Thread: Winchester Re-barrel

Hi all.

I have a winchester mod70 carbine .243 with a tired barrel and a repaired stock (still functional but pistol grip removed and pinned)
Was wanting to re-barrel to .308, does anyone know of any spare barrels around for these? (on a budget/cant afford a brand new barrel) And someone in the lower north island to fit it.(on a budget/cant afford a brand new barrel)
I really like the actions on these, but maybe better off just selling it and buying a ready to go second hand rifle?

Cheers in advance

There are plenty of tired .308 target barrels lying about that are plenty good enough for a sporter. No problem to shorten them up and rechamber but ideally they could do with slimming down the profile for sporting use.

Greetings @Bhess,
Unless you can find a M70 barrel that can just be screwed in selling and buying second hand is probably your best option.
Regards Grandpamac.

Yes but a lot of those old target barrels are the wrong receiver thread, buggered and 1:16" twist.

Been a while since I was looking at this but I think Tikka barrels screw straight onto a winny. Get a lightly used Tikka barrel for under $300. A bit to fit and heads pace.

An M70 carbine is going to be hard to find a ready to fit still good 308 barrel for.

Lots of 308 barrels are coming off perfectly good rifles for new 6.5s
But usually from a more modern action that is easy to get go fast bits for

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Yes but a lot of those old target barrels are the wrong receiver thread, buggered and 1:16" twist.

They will be the wrong thread but many are not at all buggered once you cut 6-8" off their 30". It's the first ~4" that is shot out. As for twist, most will be 13-14 twist so will stabilise up to a 165 roughly.

Give Mike Collings a ring in Whakatane 0212605211

A Tikka barrel will sort it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_threads

Tikka and a few sakos have same thread and tenon diameter. They're a bit longer than the winny tenon. (machine to fit)
Ruger fits as well. I had a Tikka barrel fitted to a tang safety ruger to keep it going.

Greetings again,
Plenty of suggestions. Only you @Bhess can sort out what is right for you. It probably comes down to what options you have in the gun safe. If there are plenty great but if the safe contents are sparse you may not want to have the rifle gathering dust in a gun smiths racks during spring and early summer. Fitting a Tikka barrel is beyond just screwing it in and may involve re cutting the chamber, something some smiths are loath to do in the hard Tikka barrels. The cost of even a SH barrel plus fitting will likely be not far short of that of a second hand rifle so an option might be to pick up one of the latter and park the M70 (which you like) in the back of the safe until funds permit rebarreling. You have choice.
Regards Grandpamac.
PS some of my rifles have had extensive periods of safe curing (sitting in the back of the safe waiting) without ill effects.

No, just trimming the tenon length re: Tikka barrel

Originally Posted by Longrun

Been a while since I was looking at this but I think Tikka barrels screw straight onto a winny. Get a lightly used Tikka barrel for under $300. A bit to fit and heads pace.

Must be something there as I've seen several M70s for sale at various times with Tikka barrels

Thanks for the advice everyone. And to those that messaged, will give it some thought and will post if I head down the re-barrel route

there was a guy at auck arms fair a couple of weeks ago with a brand new 243 barrel for 300$. I would of bought it for wifes rifle to downsize cal but bought a little used ph 243 instead