Greetings!~

Just wanted to say hi and ask a question -

I've got a Colt Sporter.  Its an older one.  Serial SP81xxx range.  I think its a 70's manufacture, have no real idea.  Its original, except that the finish was pretty bad when I got it, so I disassembled it down to every last pin, spring, and washer, and K-Kote'd everything.  Came out great, looks nice, shoots nice, no issues at all.

Except hing
The idea of stainless steel appeals to me.  The idea of keeping the K-Kote parts for use with the stainless barrel appeals to me.

Even the idea of a 16 inch barrel appeals to me.

Thing is I cant find any light contour stainless barrels.  I have found 20 inch stainless barrels with the heavy contour... thing is I dont have access to a lathe anymore.  The gas block section of my barrel is (from memory) .6xx inches.  I think its like .635 or something like that.  Heavy contour barrels are generally something like .750, so its a bit of thinning that would be needed.  Not un-doable, but I'd have to pay or barter or beg for some lathe time, and tooling.  

What has me all in a undecided mood is.... am I barking up the wrong tree here?  Should I just keep the Colt as is and go find something with a faster twist.   Which leads to... is anyone making a rifle with a 16 inch stainless preban type barrel?

Many thanks for all your input!

Personally,  I would leave it as is. I would not alter the rifle just to shoot heavier bullets more accurately. That being said, welcome to the board. Would like to see your K-Kote Colt, so please post pics if possible.

I can post some pics!  Gotta wait till the weekend, but no problemo!

So how about a choice for a rifle then?  I want to keep the weight down, like stainless, and accuracy does not need to be match grade.  I only shoot with iron sites.

In fact, you're gonna get a picture of the scopemount I made and never use too!~

Here's the scope mount....

http://www.blueshottub.com/mount1.gif
I made it from some bar stock.  Surface ground it to .500 "exactly" and then whittled on it with the Bridgeport for a bit.  The screw and nut are stainless.  I turned the nut from some 1 inch bar stock.  The black thing under the mount is the clamp, made from a solid bar of teflon.  Yup solid teflon - got it from a mold maker I was friendly with back when.  It cant be painted, but it did accept some dye.  Not perfect.  The mount has Redfield rings on it, and I sent the rings and mount out and had em parkerized (for the HBAR I used to have).  Never got around to K-Kote'ing this, as I never really use it.

http://www.blueshottub.com/mount2.gif
I been told I got a bit carried away with the machining, but hey, its "art"!~

Maybe check into getting a Bushmaster. They have have a 1:9 twist which would be a good in between twist rate suitable for both light and heavy bullets. You may check into their 16in superlight model ( pencil barrell) and see if they also come with the 1:9 twist like their H-Bar models. I am a Colt lover (model 6520 ), but have also had good luck with Bushmasters products.