Two questions

[MarkChambers]

it has a HS Precision stock, out of the box it should ok,
look at chamber specs for each make for your caliber, (assuming twist rate is same), pick the one which is the best match to your choice of bullet/brass
don't rule out the factory barrel
and
WELCOME to the forum from west michigan

OK a bit more information. I know it's an HS. I have not pulled the action to look underneath but I was told that that particular model had an aluminum mini chassis. Is that true? I was assuming there were some here that knew that for sure and how much skim bedding improved their performance. If there is no aluminum chassis then I will have it bedded for sure.

The barrel is going to be replaced. It is a 243 and the twist rate is 1 / 9.25. Much too slow for my purposes as I am going to set it up for 115 Bergers and DTAC's. I am going with a 28 inch with a twist of 1 / 7 or maybe 1 / 7.5. I was interested, again, in the experiences of the folks here and if any had a preference between the Shilen and Criterion and their reasons, or if it was a toss up.

I'm on the other side of the state from you but spend a good portion of my summers up on Lake Leelanau. Thanks for the welcome!

[darkker]

OK a bit more information. I know it's an HS. I have not pulled the action to look underneath but I was told that that particular model had an aluminum mini chassis. Is that true? I was assuming there were some here that knew that for sure and how much skim bedding improved their performance. If there is no aluminum chassis then I will have it bedded for sure.

The barrel is going to be replaced. It is a 243 and the twist rate is 1 / 9.25. Much too slow for my purposes as I am going to set it up for 115 Bergers and DTAC's. I am going with a 28 inch with a twist of 1 / 7 or maybe 1 / 7.5. I was interested, again, in the experiences of the folks here and if any had a preference between the Shilen and Criterion and their reasons, or if it was a toss up.

I'm on the other side of the state from you but spend a good portion of my summers up on Lake Leelanau. Thanks for the welcome!

http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi
Look up the bullet length, and fill-out the particulars, that will give you an idea for stability.

The skim bedding(or any other) is really a bit of a leap of faith.
Anything CAN help or hurt, but think of the principal of the matter. IF the stock has a chassis(not sure, sorry), do you think that it is a willy-nilly "we hope it generally fits" chassis, or was it built for the action? If it does NOT have a chassis, what are you hoping to accomplish with a razor think bit of glass like epoxy?

After years of fooling with stocks and bedding or not, I see very little difference personally. IF you have a POS tupperware lid holding the gun, a tiny amount of brittle epoxy is still on top of tupperware. We all remember the story about a house with a foundation built on sand. IF the stock is VERY close to a glove-like fit, but has a wee bit of gap here or there; How flexible do you think the action is? I know that little things CAN add up to larger issues, I just don't believe that it matters to all but a select few of the worlds finest shooters.

$0.02

[Stockrex]

OK a bit more information. I know it's an HS. I have not pulled the action to look underneath but I was told that that particular model had an aluminum mini chassis. Is that true? I was assuming there were some here that knew that for sure and how much skim bedding improved their performance. If there is no aluminum chassis then I will have it bedded for sure.

The barrel is going to be replaced. It is a 243 and the twist rate is 1 / 9.25. Much too slow for my purposes as I am going to set it up for 115 Bergers and DTAC's. I am going with a 28 inch with a twist of 1 / 7 or maybe 1 / 7.5. I was interested, again, in the experiences of the folks here and if any had a preference between the Shilen and Criterion and their reasons, or if it was a toss up.

I'm on the other side of the state from you but spend a good portion of my summers up on Lake Leelanau. Thanks for the welcome!

yes on alu block inside,
No experience with dtac,
you will have to check if either shilen or criterion offers 7 tw in a 6 mm,

DTACs, Tubb's used a 7.5 tw to shoot a perfect score at camp perry

hey, I am going to intermediate lake to fish in a few months, very pretty up there.

[MarkChambers]

yes on alu block inside,
No experience with dtac,
you will have to check if either shilen or criterion offers 7 tw in a 6 mm,

DTACs, Tubb's used a 7.5 tw to shoot a perfect score at camp pretty

hey, I am going to intermediate lake to fish in a few months, very pretty up there.

Good on the block. I will skim bed it anyways--it can't hurt.
Shilen and Criterion both offer the 7 twist. Per NSS, the Criterion is 16 to 18 weeks and Shilen is substantially longer. I can have a Hart smith done in about 6 weeks but the price shoots up considerably. Haven't checked McGowan yet.
Tubb--yeah right. :) He shoots boron nitride coated DTACs that reduce pressure and allow increased loads which may account for the 7.5.
Using Millers chart with the Berger stats just gets you over the magic 1.4 number. Probably going to do the 7 as I won't be shooting anything lighter than the 105's.

Intermediate Lake is nice.