Changing caliber/barrel on a Remington SPS from 308 to 260rem

[Squatchy]

I am a bit of a noob when it comes to this category. Is it just a matter of swapping the barrels and then making sure headspace is g2g? Do you guys recommend any specific barrels?

[aubie515]

You are going to pay more to rebarrel a Remington. I'd expect for you to pay from $600-700 because the barrel will probably run you $300 and the other $300 will be to pay a smith to install it for you.

The 308 and 260 will use the same bolt head dimensions, so it will be just a barrel swap.

Depending on what you want the barrel to do

Benchmark
Brux
Mike Rock

Contact bugholes on sniper hide (SH)...he normally has high end barrel blanks available.

[Tomcat088]

Aubie is exactly right. That is probably what it will cost you, and the smith will likely want to face up the action and change the recoil lug. You'll have the option there to go with something a little wider if you'd like. Keep in mind that you may have to open up the inlet of some stocks, or specify the width of that recoil lug if you change the stock. The bolt fact and magazine length will all work just fine between the .308 and the .260. Brux and Rock barrels are great. I'd definitely look at Krieger and Bartlein along with those two, and I'd look to all of those before I went to Benchmark. They're all good barrels, it's just a preference thing.

Oh and in case you didn't catch it, we're pretty much saying that you can't do this job yourself, or most people can't. The barrel blanks don't come chambered or threaded. You get the proper headspacing by how the barrel is threaded, and how far you screw it into the shank. So this is going to be a job that you'd have to have a gunsmith do on a Remington 700.

[Yellowfin]

You could send it to Hart and they'll do the chambering, rebarrelling, etc for you. Their barrels are also top tier and service has been excellent for years.

[usmc21]

you could also do a rem/age swap and buy a threaded, chambered barrel and use a barrel nut, recoil lug, and you can swap barrels yourself with just head space gages. rebarrel it just as you would a savage takes 20 min to do with the proper tools. otherwise it's a trip to the gunsmith as they have to cut the threads and headspace on a lathe

as far as barrels there is a ton of good ones

bartlein
kreiger
hart
lilja
benchmark
even criterion makes a nice button barrel for a good price.

i have noticed a lot of benchmark barrels being used lately, they are well known for rimfire world records, i think they have some centerfire records now also.

[Tomcat088]

you could also do a rem/age swap and buy a threaded, chambered barrel and use a barrel nut, recoil lug, and you can swap barrels yourself with just head space gages. rebarrel it just as you would a savage takes 20 min to do with the proper tools. otherwise it's a trip to the gunsmith as they have to cut the threads and headspace on a lathe

as far as barrels there is a ton of good ones

bartlein
kreiger
hart
lilja
benchmark
even criterion makes a nice button barrel for a good price.

i have noticed a lot of benchmark barrels being used lately, they are well known for rimfire world records, i think they have some centerfire records now also.

This can be done, but it's not as simple as some people may think it is. Some gunsmiths would rather not deal with the machine work of removing the threads on the action and making that smooth shank. Then the recoil lug has to be pinned, which isn't difficult or a problem, but it is extra and extra work. After that it's not a big problem to make the shank the dimensions that you put the action to, and then thread it so that you can use a Savage or other aftermarket nut. Either way, you're basically turning a Remington 700 into the Savage style o adjustment and it's gonna cost a lot more than $300 of machine work. For future barrel changes it makes a difference in the cost and ease of changing barrels IF you choose a standard shank size that a company will do with a chamber. If he's never going to put enough rounds downrange to toast the first .260 barrel, which lots of people never would, then it's kind of pointless. I mean lots of people would just rather go with a Savage or similar action if you're gonna put in all the machine work to turn a Remington 700 basically into a Savage. If you're the machinist doing it, no big deal or it's a fun project. If you were a machinist doing it, I don't see the big deal with doing the conversion because you could thread and headspace a barrel the "Remington way" anyway. Depending on the user's needs, it might be a lot of headache and extra cost for something they're never going to use.

[mongo]

Save your self a lot of money, time, and trouble. Trade it in for a Rem 700 SPS-260....

[*Klutch*]

contact animalmother85 on this I'm pretty sure he did this with a 243 I sold him...
Plus he's a awesome guy who is always offering some help

[usmc21]

This can be done, but it's not as simple as some people may think it is. Some gunsmiths would rather not deal with the machine work of removing the threads on the action and making that smooth shank. Then the recoil lug has to be pinned, which isn't difficult or a problem, but it is extra and extra work. After that it's not a big problem to make the shank the dimensions that you put the action to, and then thread it so that you can use a Savage or other aftermarket nut. Either way, you're basically turning a Remington 700 into the Savage style o adjustment and it's gonna cost a lot more than $300 of machine work. For future barrel changes it makes a difference in the cost and ease of changing barrels IF you choose a standard shank size that a company will do with a chamber. If he's never going to put enough rounds downrange to toast the first .260 barrel, which lots of people never would, then it's kind of pointless. I mean lots of people would just rather go with a Savage or similar action if you're gonna put in all the machine work to turn a Remington 700 basically into a Savage. If you're the machinist doing it, no big deal or it's a fun project. If you were a machinist doing it, I don't see the big deal with doing the conversion because you could thread and headspace a barrel the "Remington way" anyway. Depending on the user's needs, it might be a lot of headache and extra cost for something they're never going to use.

dark eagle, northland shooting supply sell conversion kits.
no need to remove threads on the action. all you have to do is have a smith cut a notch in the action for the pinned recoil lug, and the prefit barrel and barrel nut will screw right on and headspace like a savage. their is plenty of diy threads on sniperhide and other sites that show you how to notch the action yourself, if you don't feel comfortable doing it dark eagle would do it for very little money as it takes all of 15 min.

to complete the conversion you would need:
pinned recoil lug $25
barrel nut $30
prefit barrel $300
and if you pay a smith for notching of the action maybe $75 it may not be even that much as it takes 15 min to do.

[Squatchy]

Thanks for all the info guys