Years ago I used an old Remington 725 chambered in the 222 Remington and converted the rifle to a 223 Remington. The rifle is a bit peculiar with the blued action and stainless fluted barrel but is a heck of a shooter.
The original rifle was a pencil barrel so rather than hog out the sweet little walnut stock I went with an aluminum bedding block stock and took out enough material to float my barrel.
Once the 222 Remington barrel was removed I trued that Remington action. With the barrel still removed I went ahead and lapped the bot lugs and bolt face. I wanted to end up with a good accurate little rifle so doing these extra detail steps helped insure I would get what I wanted. So so far with the action wrench aside I have used:
1.
RECEIVER FACING MANDREL Locates Receiver Between Centers For Facing Off & Contouring for Remington 700 Action.
2. MANSON PRECISION -
BOLT FACE TRUING TOOLS
Then there were a few grits of
lapping compound.
My barrel vise kit is the
Brownells version. You will need the inserts for the barrel diameters as well as lead shim stock and some rosin, all available from Brownells.
You will also need the
Action Wrench for your Remington 700 receiver.
There is more involved but I think you can see where this is going from a cost stand point. When I was active doing this stuff I had a full machine shop at my disposal and was doing dozens of rifles so the first several paid for my tooling needs.
Now if you want a nice very accurate 223 Remington bolt action rifle you can also consider sending your action to any of several barrel manufacturers like Shilen, Douglas or Heart to name a few. Keep in mind if the 222 Remington has a pencil contour rifle and you do not want to destroy it so at any time the rifle can be returned to original you will be looking for a stock. On my rifle I just replaced the magazine with all new 223 Remington parts. I even went with a Timney trigger.
Depending on the scope of the work you choose I think you will find you can buy a really nice and accurate 223 Remington rifle for much less than changing the rifle you have. Savage, Tika and Sako to name a few.
Just My Take....
Ron