All Pieces, Dies, Bullets Bought... NOW to Swap the BARREL

Just received new .308 WIN bolt head, Forster dies, A-Max & Nosler CC 155's. & some 175's too. Already love my bedded and tweaked .223 BTCSS but now it's time to make a bigger Boom. :p

Availability is pretty important to me as I would go nuts waiting 3 months for a pipe. Grappling between a cut barrel Drop-In like a Brux / Bartlein / Rock Creek or a Premium Button Drop-In tube like a Shilen U-Match, PAC-Nor, Criterion, Walther...?

Will be calling around this week.

Any first-hand experiences that people would like to share are Welcome. advice on CHAMBER to pick or Twist Rates?

THANKS!!!

You should consider a 12 twist or possibly an 11.xx.

I ran across an interesting last by a post from Frank at Bartlein you may find interesting. Dispels many of the myths about "important" barrel issues...http://www.scout.com/military/sniper...rifling-styles

Most of what people think are "important" have never been statistically verified.
From a versatility standpoint, I vote 10-twist.

I too would say a 10 twist...I am also a fan of shilen barrels...ive shot out 2 shilens in 300wm.1 select match and one match grade and could not tell a difference between the 2. also 2 shilens in 6.5mm and working on the 3rd...I'm having a bartlein chambered now next will be a Krieger just to see how they shoot and if I see no real differences I will be back to shilen barrels.

Its sorta like joe learned to put shingles on roofs while working for pete.
But now hes better than pete so he started his own business and hired tom.
Now tom is better than both pete and joe so he starts his own business.
Meanwhile pete is still busy in the roofing business.
Change the name to Obermayer and we could be talking about the barrel business.

or just shoot what YOU feel shoots best for you...ppl have very different views on whats accurate...to me accuracy is putting rounds on small targets out to 1000yds from cold bore to smoking hot without big POI shifts....others want tiny groups at XXXX yards...others want one shot wonders for hunting...accuracy ALL boils down to consistency in the end NOT the name on the barrel because I'm pretty sure that EVERY barrel maker out there has had a bad barrel.

The word (craftsman) no longer applies to most things today as it did in the past.
Even surgery has benefited for techknowledgy.
Machinery and tooling has allowed skill to be replaced in many industries.
Years ago if you wanted a good barrel, you waited for a man like Harry Pope to make it for you.
Or more recently maybe Clyde Hart.

its all about money now days with most ppl and quality comes second at best.

Well im not sure quality has suffered as for gun barrels. Ive never watched barrels being made in a modern facility.
but i have the opinion that like with many things machinery has replaced the absolute need for skilled people to a large degree.
Machinery programers have replaced machinists. Maybe from the comfort of moms basement lol.

Check with the vendors on this sight. I'm sure one of them would have what your looking for.

You mean like this.

http://myaccuratebarrel.com/308--SMA...rown_p_33.html

Dean

Thanks for input. Should be interesting to hear wait-times from the various suppliers. Hoping not in "months" for everyone.

Jim Skinner of Apache Gun Works and his son, Tim of Skinner Gun Works get my nod.

They are small operations that make great shooters with two approaches...

1. "economical" he makes great hunting barrels or casual target barrels from less expensive blanks. Likely to be as good or better than any other. Not burnished for 1-2 pass cleaning, but great shooters.

2. "Higher end" he makes great shooters with higher end blanks that can compete with anyone and have higher grade of internal burnishing, etc. for easier cleaning. Uses X-caliber blanks.

Great guys. Great to work/deal with.

It might take a month or so to get onto Jim's "to-do list", but, he's worth the wait.
Tim, on the other hand, is not as busy and, as far as I can tell, builds hunting barrels equal to his dad. Might be worth giving him a shout as well and see how quickly he can get yours done.

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Originally Posted by scope eye

You mean like this.

http://myaccuratebarrel.com/308--SMA...rown_p_33.html

Dean

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http://myaccuratebarrel.com/223-WYLD...rown_p_35.html

Noooooooooooooooooooo! I wish I had known about this.

Yahoo... (I hope)!

I pulled the trigger on a new Criterion Match stainless with Jim Briggs @ Northland last night.

I am just floored by how much time Jim was able to spend with me personally on the phone and to volunteer extra details and advice even after the barrel was bought. He certainly didn't have to do that and it really shows him-up as a "dedicated member of the tribe"... Really Impressive!

Best part is it goes into UPS today! He also has some others in stock so get on your horse and do it.

I'll report back after getting some load development done.

Steve

Northland got the CBI barrel out the door and it arrived 4 days later. It does look beautiful. I just got around to installing it tonight and all went well. Didn't have go and no-go gauges so I carefully sized a dozen cases (with 5 at top of range in Wilson headspace gauge for .308 WIN.
Have headspace set so it slightly swipes back of average cases, wears down Scotch Tape with a few bolt cocking cycles and swipes the longer pieces of brass a bit more noticeably.
I would call this a "Minimum Bolt-Face Clearance Head-Space setting".
Since I doubt I will ever fire a factory round in this thing I can tweak my sizing die depth if I want Zero case head light-swipe on most bolt closing later. Since am a reloader I am thinking almost No Brass Growth in chamber is good for long brass life.
Will make some ammo. tomorrow and be at range on Saturday for the "Shoot-Clean, Shoot-Clean" drill.
I am Psyched!!

Hello All, Has been an "interesting" period since got barrel. Have only managed to get 85 rounds down the pipe. Barrel break-in was very thorough and was cool to watch progression of "Much Copper to Less Copper to Zero Copper" happen over the course of 25-30 rounds. This was doing the shoot-1 / clean-1 for 10 rnds. and then 3 shot groups after that. (Wow, that Australian "Sweets" goo is some kind of effective at removing copper NOW!)

Progressed into reloading for some load development and started to encounter a consistent problem with Care Sizing... Initially though I s crewed-up headspacing as bolt would be very hard lift after firing and be very sticky in closing, but not the case. I measured and checked & checked & measured until I determined that the dang' Body of the brass was Not sizing-down to a "Slimmer" profile for the much-tighter chamber fit of a nice bolt rifle as opposed to that of an M240 Machine Gun! This even with a very high quality Forster Full-L Sizing Die of every case.

(Moral Here: Maybe I should invest in some nice brass instead of "1 fired" Mil. Brass for $85.00 per 500 ... Hmmmm?) - YES, 100 Lapua on way to "check difference"...

Ughhh... What a PITA! I had to take apart 20 cartridges tonight that were lovingly weighed-out and micrometer seated when I chambered one and it DID lock the Action. Yes, it was "stiff closing, but had never created this kind of a mess....

You %$@*!... Had to (with a tape wrapped soft-aluminum rod) Pound a live round out of my chamber from the muzzle! That does it...!!! All the while my toes are curling and skin crawling while knocking away at a live 2800fps, 155g. match reload in my new Criterion. S&*$!!! Happily it came free but not until after a good bit of cussing & anxiety.

Next - Colored a case Body with sharpie and finally saw where the chamber is "Hugging" the brass about 1/4" forward of the extractor groove for about 1/3" - 1/2" of cartridge length. AH-HA!!!!!

So, I ordered a Redding Small-Base .308 Body Die (and the 100 Lapua cases) and Hopefully will be at the end of this joyful detective story by Thursday.

Once I get rounds going down range without grief I will report back on load-developments, etc...

As far as I'm concerned (so far) this is nobody's fault but the guy who is used to using cheap brass to make-up his loads.... ME. I would like to think (hope) that with the Small Base Redding I CAN use the collection of Lake City that I have (now that I have ultra-sonic cleaned, sized to perfect headspace, lathe-trimmed & chamfered to 2.007 x 300 casings...)

Steve

UPDATE: Lapua Brass arrived and that was It! Boy did I ever underestimate how badly a Full-Length Sized piece of brass (or 300 of them) that was previously Machine Gun fired can SCREW up the works. Come to think of it, I FL-Sized then Rotated 180 degrees and FL-Sized Again every piece of that brass,...so Double sized in new Forster FL sizer.

Dropped new Lapua in action, closed bolt like SILK and opened it back up just as easily! Yahoo... This brass is also Perfectly Headspaced out of the nice box as well for the few I dropped into the Wilson gauge. Just blows my mind how FUBAR'ed everything was behaving when all the other brass was Also perfectly Headspaced, Trimmed and dropping into the Wilson gauge as well.

Will set-up the Redding Small-Base .308 Body Die later and hopefully can turn my nicely prepped LC brass into decent stuff too. I have to say, though, I could "get used to this Lapua thing REAL QUICK"...ha, ha.

Will post notes from Small-Base Sizing operations after I get those results.

SD

Lapua brass is the cat's azz of brass. Nothing better. Worth every cent. Once you get used to using Lapua, if you are forced to go back to lesser brass as I recently did (Winchester), you will really, really appreciate how high quality the Lapua brass actually is.

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Originally Posted by barrel-nut

Lapua brass is the cat's azz of brass. Nothing better. Worth every cent. Once you get used to using Lapua, if you are forced to go back to lesser brass as I recently did (Winchester), you will really, really appreciate how high quality the Lapua brass actually is.

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I guess I always looked at stories of this "Loopy" brass as an example of "Opulence" and ostentation, but I am going to just nod with understanding now and agree that it is Beautiful stuff to Chamber (and to look-at).

I guess if you accumulate 500 casings over the course of a year in little purchases it's not really that Decadent...?:p

I (re)-sized 10 of my LC Machine-Gun "fat-body brass" casings in the Redding Small Base Body Die and That did it. Now they just slide in and out of the chamber with the operation of the bolt like those sweet lapuas. Can see where the lower 1/4" - 1/3" of casing above extractor groove is being rubbed / burnished to a high-shine by the passage through the die.

If the same case is then Re-Run into the die, though, it had still better have Lube on it or you can feel that it will lock. The Lapuas will go through the die without Any Lube. (just had to see what difference still remains between LC and Lapua even after the Small Base die treatment). The LC is still larger diameter as it must be rebounding, but not enough to cause any friction in the chambering of the round anymore.

Hornady's Spray Sizing Lube is actually doing a very good job of controlling the sizing effort in the press. Started by using only the heavier-duty (green tin ?) wax for the original full-length sizing operation as I think it was needed. For this "secondary sizing" though, that Hornady spray lube was excellent. (If your not using this Spray stuff on your Pistol brass and a good application to your .223 casings you're missing out on some easy living ;-)

So, there's the up-date for the most recent problem's solution. Time to fire-up the Charge Master and roll some for shootin' this weekend!

You should never need that small base die again with the Lapua brass.

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Originally Posted by 243LPR

You should never need that small base die again with the Lapua brass.

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^ this. If you do, either your chamber is cut very tight, or your full length die is cut loose or sloppy, or your loads are extremely hot. But I think you'll be ok now.