even with matched diameters. Simply put they are profiled differently. You need to look for something like "Remington sporter" not #3 or whatever. Even then you'll likely have a little extra side clearance because Remington will have tapered your barrel to their sporter muzzle diameter over the course of the shorter barrel, rather than the taper to the same final diameter stretched over a 24" barrel.

Or simply get a stock with a 1/2" barrel channel and custom fit it to your barrel.

Most barrel makers offer something called "Remington contour", as Mathman says above. Compare your barrel's measurements to a 22" Remington barrel or look up Remington contour dimensions at a barrel maker's website.