I'm not usually a fan of setting barrels back, as it costs just as much to chamber an old barrel as a new one, so why not put the funds into a virgin tube. But in this case, I had a retired 28" Krieger Heavy Varmint contour 1000 yard Benchrest 6 Dasher barrel off my Bat gun collecting dust, so a plan was formed.

First, a little background on the barrel. This barrel was gradually losing accuracy to the point I felt wasn't competitive any more, so I pulled it after the last match. The barrel now had 2629 rounds down it. I read where guys will run a barrel till the velocity drops off before replacing, and since I had never chronoed a barrel in it's later life before, now was the perfect opportunity, as I still had a few loaded rounds left over.

I setup the bench, the chronograph, and ran the target out to the 600 yard line. Conditions were light, a slight breeze, but I didn't bother with wind flags. I shot two, 5 shot groups, writing down the speeds after each shot. Loads were with Varget and moly plated 105 Bergers. I had run the same load, regardless of temps or conditions, it's whole life, at 3075 fps. I was surprised that the velocities today were exactly the same as when it was new. The two groups average a half MOA, nice, but not competitive.

After bore scoping the barrel, I decided taking about 4 inches off the fat end would get me into pretty good territory, so I grabbed the hacksaw and gave it a circumcision. No point in paying USPS for dead weight:

One of my prairie dog guns was already spiffed up. Goodies included a fluted & bushed bolt, a Hollands handle timed & tig welded, bedded in a McMillan Marksman stock, and chambered in a 14" twist" 6 Dasher. So with the "new" 8 twist Krieger, it now turned it into it's long range brother.

So I boxed up the reamer, action and barrel with instructions, and waited. Weren't but a few days, the box returned, and Humpty Dumpty was together again.

That's fine shooting for a take up.
And a good way for retired barrel to end up.
Dave

I just happened to have an extra Nightforce scope and a 20 MOA base on the shelf........

And the transformation was complete:

Good stuff aalf!

Very nice set up all the way around. Cheers NC

Just happened to have an extra NF NXS laying around, says only aalf. 😬

I’am always learning things from you brother.

😎

Sweet rig

He always seems to have quite the “parts” bin laying around. I get a laugh every time he posts such.

Funny, I have always thought Al has had better "stuff laying around" than I have on stuff that I have put together....lol

You guys are gonna give me a complex.......

The action had been bedded, including a couple inches under the original barrel's shank. Not wanting to screw that up, I had the smith take a skim cut off the shank of this barrel, to float it completely back to the lug. He also cut an inch off the muzzle, leaving the finished length at 23" even. Muzzle diameter is a porky .915".

For those interested, that don't fret about buying factory ammo, reamer specs are a .269" neck, with a .104" freebore.

I had a hundred and some cases, with 20 firings on them, that I retired with the barrel, that were perfectly suitable for the cause. I annealed & sized them to fit, stuffed the with Remington 7 1/2"s, and we're off to the races.

The plan was to shoot up a bunch of R-15 I had on hand, paired with my stash of 105 Amax. I also wanted to shoot up two old lots of Sierra 107 SMK's with the R-15 as well.

First day out at 200 yards with both bullets was ho hum at best. Winner with the Amax was a .785", and a .645" with the SMK.

The next day, I decided to delve into my Varget stash with both bullets, which produced a best .850" w/ the Amax, and a .620" w/ the SMK.

The following day, I shot 5 shot groups of the most promising loads, and finished the day more confused than when I started. I was starting to get the notion that maybe I wasted my time setting back this barrel.......

You didnt say.
Is it lapua brass?
I've been playing with the new Alpha brass.
ALOT less work on the Alpha brass.
Im kinda at a standstill. my whole shooting season is canceled.
So im waiting for warmer weather before I do my testing.

dave

aalf
I know you have a different book than I do, but a .785 and .645 at 200 ain't a bad thing (at least in my book)
I know you would not win may benchrest comps. with that be it would still be a fun plinker for sure

Yes, still using the old brown box Lapua. I've yet to use any blue box or Alpha, & don't see needing any for a long time......

Yeah, it's hard to scoff at those, but the groups looked more 2 & 1, than roundish, and the ES's were higher than I like to see.

Well now....things are looking up......

You definitely have some contenders for sure
Do you have velocity, ES, SD on those?

Unfortunately no, the batteries died in the Oehler after the first group.

Who knew batteries were only good for 7 years.......