I have had one of these for many years, since when I worked in a gun shop. Not pretty guns, but strong action, fast lock time, and I have a 540X trigger on it. Figure I have 2/5 of a nice sporter 22. I can make the stock, so what about the barrel? Is it possible to rebarrel one of these old guns in a cost effective way? Looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a fun project, same question as RR tho... Why rebarrel it? Is there something wrong with the barrel? Unless there's some damage that barrel should be fine
-Jake

First off, thanks for the replies.

The why is for two reasons. First is contour. Factory barrel is kinda thin I guess. It shoots fine though, but thought about a sporter with a similar barrel contour as my son's Savage Mark II target gun.

Second is that plastic shield thing in front of the action. Not that bad and I guess it goes with the stamped lower end, but a nicely contoured barrel would look so much better.

If thats what ya wanna do, have fun! My grandpa has a 581 that shoots great. He just shoots chipmunks from his porch now, but it'll hit them. Have fun, post some pics of the project.
-Jake

I was testing some CCI Standard Vel. in my son's Savage Mark II heavy barrel, and took the 581 along just for kicks. Bottom line is, 581 shot 3/8" groups at 50 yards with the stuff. (With a 4x scomp and my old eyes, anything less would be mostly accidental. Never shot much other than Rem. Hi. Vel. and it grouped around inch most of the time. Guess it is time to test some more ammo before spending big bucks on a gun that shoots like that already.