30” 6.5mm take off barrel. What are you building.

[pacowboy]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

 

[Calvin45]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

I'm a speed freak but bias acknowledged I can't imagine having such a long barrel and then just putting a creedmoor, a prc, or a .260 or something on it, that's for sure!!!! Like putting a huge spoiler on a Honda Civic!!!!


6.5-300, .264 win, 6.5-300 wby, 6.5 RUM,

On the practical side maybe a 6.5-300 wsm.

 

[sable tireur]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

First and foremost, with 900-1,000 6.5x284 shots fired on this barrel, it would come off and stay off especially considering the weight, length and contour. Keep it handy for a fireforming barrel. You can shoot 1,000 yards on a power line road with several cartridges using shorter, lighter barrels. Been there, done that.

Enjoy the process!

 

[pacowboy]

First and foremost, with 900-1,000 6.5x284 shots fired on this barrel, it would come off and stay off especially considering the weight, length and contour. Keep it handy for a fireforming barrel. You can shoot 1,000 yards on a power line road with several cartridges using shorter, lighter barrels. Been there, done that.

Enjoy the process!

The thought was the barrel could be rechambered to get past any erosion and still have at least a 26" of great barrel life and turned down to any contour.

 

[sable tireur]

The thought was the barrel could be rechambered to get past any erosion and still have at least a 26" of great barrel life and turned down to any contour.

I understood where you were going with your initial thought but...

A borescope should be called into play because you have no idea what the condition of the barrel is and how far the damage goes down the bore.

You also don't state that the barrel is a straight diameter for the entire length. You simply call it a 'heavy barrel'. If you consider that removing 4" will get you into good lands and groove, a borescope will confirm the barrel's condition. But, if there is a taper to your heavy barrel you may be creating a problem for the thread tenon and chamber when you cut off those 4". We don't know, you don't say.

Have a great day!

 

[VLD Pilot]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

I have a very close match to your barrel but it's a Broughton at 30". I'm contemplating the same move but it's getting cut down to 25". Bore looks good. Don't see any reason to change the chamber as it's super accurate still. It'll do whatever you want and lose a bit of weight downsizing. Still gonna be a 12-14lb rifle. I run H4831sc in it and only running the rifle to 2950 with 140s. Never pushed it hard so should have lots of life left. My opinion is leave it as is if your happy with the accuracy and performance (and weight). If you have to set it back from throat damage, I think I'd still go to a 6.5-284. You already have all the components for the current cartridge.

 

[liltank]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

You could do what I did. I had a 30" McGowen comp barrel in 6.5CM. I had to get 5" removed after 2 seasons (2500+rnds). Never spoke n it up for another season. I ended up having it cut to 16.5" and treaded for a suppressor. Pretty neat little rifle. Call it Stubby Jr!. Stubby Sr. is a short barreled 308. Be a perfect woods rifle as we use 6.5 Swede and 6.5CM in PA woods. We use 143 ELD-X and 140 Sierra SPT BT. I do have a load for Junior running 120 Lapua Scenar L at 2701. They are stupid accurate.

 

[FEENIX]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

Q: What are you going to build?

A: None. I would have kept it as-is and used its remaining barrel life until it was due for a re-barrel. It is not worth the time, money, or effort, but that's just me. I understand there are people who have had success in re-chambering, though.

 

[R. Cram]

before borescopes were so common I would cut off an inch off my highpower rifle barrel after about 2500 rnds with a 260 and rethread and rechamber on every barrel and it always worked ,would get another 1500 to 2000 rnds. Now I look in the throat with a borescope and realize I was not getting all the erosion out but still as I said cutting back an inch always worked. I do the work myself but hiring a gunsmith to cut down the outside diameter of the barrel and rechamber to maybe 28 inches and leave it in 6.5x284 as you already know how to make that work might be expensive

 

[FEENIX]

before borescopes were so common I would cut off an inch off my highpower rifle barrel after about 2500 rnds with a 260 and rethread and rechamber on every barrel and it always worked ,would get another 1500 to 2000 rnds. Now I look in the throat with a borescope and realize I was not getting all the erosion out but still as I said cutting back an inch always worked. I do the work myself but hiring a gunsmith to cut down the outside diameter of the barrel and rechamber to maybe 28 inches and leave it in 6.5x284 as you already know how to make that work might be expensive

This!

 

[Mike Matteson]

The thought was the barrel could be rechambered to get past any erosion and still have at least a 26" of great barrel life and turned down to any contour.

Nothing wrong with longer barrels. You are right in rechambering and working over the muzzle. I buy reamers for my rifles now. That way I have the chambering that I want and able to go back to rechamber my barrels as needed. With your own reamer you can adjust different items in your chamber. For one I cut all my necks on my brass to start with. So I get that part of the reamer reduced to start with. A reamer will last about 5 to 6 reaming jobs. It can be sent back in and worked over to continue to use it. Depending on how much shooting you are doing too. Presently I am stepping into some wildcat chambers. So I am expecting the lands to burn out quicker. Time will tell.
You won't lose much in the lands, but the muzzle they say you lose 2" in length I am not for sure just how that works totally. I do know that most smiths cut about 2" off the muzzle end to start with.
I am going as far as setting up a dumby rifle and change out barrels to fire form my brass now. I use long action presently.
This is what I am presently doing now.

 

[HRM Johnny]

I have a 30" Hart 6.5mm heavy barrel (currently 6.5-284) with 900-1000 rounds through it, all documented. It was on my 16.5# benchrest comp. rifle. 1-8 twist.

You are building a new hunting rifle with said barrel, what are you building and why that rifle/caliber? Most of my hunting is in PA and I have areas that are thick cover or I can go out on the powerline and shoot well over 1k. Have a buddy with property in Colorado so mule deer and elk may soon be in the menu.

Please let us know what you end up doing.

 

[pacowboy]

Right now I'm leaning towards staying with the 6.5-284. I do know the throat is still in pretty decent shape, as others have said they got well over what I have through it in round count with this caliber. I have checked it with a bore scope. My gunsmith had a guy wanting to buy it before I took it off the action knowing how well it was taken care of. It was also meticulously cleaned after every session. Someone else said they used 4831 which is what I was running my 140's with and just about the exact same velocity. My best group was a 10 shot 6.8" group at Williamsport. The only reason this barrel was taken off the action was because I wanted to put the gun back to what it was when I bought it from my great uncle who passed away a few years ago. It was originally an accurized 700 long action with a Douglas 1:10 twist 6.5–300 WWH (Weather Wright Hoyer). I wish he had the better bullets back then and it was a 1:8 or faster but this was the barrel for the days. He had it built back in the late 60's for use at Williamsport.

I was interested in finding out what others are liking about some of the newer 6.5 calibers mainly longer range calibers as this barrel was built for that. Not looking at a 6.5 Creedmore. Someone I think asked about the taper. It's 1.218 in front of the threads and at the muzzle it's .832. Being a machinist I use mics not calipers. lol

Thanks everyone for their thoughts.

 

[VinceMule]

An old German gunsmith taught me an old world way of dealing with errsion on barrel set backs. If you can find a point where the bore dia matches at the muzzle, that does not wear, with the position of the new throat, you can have great success with the barrel set back.

Again, the muzzle does not wear past the first 1/4-3/8". Using A grizzley rod and reamer pilots that are graduated in .0002 increments, determine the dia at the muzzle. Next, using over size reamer pilots on the Grizzley rod begin measuring wear on the breach end. Put a piece of masking tape on the barrel and mark the distance that each over size reamer pilots penetrates the bore and the location. Find the exact point in the barrel where the "new" throat location will match the muzzle dia. Get ready for a shock at how much has to be cut off.

Set backs with max heavy varmint contour barrels along with heavy Palma can be accomplished resulting in great accuracy results.

It is not uncommon to cut off 9".

I just cut off 9" from a 6BRA of mine, MHV contour. The barrel started throwing a shot at 1100 rounds of 105s shot with H4895. Also, I bought a used 6.5/284 fluted barrel with 600 documented rounds. I got the barrel cheap and thought I would take a chance. I determined that the best I could do was to locate the new throat at a place where it was .001 over the muzzle bore dia., bummer....it is going to be a short range hunting barrel in 260 AI. Also to the barrel's detriment, the Muzzle dia and the breach dia are very close but under the fluting, the bore dia opens up to a dimension that I can not measure accurately. The whole project will end up being a lot of work for a fire form barrel, but I got to play. I will buy a lottery ticket if the barrel will shoot 1/2".

Cutting off a barrel, helter skelter without taking to account the bore dia, is a Hail Mary at best depending on your desired accuracy.