This post is not an attempt to discredit Tim North in any way as he makes very fine barrels.
Still, I ordered in a barrel of his for a customer by their request and in talking with Tim on the phone he made a pretty strong advertising push for his 5C barrels so we ordered one in 6.5mm with a 1-8 5C twist.
Tim stated that with proper powders they had been unable to loosen a primer pocket in the 264 Win Mag test barrel they had been using. They also reported much higher velocity then standard rifling with any number of rifling.
Well, I was very excited to test this new design out so when the barrel got in I fitted it, did a barrel break in and headed out to the range. This particular chambering was one that I personally had a firearm in as well, the 6.5 WSM.
Both of these were Handguns and mine wore a 1-8 3 groove Lilja.
My 15" handgun tops out at 3100 fps with the 120 gr BT so I wanted to compare this to the 16.5" Broughton 5C barrel.
Well, the claim that it is very difficult to open a primer pocket with the 5C rifling is not true. In fact it did so at 50 fps less then the Lilja 3 groove.
Again, this is not to discredit Tim in anyway, only to say that any of the top end barrel will perform in a very similiar manor and that chamber and throat design probably has more to do with top velocity then anything to do with the barrel bore when comparing top quality match barrels.
That said, the broughton and Lilja barrels both shoot extremely well accuracy wise. Both handguns will shoot in the 1" range for three shots at 300 yards at nearly identical velocities so quality of the Broughton is certainly top notch by any standard.
Just do not expect a dramatic improvement.
I guess to be honest, I was comparing to a 3 groove Lilja and compared to standard 6 groove barrels, the 5C may produce better performance.
Anyway you look at it though, if you use a broughton, you will have a very fine shooting rifle, as you would if you used a Lilja, Rock, Krieger or any other top end match barrel.
Just my experience!
Kirby Allen(50)
