For those who have done it...

[dmr400]

I'm on my 4th remage. I've had all my actions trued up but the barrel threads left alone. With one exception they have all been great. The one exception is actually the most accurate out of the bunch, but it was a new RR prefix action and has some primary extraction issues (apparently a lot the RR serial numbered actions struggle with this, and truing the face can make it more out of time).

Northland Shooters Supply is the way the go, the action wrench with the fixture to align the recoil lug is great. Well worth the slight one time cost to convert to their recoil lug.

Actually I take that back, I'm on my 5th remage barrel. 4th action, but I shot out the 6mm creedmoor and put another one on. It isn't even hardly broken in yet but seems to want to shoot.

Edit:

I put a little more thought into this and I'll add some things to think about. The whole reason I went down the remage road was that I am lucky enough to hunt predators for a living and started out with a love affair for hotrod flat shooting calibers, because at the time night hunting didn't have good rangefinding options. Now that thermal scopes have rangefinders built in I don't need that laser beam 22-250 or hotrod 6mm that will burn barrels.

If I was starting over, I might do things differently, especially with the ELD-VT bullets coming out. A 6.5 creedmoor with that bullet should have a lot more barrel life, so I might not need to worry about rebarrels as much, which takes away some of the appeal of the remage.

Personally at this point if I wasn't invested in the remage system I would look at Tikka actions....from what I hear they are plenty accurate, machined accurate enough to buy shouldered profits, and aftermarket support like stocks etc are getting more available all the time. If I only needed one rifle to cover my hunting I would just save up and buy a custom or semi custom exactly the way I wanted it. But in fairness, for my somewhat unusual circumstances and needs the remage system has treated me well with excellent practical accuracy and "saved" me some money. Not much, but some: )

Also, prefit barrels don't have to cost $750 bucks. The steel northland shooters supply barrels are around $350, plus $28 for the nut if you buy it at the same time as the first barrel. The NSS recoil lug is well worth buying the first time too, if you use their action wrench with the lug alignment jig, which I can't recommend enough. I used it for 2 barrels on the same rifle, and didn't need to rebed the lug in the stock.

 

[Mike6158]

A "prefit" will cost you around $750 + go gauges+ nut werch+ barrel vise + carving into your stock to get the barrel nut to fit.

A brux barrel will cost you $400+$300 chamber job.

I'd buy a blank and send it to a smith.

No doubt, this is the right answer imho. I put a prefit barrel on my Ruger Ranch. It was real easy. I swapped the slower twist factory barrel to a 6 twist so I can shoot heavier bullets.

BUT, you have to get in a very long line for barrels, actions, and gunsmith services. I'm patient so I don't mind doing that.

 

[Buttermilk]

Sorry. I was talking about two different guns in my OP. One is a custom build that was blueprinted and rebarreled by a very good gunsmith.

The build in question is a stock Remington 700 243 Winchester that I am considering converting to 6CM myself via a remmage barrel.

With that information, is it worth doing the remmage? You've done 4, so I'm interested to hear your experiences.

If I, me personally, were to do a barrel nut system I would do the Bug Nut from bugholes.com. That is the only way I would do a barrel nut. https://www.bugholes.com/category-s/1984.htm

I will also clarify that I've never done a barrel nut of any kind. I prefer shouldered setups.

The Bug Nut allows a 1.250" shank diameter while the Remage is limited to something closer to a bit over an inch if I remember correctly.

 

[Citified]

I did a rebarrel on my .243 that was shot out and bought an inexpensive stainless short chambered barrel from Midway. Bought the gauges, reamer and tools because I thought I would do more of these. It was a rewarding experience and came out fine. Shoots good but the twist is still too slow for heavies.
I ended up buying a Ruger in 6CM that is better than 1/2 MOA with factory ammo.
In the end was it worth it? Probably should just have put a faster twist AI in the .243 since it already had trigger and stock upgrades.
I am pretty technical but don't own a lathe.
You may enjoy the experience and the tools will work on other rifles if you choose to.
Nothing wrong with a fast twist .243 profit, but if you go down that path I would have them AI it for better brass life.

 

[Darryle]

I have a 700 action wrench and a 700 barrel vise you can borrow. A wooden dowel off appropriate size or the new barrel and nut wrapped in sticky back air file sandpaper will open up the nut area once you have figured out where it needs to be relieved.

It's not overly complicated or a very difficult process, it is time consuming and can be rewarding or extremely frustrating.

Pay attention to what @ButterBean said, it's a moot point if you can't fit everything once you start. Measure your mag box, figure out your desired load and get to measuring. If it doesn't fit, look at Wyatt's Outdoors page for mag boxes that will fit without modifications to your action, if the load doesn't fit those options, you are dead in the water.

Now, you will more than likely see a drastic improvement in accuracy over a factory Remington 700 barrel, especially if it was made in the past couple of decades. You may see bug holes, you also may see patterns, it's hit or miss like any endeavor. If you go into it with realistic goals and don't set yourself up for failure, you will probably be happy.

There's a reason mine gather dust now, cheap sub $800 and sometimes sub $700 clone actions make this a tinkerer's (sp?) dream environment. Most accept prefits, have integral recoil lugs, trigger hangers, will accept longer magazine options and endless stock configurations from the start, what's not to love.

Now, I recommend you find a competent local gunsmith, it doesn't have to be someone who is well known, there are a ton of gunsmiths who work day in and day out building fantastically accurate rifles that never receive a nationwide or even a statewide reputation, but are content with their regional reputation that keeps them covered up in work.

If you don't want to follow that advice, then I offer this advice, buy a cheap Savage Axis, a Savage prefit and play with that action to learn the ins and outs. Once you are done learning, you can recover the majority of your money back or you can keep it as a range toy, build your own little switch barrel rifle that keeps you from burning up your 700 if you do rebarrel it to 6 Creedmoor. 6 Creedmoor is going to have a realistic short barrel life compared to the 243, mainly because you are going to be stepping on it to launch those bigger, longer high BC bullets at close to 3k fps. Good news is, you will be able to swap the barrel out yourself if you go the Remage route and you are happy with the accuracy.

 

[7mm man]

I too have bought a remage barrel one time from Northland Shooters Supply. That guy is great. He will get you set up quickly.

 

[Csbc4fun]

Who has replaced their own barrel on a Remington 700 in a different caliber? I'm thinking of converting my 243 to a 6CM simply because I'd have more room for the longer boolits. My understanding of the process is that I would need a barrel vise, an action wrench, and go/no go guages for the new caliber. The bolt face is the same.

I have a custom rifle on an old 700 action. It is an absolute tack driver, but the gunsmith blueprinted the action and the bolt. Can I expect the same precision without blueprinting? I'm not a machinist. Just a regular guy who loves rifles that shoot exceptionally well, has a limited budget, wants "new" guns, and has a wife who watches the checking account closely. If you have experience and can relate, please share. (Yes, I'm looking for a friend )

I would focus more on the wife / checking account issue than the logistics of barrel replacement. A happily married man once said to me, "I don't ask how many horses she has and she doesn't ask how many guns I have." Best of Luck…

 

[7mm man]

I did a rebarrel on my .243 that was shot out and bought an inexpensive stainless short chambered barrel from Midway. Bought the gauges, reamer and tools because I thought I would do more of these. It was a rewarding experience and came out fine. Shoots good but the twist is still too slow for heavies.
I ended up buying a Ruger in 6CM that is better than 1/2 MOA with factory ammo.
In the end was it worth it? Probably should just have put a faster twist AI in the .243 since it already had trigger and stock upgrades.
I am pretty technical but don't own a lathe.
You may enjoy the experience and the tools will work on other rifles if you choose to.
Nothing wrong with a fast twist .243 profit, but if you go down that path I would have them AI it for better brass life.

Citified, you did a short chambered barrel without a lathe? Are you able to go into this in more detail? You just turn the reamer by hand with a tap handle or something? Slowly cutting and keep measuring?

 

[Hydra6]

Just replaced a Stiller Spectre (Rem 700 clone - will not take shouldered prefits) worn out barrel with CBI Remage 308. No issues. Have done multiple Savages. Patriot Valley Arms (PVA) has an explanation on their webpage comparing barrel nut vs shouldered "prefits".

I prefer actions that take shouldered prefits (Impact and Tikka for example) but I am not throwing away my older Stiller and Defiance actions that do not take shouldered prefits nor am I sending those actions to a gunsmith every time I need a barrel replaced.

 

[pavementends]

I have gone the barrel nut route on several rifles. Savage, Remington, Howa, Ruger, Zermatt, Aero and maybe some others. All have pleased me. Criterion, Shilen and Xmark barrels. While there are a multitude of excellent gunsmiths, and with the internet easily found, there are also many "gunsmiths" who are hacks. Many threads on formerly well respected smiths who for what ever reason fall from grace. Long way of saying, If you enjoy doing things your self you can build a very accurate rifle at home. If you choose to use a smith try to find some one local. Cost is a factor but should not be the major one.

 

[Citified]

The barrel came short chambered by .030". I bought a pilot finish reamer, cutting oil and the T handle and hand reamed slowly while checking with the go/no go gauges. It really was easy and got the headspace at minimum. I have other rifles the headspace guages work for, so decided to own them. I could have rented a reamer inexpensively but you hear stories about dull or worn ones so decided to own it and not abuse it.

 

[Citified]

I really wish I had gone to gunsmith school when I was younger but at 74, that ship has sailed. I apprenticed in a machine shop while going to college so have some skills.
Gunsmiths really do have a skill set to produce first class rifles and pistols. I admire their talent.

 

[xsn10s]

I really wish I had gone to gunsmith school when I was younger but at 74, that ship has sailed. I apprenticed in a machine shop while going to college so have some skills.
Gunsmiths really do have a skill set to produce first class rifles and pistols. I admire their talent.

NRA has summer classes for gunsmithing. You could go to Lassen Community college for their classes. But if you worked in a machine shop then you could just go to the local community college there in Redmond and brush up on your machining skills.

 

[Citified]

That sounds interesting. The shop I worked in eons ago made aircraft parts on contract so had exposure to many types of metals and close tolerances. It would be a lot of fun to cut my own barrels.
I am not going to start a gunsmith business.
The local guy here is good and gets most stuff done in a reasonable time.