Well, I finally got off the fence on this one. Been thinking about a 6BR barrel to replace my stock .308 (the .308 will go on my Axis and remain a cast bullet rifle) Wanted to wait for a higher end barrel but wait times are getting longer. Northland has quite a few barrels in 6BR in stock so I called them and settled on a Shilen select stainless 26" barrel. Got it in under a week. Also got the nut wrench and action vise along with go-nogo gages. And a new recoil lug.

Was all ready for a 'fight' to get the stock barrel off. Surprise! Came off easily. Cleaned out the action well to get rid of all the "factory grit". Applied some anti-seize and put the new barrel on. Easy peasy. Set headspace and ready to go. Almost took longer to mount the scope back up than it did to change the barrel.

Got some brass (Lapua) and bullets (Hornady 108 ELD match) and loaded up a ladder. CCI BR-4 primers, Varget. Redding competition seat die and Forster full length size die. 3rds each from 28.0gn to 30.0gn in 0.2gn steps.

This morning was supposed to be calm so drove out to the range. Wind was 5+ mph and it was spitting a few drops of rain every now and then.

I had 10 rounds at 28.0gn loaded for a break in (yes, I believe it helps and doesn't really waste any ammo). 1st rd-clean. 2nd rd- clean. 3rd round the patch had no sign of copper at all. Shot another 7 then cleaned and no copper sign. First 10 rounds went into 1.5" at 100yd. Not great, but, not unexpected for a new and cold barrel (and variable cleaning condition).

Then started the ladder. None of the 3rnd groups were over 1". Largest was 0.8". 5 of the loads were under 0.4". That surprised me. 28gn load was 2670fps. 30gn load was 2850fps. The 30gn load was one of the better ones.

So, I have a couple loads I'll set up for next time and shoot at my 'normal' 200yd and 600yd ranges. Might fiddle with OAL, but, these Hornady bullets seem to like a little jump (these were all 0.020" jump).

Clean up went FAST compared to my factory barrel. I used my normal technique. Several patches of bore cleaner (Ed's Red), bore brush, 4 wet patches and it was clean. Then I dried it out and used copper remover. Only took two patches until no more residue observed. I think this is a slick barrel.

So, if you are on the fence about changing out a barrel, I recommend doing it. I still don't like setting up scopes for some reason.

PS Northland was an excellent choice. Very helpful and FAST service.