Thoughts on prefit barrels

[Abbey]

I realize I'm late to the game on this, but I haven't been putting a ton of volume through my bolt guns in recent years (mostly just my 6.5 CM and I just had Phoenix Custom build a new one for me ~1yr ago) so haven't been burning barrels.

tl;dr, I now have a couple rifle projects in flight and these are actually the first I've built that can take prefits. As a DIY'er, I like the idea of swapping my own barrels, and this would be a slam dunk if I were shooting PRS and going through multiple barrels per year. But for low volume rifles, it doesn't seem worth it to tool up for prefits. It costs $90 or so just for a set of go/nogo gauges per caliber, costs another $90 or so for an action wrench (which can sometimes be used for multiple actions but other times can't depending on sizing), and another $1-200 for a barrel vise.

E.g., I'm building a 6.5 PRC right now but for the volume I expect, it will be years before I need to re-barrel it. Seems a waste to buy gauges and an action-specific wrench for a one-time job.

Now it may still make sense to buy a prefit barrel, since the price difference between, for example, a Proof blank and prefit aren't less than the cost of having a smith cut/ream/thread/crown a blank. But it seems like a no-brainer to have a gunsmith install the barrel & check the chamber.

Am I missing something with prefits? Or should we start a tool-sharing network for things like gauges & action wrenches?

 

[Doc]

Interesting thoughts

 

[Joe_Blacke]

Pre fit is also not just for burned barrel swaps but also for caliber swaps too. If you have a common bolt head size, or swapable bolt heads, you can easily switch different calibers on the same action.

It’s also extremely nice to be able to do your own work in 10 min versus waiting 6 months or more for a smith and paying for their labor. It’s really the selling point that you can do your own work cheaper/faster than sending it to a smith.

The cost of gauges an a pre-fit barrel is still cheaper than having a smith fit a barrel. However if you never intend to change calibers, barrel profiles/length, or burn a barrel, then it’s a moot point

 

[Abbey]

Good point. I thought about caliber swaps - like if I wanted a bit more energy for an elk hunt or whatever I could swap a .300 WSM barrel for my 6.5 PRC. But for just "fun & games" target shooting, I try to focus on fewer calibers so I don't need to spend as much time working up loads for low volume calibers. Barrel switching is one of those things that always sounds appealing to me in principle but in practice I like to simplify.

 

[Abbey]

FWIW, this is a good link with Action/boltface info
https://www.loaddevelopment.com/bolt-face-action-database/

 

[Lucafu1]

Pre fit is also not just for burned barrel swaps but also for caliber swaps too. If you have a common bolt head size, or swapable bolt heads, you can easily switch different calibers on the same action.

It’s also extremely nice to be able to do your own work in 10 min versus waiting 6 months or more for a smith and paying for their labor. It’s really the selling point that you can do your own work cheaper/faster than sending it to a smith.

The cost of gauges an a pre-fit barrel is still cheaper than having a smith fit a barrel. However if you never intend to change calibers, barrel profiles/length, or burn a barrel, then it’s a moot point

Exactly

 

[G34]

That’s all I use.
I’ve done many criterion prefits

If I want something to compete with spr.com with do a prefit bartlein.

I’ve had less issues with prefits then I’ve had with gunsmiths

 

[Abbey]

Well, guess I’m all in with this project. I now have a barrel vise, impact action wrench, and 6.5 PRC gauges on the way.

Next question, how reproducible is your zero between prefit barrel changes? It would be amazing if I held a consistent zero between changes.

 

[TheAccountant]

Are you talking a shouldered prefit or a barrel nut setup? If the latter, my bet is you won’t get that barrel on exactly the same twice.

 

[Abbey]

Shouldered prefit. Specifically for an Impact action.

 

[muta4warrior]

After building 4 Remington 700's from complete receiver groups myself, 2 on a Remage barrel set up (6x45mm and .243 Win) and 2 on barrel blanks (30-06 and 300 WM). While doing all the work of cutting the chambers and tenon threads on the barrel blanks was fun and a great learning experience. Going forward, any new builds or rebarrels, I will go the Remage route.

 

[Abbey]

Follow up from my first prefit assembly - I added some blue masking tape to prevent possible marring in the barrel vise but that actually caused a bit of spin with an SAC Bravo. I removed the tape and had no spin or marring with just the straight vise & adapter.

Playing it conservatively this first time, I bought both gauges. The "GO" gauge went and the "NOGO" behaved as expected. Easy peasy. I might do some testing with the "GO" gauge and if I can find the right thickness of tape to consistently turn it into a "NOGO", then skip the NOGO for future calibers to save a couple bucks.

Now I'm just waiting for the scope and she's ready to shoot.

Optics consistency will probably impact how much I swap barrels. If my zeros remain consistent, this might help thin the herd in the safe. E.g., I don't shoot .308 bolt gun much anymore (just semi-auto) but if I keep a .308 prefit around I can get rid of some dust-collectors at the back of the safe.

Back to my original question, while I'm a bit of a sucker for nice tools, so far I'm in ~$200 for the barrel vise, $100 for the action wrench (Impact Precision), and another $100 for the Manson gauges. If I don't get any more calibers, this will be an expensive experiment. But so far, so good. I'll pull the barrel after break-in and see how well it maintains zero.