To remage or not to remage, that is my question?

[Max Heat]

You should ALWAYS use a barrel vise. I'm not going to run over to my smith and shell out 60 bucks to have him throw it on the lathe to take a little more off of the shoulder every time the HS is out a thousanth of an inch. But I WILL take it back to 0 if I can do it myself, without needing a lathe. As far as I know, the only drawback to going with a barrel nut is that it won't look as purdy. But I beleive that is something that I will be able to live with.

 

[ZSteinle]

i cant really give you any advice on putting a barrel nut on a remington but i can tell you that i just slapped my mcgowen 6.5x47 lapua barrel on to a savage target action and i am very impressed so far. about 40 rounds down the tube. Barrel break in went very smooth, barrel cleans up very easy, and it shoots. I just threw together some random loads for barrel break in and after the first 5 shots down the tube 140 amaxs were shooting about 0.5 MOA. during barrel break in of 20 rounds, i put shots 5 through 20 into about 0.75 moa. That was with cleaning every 3rd shot.

 

[rifletuner]

Doing a switch barrel is easier with a nut, I have it both ways and the nut works better because as you take the barrel on and of your head space can all ways be set to zero, with the shoulder your head space will get tighter just from taking it on and off, not a big issue but it's there.

???? If you are saying that the headspace will vary by a few thousands using the shoulder method, then something is way wrong with your setup.

I have 3 benchrest actions, and 15 different barrels, and I can interchange brass between virtually all my barrels. There is no variation what so ever if I screw off a barrel, then put in back on the same rifle, or one of the other matching actions.

 

[bigngreen]

???? If you are saying that the headspace will vary by a few thousands using the shoulder method, then something is way wrong with your setup.

I have 3 benchrest actions, and 15 different barrels, and I can interchange brass between virtually all my barrels. There is no variation what so ever if I screw off a barrel, then put in back on the same rifle, or one of the other matching actions.

Not saying a few thousandths each time but you can take a barrel and just farting around with it taking it one and of a few dozen times and you can measure a change on the headspace gauge, not much but it does. I have multiple barrels, shoulder and nutted and the clocking makes very slight changes on the shouldered barrels and on the nuts if you mark them, torque makes a difference also. The OP would likely never have an issue because he'll burn the barrel of it before he takes it on and of much, so the nut mostly just lets him rock it himself.

 

[Trickymissfit]

I still just don't understand why you would go with a barrel nut setup, when a pinned recoil lug switch-barrel is alot more common, you don't need any special parts, you don't need a special barrel, and it might cost you an extra $50 to have your smith pin the lug while the smith already has it doing all the work, instead of machining the reciever and threading it. Just seems like a good waste of a 700 action, to me, to try to make it like a Savage.

But, it is your rifle, it will be unique to you, so more power to you.

Post pics when you're done.

one more time;

engineering wise the nut is better. How much will be debated till the end of time, but it is. Every barrel you have will have to be head spaced by a gunsmith when using the shoulder option. Then you can swap barrels till your blue in the face. The shoulder lockup on the thread leaves the threads free after they take up the clearance machined into them (about .005" to .008"), or about five turns max. Now with the nut you thread the barrel into a headspace gauge tightly and tighten the nut to about 35 lb.. Yes you will pull the barrel forward about five thousandths max. But the entire thread will be in contact with the female thread form instead of the last two thirds hanging out there loosely. A stretched thread is also as strait as the female thread is cut. The firing pin lets go and starts the ignition process. The shock will try to move the barrel in two directions at the sametime when the bullet contacts the rifling. It does this with a shoulder lock up fairly easily. But with the threads in contact, you only deal with the like reaction of the bullet striking the rifling. Some will say this movement means little, but once again they're dead wrong. As the primer goes off and the powder burn starts, the case is expanding and moving in the chamber causing the barreling to move inside the female threads. That is unless it's in full contact. Gunsmiths don't like barrel nuts because they can't get inside your wallet. But over the years some folks have tried adding a pilot shoulder on the barrel's thread to guide the barrel into center. Not a bad idea, but on a Remington the bridge is already considered too short to start with, plus in the end the male thread ends up hanging out there loose. The true test of this is to coat the male thread with red lead, and brush high spot blue on the female thread. Then tighten them up. You'll be lucky to see 25 to 30% contact even with ground threads.

If you have access to a mechanical CAD program, then draw it up, and plug in 65K psi with out even adding the bullet weight and striking force. By factoring in that added force your see the barrel twisting backwards from the rifling due to the like reaction caused by the travel of the bullet thru the barrel. In the world of thread forms a stretched thread is always considered superior.
gary