First barrel change

[Sport454]

Hi All. Newbie here. Moving on from building AR's ..... because .... you know ..... they are "evil" :)
Working on a Model 11 that I inherited in .243. I bought a new/unfired hog hunter takeoff barrel in .308.
I watched the videos on how to do a barrel change & bought the tools.
The new barrel has rifle sights. Since the sights have to line up with the centerline of the receiver it would seem to me to limit my headspace adjustment to a full turn.
Is that correct & how do I make adjustments if necessary???
Thanks in advance

[GaCop]

It's going to be a bit hard to get that barrel to line up exactly like it was from the factory. The sights and roll engraving are done after the barrel is installed. Your best bet is to remove the iron sights completely. You can always epoxy the sight holes or peen in some lead shot to close the holes and then Duracote the barrel so it looks as if it never had iron sights. You'd be very very lucky if you could get the sights to line up vertical and still have proper head space.

[Hotolds442]

Each revolution of the barrel is .050". You don't want your headspace off by that much. Like GC mentioned, remove the sights, plug the holes, and set the headspace correctly. Hog Hunter barrels are a gamble, if you intend to use the irons. Without a reamer and the ability to do a setback for proper cartridge protrusion, it's almost impossible to index the sights correctly. I had 4 Hog Hunter barrels at one point, and each barrel was indexed entirely different - they would only line up properly on the receiver they were shipped with.

[BillPa]

You can always epoxy the sight holes or peen in some lead shot to close the holes and then Duracote the barrel so it looks as if it never had iron sights.


Exactly what is did with this one....
http://i33.tinypic.com/3029aqh.jpg

It started out as a less than poor refinish job. He had snapped the head off one screw removing the sights. I filed that one flush then filled the other holes with good 'ol JB and shot all the metal except the bolt body with matte black Duracoat .That was maybe 8-10 years ago. Last fall I saw the rifle. Other than one or two minor marks on the stock its was as I "fixed it".

As a side note just to show most any firearm can be brought back the dead this is what I had to start with.:p
http://i37.tinypic.com/210x7no.jpg

Bill