Setting Back Barrel

I have a stock 12BVSS in .223 Rem that I want to have rechambered - will remain a .223 Rem. The current chamber has a sloppy large neck with some fairly pronounced annular grooves and was chambered a bit off center from the bore. Discovered all this after inspecting fired brass and then checking the chamber with a borescope.

I'm thinking it may need 3/8" to 1/2" cut off. How much of the barrel can be cut off and still have a large enough diameter to cut new threads on the shank for the barrel nut?

Thanks,

TAB

It all depends on the diameter of your barrel. Some barrel are smaller at the thread zone than others. Typically on a factory barrel , the taper starts right at the breech and is a straight taper to the muzzle. With 1.055" or slightly less at the breech end, it usually ends up about 1.035" at the end of the threads, A half inch past that couold be 1.025" or smaller depending how much was polished off.
If the chamber is too far off center, it may not even clean up in a half an inch.

Sounds to me like a new barrel is the cheaper alternative in this case. By the time you recut the chamber after the barrel is shortened and recut the barrrel threads your at a dollar value where it becomes iffy. Iffy whether your measures will ultimately correct the problem. Since you can obtain take off barrels reasonable and new ones for little more doing a cut-off, re-chamber and re-threading is questionable. I personnaly believe there's more wrong with your barrel than what you've discovered to date.

...I set 1 back on a SS bbl. the lenght of the neck. Chamber was wobbly, but it just did clean up..Anything more & you'll run out of thread dia...

Thanks for the replies.

I wanted some confirmation that it "might" work depending on actual barrel diameter and how much has to be cut off - or that the idea was loony to start with.

I won't have much invested in the cutting and rechambering and planned to get a custom reamer anyway, so I don't have much at risk for giving it a try. If it doesn't work, I'll just be getting a new barrel much sooner than I originally anticipated.

Will report back with results.

Thanks again,

TAB

I had my Model 16 in 223 set back and rechambered to 221 Firball. Still had enough room for a thicker SSS recoil lug.