To anyone else out there in "I'm-waiting-for-my-260-barrel-land "besides me... good news! I spoke with Jim Briggs this afternoon and Criterion has just today received the reamers they have been waiting for. The way Jim explained it to me, a couple of months ago, was that some of his bench rest shooting clientele had not been able to seat their 140 grain class bullets out far enough to be able to achieve maximum performance. He threw some very tiny numbers in my direction, which I understood at the time; but it sounded to me like these new reamers were going to be used to make chambers with throats just the slightest bit longer.

Rather than opt for another barrel maker, I've been hanging around waiting for these reamers to be delivered. Jim says criterion has yet to test the reamers, but if everything goes well, production should start in a couple of weeks. This is my first aftermarket barrel ever; and first Savage project, so I'm kind of excited to know the ball was finally rolling. According to Jim the folks at Criterion have been expecting delivery "any day now" for at least a couple of months so he's pretty excited too.