Buying takeoff barrels... some musings, learn from my mistakes, and are these worth trying to fix?

I'll post some pictures to go along with this shortly. Question ultimately is are these barrels even worth trying to fix assuming that's even possible? Is the throat reamed separately from the chamber on Remington factory barrels?

Over the last few years I've bought 5 take off barrels. Three have been very good (1 Christensen Arms, 2 unfired factory Remington). Now, the other two very clearly have problems (both used Remington factory barrels). I borescoped them in preparation to sell them, and now can't list them in good conscience.

I bought the two problem barrels on this very message board. Both were described as "great shooting". Maybe they are, but I have a hard time believing that.

Problem Barrel 1) 6.5 Creedmoor, 24" threaded, Varmint/Sendero profile. Seller described it has having 40 rounds through it, and yeah there's little to no firecracking or erosion. However, the throating is crooked such that on one side the rifling runs clean back to the neck. 40 rounds, "shoots great", but you decided to pull it. Yeah sure.

Problem Barrel 2) 7mm STW Sendero SS Fluted. Barrel wear seems okay. Same problem. The throating is very goofy, again crooked reamer perhaps. Now the crown, I don't know if it's cleaning rod damage, perhaps an amateurish attempt to fix a crown. Maybe it's a factory Remington job? I've always read that the Senderos were semi-customshop guns, but this barrel is not very confidence inspiring.

This leads me some very obvious "well duh" conclusions as well as remembering the right questions to ask when buying things
- If something shoots great, why are you pulling the barrel off?
- Be very skeptical of takeoff barrels (duh right)?
- I would not buy a barrel without seeing a borescope of it. In this day and age, that's quite easily doable.
- Barrels that are brand new, and were pulled to get the action only may be worth considering.

I will say that the RR prefix Long Range models in 300 RUM seemed to be rather decent. Pretty sure that's what the good takeoff barrels came off of plus I bought a complete rifle that shot great.

I think if they headspace I'd try shooting them. Or if you don't want to shoot them I'd be upfront with the condition and sell them at a very reduced cost. That way the buyer knows and takes his/ her chances. I bought my 30-06 XTR with the understanding that the barrel has some pitting. Since it's in a McMillan stock I took a chance and purchased it with the intention of rebarreling it. Turns out it shoots just fine so I never rebarreled it.

atblis said:

Question ultimately is are these barrels even worth trying to fix assuming that's even possible? Is the throat reamed separately from the chamber on Remington factory barrels?

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No- not factory Rem barrels. I'm assuming that you'd need a smith to do it and not asking as a DIY question- but even as a DIY not worth the effort. Chambers- including the freebore and leade/throat- are always cut with a single reamer. A reamer is a precision-ground form cutter that ensures the transitions remain perfectly concentric to each other. The neck, freebore, and throat can be made wider/lengthened after the chamber is cut; usually done when someone has a SAAMI chamber and wants a specific freebore length to suit a specific bullet. That said, if this is known in advance most smiths will prefer to order a reamer custom ground to those exact specifications so there's ZERO question the customer has gotten what he asked for.

If the throat isn't reamed straight, on center, even, etc. is the chamber likely aligned to the bore? I feel like if the chamber is bad, no fixing that. It is possible these barrels shoot decently as is. The answer I come to is not worth it. I've moved on to a custom action for the 6.5 Creedmoor stuff, and 7mm STW, while a neat round, isn't worth the investment in terms of brass and dies to test out a suspect barrel.

I have picked several barrels on here and they been great.
Plus you can't go wrong with a 300 Rum Barrel ! Lol never met a person that shot one of those bad boys out !

Rum Man

Used barrels are a crap shoot. Most folks won't sell a hummer but they will sell the bummers. Now some guys go through calibers and barrels like underwear so sometimes you can buy a good used barrel. But a Remington take off from recent production is probably a bummer. They were putting out junk the last few years.

Youtube borescope

My RR 300RUM Long Range does shoot good, but it has zero primary extraction and I mean zero. I started a pressure test with it and 1 grain increments over 8 grains were sub inch at 100. It should have come with a mallet in the box. My RR prefix 700 big box store cheapie varmint 308 is an outstandingly good rifle. The stock is worth about 13 cents, but it just hammers and runs perfectly. I bought the RUM thinking I might get lucky twice in a row LOL.

This might be more of a guess than anything else, but regarding those crooked throats, rather than being crooked there is a better change that the lands and grooves are not equally cut, one side being cut a just one thousandth or two will certainly show as a offset,

atblis said:

Youtube borescope

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Holy....

Bret GRAVELINE Graveline said:

This might be more of a guess than anything else, but regarding those crooked throats, rather than being crooked there is a better change that the lands and grooves are not equally cut, one side being cut a just one thousandth or two will certainly show as a offset,

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Not a cut rifled barrel, it's button rifled- far as I know, that button can't do anything but follow the hole and it's gonna press the grooves in equally- but I'm not a barrel manufacturer.

The video seemed to show the grooves consistent the rest of the way up the barrel. I honestly can't think of a way I could cut a chamber that would look like that if I TRIED. Variation of some thousandths in freebore length is poor/non-concentric setup. Going from zero freebore at the neck to whatever on the very next groove is something I've never seen. Only thing I can think of is that the blank was defective- gun drill wandered (probably all the way up the barrel, who knows) around and it should have never made it past that point, every manufacturer checks for straightness of the hole before rifling. JMO YMMV

Rum Man said:

I have picked several barrels on here and they been great.
Plus you can't go wrong with a 300 Rum Barrel ! Lol never met a person that shot one of those bad boys out !

Rum Man

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I did last year, a guy sold me a 24"
I should of new better, ran a bore scope through it and was told only 100 rounds shot. There was little to no rifling 5r.
Never tried it, but I wasn't going to waste my time.
I will Not Ever Buy a used barrel again.
And yes it was a 300RUM.

I caught a whiff of sarcasm when I read that.

An off center Remington chamber like that is as common as a Savage with button chatter marks. Sometimes they will shoot at an almost acceptable level causing you to burn more components on a hope and prayer before eventually pulling them.