SmallCaliberCentral

The once exceptional accuracy of my stock Remington 700 204 Ruger had been falling off for the past year so I decided to spend part of my week's vacation installing a new barrel. I wanted to do it myself because I'm a born tinkerer and I was having trouble finding a local gunsmith who would do the work. I did a lot of research and thought is was a project I could do. I got a 26" Shilen SS match barrel, action wrench, a finish reamer, and headspace guages from Brownells and a barrel vise, recoil lug and a recoil lug centering tool from Midway. The finish reaming took way longer than I thought but I wanted to be very careful and not ruin an expensive barrel. The project went very well and I'm really looking forward to see what kind of groups I get. I'd like to get a nice unfinished walnut or rosewood stock for it, so if anyone knows a good supplier please let me know. Here are some pics.

action separated from the old barrel

old barrel, new barrel and the action

New barrel and recoil lug mated to the action. I took this pic when I finally got the headspacing set after hours of very careful reaming. The cartridge sitting on top of the action is a a dummy round (no powder or primer). I used it along with the go and no no guages to make sure I had the headspacing correct.

My rifle put back together after modifying the old stock and what it used to look like.

One more.

Beautiful, and made in NY!!

Good job, Tok'!!

Let us know how she shoots

Looks like a fun winter project and you saved some $$$. If not this time, then next time.

I hope it works out for you because when you can do your own there won't be to many limits. Did you have to open the barel channel up for that barrel size.

tokimini howdy neighbor mendon ny, I was looking to do the samething with my model 12 savage, rebarrel it to a 204 match, keep us posted on how it shoots

Thanks Bow.

Jim, I had to open the barrel channel up quite a bit as the new barrel has a larger diameter. It was good practice for when I get a nice stock for the rifle.

Hey Smitty, greetings from snowy Victor. Savages are very easy to re-barrel thanks to their barrel nut, no finish reaming required. It's about half hour job, and that includes a 15 minute nap.

Snow- rain -50 degrees -7 degrees wish it would make up its mind!!!! I have never rebarreled a rifle , I have heard how easy it is, iam a just a factory type of guy, until i started shooting longer distance at ground hogs, now this is a big step for me hahhah. I use a 6br for long distance the 204 sure fits nice inbetween for a medium range calibur. Hang on to your shoes you may blow away in this wind!!
Smitty

You guys are about the only thing keeping me here in this state, lol!

Tokimini, did you polish off those Oreos before the rebarrel was done?