what can be done with a straight cylinder barrel?

[wildcat westerner]

Hello,
I have potentially purchased a 28 inch, 30 caliber straight cylinder barrel 1 1/8 or 1/1/4 presently chambered in .308. I want to use it for a .300 magnum hunting rifle and want to reduce this weight so the finished weapon is portable. Lets say that when scoped the rifle may weigh 10-12 pounds. I do not have purchased yet the Savage rifle which will be the basis for this rifle. Using the RWS case I designed a cartridge that allows four cartridges in the magazine and produced 3,214 fps with a 180 grain bullet back when I designed it in 2000 with PTG's help.
The barrel is apparently capable of target accuracy now, and I would not like to screw it up by fluting it so deeply. I would appreciate any practical, experienced answer for this challenge. We will be shortening the barrel.

 

[KRP]

How short are you planning to cut it? 1.125 straight cylinder at 16" is still a 4+ pound barrel. I would buy something different or adjust your weight expectations.

 

[mtbullet1]

machine the profile to what you want

 

[tobnpr]

I have potentially purchased

If you haven't purchased it, get a different barrel.
It's not worth the expense to have so much material removed from a bull barrel, and if not done properly there's the potential to warp the barrel- and you're going to lose a few inches from the breech end getting rid of the .308 Win chamber (is that by design?)

 

[wildcat westerner]

The barrel has been purchased and I am so blessed to have a gunsmith with patience, so , after the lathe is set up properly he ca go about his business which is mainly cattle ranching. Obviously, I do not want to screw up this barrel. the chambering of the .300 magnum wildcat will encompass the .308 chambering.

 

[Noobie]

Typical barrel steel achieves hardness and toughness via quenching and tempering, whether stainless or carbon. There are internal stresses from thermal treatments that may warp a barrel if significant amounts of material are removed. Stress relief heat treating is employed as appropriate to help with this.
Edit: A couple issues with stress relieving - the mechical properties might be affected if the temp is too high, it might lose strength. A hardness check befre and after would confirm this. The other issue is that the bore must be protected from even very small amounts of oxidation. Hanging it vertically in a high vacuum furnace with a diffusion pump, with 'gettering' material near it to suck up whatever oxygen is left might help, whether it is stainless or carbon steel. Obviosuly all oil must be scrubbed out first as well.
You might want to talk to the BBL manufacturer to see about it's thermal history, and a really good heat treat shop to find out what they recommend.
Unless run with a batch of similar parts, it might be more expensive than a new BBL.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

The barrel has been purchased and I am so blessed to have a gunsmith with patience, so , after the lathe is set up properly he ca go about his business which is mainly cattle ranching. Obviously, I do not want to screw up this barrel. the chambering of the .300 magnum wildcat will encompass the .308 chambering.

I would not want to re-machine a barrel to the extent that you are talking about. You could easily throw good money after bad into that project and end up with a barrel with less accuracy potential.

I'd sell the barrel to someone who wants/needs a really heavy barrel and just buy what you want. In the end, you'll have exactly what you want.

 

[wildcat westerner]

Thanks all,
You have persuaded me not to touch the contour of the .308 barrel. It will merely be another barrel for my switch barrel Savage rifle. I located 100 Lapua Palma match cases for this .308, so brass won't be a problem. I still have a 6.5 x 284, and this .308 target barrel. In measuring this barrel I find its dimension to be smaller in taper to the 6.5 x 284 although itis longer and heavier at the muzzle. You persuaded me to purchase a Hart barrel which we will be finishing at 28 inches and chambered for my .30 wildcat based on the 9.3x64 RWS brass which allows four of these large cases to fit in the Savage magazine, produces velocities near .300 Weatherby due to its very tough brass that requires three fire formings to get a really sharp shoulder and produces 3,214 fps with 180 grain bullets in a 26 inch barrel.