Replacing Barrel On 30-06

[Totaloutdoorsman]

So I have a Remington 700 SPS with a lighter contour (factory) barrel. It’ll shoot 1”- 1.5” groups depending on ammo, but it gets hot fast and I wouldn’t mind having it shoot a little better. I was considering putting a good barrel on it to try and tighten up the groups and start dabbling in match barrels and building bolt guns. I don’t have a lot of experience rebarreling rifles. For the gunsmiths on here 1.) Is it worth putting a better barrel on a stock SPS action?, and 2.) For deer hunting what is the best contour to get as much accuracy out of the gun without having it get too heavy to carry a decent distance? Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[rayjay]

Have you glass bedded the action ? Checked for the bbl to be free floating ? What do you have the trigger set to ? What kind of rest set up are you using ? What power scope ? Is the scope mount tight ? How close to the lands are you ? Have you tried match bullets of varying wgts ? Tried different powders ? ETC ETC ETC.

Just throwing an awesome bbl on a poorly set up rifle isn't going to make it shoot great. You need to have the skills outlined above before throwing money away on a custom bbl that is unnecessary for what you are doing with the rifle.

Deer rifles don't really make good target rifles and good target rifles don't make good deer rifles. You can use either rifle for either activity but you will be making compromises that will affect the results.

IMO, you should buy a target rifle and leave your deer rifle's action and bbl alone. Bed it, work on the trigger, etc to gain some new skills but any rebarrelling would be for the target rifle after you have exhausted all the performance improvements outlined in paragraph one.

My bonifieds are in the pic

 

[nmurph]

Timney trigger first. Glass bed second.

As mentioned above, if you want to shoot paper, then invest in a separate gun for that endeavor.

 

[Jester896]

Deer rifles don't really make good target rifles and good target rifles don't make good deer rifles. You can use either rifle for either activity but you will be making compromises that will affect the results.

^^^^
Strong truth right there

Timney trigger first. Glass bed second.

Surely both of those could be done at the same time

SPS stock are not very rigid. Changing to something a little better may even help. Add those other 2 suggestions and it...may shoot better than one would think.

 

[Clemson]

To answer your questions, a good aftermarket barrel will generally outshoot a factory barrel. A #3 contour barrel is about the heaviest contour that I would recommend for a hunting rifle.

Bill Jacobs

 

[rayjay]

SPS stock are not very rigid. Changing to something a little better may even help. Add those other 2 suggestions and it...may shoot better than one would think.

My go to stock for a 700 target rifle is a 40X stock. 40X rimfire or centerfire stock will do. The ones I get are usually fairly beat up but will clean up ok. Lots of work to fit the bolt handle, thicker lug, clean up the bedding surface, cut off the bbl tuners if it is a rf stock. Boiled linseed oil is super easy and looks good. The stock below only has the first coat. On the rifle in the pic the money saved on the stock went into the bbl, Jewel trigger, Kelbly rings and Weaver T36 [ imo target rifles get target scopes ]. This stock has an interesting 'blonde' area on the top from the buttpad to the forend.


NOTICE !!!!!!!! IMO, the rest and bag shown in this pic are only good for use on the workbench or for taking pics. They are nearly useless for serious target use.

 

[Jester896]

That looks good! Like that straight interface too!
I was watching a fella rub Linseed Oil on his M14 stock the other day. His ser # was 308...wish I had that puppy...it was a little blonde. I used it on my loading table...I may have to try it on the next wood redo I get.

 

[Totaloutdoorsman]

Thanks guys. I’ve started handloading a few months ago. Just pistol rounds so far. I’m slowly working on acquiring equipment to start loading rifle rounds. I’ll start working up loads and adjusting a few of the variables like seating depth/ distance off lands, powder weight and bullet weight to see what I can work up with 30-06 and my 6.5 CM.