Someone to Rebarrel My 788

[35 Whelen]

I have a battered 788 in .223 whose barrel is a little pitted. I'm looking for suggestions for someone to install a new barrel in the same caliber and blue it, and for a good brand of barrel. Nothing fancy like a match grade barrel, just something that matches the original contour.

Thanks,
35W

[frkelly74]

maybe you could get it bored out to 6,6.5, or 7 mm TCU . Any of those would be interesting and maybe easy to accomplish?

[35 Whelen]

No, this is the rifle I keep in the laundry room for coyotes and the such. I want to keep the same caliber.

35W

[country gent]

Should be a pretty straight forward job rebarreling it. Ideally find a local smith that you trust. Hit some ranges and ask for recommendations from the members, most areas have a guy or 2 doing it on the side that are really good but arnt listed anywhere.

As to barrels shilen or douglas next up the ladder pac nor, lilja, mcgowen, and top end krieger, hart.

You also need to have an idea of twist, length and number of grooves desired. I think most can contour to the 788 size for a small fee.

[square butte]

Tim Malcom in Conway, AR - I think it's Malcom Ballistic Tools ?

[RickinTN]

Or maybe Malcolm ballistic specialties? Not sure about that.
Bob Green in York, PA has done several benchrest types for me. Not sure about the bluing part with him but doesn't hurt to ask. Does top notch accuracy work and is reasonable.
Good Luck,
Rick

[Texas by God]

Is the pitting on the inside or the outside? If it's in the bore, is it at the muzzle? If so, you can cut it down to 16.1 inches if you have to and still have a very capable laundry room coyote gun. If on the outside just bead blast and paint that thing.
ER Shaw makes and installs good barrels but the contour won't match.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[too many things]

you need to check ebay there is a 222 now easy to re chamber barrel not hard to change

[M-Tecs]

I have a battered 788 in .223 whose barrel is a little pitted. I'm looking for suggestions for someone to install a new barrel in the same caliber and blue it, and for a good brand of barrel. Nothing fancy like a match grade barrel, just something that matches the original contour.

Thanks,
35W

How does it shoot? I have seen some really badly pitted barrels that shot great.

[Larry Gibson]

Tim Malcom in Conway, AR - I think it's Malcom Ballistic Tools ?

+1 on Tim.

[Harter66]

Another for Malcolm Ballistic Tool .

I have 4 of the old A&B barrels in 25 , 28x2 , and a 35 cal they are now Green Mountain barrels I think as long as the guy doing the fitting has his stuff together they are great barrels the 25 in 257 Roberts is a tack driver . When I hit the heavy load in the 358 Win it was .900 groups across all 5 holes outside running cast at full jacket speeds .
I haven't actually shot the 2 in 7mm yet as I've been lazy about getting it on the 110 so I can mark it 275 Rigby . The other is a languishing Gew 98 pending 280 Rem .

It costs about the same to rebore , get a pre-fit and ream for head space , or buy a blank either raw or contoured to have fitted .

In the past I bought 2 barrels and let Tim pick the best of the 2 for the job and sold the other one . It has the additional benefit that if something does go wrong there is a new part available to finish the job .

[richhodg66]

How does it shoot? I have seen some really badly pitted barrels that shot great.

This would be my question, if it shoots well, why rebarrel it?

[35 Whelen]

It shoots plenty decent to keep coyotes, feral dogs, etc. out of the yard. The problem is I loaded a metric fecal matter ton of 62 gr. FMJ and 69 gr. BTHP. The 1-14 twist might handle the 62 gr. FMJ but not the heavier bullets.
So I figured I'd just kill 2 birds with one stone.

35W

[M-Tecs]

It shoots plenty decent to keep coyotes, feral dogs, etc. out of the yard. The problem is I loaded a metric fecal matter ton of 62 gr. FMJ and 69 gr. BTHP. The 1-14 twist might handle the 62 gr. FMJ but not the heavier bullets.
So I figured I'd just kill 2 birds with one stone.

35W

The twist rate for heavy bullets is definitely an issue.

I am going to recommend going another direction. Leave it as and pick up one of the less expensive rifles in a 9 twist. Before all this BS started you could get them on sale for the same cost as a rebarrel. https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsuperst...rifles/of3/223

Threading, chambering and bluing costs the same on a lower cost barrel as it does on a premium match barrel. I only do work for local friends and competitors so I am not looking for work. I stopped doing work on Chrome Molly rifle barrels due to bluing cost. I had a local company that would blue a barreled actions for me $40 if I did the polishing. The EPA put them out of business. Best I can find is $125 just to run a polished barrel in their tanks so I only do stainless unless I am not part of getting it blued.

You will be hard pressed to find a blank and installation for under $250. More realistic will be $350 or $400 and that is still on the low side.

One option is completed pre-fit barrel using a Savage style barrel nut that you can install yourself. You would have to open up the stock for the barrel nut. McGowen does them. The current reviews are very good but in the 80's and 90's they had some issues.

https://mcgowenbarrel.com/remington-pre-fit-barrels/

https://rifleshooter.com/2015/03/reb...el-converison/

https://rifleshooter.com/2015/03/mcg...ert-it-shoots/

On the same type of Remage system I do recommend this folks http://northlandshooterssupply.com/b...ington-remage/

Contact for Tim. https://www.facebook.com/Malcolm-Bal...8473866947427/

Keep us posted on what you decide to do.

Before the current BS these could be had for around $350 on sale plus tax. https://rifleshooter.com/2019/01/rug...or-223-review/ They flat out shoot.

[John Taylor]

Looked at Midway and a Shilen blank 223 barrel is $229. A Green Mountain blank 223 barrel with 1 in 9 or 1 in 8" is $110.95 but then it would need to be contour. Unless someone is doing the work as a hobby the barrel plus the work would probably be $400 to $500. You can buy a Savage rifle for less than $400 ( if you can find one). Might be able to find a good used 700 barrel and have it fit to the action.

[35 Whelen]

Thanks for all the input guys..

This rifle is quite a beater with an oversanded, "unprofessionally" finished hardwood stock so I doubt it would have much resale value.
Guess I'll study on the situation awhile!

35W

[akajun]

Your in central Texas the answer is easy, Shilen
They chamber as well as make barrels and they have someone they send out parts for blueing or you can just go stainless. If it was me I’d go stainless and have it melonited. Looks like blue and you’ll never shoot it out

[farmbif]

not for nothing, but how does the gun shoot?
ive got this old Ruger 77 tang safety in 22-250, its just plain ugly, rusted pitted, beat up, rode hard and put up wet. I bought a 308 barrel for it but can't bring myself to get it swapped out.
when I used to have to go to public ranges I'd get all kinds of looks and comments about it till we went out to get targets and it knocked the center X out every time.