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Legacy Member
New barrel on Ross MK III
Well, it's finally done after months of waiting for tooling and parts. I have a Ross Mk IIIB that is equipped with a Cooey rear sight. It was in fine overall shape except that the barrel was so bad it could be used for a sewer pipe.
I saw that Krieger made barrels big enough for the MK III action if you could find a gunsmith that could thread it, chamber it, cut the extractor groove and generally wrestle it on to the MK III action.
I was told that the CMP in Alabama would do it but when I called they wouldn't even talk to me or return my phone calls. Luckily my local gunsmith was either up for the challenge or too ignorant to know what he was getting into.
My local guy took the original barrel off. It was on so tight he had to make a relief cut to get it off. I shipped it off to Krieger to copy the contour and get general dimensions....then I waited.
I decided to go with a .308 bore with a 1-10 twist and 5R rifling. The barrel is so marked. I know everyone is freaking out about now but I handload everything. If you look at what's available in factory loaded ammo in .303 there is just nothing I think is worth shooting. So if I have to handload anyway, there are just so many more choices in .308 than .311-312. Also, I could get 5R rifling witch I find a lot easier to clean.
I had Manson make the custom reamer. They knew exactly what I needed and I had it way before the barrel showed up.
So it's now done. It's all rust blued and seems to match up really well. I haven't done any serious shooting yet but I'm sure it won't keyhole like it used to.
It's a MK IIIB the previous owner put on a Cooey sight but left on the front 3 prong sight. It's not a terrible sight picture but I'm thinking about swapping someone for a standard MK III hooded front sight. I think that make have a much better sight picture.
This whole project was nowhere near cheap so if someone else is thinking about it...beware. It's a straight forward job just with bigger numbers.
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01-26-2020 11:19 AM
# ADS
Friends and Sponsors
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Contributing Member
Have a great time at the range. I hope that you enjoy you custom Ross.
Some do, some don't; some will, some won't; I might ...
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Legacy Member
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Legacy Member
Will do. I'll try and show as much as I can of the barrel.
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Advisory Panel
Originally Posted by
Abitnutz
I decided to go with a .308 bore with a 1-10 twist and 5R rifling. The barrel is so marked. I know everyone is freaking out about now but I handload everything.
We've discussed that here once a while back and I still think that's the right way to go anyway. Just like you explain, the bullet choice is there. I used to use .308 bullets in a very tight bore #4T and it shot very well for me. I wait with bated breath for the targets to be marched past us here... Anyway it's your rifle and I doubt it'll go anywhere soon.
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Contributing Member
Sounds like a great project, can you give us some insight on the cost of the barrel? I know I would like one and I'm sure there will be plenty more wanting them as well!
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Legacy Member
The contoured barrel from Krieger was $450.00. That's for the oversize shank but it's un-threaded, un-chambered...nothing more than contoured and rifled. The original barrel was 30.5 inches long. The Krieger was delivered at least a full 4 inches longer. Having said that. It is a gorgeous barrel. I looked at it with a borescope and it as close to perfect as I've ever seen.
It's not that I demand this kind of perfection. I would have gladly gone with a less expensive barrel but Krieger is the only barrel maker that makes a barrel large enough to fit a Ross action. Everyone else's barrel shank is too small, at least everyone I could find and I looked pretty hard.
Now...add your kindly gunsmith costs...and you can see where this is not an inexpensive project.
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Thank You to Abitnutz For This Useful Post:
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vykkagur
Guest
Lothar Walther makes blanks more than big enough, but they're almost that price not contoured, and only in stainless.
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Advisory Panel
Originally Posted by
Abitnutz
you can see where this is not an inexpensive project
Finding a Ross with a full length barrel and nice bore is getting harder every day. If one has a set of wood and what amounts to a parts kit that he wants to shoot then this is about the only way. You can also give it a tight chamber. Add the bore difference for accurate easy to find bullets and it makes it a good alternative...yes, you pay what we used to pay for just the rifle to get a barrel made but we're at that point now. Some guys pay $2500 to build an AR these days and look where that's going... Looking forward to a guided tour of the end result.
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Thank You to browningautorifle For This Useful Post:
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vykkagur
Guest
Originally Posted by
Abitnutz
The contoured barrel from Krieger was $450.00. That's for the oversize shank but it's un-threaded, un-chambered...nothing more than contoured and rifled. The original barrel was 30.5 inches long. The Krieger was delivered at least a full 4 inches longer. Having said that. It is a gorgeous barrel. I looked at it with a borescope and it as close to perfect as I've ever seen.
It's not that I demand this kind of perfection. I would have gladly gone with a less expensive barrel but Krieger is the only barrel maker that makes a barrel large enough to fit a Ross action. Everyone else's barrel shank is too small, at least everyone I could find and I looked pretty hard.
Now...add your kindly gunsmith costs...and you can see where this is not an inexpensive project.
For $35 more, they'll give you the same barrel with a .287 bore, for those who want to re-barrel an M-10 Stalker. Not cheap, but then neither is a good M-10.
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