Going to do a build

F

farmer1911

New member
I recently found a Remington 700 in 30-06. The gun with an ok scope and cheap stock is $350. I am going to the action and use it to build a 308. Stock is going to be a Boyd's with bedding, obviously, and a timney trigger. I would really like to do the 308 because of availability of components and prices. I am unsure however about the barrel. I want to hopefully obtain at most 1" groups at 200 yards. The furthest I would probably shoot on a constant basis is 400-500 yards. What do you guys have in mind for barrels and optics? Will I keep this build close to $1000?
 
You might save some money finding a 700 already chambered in 308, there are tons of them out there. At least you would be able to get it all set up like you want, then rebarrel if necessary. It's pretty hard to find a 700 in 308 that doesn't shoot well (although 1/2MOA is a pretty accurate gun).

As for barrels I've always been partial to pac-nor, good quality at a reasonable price; there are plenty others though, Shilen, Kreiger, etc.

As for optics, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it's going to be pretty difficult to get good quality optics (with base & mounts) plus a rebarrel for less than $1000 (others may suggest impossible).

Edit-I just did a little math, $350 + $110 timney + ~$150 for stock, this means less than $400 for optics and rebarrel/chambering = not happening for $1000.
 
Yep, a decent contoured barrel will cost you at least $400 +/- then if you can't install and chamber yourself you're looking at least another $300 +/- to have a gunsmith do it. You're better off in the long run buying a new rifle than building if your total budget is only $1000. Even if you do a Rem-age barrel that you can install yourself, by the time you buy the action wrench, build or buy a barrel vise, and a Savage barrel nut wrench you're not going to have saved a bunch of money.

I'm not saying don't build, just you're going to have to realistically expand your budget. Look around and see what kind of new factory take off barrels you can find and you might be able to do it. However you're still going to have a hard time making it for $1000 or less.
 
Doing a build from 30-06 to 308 doesn't seem especially logical to me. I know that it has been done successfully but I wouldn't want to tackle it on my own.

I have been shooting and reloading centerfire since 1975, including 300WBY, 340WBY, 300 WM, 7mag, 7.7Jap, 30-30, 223, 6.5x55, 6.5x284, 44mag-spl, 357mag-38spl, 9mm and 45ACP.

I know I was pretty hung up on some very high powered riflery for a long time. Some of us are fascinated by titanic muzzle energy, and hot cars and boats. I just can't see having room for better performance and not using it. Saying that I have just about retired my Weatherby rifles, and shoot the 6.5x284 for recreation.
The 284 and 30-06 families have about the same case capacity, only 6.5x284 will fit in a 308 length action.

I guess that I have been spoiled by flat shooting, hard hitting chamberings. I would in your situation, go with the 280 REM. Same family, better ballistics than 30-06, not to mention the 308, and no mag length issues.

Also, I consider it a myth that short actions like the 308 are more accurate than 30-06 or longer length actions. Do you know of any long range target cartridges based on 308WIN? I don't know of any. Most seem to be based on 300WBY, and 338 Lapua wildcats, according to Accurateshooter.com, and other articles that I have read. These are heavy barreled custom actions used in 1000yd+ competitions.

It just seems to me that you're going backwards, the hard way.
 
I'll chime in with my 2 cents - for your optics go at a Sightron s3, holds zero and the tracking/repeatability on it is incredible.
 
handlerer2, you need to look deeper into accurateshooter.com and its 6mmbr web site so you'll learn that the .308 Win. is a popular cartridge for a lot of long range matches. So are smaller ones in the 24 and 26 caliber. In some long range matches, it's the only cartridge allowed.

And I'm not aware of any matches held at ranges greater than 1000 yards; at least not on bullseye targets or group shooting. If there is what are they?

Thousands of people converted their .30-06 match rifles to .308 Win back in the mid 1960's. Winchester, in the 1950's, just put a half-inch spacer on their Model 70 extractor clip to stop the bolt half an inch further forward (where a longer ejector could push out the fired case) so it could quickly pick up a round from its box magazine they put a spacer in its back end shortening it about half an inch. Then chambered their 30 caliber barrels with a different reamer.
 
Last edited:
No way are you keeping that build remotely close to $1000.

$350 for the gun, $350 for the barrel, $100 for the stock... You're at $800 without paying a smith to install the barrel, without a trigger and without optics.

You're going to be at $1,500 minimum.

You could buy a brand new Savage Target Action and be in it for less. You could buy a brand new "ordinary" Savage and save another $200 over the Target Action.

A brand new Savage would run you $350 and there's no gunsmith charges.
 
I'm aware of long range classes limited to 308 and 223. What I was referring to was unlimited heavy rifle class benchrest. Custom from end to end to be competitive, and quite expensive. Yes on a perfect day 6mmBR is competitive with everything else, but in windy conditions 30 cals rule.

I have been to Williamsport as a spectator a couple of decades ago, but from what I tell, not that much has changed. At 1000yds, benchrest class shoot for smallest group. F class competitions shoot for points, and shoot prone, instead of from the bench.
 
in windy conditions 30 cals rule.
Click to expand...

I'm not a benchrest competitor. As far as wind drift, it takes a very heavy / caliber bullet and a lot of powder to make a .308" bullet competitive with the 6mm - 7mm bullets and also at the added cost of additional recoil.
 
I don't know where you guys find these cheap rifles at. In my town, a new Remington can not be had for less than 650. Just the gun, no optics, rails, etc. Seems like the used ones are priced more than that of new to me. I stumbled upon this one, and thought it was a decent deal. I see that I will be far reaching my $1000 budget, but more money comes later in time. I have a very good gunsmith who will align the action and barrel for $150. He has done countless guns of my cousins (one of which is his 1000 yard 338 lapula). I'm just looking at rough estimates for price here. I'm not going after a title here, or looking for a 1000 tack driver, just a project that will hopefully end up with a decently accurate rifle.
 
Another reason I see a benefit of having a long action is so then I can step up to bigger cartridges if I choose to do so later on. Hard to go up with a short action, but can always put a shorter bullet in a longer action.
 
Even if the smith did ALL the work he needs to do for $150, you're going to be at least 50% over budget with any kind of quality optic.

You're looking at $350 for the gun, $350 for the barrel, $100 for the stock, $135 for the trigger, $50 for bases/rings and $150 for his work. That puts you at $1,135, without including cost of bedding, any shipping or tax and still with no scope.

If you're stuck on a Remington, that's about as good as it's going to get.
 
One of the perceived and oft touted improvements of the .308 over the 30/06 is the use of a short action-purported to be "stiffer" and increasing accuracy. Using a long action to "build" an accuracy oriented .308 defies the logic of a shorter, stiffer action.
 
I have a couple of amazingly accurate long action based rifles. One is a Savage 110FP in 25/06 and the other is a 30/06 on a Zastava commercial Mauser action.
 
Mobuck, when folks began building .308 based match rifles on Remingon short actions, none of them shot as accurate as those built on longer Winchester 70 actions.
 
Okay, I'm really not trying to rain on your parade but you're still going to be way over budget. I'm guessing you found that barrel at Midway since they list there Shilens for $174.99, am I correct? That price is for their Chrome Moly barrel so how are you going to finish the metal? While your gunsmith of choice sounds cheap, I doubt he is going to blue print your action, thread, crown, install and chamber your barrel for $150.

So if we go with what you have and what you want to do, here is some ball park numbers.

Action $350 (already owned)
Barrel $175 @ Midway
Trigger $130 @ Midway
Stock $110 @ Boyd's
Labor $150 @ your Smith
So you're already into your rifle for $865 and you haven't even looked at a scope yet. Plus that CM barrel needs some sort of finish or it'll rust.

A scope that is of decent quality that will get you to 500 yards will start out around $300. Don't cheap out on rings and mounts after building a custom rifle $50-100+. Cheapest bluing job is going to cost you $100 +/-, Duracoat DIY kit will go for $40 and a custom metal finish like BlackT, Gunkote, Ceracoat will go $200 plus for the whole rifle. Pillar and glass bed action to your stock DIY $70, gunsmith $150-250.

So if you buy a decent scope and mounts then finish the rifle and DIY the metal and bedding job, you're looking at $1300 minimum but realistically you'll be in closer to $1500 minimum, I'm giving you an educated guess from past experience having custom rifles built. Plus you haven't even taken into account all the shipping charges you'll pay ordering your parts in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top