new barrel for the 30/06 ????

[romex2121]

my rem 700 bdl in 30/06 has i believe an 18'' barrel im thinking of haveing it re-barreled to something in the 24'' to 26'' length,, in your opinon is it worth it price wize or would it be better to just buy another rifle with the length wanted ???,, been reading good things about the Ruger hawkeye,,,,

 

[DrMike]

An 18 inch barrel on a BDL would be non-standard. Is should be 22 inches. It is possible that someone has cut it down. There is nothing wrong with getting a new rifle. :lol: However, the Remington is a fine rifle and a barrel would not be a prohibitive expense. You could get a premium barrel for less than a new rifle.

 

[romex2121]

it may be a 22'' im just going off the top of my head at the moment i do know its alittle short,, it is a fine rifle and has done well for me over the years but im thinking the longer barrel will give better volositys and possible better groups,, but if re-barrel cost more than a new 30/06 i may just go with a new one,, my small town has no one that i know of to do the job so theres an issue right off the bat,,

 

[DrMike]

Adding two inches on a 30-06 will not significantly increase velocities. As I said, if you want a new rifle, buy one. It stimulates the economy, supports the shooting sports, and is just plain fun for those who enjoy shooting and/or hand loading. If you want increased velocities, consider buying one of the faster 30 calibres such as a 300 WSM, a 300 Win Mag, or a 300 Wby.

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

If it had a 22" barrel, I probably wouldn't worry about it. An extra 2 to 4" of barrel is nice, but not worth the cost. If on the other hand you are going from 18 to 26", well, that's a different matter.

It sounds like the rifle is shooting fine, but if you wanted to go up a level of accuracy, you could print the action, put on a new custom barrel, in the length of your choice, and turn it into a real tack driver. :grin:

 

[sask boy]

I would tend to agree with DrMike, I would likely be more fun to try the 300 win mag or the WSM if you do not want a belted.
I have been waiting to hear from someone shooting 180 ABs out of a 300WSM to see what kind of accuracy and fps they are getting.


Blessings,
Dan

 

[FOTIS]

22" for me

 

[woods]

You can buy a new barrel from a premium barrel maker for around $250.00 and have it sent directly to a gunsmith. Then you can ship your barreled action (take the stock off) almost anywhere in the US and insure if for around $25.00. The gunsmith will charge approx $200.00 to ream the barrel and install it on your action. Rebluing the barrel and action for $100.00 to $150.00 and back to you to reinstall in your stock. Around $600.00 but you would have a semi-custom shooter.

You get to choose barrel contour, barrel length, twist rate among other things.

You could make that 06 a lot of things like 25-06, 6.5-06, 270, 280AI, 338-06 or 35 Whelen. If you need any suggestions on barrel makers or gunsmiths you can get lots of help around here.

 

[old #7]

Re barrel it. You will spend just as much buying a new rifle.
Send it here. http://www.pac-nor.com/
They make great barrels. Just ask Nosler.

 

[romex2121]

ok guys i just messured the barrel,, its only 21'' to the front of the recever
so that says to me the barrel is not 22'' if im mesuring right the barrel is about 19'',,, when working up loads how do i compensate for that???? when most barrels in the reloading manuals use a 24'' barrel,,,,

 

[Guest]

If your barrel measures 21" from muzzle to receiver ring, it's a 22" barrel, more or less, as it will have roughly an inch of threaded shank inside the receiver ring. Rifle barrels are measured including the chamber portion, by the way, not just the rifled bore section in front of the reamed chamber. In all reality, 22" is just fine for a -06, but if you're dying to rebarrel it, there are a myriad of options out there, and you can have a nice semi-custom gun for a decent price ($600-800 depending on how much you spend on the rebarrel). I'll also add that you should definitely have your gunsmith true the action and lap the bolt lugs while the barrel is off. This will be maybe another $150 or so, but it's something that requires the barrel to be off, so you should do it while it's already off. It will increase your accuracy potential by a good margin.

 

[Big Squeeze]

ok guys i just messured the barrel,, its only 21'' to the front of the recever
so that says to me the barrel is not 22'' if im mesuring right the barrel is about 19'',,, when working up loads how do i compensate for that???? when most barrels in the reloading manuals use a 24'' barrel,,,,

...............Romex2121.......................You reload for a shorter barrel as though you would for a longer one in the same cartridge. Although some velocity is lost, shorter tubes will not detract from rifle accuracy. In fact, shorter barrels are inherently a little more accurate because of less barrel length to resonate, vibrate or writhe. The term "inherently" should be termed as a characteristic, but is not absolute because longer barreled rifles are also extremely accurate.

The velocity differences between your 19" and a 24" barrel will vary from 15 to about 25 fps per inch of shorter barrel length. I own a compact myself and did a considerable amount of chrony testing, comparing two 24" 300 WSMs vs my 16.5" 300 WSM Ruger carbine using a wide variety of identical reloads. My overall results averaged losses from 16.4 fps to 19.5 fps per inch of shorter length. Doing the math, I`m losing between 4.2% to 4.5% overall from a barrel that is 7.5" or 31% shorter.

So for your `06, a good (from and to) guess in velocity loss for a barrel 5" shorter, would be a total of 75 to 125 fps using the same loadings.

Many still believe that the norm is between 40 to 50 fps per inch. Maybe in the `ol days, but with todays more modern powders, not any more with most cartridges.

Here`s a thread which I participated in, that you may find very interesting to read. Later posted in this thread are chrony results from an experiment performed, in which the same barrels were cut down in 1" or 2" increments for various cartridges.

"24hourcampfire.com".........In the "Big Game Rifles" section......Thread title......"Barrel Length Question"........started by Wookie316.

These are more results that literally "nuke" for the most part, the 50 fps (per inch) figure.

If you like the handiness of your 19" tubed `06, enjoy it, and "IF" it is still accurate for you, then why change it? With the 24" barrel, the added few percentage points of velocity (in your case, about 3.5%), will gain you nothing as far as any additional killing power is concerned on any game hunted given the same killing shot distances.

Imo, put your money into another rifle/caliber to diversify your inventory, or into a new scope you may need or whatever it may be.

 

[Charlie-NY]

Just so you KNOW how long the barrel is, try this:

Close the bolt on an empty chamber
Place a cleaning rod down the barrel until it rests against the bolt face
put a piece of tape on the rod at the muzzle
withdraw the rod and measure it from the tape to the end which was against the bolt face

This will give you an accurate measurement of the bbl length

 

[Guy Miner]

I like re-barreling a favorite rifle. Means I've shot it enough that I wore out that barrel. It's a way to upgrade and improve the rifle.

Hard to beat a .30-06 for an all-around big game cartridge. I'd stick with that, and specify a 24" barrel. Mine has a 21" barrel. It's handy but noisy and I wouldn't mind a little extra "oomph" out of it.

 

[Larry in SD]

I handload for a number of .30-06 Rifles, 2 are 22" Barrels but 2 are 24" Barrels.

I have chronograph data for the same load fired in all of these Rifles. My nephew's 24" Remington Model 700 BDL Stainless-Synthetic produces 2874 FPS, while my 24" T/C Encore produces 3054 FPS, yet another buddies 22" Remington Model 700 ADL produces 2879 FPS while his brothers 22" Ruger KM77 produces 2980 FPS all with the same load just a different seating depth for each individual rifle.

The bore itself has as much to do with the velocity you will obtain as does the length of the barrel.

Yes the proper way to measure barrel length is from breech face to muzzle.

Larry

 

[Powerstroke]

Some other things to factor in on your decision. It appears you are happy with the -06 Caliber ? Either way, a new barrel for what you have or a new -06 you still have all the loading components ( no additional expense )
However, if the itch is there to rebarrel into something else, then the opportunity is fairly endless as the .473 bolt face is very common...... 30-06 AI ??
At the end of the day, it's in your safe, your decision..... let us know what you decide.

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

To answer your earlier question:
How do you load differently for a short barrel? Use a slightly faster powder. You want all the potential energy extraced from the powder before the bullet leaves the barrel. A longer barrel enables you to extract more velocity potential out of a slower burning powder. In many instances increasing powder charge will continue to increase you velocity longer in a long barrel then it will in a short barrel.

Think about it this way. In general, slower burning powders produce lower, more gently pressures. The longer the barrel, the more of this powder you can take advantage of.

If your goal it to provide a rifle with more velocity potential, go with a 26" barrel, regardless of what cartridge you decide to chamber it in. A 30.06 AI, a 26" barrel, and some dedicated reloading might give you some real interesting results.

 

[Big Squeeze]

To answer your earlier question:
How do you load differently for a short barrel? Use a slightly faster powder. You want all the potential energy extraced from the powder before the bullet leaves the barrel. A longer barrel enables you to extract more velocity potential out of a slower burning powder. In many instances increasing powder charge will continue to increase you velocity longer in a long barrel then it will in a short barrel.

Think about it this way. In general, slower burning powders produce lower, more gently pressures. The longer the barrel, the more of this powder you can take advantage of.

If your goal it to provide a rifle with more velocity potential, go with a 26" barrel, regardless of what cartridge you decide to chamber it in. A 30.06 AI, a 26" barrel, and some dedicated reloading might give you some real interesting results.

....................................I will disagree with ya here somewhat!

Just as with the longer barrels, you can extract more velocity from the shorter barrels when using the slower burning powders. Slower burning and faster burning powders have the same velocity characteristics regardless of whether you`re firing from a 16.5" compact barrel or a 24" or 26" barrel.

IF someone is looking for the best possible velocity potential from the a shorter barrel, using faster burning powders does not increase velocity. Just like in the longer barrels, its the slower burns that increase velocity from the shorter tubes.

The powder itself, whether slower or faster, is instantanously burned at the point of ignition. It`s the gases and the pressure thereof from the powder that move the bullet down the barrel. Yes! The longer the barrel, the higher the velocity because the gases have more barrel length and time to push the bullet towards the muzzle.

From my compact and as with the longer barrels too, the slower burning powders give more velocity than do the faster burns.

I have read several articles on this and a few reviews, which de-bunk the theory that the faster burning powders offer higher velocity from the shorter barrels. They may offer better accuracy in many cases, but not more speed. My own extensive chrony experiments using slower and faster burns have proven as such. With the exception of RL17, I get more bullet speeds using RL19, RL22 and N165 than I do with Varget, IMR 4007 and a few other faster burns.

Given the same cartridge, one reloads for a shorter tube the same way as though it were a longer barrel.

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

the slower burning powders give more velocity than do the faster burns.

So, if you are going to rebarrel, why not rebarrel to take advantage of the slower burning powders, with a longer barrel.

B_S, you keep talking about the same load in two different rifles with different barrel lenght's. I don't care what they will both do with the same load. I care what they will do with the best load for each rifle.

The longer the barrel (to an extent), the greater the utility of the slow, and as you mentioned, often more accurate, powders.

Weather to use the same powder or switch due to barrel length is all realitive. Going from a 26" to a 24", sure use the same powder. But going from a 26" to 16" barrel, time to switch to a faster powder, more optimized for that barrel length.

 

[YoteSmoker]

Specialty pistol shooters (xp100, striker, encore, etc) tend to shoot shorter barrels in 10-18" lengths chambered in rifle cartridges. Most guys shoot light for caliber bullets with faster bullets and faster powders to maximize cartridge efficiency with such short barrels. They also find softer bullets work best on game most times because of speed/expansion issues. So, in short I believe it is more a game of matching bullet weight with powder burn rate, regardless of barrel length to acheive the desired effect.